Unplug, get up, and get out. It’s not just about being fit, being connected through disconnecting (ah, technology), or getting back in touch with the world around us, it’s opening our eyes to what is actually around us. We humans have the privilege and curse to be open to more input than just what is edible and what might want to eat us. We intake everything and try to make patterns and systems, cause and effect, out of them. Taking in everything overwhelms us, but taking in nothing leaves us mentally and physically ill so we attempt to create a happy medium by ignoring what fits into regular patterns and only looking at what is the exception to the rule or what has peaked our interest.
Electronics peak our interest with constant flows of new experiences for our minds, ever-changing to catch our interest and keep it for whatever purpose the creators have in mind. But what about the world outside media? What about the world around us? What about the unscripted, unfiltered, unadulterated world? Yes, it’s full of Sturm and drang, but it’s also full of surprises and wonders and adventures. You find them in the most out-of-the-way places, which makes them all the more fun. Yes, kind of like the potato museum in Idaho but more like the biggest ball of twine in the world, they stop the pattern making and push into our right brain of connectivity and pure sensation.
And now is the time, barring triple digit weather, to get out and go somewhere. Explore and experience. Find something new in your neighborhood or go somewhere you’ve never been before. Don’t make a plan or use GPS, just get out and go. You may find that someone has created a complete replica of their living room in miniature and left it on a bench in the park. Just because they can. Or you may find that there are petroglyphs in a state park down the road. Graffiti from hundreds of years ago that says ‘Ancient Kilroy Was Here’. Or you may find someone setting up a Church of Bieber. The possibilities are endless. Get out there and discover them…or make one of your own.