This year, for the first time since high school, I’m playing on a baseball team. It’s a passion I let slip as age and responsibility took precedence. But now that I’ve found it again, I wish I’d never stopped — better late than never, right?
As a youngster, I spent countless happy afternoons holding down the outfield (a preferred position), many times under a blistering sun. Sweat was a regular part of life; so were sunburns. In aging, however, physical comfort has become the norm. As I write this, for example, I’m sitting in an air-conditioned room, hedged in by four white walls in the Recorder’s Hope Street office building. The difference in inside-outside air temperature is so great right now that I had to don a sweater after returning from my lunch break.
Removed from the daily fluctuation of nature, I’ve become accustomed to a more plush lifestyle — so much so that, last weekend, while standing in the outfield around the fifth inning, I realized I couldn’t recall the last time I’d willingly stood still in blistering heat without seeking shade (work not included). It was the kind of suffocating heat that becomes oppressive after only a few minutes. I endured it for hours.
Growing up, my family didn’t have air conditioners. Instead, box fans and closed shades somewhat regulated the temperature; my brothers and I slept on the floor if it became unbearable.
We adapted, didn’t think anything of it and made the best of what we had.
Looking back, I certainly didn’t realize or appreciate the simple connection to the natural world that came with this adaptation. If it was cold, we put on another layer; if it was hot, we closed the shades. These days, I turn up the heat in colder months and, if it gets too hot, I find air conditioning. I don’t endure temperature changes because I don’t have to. (Of course, no one should have to endure extreme temperatures without respite — but the principle remains.) Modern society is pretty removed from the daily rhythm of nature.
But it’s a catch-22. In creating a life of comfort — motorized vehicles; digital infrastructure; high-tech buildings — nature becomes unbalanced.
For example, June 2020 was one of the hottest months on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And last weekend, early June, saw temperatures climb into the upper-90s. Undoubtedly, more people than normal retreated into air-conditioned rooms to escape the heat, consuming an unusually high amount of energy — it’s not even summertime yet. Science has proven that energy consumption is a driving factor in climate change.
So what’s the answer? Obviously, there are emerging technologies that will hopefully reduce energy consumption. And there are a lot of people a whole lot smarter than myself who’ve dedicated their lives to implementing green energy into daily use. But also, and I realized this while standing in the outfield, I think it’s important for people to reconnect with their roots — to rediscover the connections to the natural world they might have lost along the way.
For me, that means seeking out hiking trails and swimming holes and ski mountains and baseball, a long-lost passion, and standing in the heat (not to the point of heat exhaustion) and remembering that comfort has its consequences.
Andy Castillo can be reached at acastillo@recorder.com.