Lately I've been receiving a fair amount of news that fits firmly in the "bad" category. Acquaintances moms with brain cancer. Guys found stone cold in their easy chair with heart attack. People going blind. Chronic disease. Uggh.
Some of these people I'm very close to, some of them it's past tense now, and some I'm a bit more removed. But I'm really not all that removed. And who ever really knows when it comes a few steps closer rather than staying few steps further away?
This stuff goes on all the time, it's not like it's anything new. I'm health conscious. I eat decently well, and I exercise my brains out. Phyical capacity defines who I am. Probably indicative that I haven't lost the genes of the Vikings. It used to be weights, wrestling, combat. Push self harder, get stronger. Then it shifted to aerobic fitness. Ride bike up big hills, cross countries, through jungles and mountains. Dumb physical pain defines me, and I suspect it always will. Maybe it's therapy, maybe it's escapism, maybe it's nothing. And that might alter some risk profiles, but that's about as much as it can do.
But now I'm more sensitized to health, or at least it seems to be presenting itself front and center more often. I'm tired and strung out from work, and the Wall Street Journal just ran a recent article on men, whom as a group have all kinds of collective problems, which is hardly news. But I love how they hone in on stress, and how meeting deadlines isn't the healthiest thing going in terms of lifestyle. Not too many degrees of freedom there. The article goes through depression too. Funny how few degrees of freedom I see in my lineage on that subject either.
In a half hour I'm going to watch a presentation by Dick Hoyt. Dick is an achiever. I've invited 9 people whom I know through my career, and 100% of them accepted the invite, which isn't typical of dinner engagements. I guess that tells me other people are looking forward to hearing what he has to say. I certainly am.
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