Americans? Lazy? NO WAY!

This might be a bit of a rambler, but here goes.

I was walking from the metro to my office in Crystal City when I overheard a curious statement. I passed a family of three about two minutes into my ten minute walk. They were obviously tourists, as they were pulling copious amounts of wheelie bags, and they were probably members of the upper-middle class, judging by their clothing and choice of luggage. Anyway, this lady turns to her husband and irritably says "I thought you said our hotel was on the metro."

Wait. Pause. Digest that for a minute. These people have walked for a mere TWO minutes, and they're already complaining that they've walked too far? Are we really so lazy in this country that we can't handle walking TWO minutes to reach our destinations? I've walked for longer than that to get through the damn Wal-Mart parking lot. If you ask me, a hotel two minutes from the metro station would be pretty darn convenient.

We Americans like to make excuses to justify our laziness, my favorite being "people are inherently lazy." I take issue with this statement: people are not inherently lazy; we Americans are inherently lazy. People in general are inherently efficient. There is a huge difference between the two, and it's essential that we recognize it. Both Americans and Europeans will seek out the fastest, easiest way to reach our destinations; this is efficiency, not laziness. Where laziness comes in is when we bitch, whine, and moan about it. My experience with other countries is fairly limited, having only traveled to the UK, Hungary, and Canada. However, very seldomly do you hear those people complain and moan about having to walk somewhere. They know that they have to walk to get somewhere, they accept it, they don't complain, and they go about their business.

We Americans also like to quickly refute this belief, stereotype, or whatever you want to call it. "We're not lazy," we tell our European and Canadian friends. Yeah. Sure. Whatever you want to tell yourself. All I know is that we have the highest obesity rate in the world, our average weight increased by over 10 pounds from 1994 to 1999, and we log more vehicle miles per capita than any other country.

As a culture, we are lazy. We are probably the laziest country in the world. Those who know me will be quick to point out that I'm being hypocritical. Don't try to pull that, because while I might a pretty lazy person, I'll be the first one to admit it. I'm not saying that we should be ashamed of our laziness, but we do need to accept it, because accepting that we have a problem is the first step towards fixing it.

Do yourself a favor and walk to the corner store instead of drive. Put a treadmill in your living room and jog while you're watching your damn reality shows. Take the dog for an extra-long walk. Do something to become more active before our entire nation turns into a bunch of sloths. And for the love of God, don't bitch when you have to walk two minutes to get somewhere... all you're doing is proving their point.