You should be okay staying inside
Thoughts on indoors v. outdoors with a short preamble of thoughts on Roe v. Wade
A note at the top that I wrote the rest of this newsletter last week prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and then sat on it feeling it wasn’t appropriate to share something silly at this point in time. In my opinion, you should NOT be okay with what’s happening in our country right now with regards to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. I’m married to someone who can be a bit of a fatalist when it comes to current events and I regularly tell him that we need to focus on the go forward and not bring negative energy into our day to day. I recognize that that comes from a place of privilege but it’s also truly how I cope and manage as a human being — it’s very easy as someone who’s battled depression for years to take on negativity and, for me, that quickly translates into lethargy.
I have spent the last few years telling him as each new Supreme Court justice gets appointed that we have nothing to worry about, that Roe v. Wade is established precedent, that the rights of 50% of the people in this country are too much to be ignored, and I have been wrong. I have blindly believed the 14th Amendment meant that I was valued, protected and equal to the men around me… perhaps a bit too powerfully influenced by Ainsley Hayes in “The West Wing” when she discussed the ERA and said:
A new amendment we vote on declaring that I am equal under the law to a man, I am mortified to discover there's reason to believe I wasn't before. I am a citizen of this country, I am not a special subset in need of your protection. I do not have to have my rights handed down to me by a bunch of old, white, men. The same Article 14 that protects you, protects me…
I learned last week that I apparently do need to have my rights handed down to me and will be spending time going forward supporting politicians and organizations interested in doing just that. Many more informed people than I are sharing critical resources at this time but Planned Parenthood did put together this FAQ specific to abortion, you can also find state by state information here and Mosheh’s most recent newsletter summarized the ruling & fallout and linked to a great discussion with Sharon McMahon speaking to the decision.
With that all stated, I also still require breaks online and offline from the news because, again, for me, negative information (even rage inducing) consumes me and leads me to wallow, be negative with others, etc. So I am sharing the following post and, if you’re looking for some lightness, perhaps it will serve as such. If you’re not, bookmark for another day… or ignore entirely.
I don’t “get” the outdoors. I wouldn’t care except that there’s a level of judgment about “outdoorsy” people vs. “indoorsy” people that I don’t appreciate. Society allows for certain ends of the spectrum to be good vs. bad and the implied judgment can eat away at your self-confidence if you let it. It’s better to be tall than short, rich than poor, thin than fat, to order a side salad over fries, etc, etc, etc.
Similarly, outdoorsy people are tan (better than being pasty) and active (better than being sedentary) and adventurous (better than being a total dud). Ergo, being outdoorsy is better than being indoorsy.
I tried being outdoorsy. I went to camp for two summers: Hidden Valley Camp in Freedom, Maine. Freedom, Maine is now famous for Erin French and her Lost Kitchen but at the time it just had a hippie dippy camp known for Maine’s largest private herd of llamas. I had some fabulous camp experiences:
I sang multiple Indigo Girls songs and got to play bongos along with “Galileo.”
I also was cast as Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which was great preparation for five years at an all girls’ school where I was forced to play a man in every show… except for the show where I got to be an understudy for a man (my history teacher).
While most days were focused on organic foods, on Junk Food Day you got to have sugar cereals (also forbidden in my home) and run around gathering candy that dropped from an airplane. (Although in searching for video of the candy drop, I did discover that it’s been canceled after a 2019 airplane crash where everyone is okay…) Video of candy drop in action here… no fun size Kit Kat has ever tasted better than one caught from the sky.
I learned that mosquitos love me disproportionately more than anyone else and also that I have an uncontrollable desire to scratch mosquito bites which then creates scabs and scars and leads to way too many visits to the infirmary.
However, while at the infirmary, I learned that even at summer camp, I am an indoors person. The infirmary had climate control and television and you could read instead of having to make subpar crafts (although my parents sadly received fewer batiked pillowcases as a result). They always had popsicles for kids with sore throats so if you just coughed a bunch, you’d get one (great news unless they only had grape left). Subsequent summers would be spent working at my local swim club (in the office), at engineering camp (mostly indoors except for some soda bottle “rocket” experiments) and at Governor’s School for International Studies (so indoorsy that when the Wu-Tang Clan came to play Pittsburgh, they put our dorm on lockdown for fear of riots. Incidentally the Governor’s School for Health Care kids got to GO to the Wu-Tang Clan concert… presumably to provide first aid during these potential riots?)
It’s surprising then that I would choose a college whose school song was “The Mountains” but I had been indoctrinated to love Williams College early and, again, I think mountains are beautiful when I’m viewing them from behind a window. As part of orientation, we had to go on a hiking trip. It was technically optional but my brother told me it was a critical part of the experience and guess what? It was the last camping trip I’ve been on.
Unfortunately, it means I made friends with outdoorsy people. People who think a camping trip before the start of school is an amazing orientation. People who propose “easy hikes” as part of our vacations together but those “easy hikes” are mostly vertical and leave you winded. Worse yet, those hikes lead you to the top of a mountain in Park City and the only way down is a chair-lift and, as an indoorsy person, you obviously avoid snow sports and then when you watch someone on the chair-lift drop off the side of a mountain you have a panic attack so the only way down is to walk back with your husband who wonders how he got stuck with you but then remembers his first wife was a monster so it could be worse.
It’s all fine and, honestly, they’re very accessible outdoorsy people — imagine if I’d befriended Burners and had to spend the month of August hearing about “Playa preparation” and all of September learning how transformational those few days of raves (and no sleep and not enough clothing and definitely too much sun exposure and minimal hygiene and likely sand in awkward places) were. Fortunately, I’ve never had to worry about life on the Playa as I’ve obviously never been invited to Burning Man and never will be. It’s kind of like all the drugs I never did because no one ever offered them to me.
As I write this, I’m on vacation in a beautiful location with a stunning view and I’m sitting inside, on a couch, with all windows open enjoying the breeze. Someone asked if I wanted to walk on the beach and I incredulously asked “why?” Why would I go risk skin cancer and sand in shoes (or worse, no shoes and random cuts from shells) when I can lie inside on a piece of furniture designed to maximize comfort? Perhaps that’s it: why knowingly make myself less comfortable in the name of fresh air and pleasant scenery?
I’m not anti-outdoorsy people at all, I’m simply saying: justice for indoorsy folks. Allow us to live our sunless, non-REI shopping, low activity existences free from judgment or the assumption that one end of that spectrum is far superior to the other. You should be allowed to be an outdoors person or an indoors person or (the platonic ideal!) a screened porch person. Let’s all learn from Mr. Rogers (someone who was so respectful of the indoors he actually changed outfits for it) and like each other just as we are. Unless you’re Clarence Thomas; then you should change.
Thank you for this!