Segway to Lethergy

October SEAHA note from the editor

I have seen the enemy and it is convenience. I got to ride a Segway this week at work. That is one of those strange, two-wheeled, auto-balancing platforms you ride when you decide to stop walking. Minimalist in the extreme, it' has just two wheels beside a foot platform, which also sprouts a handlebar. The first time I saw a 7 1/2-foot tall head and torso floating smoothly past the cubicle wall at 5 MPH I almost got whiplash. Most bystanders have two questions: what the heck is that, and why isn't he walking? Horse folk are sometimes asked the same thing. I've been on several crowded trails and heard joggers and bikers mutter, "the horse is doing all the work." We know it's a combined effort for rider and mount, though not as many calories get burned on horseback as with the more frenetic activities. I’m sure nobody considered the first person to ride a horse lazy. "Hey Xenophon, why don’t you get off that thing and get some exercise?" Before domesticated horses it was work to get anywhere. You only went to market a few times a year, because it took two weeks to walk there, and two weeks back. The horse gave a little welcome relief. But it is work to daily feed and care for the animal, so that he is willing to occasionally carry you. It is work to brush his coat, to clean his feet, to throw a 40-pound saddle on his back. It is work to keep a balanced seat and help pick the best route. Yet today it is hip to opt out of walking and use these new-age devices, but is becoming unacceptable to have a partnership with an animal. Next time you see someone riding a Segway down the sidewalk, ask, "hey…why aren't you walking…or riding a horse?"