With every passing era, early man took changingcenturies in his stride. Like all animals, he was created to be on hisfeet. At first, he chased, hunted. Then; he combined these activitieswith farming. But he remained on his feet. Upright. And when the sunset, he lay down, back and legs straight out.
The IndustrialRevolution ushered in modernity. That progressive element which hadcrept into our lives could have been used constructively. But it onlymade us the sedentary animals we are today. We get out of bed to sitdown for breakfast. We travel, or try to travel, on our rumps to work.Once there, we work .on our seats. Coming home is a rewind of thejourney to work. Then, we sit down before the TV-VCR till thecalorie-chair beckons us to dine, and sleep nods us to bed. It's truly,backside to the future.
Get the picture? The operative word, thekey to our lifestyle, is sit, which even as it rhymes is, the veryantithesis of fit. If we are critics of your armchair, it's withreason. If by living in the lap of luxury, man is losing his spine andfinds modern life a pain in the backside, the reason often is justbelow him. The chair and he have conspired to be on a sit-down strikeagainst nature.
In the process, we deaden ourselves - physicallyand mentally - because we don't bother to break out of our numbinglifestyle. We don't allow nature's exercise - standing, walking,bending - to revitalize our muscles. We don't allow those vital activeprocesses to pour more oxygen into us. We are our enemies - ruiningourselves in a quiet but violent way. And as terrorism breeds in apolitically criminalized society, heart attacks breed in our violatedbodies.
Rebels have realised that to get politicians to hearthem, they have to jolt them. It begins with asking, then shouting, andfinally, physical violence. Similarly, our body begins to rebel. Thesymptoms are many - obesity, aches and pains and finally, the terrorismof a heart attack.
You can't afford to slow down in your life inthe fast lane. So, work tensions, the philosophy of all work and noplay combined with a sedentary lifestyle make you worse than a dull boy.
Whathappens if you leave your vehicle unused for days in the garage? Thebattery runs down, of course. The same thing happens to an unworkedbody. With more than 50 per cent of his body being muscle, today it ismedical men - even more than bodybuilders - who say we are what ourmuscles make us.
In the course of centuries, man's evolution fromthe leafy jungle to the concrete one, has left him with more musclesthan he normally uses. Man was built for action - not atrophy.
Whileour historical heritage gives us an insight into our natural selves, itis scientific know-how that adds an understanding to our perceptions.And the foundation of science itself is based on observing the simple,yet wondrous things that happen all around us.
