Change...Or Be Scratched

Spring really has a tendency to send me a wake-up call. “What have you been doing all winter,’’ it yells as the temperature rises and the light in the sky seems so different. Brighter than even those snow-covered landscapes of just a few weeks ago.

It reminds me of how difficult it is to change from the recent past to my present existence, to transition from winter to spring. Adjusting the way I live and the types of activities that I enjoy is bothered by the change from fall to winter, but getting back into the swing of things is also hard when you say bye to winter. There are few constants that are able to be maintained in the different seasons. Work still is there. They continue to shovel the walks and drives of my office where I work and the roads to get there continue to be plowed. Sigh! I can still get in my runs with my wife but the places we run are just not as enjoyable. And they are slippery. And I even fall. But I’ve fallen even in nice weather.

The real problem for me is that I realize that it is the difficulty that change brings to life that is the true obstacle. Dean Ornish said, “People don’t resist change, they resist being changed.” So, I resist the fact that Mother Nature tries to change me. She makes me wear layers of clothes when shorts and a t-shirt are my style. She makes me give up wooded trails and warm streams because the frosty wench throws cold and snow and ice everywhere in Michigan. She makes me mope and read too much in the winter. It makes me ponder on little things and great mysteries. Food starts to be too much of a friend…Ahh, a best friend during dark winter days. Yes, dark are the days of winter.

And the tasks that have carried over from the fall, I had almost forgotten until I start looking around now that there is light after dinner outside. Weeds, tree branches, burlap on shrubs, tarps on things, lawn furniture in rafters, leaves against fences. I swear that this is a truthful list of the tools that I used this weekend alone: sledgehammer, shovel, rake, floor jack, screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets, wire cutters, leaf blower, wheel barrel, etc., etc., etc. I was just flat out lazy in the winter. It was like I was under the influence of a depressent drug prescribed by cold temperatures.

So I have thought up a mission statement for dealing with change. Here it is: “Life can change on a dime so I will always try to carry some spare coins in my pockets.” Those coins are going to be lots of things. They will include new ideas, old ideas that were good but not used, smiles and hugs, kind words, being a friend and better listener, and sunscreen to name a few. These attitudes will help me deal better with change so I don’t go through life learning my lessons like Mark Twain said: “The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no other way.”

I’m tired of life’s scratches.

The Demise of Cookie Monster As We Knew Him

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." -- Mark Twain

I am now going to write about what I have no official training to speak of. But that may be the point.

A health topic. Specifically, “The Childhood Obesity Epidemic.”

Mis-information seems to abound these days. My incredibly knowledgeable wife Karen, a Registered Dietitian with a Masters Degree in Human Nutrition from Case Western University, as well as writer of the blog “The Wellness Writer”, where all nutrition truth in my life flows from, is getting pretty irritated these days. For her to experience this emotion—or reaction—is somewhat entertaining to me and provides countless issues to talk about. Firstly, because I and my habits aren’t responsible, and secondly, she rarely lets actions and opinions of others bother her. She has a profound understanding of the proper approaches to child nutrition and though patient with most people, is beginning to let the “idiots” (my word for the people who are questionably proposing solutions for problems that perhaps are not problems until they have created them as so) get under her lovely and patient skin.

Here is my example of the seriousness of the situation. The producer of Sesame Street, Carol-Lynn Parente is quoted as saying, “Childhood obesity is at an epidemic. We feel we have a responsibility to do what we can to address it.”

So the character of Cookie Monster has a newfound nutritional awareness and is expressing it with a new anthem, “Cookie is a Sometime Food.” No longer will Cookie Monster suffer his single-handed obsession over cookies.

I guess Ms. Parente feels that they need to use Cookie Monster, a stuffed animal puppet character, the essence of childhood entertainment, as a role model. So Sesame Street is shifting Cookie Monster to a healthier lifestyle, by including and enjoying more fruits and vegetables in his diet.

Maybe a better approach would be for Cookie Monster to tell the kids watching his show to shut the TV off and go outside and play.

Now we got Senators like Sen. Tom Harkin stating the line that “The incidence of childhood obesity is now at epidemic levels.” Jumping on the obesity bandwagon are movie stars, professional athletes, writers, medical professionals and even First Lady Michelle Obama, telling us that our kids are fat and need to be put on diets.

So Karen wrote a letter to First Lady Obama. I warned her that she would now be on “The List” right next to my name. After all, I own guns and voted Republican.

Then I had my own flashback. I remember my Middle School wrestling coach telling my parents at an end of season banquet that if I could just drop a few pounds that I would be more competitive at a lower weight class. Now I had a little extra weight on me, but I was active and liked to eat. Cookies that my mom made were part of the diet, but so were the family meals that we shared every night and the Cap’n Crunch cereal that was my breakfast. So I just ignored the weight loss advice and continued to lose wrestling matches to starving, leaner and very angry young athletes. I did not drop from the 95 pound weight class to the 90, or even 85 pound weight class. When I look at that now, it seems absurd that it was even suggested to me.

I recently came across a quote from James Baldwin where he stated “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” It doesn’t mention childhood obesity at all but sums up what may be the true underlining problem our children are facing.

And that is their parents.

Have some fun with this…Join the Facebook page “Back in my day, the cookie monster actually ate cookies, not vegetables.” At last look it had over 108,500 fans.