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Break TimeFebruary 05, 2007 I'm always saying that if it had been up to me the wheel never would have been invented -- what's so hard about dragging stuff behind you on a framework of sticks or packing it on your back? OK, maybe five or ten years from now my back will be weaker or I'll have more stuff and I'd be ready to invent the wheel -- if someone hadn't beaten me to it. If it had been up to me, the internal combustion engine and the computer wouldn't have been invented either, but that's due to technical incapacity. Wheels are within my sphere of competence; I just wouldn't have felt the need. The other day it came to my attention that there's software out there that will flash you a message on your monitor telling you it's time to get up from your desk. !!!!!!!! Not only that, it seems quite a few of my editor colleagues have need of devices, hardware and software, to remind them to get up and stretch. I mean -- WOW. My body tells me to get up and stretch. Bodies aren't made to sit in chairs hour after hour; I'm not sure bodies are made to sit in chairs, period. My shoulder gets stiff, my foot goes to sleep, my attention starts to wander . . . It's time to get up. Why don't the bodies of my fellow editors give them a stand-up call? In some cases I'm sure there's a physical malfunction. The joint or limb isn't adequately linked to the fidget center of the brain, therefore the body part starts to atrophy before the brain even knows there's a problem. In most cases, though, I suspect that the person has overridden the body's protests so often that the brain no longer realizes that the body is distressed. Shut up, neck; I'm on deadline! In this society where people don't want to eat because food is "fattening," and if they give in to necessity and eat something, they'll immediately proceed to the john or the gym to get rid of it -- well, not knowing when to get up from one's desk makes a sick kind of sense. As a freelancer who isn't bound by others' schedules, I've learned at what times of day I do what kinds of work well. My brain can parse sentences and split hairs all morning and into the early afternoon. Then it starts to flag until the body gets moving -- seriously moving. Afternoon is for running errands, doing barn chores, and riding. In the evening the mind again functions soundly in a sedentary body, but not as acutely as it did in the morning. Even during peak brain time I'm out of my chair about 10 minutes of every hour. Aha, there's something I could invent: a chair that, if the occupant doesn't get up at specified intervals, rears up and dumps the occupant on the floor. The chair could be programmed to give advance notice, or it could take the occupant by surprise. What if I crossed my desk chair with a horse?
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