Roots

Lately I have been noticing a trend. It is entirely probable that this is just a trend with people I know. This trend is specifically people wanting to take things back to their roots and by roots I mean pre-agricultural times. This even extends to myself. I have read Sex at Dawn and I am on board with everything it says. I did take more than my fair share of anthropology classes in college. I even got a minor in it. These things, cultures and humanity past and present, are exceedingly fascinating to me.

I have a few friends that are very into barefoot or minimalist running. There was even an interesting article in the New York Times about it. I have always hated running, but the anthropologist in me wants to give this kind of running a try. The gist of it is that modern shoes really just fuck up the mechanics of running. You should run like you are barefoot on the balls of your feet instead of heel striking. Seems like a sound idea. After all people did not evolve with shoes.

Another acquaintance just started a blog on the paleo diet. This one I can get behind in general, but am much more skeptical of. The idea is that all the crap we started eating since the invention of agriculture isn’t really that good for us. Our bodies are not equipped for some of it. On a very basic level the diet is eat more meat, veggies, and fruit and cut out the grains and dairy, as these are post agricultural foods. The idea being that we haven’t adapted to eat them yet. The best part of this whole thing in my opinion is getting away from anything processed and making it yourself.

Whether or not I agree with those and why is pretty irrelevant. I could probably ramble on for a while about either the running or the diet. What is interesting is this whole idea of looking to the past and figuring out how our technology, society, and advancement has fucked us up and that people I know are taking things back to these roots, how people are supposed to be. This makes me want to hand them Sex at Dawn and say, “You can change the way you run or the way you eat, but can you change the way you live and love?”

The problem is only my friends closest to me know the way I live and love. I am not in a place to out myself to the world yet, though gods I really want to. I have even recently had a talk with my step mother and father about Sex at Dawn. Specifically in the context of people in the Midwest, where my step mother teaches psychology, not being able to accept other people’s world views and how most people could never fathom living in any way other than they do. So, realistically they probably suspect the way we live or at least they wouldn’t be surprised to hear it.