In another class of mine, we have a semester long project called '100 Days', and we were just simply asked to pick an activity that we will complete everyday for 100 days straight and document it in some way. The options were endless, but eventually I resorted to taking a picture of the odometer in my car every morning before departing for the day. It may not have been the most exciting choice but when I was thinking about it, I really wanted to incorporate something that I already do in my everyday life instead of adding something new. I wake up every morning and get in my car and drive. Everyday. Where I'm heading and how far I'm driving and how much gas I use up are factors of my everyday life that are completely ignored, and now I have this project to draw awareness to this simple, everyday body practice.
So many things in our everyday life seem to get sucked into the realm of routine that we no longer even process what we are doing and why we are doing it. Driving is a practice that almost all people experience in their everyday. If you're not participating, you're still witnessing. The most interesting part of it to me though is the question of why. Why are we driving? Where are we going and why are we going there? What is our ultimate destination? It just seems to be a simple practice that is so readily available that we don't even think of the actions and the reasons for doing it.
I happen to think about driving all the time. Since I am a freshman this year, it is the first time I've been without a car in two years. The transition has been strange for me because traveling now takes so much more time and effort. Anytime I take a 20 minute walk to class I think of how much I would like to be driving there instead. I guess like the Counting Crows say, "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone." This saying makes me realize that it is almost impossible to analyze a body practice while you're participating in it; it is only when you step back and look at it from an outsider's perspective can you effectively examine it.
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