The odd poetry of California’s essential outdoor activities list
I’m trying not to be too optimistic when I say that reading the official list of outdoor activities that California considers to be ‘essential’ makes me feel a little better about the future.
It’s just that there’s a kind of bizarre precision to it that makes me want to laugh. It is oddly precise, and yet optimistically poetic.
I mean, just look at some of the acceptable activities on the list:
- Gardening (not in groups)
- Tennis and table tennis (singles)
- Watch the sunrise or sunset
- Tree Climbing
- Roller Skating and Rollerblading
Those notes are my favorite. Squashed between parentheses, they demand to be taken seriously despite the image that amateur doubles Table Tennis might conjure.
There are also some activities that perhaps have never occured to me as being off limits in the first place, but that I’m glad for the clarification.
It’s a thoroughness that reminds me that this is the government, after all, that wrote this. Movement collides with regulation. Amid a recreation theme, there is rigidity in the diction.
The list proclaims freedom from isolation through running, hiking, and exploring, but fights to contain it with neatness and precision.
We can’t go wild. There’s still a pandemic, and we must be cautious. But, can we be cautiously optimistic, at least?
Here are two more that I admire:
- Kite Boarding and Kitesurfing
- Wash the car
I like that it’s very niche. There are only so many people who are going to add watching the sunrise to their personal essential activities list in the coming weeks, and it won’t be me.
It paints a, dare I say, quaint picture. I could pick one activity on the list to do everyday…a pipe dream, but one that I can picture now as I sit in quarantine.
I can see skinned knees, bruised elbows and a tired smile soaking in the sun. The summer might look like this: everyone physically distant, but singles Canoeing along a murky river or a family Exploring Rock Pools in the shadow of a coastal cliff. Some of us are off Hiking, others have chosen to pick up Outdoor Photography.
Does this language not remind you of a childhood summer? Of Scootering (not in groups) and Trampolining in the warm summer sun?
Beaches, parks, forest trails have been staring longingly at me, waiting for the sign that I will leave the house and take a solo walk. The transition out of isolation will be slow. But, now at least I have a definitive answer: no, I can’t go swimming yet, but I can go Crabbing.
It is important to stay safe as the country begins to reopen, and warmer weather calls everyone outdoors. Here is the full list of California’s essential outdoor activities:
- Athletics
- Badminton (singles)
- Throwing a baseball/softball
- BMX biking
- Canoeing (singles)
- Crabbing
- Cycling
- Exploring Rock Pools
- Gardening (not in groups)
- Golfing (singles, with carts)
- Hiking (trails/ paths allowing distancing)
- Horse Riding (singles)
- Jogging and running
- Kite Boarding and Kitesurfing
- Meditation
- Outdoor Photography
- Picnics (with your stay-home household members only)
- Quad Biking
- Rock Climbing
- Roller Skating and Rollerblading
- Rowing (singles)
- Scootering (not in groups)
- Skateboarding (not in groups)
- Soft Martial Arts — Tai Chi, Chi Kung (not in groups)
- Surfing
- Tennis and table tennis (singles)
- Throwing a football, kicking a soccer ball (not in groups)
- Trail Running
- Trampolining
- Tree Climbing
- Volleyball (singles)
- Walk the dog
- Wash the car
- Watch the sunrise or sunset
- Yoga
