Something Left in the Tank

According to Wikipedia:

“The conservation ethic is an ethic of resource use, allocation, exploitation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world: its forests, fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity. Secondary focus is on materials conservation and energy conservation, which are seen as important to protect the natural world.”

When I was young, I would hear grownups say, “Don’t exert yourself” to kids before they went out to play. I didn’t really want to listen to grownups, but since I got sick so often when I was a kid, I often wound up napping, resting, or basically confined to the indoors while other kids played outside. Because of this, grownups might have thought I was actually listening to them.

As I got older, even though I didn’t get sick as much, my napping habits stayed with me. I wound up being friends with others who also didn’t mind resting when they could, and none of us were into extreme sports. We weren’t into extreme anything. We didn’t take drugs or get drunk or indulge in anything except the occasional double bacon cheeseburger with a baked potato. Other groups probably considered us as very boring, but since we never really paid attention to other groups, we never knew.

We did love to play baseball, though. We loved it so much that we knew that if any of us got hurt, we couldn’t play it for a while. And so we hustled, dove for the ball, and did as much as we could without breaking any bones. We argued but never fought, and conceded the point when we knew it was pointless to continue. We did what we could to enjoy baseball as much as we could for as long as we could, and we did.

The closer I get to the age of those grownups who said, “Don’t exert yourself,” the more I understand what they mean. These are grownups who, at the age of seventy and eighty years old are still going strong. They are still coherent and full of laughter. They are surrounded by good people. I don’t think extreme sports existed when they were growing up, so it would be a moot point to ask them about it.

Just as it’s wise to have a savings account for your money, I’m sure these grownups knew about having a savings account for their energy. “Don’t exert yourself” meant saving some energy for later, maybe much much later, even decades. It is a farsighted phrase that will not be easily understood until it is most needed.