Matter

We’ve built entire industries and massive layers of infrastructure specifically for the purpose of easing the burdens of survival, exposure, and physical movement. But now our success is beginning to look like a Pyrrhic victory; we’ve beaten back the forces of nature, but in the process, we’ve very nearly defeated our own health. This brings us to

The millennial-driven fitness industry often positions exercise as a kind of second job, in which we should “optimize” our workouts and forever strive to go faster and harder while meticulously tracking the results.

The same myopic, zoomed-in perspective now appears on the cover of every health magazine. The human body is presented as an individual object, living alone, isolated and abstracted from its life-supporting systems of habitat and tribe. No background, no context, no environment. From what we see on magazine covers, we might well come to the conclusi

intentionally exposing ourselves to natural adversity is something of an unnatural act. When you evolve in a harsh outdoor environment, your natural inclination is to rest whenever possible; we’re deeply wired for relaxation and comfort-seeking. As hunter-gatherers, we were great movers, but when the mission was accomplished, we were happy to head

These days it is possible to live particularly disembodied existences, enabled by environments and transportation so comfortable you can wear flip-flops in New England all winter long if you want to. My hope is that the quest every day for a good photo causes you to be outdoors and on foot more. On foot it is impossible to remain out of touch.

Given my own puny training regimen, I don’t really know what to say about such an inexplicable, almost intoxicating need to keep pushing oneself. But I think I know what the Greeks would call it: hybris. In ancient Greek hybris was an idea with serious moral implications. It might be translated as “excessiveness,” an arrogant attitude toward nature