I was unemployed for the latter half of this month, as I stopped working in mid-July. I spent the past two weeks reading books, working out, and spending the bulk of my time outside. I did write what I consider a very important article on consumerism and health, but most of the time I was physically active. In fact, I may have had shoes on for less than two hours a day. Besides gardening, plyometric workouts in the yard (mostly box jumps onto rocks and depth jumps off of them), I replaced mortar in my walkway and built a small stone wall with Belgian blocks and concrete. The picture above is of one of our several gardens.

While much of my daytime job labels me as a “thought worker,” I sure as heck derive a lot of pleasure and self-worth from working with my hands. In fact, oftentimes when I have to avoid any physical work to sit still in my office and write without a break, I get an ever-increasing itch to do something physical.

Perhaps this itch is normal, as many would argue we have been incorrectly spoon fed the mindset that knowledge work is the way of the future; computers and office work is supposedly the employment of the future, while all other menial work will be pushed out of sight and overseas. Yet, as Alan Blinder reminds us in Foreign Affairs, “you can’t hammer a nail over the internet.” In other words, we will always need to be able to work with our hands (or have those nearby that do). Others would agree – I am halfway through Shop Class as Soulcraft, and Matthew Crawford, a motorcycle repair shop owner with a Ph.D. in philosophy, certainly speaks to the reader about the black and white feeling of accomplishment that is present when completing physical tasks – a feeling that rarely accompanies office-life nowadays with its vague gray area that fails to define our role, and what we are really there to accomplish.

I have sacrificed the bulk of my life preparing for my current role as a radiation oncologist and diet and exercise researcher, so this knoweldge work is not going anywhere anytime soon (though my work does involve creating some intricate radiation plans with my hands, which I have always viewed as 3-dimensional art). However, loading my free time with more manual work and physical activities, including hobbies, has been personally rewarding for me, providing me with a canvas to produce tactile objects of accomplishment (like my new wall), along with hours of dedicated meditative time during the process.

These days all we hear about is how everyone is anxious and we need to “meditate”. I would argue that we instead need to spend more time in nature or outside working with our hands. Meditation works for some of us, and to each their own, but my mind is never clearer than after spending two hours cutting the grass or a morning in the garden. I think it is wise to define your personal approach to meditation.

I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter.

In James Suzman’s book Affluence without Abundance, he chronicles the history and ultimate decline of the world’s modern hunter gatherers due to western expansion into Africa. Suzman is apt to write this depiction, as he has been spending significant time with the Ju’/hoansi Bushmen in the eastern Kalahari for over 25 years. He describes them as the ultimate affluent society; they only worked for 15 hours a week hunting and gathering food, and spent the remaining abundance of time relaxing. Not only did they have an affluence of time, but they desired little else in regards to material goods. Once they acquired enough food to satisfy their appetites and nutritional requirements – the basic needs of life – they simply stopped gathering food and eating. Beyond adequate food, they had minimal desires that needed met, and accordingly, spent less time trying to acquire things they did not need.
If they stopped, why do we keep going?

Click here to read the full article.

Several months ago, I posted an article on the healthy way to choose olive oil. Since, we have really paid attention to the olive oil brands available at our local convenience stores (most of them are oxidized or fake oil, sadly). We decided to put our money where our mouth is, and traveled to northeastern Italy to an area called Remini, where we adopted an olive tree grown at the amazing Ripabottina Agriturismo.

We will now get 12 liters shipped to us in late Fall, after harvest and pressing. The price is actually very reasonable for delicious, high-quality EVOO. Furthermore, it supports the production of high quality food along with the trade of someone who works with his hands and dedicated his life to providing us with healthy, high-quality food.Yes, the picture above does show Twitter placing a Coke advertisement directly below my quote attacking consumerism. Irony at its finest. Along these lines, we are off to Durham this month for our move and have already been searching out farmers markets and CSAs (there are quite a few). With Costco, Sam’s Club, and massive grocery stores, we find ourselves easily seduced away from the high quality food at farmers markets and local farms. We have made it our focus again to avoid this seduction as it often ends up with us buying more packaged foods than we would like. While it seems silly, a reevaluation of our foods and stores has greatly helped to increase the quality of our purchases, and has allowed us to enjoy the hunting and gathering of food as opposed to simply filling a shopping cart.

I challenge you to do the same this month and throughout the rest of Fall. Support your local farms and farmers markets and try to buy as little as possible from grocery stores and chains. The goal of avoiding packaged foods and those in plastic has also helped us seek out excellent local produce and meat, so maybe give that a try as well.

Have a great August!

Colin Champ, M.D.