Today I was reminded of a friend of mine’s uncle who went in for some tests, and the results came back “bad.”
“Define ‘bad,'” I requested.
“Not to put too fine a point on it,” my friend replied. “Suffice it say that every number came back with one more digit in it than was considered healthy.”
Sometimes it takes a little while to notice that the tension you’ve been telling yourself you’ve been “working out” is actually the tension you’ve been working in!
Among other summer projects, I’m devoting time and energy toward better health and general life balance because:
A) It’s just a good idea.
and B) To better help my son obtain healthier life balance in his life.
Today, for instance, I went outside for some direct sunlight, not for tanning purposes, but for some Vitamin D. Having precisely zero interest in overdoing it, I set a timer, but when the timer went off I was surprised at how reluctant I was to get up and go back inside. I did anyway though, and with visions of a young turtle in my head as I did so.
Why a young turtle?
Because I once found a young turtle dead on the side of the road, not because he’d been run over, but because he’d been sunning himself and, as near as I could tell, had been enjoying himself so much that he couldn’t tell he was baking himself to death in the process.
As I sip my tea this morning, I’m doing so from a mug someone got me a few years back. This mug has a list of “tips for good health” on the side, and at the top of the list it says “Less Alcohol, More Tea.”
It turns out that’s really good advice.
What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease.
– George Dennison Prentice (It’s a shame that he wasn’t as insightful about people as he was about this.)
Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.
Okay . . . take two. I’ve mentioned before how my talking about silly stuff can sometimes be a sign that I’m processing something serious in the background.
Yeah . . . so my cousin had a stroke recently. We haven’t seen each other in years, and haven’t really interacted since the days when we played together as children, so my interactions with the situation so far have been pretty much limited to waiting for news (I understand he’s doing “okay” all things considered.) and dispensing advice to others that they do their best to take care of themselves and rest as best they can while waiting for news.
That . . . and occasionally reminding myself to take my own advice, particularly the first night after I heard what had happened.
This candle’s for you, buddy.
After giving it a great deal of thought, I have concluded that it is healthier to believe in the possibility that someday we could be greater than we are now than it is to be “certain” that would be an impossibility. Bottom line, we lack evidence either way, making both beliefs profoundly irrational, so why not pick the one which encourages us to be better?
I would like to find a stew that will give me heartburn immediately, instead of at three o clock in the morning.
I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.
