The Purpose Is The Revolution

The deload week ended yesterday and we went rock climbing. I usually schedule my deload weeks for periods when I am up in Sydney but, after my last trip north, I realised that sleeping only 4 or 5 hours a night, spending hours sitting with my Mum or in traffic, not eating well, and being inundated with city noise, smells and people is actually more stressful on the body than all the training and trips I do at home. I didn’t do nothing, I still trained four days (very easy lifting and climbing just to keep the body moving), I went bouldering and I did an upwind/downwind kayak run, but, it was a true deload week and I felt better for it.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do for yourself is to not do something. This is not how our society works. The experts always tell us about the latest new thing we have to do in order to be healthy, or moral or compassionate or whatever the modish catch phrase is. These goal posts move continually and, if you observe this phenomena, you might realise that the purpose is the revolution and the endless failure of most of us to reach the end point is a feature not a bug.

There are dozens and dozens of examples of this. The latest one I saw was vegetable consumption. Dietitians are now claiming that in order to have a “healthy diet” at least 10 different vegetables must be eaten each day or even each meal. I eat a lot of vegetables, I eat vegetables at every meal (including breakfast), and my lunch time salad is big enough to fill a good sized mixing bowl. I love vegetables, but I’m not healthy because I eat vegetables. I’m healthy because I don’t eat sugar, grains or industrial seed oils. I don’t eat processed foods, and I eat a lot of animal protein. The vegetables are nice but not necessary. What is most important are the things I don’t eat.

Eating 10 different vegetables at each meal has to be peak luxury belief. I counted the number of different vegetables I had in my fridge immediately after my weekly shop. If I double counted (red onions and brown onions were counted as two different types of vegetables) I had 12 different vegetables in my fridge. But here’s the thing: I live in an area with good access to fresh vegetables, I can afford to buy fresh vegetables, I have a massive fridge in which I can store fresh vegetables, I have continuous electricity and running water. I am privileged. And, yet, privileged as I am, the thought of making not just one meal but three meals a day which include 10 different vegetables was overwhelming. This is a goal post that, even with everything stacked in my favour I will never meet. And that’s the point. The average person will never meet the goal posts because as soon as the average person gets close, the elites move the goal posts.

In the wake of the astounding outcome of the recent US presidential election, this is something our political and cultural elite would do well to grapple with. The continual shifting of goal posts on every facet of life which ensure that the average person fails is not sustainable policy. At a certain point, the average him/her or they who just wants to get on with life, is going to issue a very big F**k You (my apologies to those offended by this language) and act accordingly.