This last week I found myself at home ill along with my entire family. After five days we were bouncing off the walls and so ready to get out of the house. In my boredom and sick exhausting I thought, “let’s get in the car and go somewhere.” I really do enjoy driving so one could say that it is cheap entertainment. One gets to see things and feel like she is actually going somewhere or doing something in stead of just remaining idle at home in bed. My next thought was, “Okay, so where should we go? We still aren’t completely well and it would really be selfish of us to expose others to this nasty bug.”
It occurred to me for the first time that we probably utilize our cars much more for entertainment than we would like to admit to ourselves. This is contradictory to my policy to 1) walk when my trip was very close by, 2) still try to take the bus when I am alone and have no reason not to and 3) not drive unless I really have to. In other words, I don’t look in the fridge, discover that we are almost out of milk and make that my excuse for driving to the grocery store a mile away.
In the end I resisted the temptation. In stead the children and I put on warm coats (since we were still ill), they got out their bikes and we went to the near-by park. We got what we needed: fresh air, a change of scenery and interaction with the outside world without burning a bit of fossil fuel. I am so glad that I resisted the temptation.
