Hydration

I am so amused now days about how focused people are on "keeping hydrated." While driving through New Ulm the other day, we noticed a man and his wife out walking. Both had a belt on, and attached to those belts were two or three small water bottles.

I also see parents out walking with their kids in the spring. EVERYBODY has a water bottle with them.

I guess I missed the memo. I get up in the morning and head out the door. I walk or jog for close to an hour, come home and do last night's evening dishes (yes, dishes really can sit overnight without becoming infested with bubonic plaque) and I start cooking. Somewhere around TWO hours after starting my jog, I sit down and have my morning cup of tea. A little while later, I'll have a big glass of something wet for breakfast.

Guess what? I did not shrivel up and die before I got my first drink of the morning. That's right, I may have gotten a tad thirsty, maybe,  in the times that I jog, but my lips didn't swell. My core body temperature didn't go to near fatal levels. My body didn't cramp up and I didn't pass out. NOT ONCE. And I do this every morning. I also go out for 45 minutes of walking in the afternoon and sometimes evenings and I don't take any beverage with me ever. Even when it's 100 degrees and humid. YES, I replenish nicely when I get home, but my body is more than capable of going at least an hour without "hydrating" even when exercising.

While I appreciate "experts" who have to tell parents how to raise their kids, I get a real chuckle about parents who think their children need to be sipping on water bottles every few minutes to stay "hydrated." I've noticed a similar trend in our church. I think most of the adults have tea or coffee in the morning  during the morning services (probably for their caffeine more than anything else) and more and more children are having their water bottles.

I'm not saying drinking is BAD for you. What I'm trying to say is that children can easily sit through a morning service without their water bottles. I've also noticed another trend. EVERYBODY now gets up sometime during the services to go to the bathroom.

I can't imagine the number of bathroom stops parents now days make when vacationing. Kids in air conditioned cars have to stop every 45 minutes to go to the bathroom. While at the quick stop, parents get another caffeine-laced beverage for themselves necessitating another stop in less than 45 minutes.

I still remember going down to Kansas in a NON-air-conditioned car in the summertime with my family. I think we had two or three bathroom breaks in 12 hours. I admit, that may have been extreme, but dehydration was the least of my parents' worries for us. And we all got there and back alive.

I'm also trying to figure out how many small plastic bottles are being added to our roadways by this hydration trend. I literally see dozens and dozens of half-empty pop and water bottles on my walks every singe week, and that's just in the small town of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. You see, parents may be concerned about their children's hydration, but they have absolutely no concerns about littering. I mean why would anyone want to carry a half-empty or empty bottle with them when they no longer have need of it? It's so much easier to just drop it and keep walking. Besides, they probably have a full spare with them. You know, so they don't get dehydrated before they finish their walk.