Choices about How to Get to the Top

It’s sad to say, but if given a choice between climbing flights of stairs or taking an elevator or escalator, I will usually take the easier route.

But sometimes there is no choice. Like today when I went for a bargain massage offered during Spa Week in downtown DC. The treatment space was on the fourth floor of a very old building and the elevator had long been out of service. Not exactly how I wanted to enter into 45 minutes of nirvana, but I had actually been forewarned when I made the appointment.

I now understand why they weren’t particularly busy. And after 45 minutes of cranial-sacral work, my body kept asking when the real massage was going to start. Hey, I got exactly what I paid for, and it was a bargain, and those stairs were a lot easier going down.

No sooner had I gotten to my car when I received a wonderful message from my friend LR, in which she was passing on this video about enticing people to use the stairs.



It is so true that just a little incentive will often influence someone’s choice. I’m sure if I saw the means to play the piano as I walked upstairs, I too would forsake the escalator.

But then I tried to imagine such a thing in this country. It would be so fraught with legal issues that it would never happen. Can’t you imagine someone filing a suit over breaking an ankle while trying to play a particular tune? Only in Sweden could they get away with this novel approach to enticing people to get some exercise.