Start Me Up!

For many years I’ve made it a hobby to study health, nutrition, and sport. In later years I formally studied recreation and tourism, with an emphasis on tourism management and development. Sadly all that study saw me spending increasing amounts of time in front of a computer instead of the actual participation in sport and physical activity, and it’s taken a serious toll on my health. Add to that my indulgences in drink and smoke, convenience foods, lack of attention to diet, daily stressors, unusual stressors, the toll of chronic health problems,  the inevitable and glorious effects of age on my mind/body/spirit; and I am left here with a somewhat unrecognizable body, and markedly different mental affect. Don’t get me wrong, there are some advantages to this process. As I’ve come to place less importance on looks, how many pushups I can do, and how many tasks I can accomplish in a day. (Some things truly are inevitable as we accept the natural winding down of a once spirited and busy life.) I found I have accepted that it’s sometimes ok to do little; accomplishments can be measured not only in productivity, but in small joys and thoughtful moments. The most important thing I have learned to appreciate is my (now returned) sense of childlike play. And I do like to play.

So while I accept these hard earned wrinkles, the sunspots that pay tribute to happy memories, the less fluid joints, the straining and now lens assisted eyes, and other changes; some gradual, some surprising, some quite profound; I find that I am not yet ready to ride calmly off into that sunset. I believe that vitality need not slip wantonly away and that I do deserve a chance and require the strength that will allow me to enjoy my shifting values and embrace my still keen desire for adventure and play. With this in mind, I have again taken up my quest in learning what I may do to improve my health and attitude, and have a renewed determination in that I will not wither or wane but live in grace and acceptance, with serenity *and* vigor, for as long as time will lend.

Junk

I had a dream… It was late at night and I sat in quiet in the city street. A janitor in a midrise building at work caught my eye. As I watched him slowly work his way from desk to desk in the office he was attending, I thought of all the junk piled up on that desk. Suddenly my focus expanded and I was aware of the generous piles of junk in that office. My mind’s eye zoomed out even more and I could barely comprehend the truly magnificent amount of stuff that was contained in that building. And the building itself. Zooming out even more my awareness took in the massive creation that was one giant heap of manmade junk that was this city. And so many others like it across the world. Piles and piles of stuff littered the earth like giant anthills made of garbage all about the globe. This is our legacy. Astounded I was.

Scaling back some, I’ve lately become very aware of all the garbage littering my body. The many chemicals and compounds that we daily inhale, digest, and absorb. Ewwwwww Yuck! I’ll post more on this later… all the chemicals in my system are making me too lazy to write ;P

nutopotamous

some unpopular thoughts

what if….

Education facilities educated people?

Prisons actually rehabilitated people instead of being profit centers?

What if we let pot smokers, and people stealing food out of prison; and kept murderers, rapists, and pedophiles in?

What if the war on drugs focused on relieving people’s needs for drugs?

What if gun control meant that we controlled guns, starting with the laws we already have?

What if violence against women, children, GLBT, ooo and even men… so I guess that means ALL people were taken seriously? Ouch!

What if we protected our children in schools as much as we do banks, museums, courthouses, “other” public buildings, etc etc…. it’s a value system perhaps?

What if… just once… our politicians told us the truth?? Hahahahahahahahaahahahahaha yr prolly not a good idea anyhow :O

What if we strove to raise future innovators at least as much as we do future soldiers?

What if we took care of the soldiers that sacrificed so much for so many got a fair shake… not the fake kind you give em on the street as you hand them a buck… cuz… u know… cooties ewww :I

What if war criminals… ya know…  the ones that started the wars were treated as criminals?

What if art and science were valued as highly as junk food and celebrities?

What if health care meant caring for people’s health… perhaps even to the point that we stopped throwing experimental poisons at them and looked at real not “doctored” or moneyed interests  research? But actually helped to make people healthy… hmm.

What if we fed the people not the Vatican?  Ooo ouch

What if we realized that capitalism favors those that have capitol, and that socialism would favor … erm society?

What if people that want to impose their religious views on others realized that others with differing religious views… or none… felt the same way?

What if we realized that drug companies and food companies are one and the same…. And we started just eating food… like real food… maybe we wouldn’t need the above?

What if congress were paid on commission… not the way they are now by lobbyists… but by actual results for the people that voted them in?

What if people spent their time doing something or nothing… instead of all their time consuming and discarding?

What if quality time with those you love, meant turning shit off and tuning into them? How much is your time and your loved ones really worth? …. Oooo look at those shoes ;P

What if people realized that eating sick, tortured, diseased and antibiotic- growth- hormone- GMO fed animals was not only bad for the environment… but bad for them… as in will KILL YOU and give you cancer… ok not necessarily in that order :/

Climate change is a myth… and certainly won’t hurt important people… the white ones that is… oh… and I am white… it makes me immune

What if energy efficiency meant…  not the most efficient way for the uber rich to get richer… but utilizing green energy technologies that we already have…and… idk spending money to improve on them?

What if we treated immigrants with respect… cuz hey most of us are… and we need them/us?!?

What if people realized that racism, poverty, and disease ARE political… tough luck if you drew a short- black- brown- third- world straw … ooops our bad :o

What oh what would happened if people realized that religion is a political scam and has nothing at all to do with spirituality, God, or the like. Holy hehe Fing crap… can you see the sh*t hit the fan? How many dead on our hands in the name of what? You better pray it’s not true ;P

What if war were NOT the biggest business on the planet?

And they call me crazy… ooo but they get paid to do that :I