Relative Something

It is not uncommon to hear someone express feeling that they could never live differently than the way they currently do today. Someone who lives in the country might be heard claiming that they could never live in a city, or vice versa. It is my belief that everyone could adapt. I’ve heard people say they can’t live without their daily dose of soda pop. I’m pretty sure they could adapt to surviving without it. Why do we yoke ourselves with such limitations?

I often find myself imagining what it must have been like to live back in a time before the existence of most of today’s conveniences and excesses. Sometimes it is simple, like thinking back to a time before the proliferation of soda pop. I don’t have to go that far back. When I was a kid, we bought it in glass bottles, and drank a fraction of what is consumed today. Go back a bit farther in time and people probably didn’t even have it in their homes. They just purchased a bottle to drink at the general store. Certainly, there was a time when folks didn’t even know what it tasted like and had to be introduced to what it was. That is a long way from the ubiquitous product, and health nuisance, pop has become today.

A more difficult period for me to consider is a time when food wasn’t readily available from a grocery store. If I was to find myself in such a situation, I sure hope I could adapt. It would be easier for me to be living back at a time when shopping selections were more simple: flour, bacon, salt, sugar …pizza. Whoops. That situation would be easier in one aspect, but more complicated in another, wouldn’t it?

I pine for a time years ago, before people over-fertilized their lawns and farmers, their fields, causing runoff into ponds, lakes, and rivers that has contributed to the green scum we suffer today. I long for the time when television broadcasts merely covered sporting events that were happening, as opposed to dictating when the action would occur. But for all the things that appear to have been better in days gone by, there are as many or more changes that have improved our lives. Now is the time that we are alive, and the situations of life today are the ones to which we must adapt. Doesn’t it make the most sense to avoid putting artificial limitations on ourselves? We can adapt to different living environments and we can adjust to not drinking sugary carbonated beverages that are bad for our health.

I could adapt to shopping for groceries and to preparing meals if the need arose. I’m thinking, pizza!