Weight of Advancement

People are more obese today in general than they were 100 years ago, 50 years ago, even 20 years ago. How you ask? Look at the national headlines stateside and the all out war against obesity. At least that is what certain portions of the media and government would have you believe. No more fries and pizza in school lunch menus (except when the kids can go across the street and indulge in gross candy from an authorised shack); banning of fizzy drinks and soda dispensers from elementary schools etc. along with proclaiming sugar as an addictive narcotic toxic substance. So we have the obvious irony of living in the world wide lands of plenty (Africa excluded) and countries and governments simultaneously dealing with issues of Type II and other types of diabetes and multitudes of diseases linked to overindulgence in rich food content. Aside from this bizzare fiasco there is another factor that is becoming noticable in terms of so called advancing civilizations and that is the other extra weight we seem to be carrying with us. I harken to the days my parents travelled by crowded commuter trains to work and the belongings that they may have had 'on their person' (I particularly like the use of this somewhat retarded phrase where it gives the person in question an otherworldly quality). A pouch for a sandwich or roti sabji and a smallish purse for the train ticket and some money. That is it. Perhaps an eye aid (as in chasma) and its carrier - that was the total spectacle. Take an average idiot on today's commuter train that I sometimes take (the train - not the idiot per se) going to work. First comes the multitudes of makeup gear - enough to paint the eyes of kids in an entire impoverished country in Africa. Then there is gum/mint/candy/mouth freshners in various colors, hardness, price points, containers. Latter to really freshen the person inside out after their arrival at the destination (did I mention the sprays and mists they may indulge in during the journey?) Now on to the accouterments to keep them detached from the person sitting next to them and disembody themselves to their Facebook friend number 9,324. There are multitude of Androids and Pads and Pods to choose from if you are the gaming kind... games people play I tell you. Also those studious types staring at an e book trying to get wiser than the comeptition. Reading is good I say but what of the live experience of watching others get wiser? Then there is of course the sensory detachment in the form of audio and video from the late show the night before being streamed in to their duramatter through expensive looking headsets. After all this overdoes of data its time for some refreshment - liquid kind - sterilized, fancy bottled, sometimes labeled SMART sometimes not, in several colors if you are a fan of the electrolytic beverage and sometimes in the form of hi caffiene shots that would propel that person from his seat to the next just by thinking about it. I mean it is cool to actually drink something that has the word BULL in it? After all this there is the ubiquitous portable computer and several badges to enter severely secure premises that the idiot is ultimately destined to go to. Now where did I put that damned train ticket?