The Idiots had a high school English teacher who loved to caution them to “eschew clichés like the plague!” He considered himself witty - he was half right.
Though good advice in general, that dictum ignores one obvious fact. Clichés often become clichés because they capture a truth.
Thus it is with the phrase “stop and smell the roses.” It’s no great insight to note that modern transportation separates us from the earth, both literally and figuratively. Flying at 30,000 feet is a wonder, but the abrupt transition from one landscape to another is disorienting. Even driving long distances at freeway speeds dislocates us, crossing in a day what would take a whole season on foot. The disconnect is enhanced by the dominance of screens in our lives. When we aren’t moving at unnaturally high rates of speed, we are experiencing “virtual reality” through a variety of devices.
It has become possible for a person to live a full and interesting life – and to never make actual physical contact with the soil.
The Idiots believe in the value of bare feet on mud… of dirt under the fingernails… of sitting on granite without the benefit of memory foam. So, for several days they walked trails and touched the amazingly-varied tree barks and noted how the light plays on weed stalks near sunset. They were startled by a covey of Montezuma’s quail and communed with the local population of Arizona white-tailed deer. Their heartbeats and breathing slowed.
