Be Healthy and Make the World Better

Everyone is entitled to their opinions and I believe we have the fundamental right to express our opinions so long as there is no direct harm put upon another leaving creature. We often dismiss and cast aside people who view the world differently than us and consider them ignorant, uninformed, stupid, and the list goes on. Listen to those who disagree with you as they will often challenge your beliefs, your foundation. Admit it or not, that challenge leaves an uneasy feeling. Isn't is easier to dismiss the uneasiness and associate with like-minded people? There is a reason we have a tendency to segregate ourselves.

Lately, I've been a good little solider and got sucked up into my own daily life that I forgot there is a whole world out there. The mainstream news stresses and depresses me so I tend to avoid watching it on television and listening to it on the radio. In addition, I grow tired of people fighting over one thing or another. Therefore, topics such as health care reform and the like haven't really gotten into my frontal lobes or anywhere between my ears and behind my eyes for that matter.

This morning, while slurping down a few cups of coffee, I stumbled across a fact that grabbed my attention. In a study done by the United Nations Children Fund (www.unicef.org) nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. For those with rusty math skills, one thousand millions make up one billion. That's the number 1 followed by 9 zeros: 1,000,000,000. I read that sentence over and over again until my heart began to ache and the wheels in my head were set in motion.

To truly address the worlds woes, I feel we need to address the poverty issue. The issues on health and human rights overlap each other. Promoting and protecting health and respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights are linked. You cannot separate one from the other. A wide range of factors that are detriments to human health are a direct correlation to humans rights. Some examples of those factors are: safe food, safe drinking water, effective sanitation, adequate nutrition, gender and race equality, and healthy living and working conditions.

When I do catch the news the common themes I hear are crimes such as robbery, murder, drug possession, rape and violence against women and children. The other usual suspects such as education, rights to freedom, war, economy, and climate change are ever present. Then there is the big hot topic that has everyone all whipped up and surly, healthcare reform and universal healthcare.

It was not until today when I read the fact that nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names did the little light in my brain click on. If we as a people can address healthcare issues then we will directly address the human rights issues and potentially address the evils that are so ever present. Desperate people take desperate measures to survive. It's all intertwined and we must accept the social stratifications. Poverty is the root.

Healthy people make the world a better place. Healthy people who have access to affordable healthcare are able to contribute to society and the economy. Those who are able contribute to society have the potential to nudge the world a little towards improving.

Sure, there will be those who will and do abuse welfare systems, but what about those who don't abuse them and use them to transition into a better state. Sure, it's expensive to spend money on welfare but what about the costs associated to fighting crime and going to war?

Whatever the 'solution' is to healthcare reform we need to at least try to be open to the evolution to the revolution. For if we fail I worry we will continue on a path that will lead us to our demise. But if we succeed then we will truly move mankind to the next level.

I begun this post by stating that we all different and we all have different opinions and experiences that support those stances. We look different. We love differently. We hate differently. We are just as unique as the guy sitting next to you in the coffee shop. We are all individuals and that is what makes this such a beautiful place. All the freaky people really do make the beauty of the world. Today, I encourage you to genuinely listen when someone shakes your foundation and that uneasy feeling surfaces. Be respectful and introspective as it's through adversity in which we grow.

Overheard at the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival

The 10,000 Lakes Music Festival was on the beam this year with a ton of excellent music and all around good times. My energy was restored from being submerged in a kind and non-censorious environment for 4 days. Old friends from long ago unexpectedly stood beside me and provided giant hugs and warm embrace. Camp neighbors quickly became new friends with the foundation of peace, love, and Panic (www.widespreadpanic.com). It's been years since I felt so content. I was home for a few days and forgot about all the responsibilities and hustle of life. My soul is still shining.

Every hour of every day was filled with laughter. The things I overheard walking around were jotted down in my trusty pocket notebook. Here are some of my favorites:

"Yeah, I've got a TON of glow-sticks. Oh my god, and I have tequila, too!"

"Hey guitar guy!"

Girl: "Dude, what did you just say?"
Guy: "Ah, I said...uh...I said...um...uuuuuuuuh"

Early morning shout from a tent: "Arrrrrgh, go-go gadget arms!"

"Hey banana guy!"

"So then I told him, you are just too f*&%ing angry to be a hippie!"

"They're the red coats, dude. You gotta watch out for them, they're British."

"Wow, your name is Leah? That was the name of my first best friend! Well, my first best friend after Janelle, she was my first best friend."

Dude: "How about lube?"
Chick: "Oh! I brought lube, do you need some? I have plenty"

"Well then, Fine! Ok, how about a best friend IOU?"

"Dude this recession is bad. People can't even afford campfires anymore."

"That was your tent I crawled in? Oh, sorry."

From a kid in a banana suit: "I am an orange trapped in a banana's body. Would you like a Starburst candy?"

"Yes, well, sorry about the noise. But you need to realize we are 21 years old, and this is what we do. You should expect more of the same. It's just what we need to do."

From another person in a banana suit: "Do you find me appealing?"

"Do you think someone would buy this thing I found on the ground for a $100?"







Thanks for the good times. I'll see you next year.

Thoughts on the Beat

"So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? The evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty." Excerpt from Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"

Since I was seventeen years old, Jack Kerouac is someone I try to read little taste of every year. First discovering William S. Burroughs, I dug deeper into what's coined as the "Beat Generation" and found the 1950's intersection of jazz and literature. This movement of a postwar subculture is the ember glow of coals which were later stoked by the Vietnam war and the mournful, yet fortunate, backlash of the baby boomer generation.

America's history is what you chose to acknowledge and which glasses you want to place in front of your eyes. Hindsight truly is 20-20. Connections and interrelations of interceptions prove to be obvious when you get about 50 to 60 years away. The depression of the 1930's was abruptly diverted when in 1941 America picked up her gun and responded to the provocation by Japan. War has a way of escalating. In 1945 the war escalated to a point that left the delivery men wrapped with an undercurrent of guilt. Happy no longer a nation at war, we eventually come to terms in our own way with the violence both demonstrated and observed during the first half of the 1940's.

The 1950's couldn't have been more perfect and squeaky clean for the boomers whose parents wanted nothing but to wash out the sins of the world. On the surface, this was the best time for a child to grow up. Certain surfaces have a way of wearing out if you constantly polish with an abrasive agent. Children tend to notice and acknowledge things adults often want to ignore.

The 1950's brought us the start of the pharmacology revolution, enabling us to live better through chemistry. The 1950's brought us pills that delivered us from anxiety and depression. All across America, from Vermont to Iowa to Oregon, mother's little helper was stashed away in medicine cabinets. The need for a pill to take it away was just what the doctor ordered. We so badly needed that white picket fence and love of the American Dream.

Jack Kerouac took a poetic stab at it. All the people tucked in and dreaming under the evening star. His line, "don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear?" resonates to a deeper statement hinting towards our need for something bigger than ourselves to keep us comfortable and content. Everything is going to be alright and we will have a place in eternity. There is an eternity, right? Boy, we sure hope so. Be carefree and joyous while we play and overindulge from the honey pot. Don't worry because America will prevail and be prosperous. After all, even if it's Pooh Bear, "In God We Trust" is our official motto.

It's the 58% that matters

June is the month where our schedules are consumed with a vast array of social obligations. We run from graduation party to graduation party. We eat wedding cake. We grill hot dogs with friends and family. We complain about how busy we are, yet revel in the fact that we are loved enough to be overbooked and overextended.

Last night, the realization of 2009 being halfway through sunk in. This, my thirtieth year on this planet, is already fifty percent complete. This morning I sat down with a cup of coffee in hand to take inventory of my accomplishments over the past six months only to reach the conclusion that I work too much. Too much of my precious 24 hours is spent either working, thinking about work, or talking about work.

Today, this fourteenth of June, I will take a mid years resolution and make the commitment to pick up the mindset of where I left off some years ago before all the duties and habits of hard work consumed me. While I do love my job and take a personal responsibility to better the lives of people who work with me, I need to draw a line in the sand and prioritize. Work should not follow me home at night and whisper concerns into my ears.

Each day has 24 hours. Each week has 168 hours. A year has roughly 8,760 hours. Annually, I should spend 2,080+ hours working. That's it, just 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. In statistical speak, 24% of my life should be allocated to my career, 34% allocated to sleeping, and the remaining 58% for me to do with as I feel obligated to. It's the 58% that matters and I am looking forward to seizing it.

Me and Rocky

The other afternoon, while I was out watering flowers, I heard this scared critter crying. It turns out he/she was trapped in between the the platform of my neighbor's shed and my fence, and could not get back under the shed to mom. I ran over to the little critter and gave him a little pet, he immediately began to make the cutest cooing sound. The siblings were under the shed nursing from mom when I picked up the guy so he could safely get back to mom. Yes, I know raccoons are nasty disease carrying critters with opposable thumbs who want nothing more than to break into your garbage. But nature has this way of making babies adorable so you don't have the heart to hurt them.