Life On Four Wheels
March 6, 2009 by JD
Filed under Health, Information, Rants
I was watching the movie Wall-E with my son the other day. In the film, humans living on a massive spaceship have adopted a luxury life style where they spend their lives in personal floating lounge chairs jetting around from place to place. Over time, they have turned into an obese, inactive population who couldn’t walk even if they wanted to due to bone density loss.
Then last night I saw a commercial for one of those mobility scooters that are typically marketed to the elderly.
“Reclaim your life!” That was the tag line of the commercial, alluding to the chair’s ability to provide the power of all terrain travel to the older generation.
Now I understand the value of these scooters. Absolutely I’m all for giving the freedom of movement to anyone who has lost the use of their legs. But I would venture to say that the vast majority of the people who do use these scooters have two functioning legs that are capable of walking from one place to another.
The Wall Street Journal had an article about these scooters and actually quoted a 37 year old man who they found using one at Disney World.
‘ “I’m pretty healthy,” says the 37-year-old truck driver from Brooklyn, N.Y. “Just lazy, I guess.” ‘
Now even many grocery stores make these scooters available for their shoppers. And let me tell you. I don’t see elderly or disabled people using these things. I see overweight people using the motorized four wheeled chairs on wheels.
I’m pretty sure that the use of these scooters is not improving mobility for most of the people using them. In fact, it’s actually impairing their ability to get around by discouraging the use of their legs. Scooters will become the lazy person’s choice for travel, whether it’s navigating the grocery aisles or getting from room to room in their house.
And like any other muscles, if you don’t use them you lose them.
Welcome to Wall-E world.
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