Friday, March 02, 2007

THE WEALTH OF HEALTH

When you're young and rich with the gold of health, the ultimate wealth, you tend to think the end will never come. You don't stop to think that in a wink the end is now. Somehow, you go along doing what you used to do with the ease you did at twenty-two.

You play the odds, make a bet that the gods of old age won't set the stage where you'll star not as the fool you are but as the macho man who fought the war and has every scar to prove you won. Those days are gone, life goes on, but the rat race pace has slowed to a walk. You ain't the guy you used to be.

Wrinkles sneak into your face, your hair turns gray or disappears around your ears, nagging fears invade your thoughts and lots of what once you were you are not.

Maybe you're not quite there. You've still got time to treasure the pleasures of fading youth. Now's the time to face the truth and realize the gifts you take for granted are planted in the garden of your past and will be sorely missed when they become the simple joys of yesterday.

Make a list of what might be missed---swimming endless laps, perhaps, replaced by splashing water with your young age son or daughter, sleeping in the summer sun, dreaming of bikini clad bathing beauties you once had.

It starts with a squint when you read fine print. Glasses help but impede your ability to see far when you drive the family car. Frequent fender benders, an accident or two, you know your driving days are through.

What you used to eat you can eat no more. Trips to the deli or the bakery, pasta and pastry are in your past. Are fast foods worth your growing girth? The heart burn that churns your belly, the doughnut filled with cream or jelly, the pizza pie piled high with all the add ons you can buy, the beer you guzzle with the guys, the fries you snack, the Crackerjack, popcorn and candy bar you munch and crunch while watching a sleazy TV or movie show. You know this stuff has gotta go.

Then come ills and doctor bills, strokes, heart attacks. Forget those packs of cancer snacks. The same's true of other diseases that displease the family doc but make the undertaker the richest man on the block.

The moral of the story's this: Avoid much of what you once enjoyed and liked a lot and never gave a second thought. Relegate them to your go slow or no-no list. Heed every warning sign designed to keep you safe and sound or you'll soon be six feet underground.

1 Comments:

Blogger Paul Foer said...

Hello Ed:

This is Paul, who you met at lunch the other day. I was with you and my father in law who just moved to Morningside. You gave me your blog address. I have enjoyed your writings. I would like to send you to my blog at
www.annapoliscapitalpunishment.blogspot.com
I will visit you when I come out your way again. Thank you.

9:10 AM  

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