3 ms·

"She was whizzing all over the place on it with ease and grace. It was an excellent sight." I was in a country other than the United States and I saw an older

by rsync 8y ago

"She was whizzing all over the place on it with ease and grace. It was an excellent sight." I was in a country other than the United States and I saw an older lady run to catch a bus. She was easily 65, maybe 70. It was neither interesting nor noteworthy to any of the other (swiss) people on the street with her. Walking is the universal medicine and we live with an enormous burden of health, fitness and longevity problems (including obesity, diabetes, "lower back problems", knee and hip issues, etc.) due to the car culture that we live in and the related near refusal to walk anywhere. No, this was not an excellent sight - it's the sign of a sick society that will do anything to avoid the simple, free and easy remedy to almost all of their problems.

buzzert 8y ago
You must be fun at parties!
pvg 8y ago
Walking is not a universal medicine for someone who has trouble walking. You don't see that person running to catch the bus because they can't. They might not even be able to get to the bus stop. They can't get their own groceries. Sure, you can try to tie this to some generic tangent about 'car culture' or whatever, but the idea that a person (whose health history you know nothing about) being able to exercise their autonomy is somehow a bad thing is pretty odd.
- arcticbull 8y ago
  I think the argument being made is a lifetime of neglecting your body (poor diet, lack of exercise) leads to an inability to use your body, which in turn encourages you to use these assistive devices, which makes the problem worse still in a viscous cycle. A biological analog would be Type II. You consume too much glucose, you develop insulin resistance, you take insulin, which makes your insulin resistance worse, and so on. The problem there too, is diet and exercise.
  - pvg 8y ago
    Right, but there's nothing in the story posted that suggests this argument is relevant or appropriate - it's just judgy, tangential ranting. You can be the world heavyweight champion of walking and still end up disabled late in life.
- dionidium 8y ago
  This comment is a totally unnecessary distraction. Yes, of course, obviously there's no statement that applies to literally 100% of the population, but that doesn't mean that we should alter everyday language to drone on with endless hedges and caveats in an attempt to cover every combination of human traits. I know you’re coming from a good place, but I think it’s misguided.
  - pvg 8y ago
    we should alter everyday language to drone on with endless hedges and caveats in an attempt to cover every combination of human traits. I'm not sure how you get that from anything I said. I'm saying that 'lol, yanquis are fat' is not a sensible response to some random story about a person making good use of assistive technologies. It seems like a totally unnecessary distraction that comes from not-a-good place.
    - dionidium 8y ago
      We might both be guilty of bringing pre-existing grievances to this conversation :)
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  "Use it or lose it." It took me years to recover from being bedridden for 3.5 months. Recovery involved enormous amounts of walking, many hours a day, in fact, for long periods. The easy answer may get you to the grocery store, but it won't restore function.
arcticbull 8y ago
Indeed, we're going full-on Wall-E. [1] https://giphy.com/gifs/wall-e-HSLbIjLk2GsBa https://giphy.com/gifs/wall-e-HSLbIjLk2GsBa
justinator 8y ago
Eh, I try not to judge too hard. Who knows? Maybe she got hit by a bus and lost the full use of her legs? The rest of your post, I generally agree with - I walk, or ride a bike everywhere. It's been a great while since I've owned a car - best decision of my life was to get rid of it, and I agree that walking is excellent exercise that we all should try to do more. I can only encourage others to try to do the same.

by rsync 8y ago

buzzert 8y ago

You must be fun at parties!

pvg 8y ago

Walking is not a universal medicine for someone who has trouble walking. You don't see that person running to catch the bus because they can't. They might not even be able to get to the bus stop. They can't get their own groceries. Sure, you can try to tie this to some generic tangent about 'car culture' or whatever, but the idea that a person (whose health history you know nothing about) being able to exercise their autonomy is somehow a bad thing is pretty odd.

arcticbull 8y ago
I think the argument being made is a lifetime of neglecting your body (poor diet, lack of exercise) leads to an inability to use your body, which in turn encourages you to use these assistive devices, which makes the problem worse still in a viscous cycle. A biological analog would be Type II. You consume too much glucose, you develop insulin resistance, you take insulin, which makes your insulin resistance worse, and so on. The problem there too, is diet and exercise.
- pvg 8y ago
  Right, but there's nothing in the story posted that suggests this argument is relevant or appropriate - it's just judgy, tangential ranting. You can be the world heavyweight champion of walking and still end up disabled late in life.
dionidium 8y ago
This comment is a totally unnecessary distraction. Yes, of course, obviously there's no statement that applies to literally 100% of the population, but that doesn't mean that we should alter everyday language to drone on with endless hedges and caveats in an attempt to cover every combination of human traits. I know you’re coming from a good place, but I think it’s misguided.
- pvg 8y ago
  we should alter everyday language to drone on with endless hedges and caveats in an attempt to cover every combination of human traits. I'm not sure how you get that from anything I said. I'm saying that 'lol, yanquis are fat' is not a sensible response to some random story about a person making good use of assistive technologies. It seems like a totally unnecessary distraction that comes from not-a-good place.
  - dionidium 8y ago
    We might both be guilty of bringing pre-existing grievances to this conversation :)
DoreenMichele 8y ago
"Use it or lose it." It took me years to recover from being bedridden for 3.5 months. Recovery involved enormous amounts of walking, many hours a day, in fact, for long periods. The easy answer may get you to the grocery store, but it won't restore function.

arcticbull 8y ago

Indeed, we're going full-on Wall-E. [1] https://giphy.com/gifs/wall-e-HSLbIjLk2GsBa https://giphy.com/gifs/wall-e-HSLbIjLk2GsBa

justinator 8y ago

Eh, I try not to judge too hard. Who knows? Maybe she got hit by a bus and lost the full use of her legs? The rest of your post, I generally agree with - I walk, or ride a bike everywhere. It's been a great while since I've owned a car - best decision of my life was to get rid of it, and I agree that walking is excellent exercise that we all should try to do more. I can only encourage others to try to do the same.