The Down Easter: The Cure for Recreational Anxiety

In his monthly column The Down Easter Al James reports from Maine on music, fishing, gear and of course the joys of modern life. -MW

The idea behind Recreational Anxiety is not about HOW you recreate, it’s about the dwindling resources that recreation demands AND the staggering proliferation of available gear being sold, in order to recreate. It’s the Camping Industrial Complex plus the melting ice caps plus analysis paralysis and gridlock traffic in Yellowstone all in one. Ridiculous I know, but this is where we are. Thankfully, there are steps you can take. 

I give credit to my long-time fishing companion Blake who (at least in my circle) coined the term. He’s always had a natural ‘glass-half-empty’ temperament and dark, sardonic sense of humor. So when in our 30s, we started obsessively pursuing steelhead in and around the Pacific Northwest, he gave the dread and paranoia that surrounds outdoor pursuits a fitting name—Recreational Anxiety.