Don't get too comfortable

One of the grand story lines of America is that our living standards are real high and rising and what a great deal. The contrarian line is that this comfort sucks, modern life is corrosive and it would all be better if went back to some other time when things weren't so good. Hard to get a date on when that was though.

As usual, the truth is not some split-the-difference in the middle on these two, but somewhere underneath both statements. The truth is that we have grown a large amount of comfort into our lives. The key to dealing with all this comfort is managing it properly. This lies underneath the soundbites because the truth gets overwhelmed by the louder tug of war over whether comfort is good or bad.

Food, sleep, complacency, web surfing and loafing are too easy to have too much of.
Exercise, companionship, challenges and sex are too easy to have too little of.

Comfort has its own siren song and it has to be resisted but not ignored. As one calibrates the various sectors of one's life to get this balance right, it's like playing cosmic hot/cold. Your body and your instincts give you pretty constant feedback on whether you are hotter or colder.

This is one of the reasons I have invaded my own comfort zone with Aikido, which actually refers to this type of balancing in a way. I dread going and the couch, the Secret Project, the TV, the Xbox and the DVD player all beg me to sit down and relax. But after the class I feel so much better. It's a difficult challenge and has a modicum of exercise. There may be some learning going on too, although it's often hard to tell.

And this explains a bit of why the posts have not been as frequent. I'm balancing my butt off over here.