So, for the purpose of this exercise, imagine we just landed here from mars. We are the preliminary team of a new community, and our job is to do all the preparatory work to set up the environment as best we can, so it is 'perfect' before we bring the rest of the population, children to elderly, down from Mars.
If that was the case, we would surely want the most positive and visionary people we could, to sit down and work out for us the ultimate plan. Yes we would say, go ahead and dream big, think outside the square and tell me how we set out the best possible infrastructure plan, so we can have the healthiest and happiest lifestyle in the universe!
Then, and only then, we would bring all our people here, and live happily ever after.
Yes, a little far-fetched I know, but sometimes we need to stop and smell the roses. Stop and look around us to see what is slowly unravelling; inert technology-based activities are booming, and healthy lifestyles are suffering.
So yes dammit, if you did arrive from Mars you would say this is madness, what are you people doing! You've hacked down all the jungles, you're killing all the whales, and now you're killing yourselves!
So yes we would get experts in. Experts to plan out the ultimate healthy and happy lifestyle environment, so why don't we do it now? In that sense we have two choices; either no thanks we're good, or yes please let's go for it!
We are an island of sorts here in Hawke's Bay. Let's start with that blank sheet of paper approach, and say bugger it, let's make this place as best as we can, lets design the ultimate layout of our community to optimise a healthy lifestyle environment for young and old.
We need to get on the front foot, we are up against multi-million dollar industries with highly paid designers whose job it is to lure people into sedentary activities, sitting down, blocking out the outside world, playing computer games. We need to be proactive, think outside the square, and do whatever it takes to make active healthy lifestyles attractive, cool, and fun!
We need to establish an environment where real community, and health, becomes a part of life, and when I walk around some school playgrounds that's exactly what I see - they are amazing, a hive of activity, kids literally buzzing around, and having fun.
Some schools don't have anything of the sort, especially as they get older. So where does it stop? Why does it stop? And how can we change that?
I walk into some primary schools, and the jungle gym seems the dominant central fulcrum of the whole school. Imagine if that was mirrored in our wider society, if we had a central fulcrum that society could buzz around, a jungle from which all means of physical activity could radiate.
A playground for us adults, where physical activity is optimised through the lifespan, including of course the pointy end of life, as we reach elderly years where we need a sense of purpose, as is identified by researchers looking into the success of the blue zones.
Hawke's Bay nearly has it all. We have a great climate with plenty of sunshine hours, meaning greater play time for kids through elderly. We have great sized towns, not too big and congested with traffic, and not so small as not to warrant decent facilities.
With our twin cities combined, we have the equal fifth largest urban population in the country. Added to that the populations from our beautiful surrounding towns of Central Hawke's Bay and Wairoa, we should aim for our own world class facility for health promotion.
Why not, and never say Never. As Dan Buettner of National Geographic said, "we need an environment that makes the healthy choice the easy choice, or better yet, unavoidable".
Marcus Agnew is the Sports Performance Development Manager at AUT Millennium Hawke's Bay and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
