PUT DOWN THAT LAPTOP AND GRAB A LOINCLOTH AND A SPEAR!

Did you know that you could accidentally kill your dog by taking her for a 20 mile run on a hot day?  I just read yet another book on our human roots as endurance athletes in persistence hunting.  It got me thinking...  

I'm getting the message from the new research loud and clear... I am a hunting and killing machine.  Though I've only caught a couple of fish and shot a bird with a BB gun when I was nine (and I personally didn't eat any of them), the only thing separating me from embodying the savage cruelty of a lion is the simple fact that I don't wear a loin cloth and carry a spear.

You know Newt Gingrich, the Pope, and even that pasty white computer whiz from your dorm back in college?  Merciless predators!  Members of the large brained, persistence hunting top of the food chain species known scientifically as Homo Sapiens.  Given a pair of moccasins, a sharpened stick, and the need to survive, Mr. Gingrich would throw aside that tie and penguin suit and take down a large bull elk with nothing more than a bit of tracking and a quick stab with a sharpened willow branch.  Can you imagine the excitement and the primal power that you could feel radiating from Newt after watching him slay his prey?

If that little mental video of Newt you just watched is an image of what we humans are made for, then the question looms in my mind:  What the heck?  The Newt Gingrich I know would look terrible in a loincloth, may die of a heart attack after three miles of a persistence hunt, and would get a sunburn so bad that it would give skin cancer to any innocent victim so unfortunate as to look upon it.  Come to think of it, most adults I can think of would be in a similar situation to Newt if they were required to go back to our persistence hunting roots.

So here's where I'm going with this.  Unless some remarkable Armageddon-like situation strikes, we humans won't be going back to our persistence hunting roots.  In fact, the closest thing to a persistence hunt that most of us will ever experience is walking to the meat section at our local grocery store.  But I don't think that hides the fact that our bodies are designed for more.  It would seem that the intelligence component of our makeup has taken over, leaving many people with stressed-out, overworked brains and atrophied, yet strikingly plump, bodies.

Most people think I'm kind of a nut. I run or bike or climb for several hours most days (although it is less during the school year when I'm teaching).  I'm sure that some would argue that I'm obsessed or addicted.  Yet for me, my life has never made more sense.  I really dislike the stresses of our modern world.  We are required to keep track of several bank and loan accounts, pay five or ten different bills every month, mow our lawns, fix our houses, maintain cars and computers and toilets, raise children, maintain contact with friends from all over the world, and on top of all that we have to keep up with a job and its multitude of tasks.  I wonder why it is that the National Institute of Mental Health reports that more than 1 in 4 Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental illness? 

Personally, I think our mental illness issue is a consequence of our minds being overworked, while our bodies remain under-worked.  The more "intense" I become in my outdoor sports, the more I realized that they inspire me toward simplicity.  When I begin to enjoy three hour runs, having a pimped-out ride becomes less of a priority and just having water and good food becomes my focus.  When I spend more time outside working toward my next ultramarathon, owning a nice, expensive house begins sliding down my list of priorities.  When I long to be moving in the mountains at the end of the work day, suddenly negotiating for a 1% raise at work becomes of little importance.  With less to worry about, and more time moving and exploring, I am just flat out, way happier.


Even though our intelligence as humans has created a society that has almost no demand for using our physical prowess, I believe that movement is still an essential aspect of what it is to be human.  In order to counteract the constant mental demands that we face from our world, we have to find ways to move and use our God-given ability as endurance athletes.  By finding a love for something involving movement (even if it kind of hurts), I think it is possible to begin to eventually diminish the importance of some of the stress makers in our lives.  Perhaps there will even come a time when more of us will once again look sensational in a loin cloth and spear as we chase a large herbivore across the prairie.