I have short hair. I like getting up in the morning knowing that my hair looks exactly the same as when I went to bed. I don't bother with hair 'products for men', I'd rather save the cash and buy another pair of classically outmoded cowboy boots, (they will return, trust me). I also recycle my newspapers, and these two facts came together on Sunday to provide me with a nugget of understanding in an otherwise bewildering world.
I cut my own hair with an electric clipper. I do this in front of a mirror and over a section of the newspapers that I then recycle. For some reason, the August 23rd edition of the Saturday Times hadn't yet gone out, or at least the Body and Soul section hadn't, and whilst buzzing my 9mm long hair back to 3mm, (there's an OCD there somewhere), I spotted an article about how our 'cramped little island is stressing us out'. It went on to discuss the emotional and mental effects of living with almost 1200 people in each square mile of the green and pleasant.
'Psychologists point out that people have two basic space requirements: personal space and territorial space. When these two are infringed, stress levels rocket.'
One can imagine then, how stressed your average London commuter should be. What I found so fluffy, yet narrow minded about the solutions the article went on to suggest, was that they generally didn't take the person out of the situation and place them in a new, improved situation. Here's one:
'I advise clients to imagine they are in, say, a blue egg on the Tube. The egg-shell is flexible and doesn't break so if they are touched or their personal space is invaded, they are still protected'. Suzy Dittmar, Hale Clinic.
WHAAAT!! Whilst I'm all for mind over matter, there is a more beneficial alternative. Get out of the Tube. There are a number of ways to do that but the one with the most benefits, obviously, is to get on a bike. London is about 25 miles across, a 12 mile commute, (the average commuting distance is 8 miles), by bike, by an average person, takes less than an hour and that hour has more health benefits, both mental and physical, than 20-25 minutes on a Tube, by any stretch of a blue egg!
So, there's your choice stressed out Londoners; pay someone probably more than the price of a lightweight commuting bike, to be told to get back into the Tube with a blue egg, or get a bike that provides freedom from all that in the first place. Go by bike!
My nugget of understanding? Perceived convenience has a very high price.
