back pain
I am going to physical therapy for a painful back. My therapist is a voluble woman with a deep interest in flourishing. She offered a most interesting piece of data on the deteriorating state of human Being. She has noticed over her 25 years or so of practice that people’s posture and general musculo-skeletal health has gotten increasing worse. She sees that very young children cannot squat with ease. This may sound unimportant but squatting is a common position for much of the global population and is important in maintaining bodily health. Bad posture is often the result of long-term mental stress and prolonged positioning that puts physical stress on certain parts of the body, for example, carpal tunnel syndrome. Dropping one’s head stresses the back and is likely to be one cause of my present aches and pains (apart from aging). As a non-touch typist, I look down at the keyboard constantly for hours a day. Looking down at an iPad in your lap would do the same. This has become a very common scene for young children. I have my own data on this from watching grandkids. The youngest of my nine spends much more time with some screen in his lap than the oldest (14 years older) did. Much larger variety of technology available for him. I am not enough of a specialist to attach cause to effect, but I suspect that what she told me is just another example of increasing unsustainability.

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