You have seen my posts about Wireless Run Tracker from BIM Active and how I use it for GPS tracking on my runs. I also mentioned that I can pause the tracking and take a picture either to document my run or let you see something that caught my eye.
That would have been the case yesterday (had it not been for the thought that someone might wonder why a guy was taking a picture of an almost empty park) when I ran past Quintessence Park at 4:30 in the afternoon on a sunny, 65 degree day in the beautiful Albuquerque heights. Big park, well equipped, large beautifully kept grassy area – one child and one parent. What is so wrong with that picture? In fact there are attached tennis courts and only two people were playing. Okay, most people are still at work, so it is understandable that no one was playing tennis, but to not see any little kids playing when school is out. How can that possibly be. I spent seemingly my entire childhood outside playing – virtually no TV, no computer games, no video games, no cell phone – just playing and being healthy and fit.
Every time that I see this map that has been featured on CNN a number of times – Fit Nation Obesity Map – I wonder what this country (world) is coming to. We have enormous challenges to face in the future, and although I have a deep respect for emperor penguins (having seen “Happy Feet”), unlike them, although they waddle on land – somewhat like the way obese people are forced to walk because of lack of mobility and range of motion – they are among the fastest swimmers in the sea.
The health risks notwithstanding, obese children will have a bleak future indeed as they try to mobilize and face challenges and are physically limited in their ability to do so. Empty parks are a foreboding sign of what may lie ahead for this nation and this planet.
