Pace Yourself

Today, my good friend CNN tells me that people over seventy who consume one to seven alcoholic beverages a week have a "significantly lower risk of heart problems or death than those who didn't imbibe.???

Read it again -- Lower risk of DEATH. My first thought is to ask the question, "Does this mean they maybe won't die, ever? As in their risk for overall death -- impending, no-way-around-it death -- is lessened???? But I know that isn't what they mean, exactly. They mean a "lower risk of death, tomorrow.??? Which is fine. I'm guessing that's a risk you want to manage when you're over seventy.

Hell, it's a risk I want to manage NOW, so I'm thinking I should get a jump start on managing my death-risk. You can bet those older folks clinking glasses seven times a week didn't start knockin 'em back on their sixty-eighth birthday. They've had to be in training longer than that.

These are the health articles I love. As soon as I get so discouraged about trans-fats and pesticides and frankenfoods and the price of organics and poorly tested drugs and impure water and cleaning product residues and fiber intake and processed, white devil-flour that I'm certain I'll poison and pickle myself into an early grave, the media kicks me something like this. Something that says "Yeah, we said all that other stuff, but who are we kidding? Drink up!??? Like at camp when you hear that chilling story about the guy with the hook for an arm, running around these very woods, killing people, and just when you're all scared and ready to call your mom, somebody asks the camp counselor if it's true, and he says "Naw, none of that's true.??? Sweet relief!

So good news, folks! Clean livin' isn't all it's cracked up to be. Besides encouraging me to continue with the cocktails, this story cements my plan to tie it all back on when I start my coast down the slope. And you can bet I'll start up again with the smokes, too, because who can enjoy her nice, old-lady-brandy-drunk without a cigarette between her wrinkled fingers?

Drugs, Take Me Away!

So there are people in the world who need to pop a few. Hmmmm. Life that difficult? For anyone who has been paying attention to American society over the past forty years, especially the 80s, drugs have become a bit too prevalent in our society. And I'm not simply talking about the illegal kind such as LSD, Marijuana, Crack, Ecstacy, Heroin, Meth, etc. I'm talking about mood stabilizers, muscle relaxers, steroids, diet pills, anti-depressants, yada yada. This nation has developed a culture of drug dependence.

Society has become far too accepting of medicating problems. Before you flame me, perhaps due to your drug induced rage, let me continue. If I were to have been born in this decade, with my accute hyperactivity and other mental proclivities, I would have been doped up on Prozac and Ritalin before I hit puberty. You know why I wasn't? Because back in my day, less than three decades in total, children were expected to be wild, troublesome, and loud. They are kids!

Parents piss and moan about their children being out of control. Perhaps that is due to both parents being out of the house most of the time either working or socializing rather than presenting some sort of structured environment for the child. Most children act out because they either want attention or know no other way to deal with their problems. They make emotional problems physical because they don't have the mental tools to deal with such complex issues in their head. And parents, by doping their kids, only help to further this process of making mental as well as other issues physical in origin. Rather than speaking with their children to find the root of their problem or finding a healthy way to burn off that excess energy in a constructive way, whether sports or the arts, parents simply paralyze it. They arrest it. In so doing, the child's growth is stunted.

It is up to the parent to ingrain a set of manners as well as protocol into their offspring; not to find the quickest and easiest solution which is to smother it. Parents simply don't try anymore, but who can blame them. Problems are always someone else's fault. Teachers aren't doing enough to help him/her learn. The police were too rough on him/her. I can't help him/her because I have things to do (such as avoiding my duties because I want a faster car, a bigger house, the newest electronic fad). We are a nation of responsibility avoiders using drugs for quick answers to our problems.

The country is just doping. Depressed? Take an upper. Unable to sleep? Take a downer. Don't even dare think that there may be a root to your somatic problems. Maybe you're depressed because your father molested you. Wouldn't it make more sense to seek out closure rather than to go through life consistently masking and avoiding the issue? Maybe you can't sleep because of the stress of your job. Why not quit? Do you really need the pressure? Is it worth your health? Bah, just take some qualudes to get to sleep or guzzle some bitter orange to get you through the day. In fact, you see that girl over there? Yeah, she's hot. I could try to talk to her. Maybe start a relationship. Respect her before the sex. But I don't know how to talk to her. I'm not comfortable sharing my thoughts with other people. But shouldn't I try? Nah, rather than sleep I'll dump my qualudes in her cup and then take her limp form home. Why work towards the nookie when I can simply take it?

I know there are certain cases where drugs are the answer. Those are medical cases where the solution cannot be attained otherwise. In cases of schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and other mental illnesses as well as hormonal imbalances, drugs are the only solution that prevents a negative outcome for the individual (violence towards others or themselves). But doping kids? And worse, using meds for everything from exercise to alertness.

It is the continuation of a society that simply doesn't want to take responsibility; doesn't even remember how to take charge. We have made our problems physical rather than mental. Hell, stress, a psychological strain, can show itself in somatic (physical) ways. It will do so especially if the individual does not deal with it on a conscious level. By avoiding proper child rearing, by smothering problems beneath a medicated haze, these kids are turning into drug dependent adults to cope with their problems. They're not learning how to properly cope nor how to grow. It also spills over into other arenas.

Why work hard? I could eat the right diet and exercise right, but I would never achieve the body I wanted without extreme effort. All that time needed. All that discipline. Why not simply shoot up with some steroids or HGH? The muscles will grow faster, the exercise won't be as hard. Why put in any effort?

Ugh, these pounds won't come off. Sure, I could cut out the junk food, but I love the candy bars. Why not simply sip some ephedra, take some dietary pills. That'll help me burn fat faster. Hell, I can eat more!

I am nervous about public speaking. I get nauseous, am gripped by fear, can't stand those eyes on me. I could practice. I could see a psychiatrist to work through my phobia. Wait, I could take Xanax. Then the fears just melt away.

All these problems. What ever will I do? Eh, why do anything? I'm the way I am and I can't change because it is beyond my capabilities. But wait, I can drug my problem away. I can become faster, stronger, make the ugly world fuzzier and less visible. I can burn off those pounds quicker. I can solve my aches with a pill. I can stay awake longer with a shot. Will, what is that? I shouldn't have to exert myself. Let the meds do all the work.

We are passing the buck as a society. We are losing our discipline, failing in our duties. We are not growing. But hey, maybe you simply don't care. After all, you can't help it.