"Earthing?"

It feels good, no question.

Today is a quintessential California day.  It's picture-postcard perfect, 70 degrees, sunny and green.  I've been outside most of the day, loathe to come inside and begin the chores I know I need to do since its my day off.  It's just too perfect outside.  

One of the things I like to do on days like this is take my shoes off and walk barefoot around the parts of the property where it's safe to do so.  I walk on the grass and on the dirt by the raised beds, mainly.  I stay out of the pasture since it's filled with some very un-foot-friendly natural items -- things like star thistle stickers, slivers of wood and goat-heads.

It's funny, because I used to do the same thing when I was at UCLA.  At the time I lived a thoroughly urban existence, but when I would go out and sit on the grass at lunchtime, I always made sure I took off my shoes and let my feet come in contact with the actual ground itself.  When you live in the city, it's possible actually spend months never touching the surface of the planet you live on.  You step on sidewalk, concrete, tile or carpet 100 percent of the time.  It always felt good to stand on good old terra firma, with nothing between me and the earth.

Recently I saw a new-age-y article about a new phenomenon actually called "Earthing."  Earthing is the deliberate act of spending a certain amount of time walking, sitting, and laying on good old Mother Earth, with nothing in between you and her. Apparently, with the majority of humans now living in urban, industrialized environments, most people rarely walk on the actual surface of the planet anymore. In light of my days as an urbanite, I find this very easy to believe.

My electrons are skeptical.

But it's the cottage industries associated with the "earthing" phenomenon that I find so unbelievable. There are companies that are making a profit off this idea, selling cotton earthing sheets and mats (for those people who like the earth but don't want to actually sit on it), as well as little electrical wires that go down into the soil and come up into your house that can connect Earth's "energies" to you.  

These things are all available for purchase, of course.  

There's a lot of pseudo-science that goes along with the earthing idea, specifically the idea that the earth has an electrical current that, when there's nothing between us and it, conducts into our bodies and makes us healthy and happy.  I love walking barefoot, laying on the grass looking up at the sky, and sitting quietly in the yard watching nature, but that's about as far as I'll take it.

Yet, there is no doubt that there's something very, very good about coming in contact with the earth itself that gives one a feeling of well-being and even happiness.

I do think what's sad is that there are earth's surface-deprived people out there who will believe a little electrical wire that comes into your home is an acceptable substitution for getting back into nature.  Nature is more to us than an electrical current -- it's the well-being that's found in natural surroundings, and comes through our eyes, our ears, and our noses. Yes, and our feet.

A wire running to your feet is just a wire.  Unless, however it's also a means for someone to make a profit from, by people who accept the latest fads without questioning the common sense or science behind them.