Thin Mints Do Not Need to Help Me be Thin

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet." --Fran Lebowitz

So I wait months for the Girl Scout cookies to arrive. Purchased from my niece, the last Girl Scout presently in the family. I forgo the Girl Scout stands that have been popping up all over town for the past month with those little sashed hucksters trying their best to unload the surplus stock that their troops get stuck with every year. Those remaining boxes that didn't get sold. The broken carton stock. Using my willpower to patiently get the order that I placed with little Girl Scout Alex. Gotta support those troops.

We finally have the cookie drop arranged and the exchange of money and cookies takes place in the parking lot after a family get together. We even helped out by purchasing some of the surplus cookies on top of our already large caloric order. All the more cookies to enjoy and share with those less fortunate or less susceptible to 10-year-old extortionists/salesgirls/fundraisers and their leaders.

Now I need to say right away that anyone that knows much about me can attest to my love of the Girl Scout cookie known as the Thin Mint. I am the kind of person that orders lots of them. They find their way into the freezer at our house and are enjoyed most of the year. And when they are gone short of the time that they can be re-ordered it is upsetting indeed. The last remaining box is usually rationed out like it was all the food left and I was adrift at sea or stranded in the arctic.

So that night after arriving home, the wife breaks open the Thin Mints and we share a few. She's chewing and I'm chewing and we are in different rooms and we are thinking the same thing. What the Hell have they done to the cookies? They have lost all recognition to the lovely, joyful and gratifying taste sensation that they used to be. They are like badly chocolate-mint flavored cardboard with a sidewalk chalk aftertaste. And I am not exaggerating. They have went the same way as Oreo's and Chips Ahoy cookies.

The food manufactures are seriously ruining the taste of life for me. A Thin Mint does not need to be healthy it needs to taste good. That's why I buy them. I don't buy Girl Scout broccoli and spinach cookies. I not only like food but at times (most) I want it to taste good. I don't need to eat a whole sleeve of Thin Mints but too bad if I do. I am the one that lives with the stomach ache and the tight waistband.

So this is my plea...Give me back the great cookies that were. Scout's honor, I will buy an extra box or two for your troop.

And don't let me get started about what the Boy Scouts have done to their popcorn.

Wellness By My Definition

"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon." -- Doug Larson

In our pursuit of wellness, what is the defining goal that we are seeking?  When I look back at the interesting and varied blog entries that my wife Karen has provided on her blog, The Wellness Writer, I can't help but suspect that the answer would be...many goals for many different people! 

Wellness to some of us may be beauty and spirituality that comes with meditation, yoga and communing with nature.  That feeling of achieved mindfulness that delivers calming waves to spirit and soul.  Opening our eyes by creating that stillness in our former busy brain.

It may be finally understanding how to cope with a particular dilemma in our diet, or how to feel good about the food we eat and truly need to live with energy, vibrancy and long-term health.  Karen great advice and references help navigate us through the storm of information and misinformation that is in the news, on the internet or sold to us as truths by the people that we encounter.

You may find your definition of wellness in the way you feel mornings when you wake, after a walk, having coffee with friends or when you leave church after a satisfying Sunday service.  It may be losing a bit of weight unexpectedly or without any real dieting decision and noticing that your clothes fit a little looser (better!).  Climbing those same stairs and not feeling so winded when you reach the top.

Feelings of wellness may also sneak up on us expectantly.  Look around at the everyday things you do and the places that you do them.  I personally believe that we often undervalue the simple pleasures that are just “there”.  We expect a struggle, sacrifice or loss to achieve wellness goals.  Couldn't wellness be how you feel having the quiet corner office at work?  The quiet empty house all to yourself?  Listening in the car to the music it seems only you can stand?  

Wellness can be long term achievements...but it may also come in hundreds of  brief moments.  Don't fail to realize those instances and enjoy them

Mitch's Surefire Wellness Ingredients  

This recipe should be adjusted for personal tastes and fun.

Coffee every morning (sometimes into the afternoon)

Fishing

Running for exercise (with Karen, who keeps me motivated, but she says I keep her moving)

Officiating football

Reading books to expand and contract the mind

Music (from Johnny Cash to Phillip Glass)

My aquarium continues to astonish me

Hugs with the ones I love

Drawing (or doodling during work meetings)

My 1962 Nova restoration project

Asking questions of everyone (even strangers) for I am naturally curious

Having the best Registered Dietitian for a wife (all foods fit)

I Like Erasmus

Principles. Not the principals that govern our schools. Principles that we guide our lives by. How do we write them and how do we live by them? I don't always know. I sometimes do things and I realize later that those actions were guided by an underlying principle. Maybe given to me by parents, teachers or just life's lessons. I think I will attempt to capture them in words like Erasmus did someday. He was oft accused of taking the middle road in his lifetime, and I would share that habit.

But then the middle road is another route to the destination and at times it is the way to proceed in my humble opinion. But when you are faced with the long, curvy, steep paths that we force ourselves down and through, it will be our principles that deliver us safely like Job and the whale. And like Job, spit out on a beach somewhere where we didn't really hope to find ourselves, but that is our destination. Our purpose. Our glory.

Wipe off the whale spit and keep moving with integrity.

Below is the entire twenty-two principals of Erasmus. Agree and disagree with him and perhaps write your own down.

ERASMUS' TWENTY-TWO PRINCIPALS ON HOW TO BE STRONG WHILE REMAINING VIRTUOUS IN A DANGEROUS WORLD

First Rule
INCREASE YOUR FAITH.
Even if the entire world appears mad.

Second Rule
ACT UPON YOUR FAITH.
Even if you must undergo the loss of everything.

Third Rule
ANALYZE YOUR FEARS.
You will find that things are not as bad as they appear.

Fourth Rule
MAKE VIRTUE THE ONLY GOAL OF YOUR LIFE.
Dedicate all of your enthusiasm, all your effort, your leisure as well as your business.

Fifth Rule
TURN AWAY FROM MATERIAL THINGS.
If you are greatly concerned with money you will be weak of spirit.

Sixth Rule
TRAIN YOUR MIND TO DISTINGUISH GOOD AND EVIL.
Let your rule of government be determined by the common good.

Seventh Rule
NEVER LET ANY SETBACK STOP YOU IN YOUR QUEST.
We are not perfect – This only means we should try harder.

Eighth Rule
IF YOU HAVE FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS, DO NOT WORRY.
Begin to worry when you do not have temptation, because that is a sure sign that you cannot distinguish good from evil.

Ninth Rule
ALWAYS BE PREPARED FOR AN ATTACK.
Careful generals set guards even in times of peace.

Tenth Rule
SPIT, AS IT WERE, IN THE FACE OF DANGER.
Keep a stirring quotation with you for encouragement.

Twelfth Rule
TURN YOUR WEAKNESS INTO VIRTUE.
If you are inclined to be selfish, make a deliberate effort to be giving.

Thirteenth Rule
TREAT EACH BATTLE AS THOUGH IT WERE YOUR LAST.
And you will finish, in the end, victorious!

Fourteenth Rule
DON’T ASSUME THAT DOING GOOD ALLOWS YOU TO KEEP A FEW VICES.
The enemy you ignore the most is the one who conquers you.

Fifteenth Rule
WEIGH YOUR ALTERNATIVES CAREFULLY.
The wrong way will often seem easier than the right way.

Sixteenth Rule
NEVER ADMIT DEFEAT EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN WOUNDED.
The good soldier’s painful wounds spur him to gather his strength.

Seventeenth Rule
ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN OF ACTION.
So when the time comes for battle, you will know what to do.

Eighteenth Rule
CALM YOUR PASSIONS BY SEEING HOW LITTLE THERE IS TO GAIN.
We often worry and scheme about trifling matters of no importance.

Nineteenth Rule
SPEAK WITH YOURSELF THIS WAY:
If I do what I am considering, would I want my family to know about it?

Twentieth Rule
VIRTUE HAS ITS OWN REWARD.
Once a person has it, they would not exchange it for anything.

Twenty-first Rule
LIFE CAN BE SAD, DIFFICULT AND QUICK: MAKE IT COUNT FOR SOMETHING!
Since we do not know when death will come, act honorably every day.

Twenty-second Rule
REPENT YOUR WRONGS.
Those who do not admit their faults have the most to fear.

So Little Time to Sort Through So Much Crap

“The saddest aspect of Society right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” –Isaac Asimov

Once you are done with formal schooling—high school or college or graduate school—scholarly exploration becomes an independent quest to most that are doing jobs outside of our passions. And what is considered scholarly is varied from person to person. Interests range from gardening to the physics of string theory to combat pistol training to needlepoint.  Try to wrap your mind around all the possible interests you could or have explored. I would bet it was a wide and varied lot if you have any years on your skeleton.

Now throw the internet into the mix. With this resource at your disposal, knowledge is literally thrown by the bucketfuls in dizzying volumes, with a troubling mixture of truth’s and falsehoods mixed up like we would make soup.

When I was younger, and I needed to find the facts about a subject, I would simply look it up in an encyclopedia or dictionary or library reference books. From there if I wanted more you would have to seek out experts on the phone or museum or zoo depending on the subject. These books and people tended to carry the weight of truth in them, after all, I felt that the books were at the very least reviewed by peers before they would be published as a non-fiction work as printed on their book jacket. And the people must have been right more than they were wrong to hold their jobs and positions.

Teachers, clergy, books—I never thought to question them—and grew my knowledge based on trust, based on respected forms of authority.

But as of late, so much of society seems to not question what they read on the internet the way I never questioned what the Encyclopedia Britannica printed. Perhaps it is human nature to look very narrowly for answers—often looking for where we will find the answers to our questions that fit our suspicions or beliefs—like the little boy in the old Tootsie Roll Pop commercial seeking the answer to how many licks it takes to get to the center of the sucker.

Interestingly enough in the commercial, the boy ends up getting the answer to his question from the owl. But was it the truth. It was in a sense and it wasn’t in another sense. Also, why would we trust an owl? Interestingly enough, the owl was often depicted perched atop the helmet of the ancient Greek Goddess Athena. She was the goddess of wisdom, divine intelligence, architecture, crafts and warfare. How a goddess could hold both divine intelligence and warfare under a single shield does trouble me a bit.

And when I am troubled by something I question and seek. Someday I will find the wisdom that I seek and may be when I close my eyes for the last time and life's light is extinguished.

The Word is Out--It's Healthy to be Good

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." -- William James

While running the trails of Burchfield Park in Holt with my wife one weekend, we noticed a bustling group of people with shovels and other hand implements of labor interspersed throughout the extensive trail system. When we had completed our run circuit and were exiting the trails for the parking lot, I noticed a hand-lettered sign indicating that it was a designated "volunteer" work day for the Michigan Mountain Biking Association (MMBA), to maintain and improve the existing mountain biking trails that meander throughout Burchfield Park.

It made me think about the various organizations that I belong to and the different volunteer efforts I participate in. River clean-up efforts to make rivers navigatible by all. Working on organized kayak floats to insure safe passage by all regardless of their skill levels. Coaching youth sports. I know why I do it but watching those volunteers made me start to think about what benefit volunteering offers besides the obvious enjoyment of doing good for selfish reasons, like enjoying spending the time improving the hobbies and recreation you participate in.

So, I set out to do a bit of research and came across a recent fascinating study by the Corporation for National and Community Service. This study called "The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research, shows a strong connection between volunteering and significant health benefits. It summarized that people can achieve happier and healthy lives by putting in 100 hours of service a year as a volunteer.

"Volunteering makes the heart grow stronger," said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation. "More than 61 million Americans volunteer to improve conditions for people in need and to unselfishly give of themselves. While the motivation is altruistic, it is gratifying to learn that their efforts are returning considerable health benefits."

These healthy benefits from volunteering may include:

• increased sense of accomplishment an purpose
• lower mortality rates
• reduced risk of suffering depression
• greater physical functionality later in life
• less incidence of heart disease

A fact sheet put out by UnitedHealthcare titled, Volunteering And Your Health: How Giving Back Benefits Everyone, further identified some key elements to health benefits for those who choose to volunteer their time:

• Volunteers agree that volunteering helps them lead healthier lives. They agree that volunteering helps them feel physically better, have an improved sense of well-being and feel that it lowers their stress level. In addition, a lower proportion of volunteers (31%) were identified as obese when compared to non-volunteers (36%).
• Volunteering seems to correspond with higher levels of life satisfaction, including a greater sense of meaning and purpose and higher levels of optimism.
• Volunteering also has significant meaning when coupled with the relationship to work. More people would volunteer if employers encouraged or had in place volunteer activities. Most people also agree that they feel better about their employer do to their involvement in volunteer activities.

A lot of this made sense to me, after all how can you not be healthier and happier when you are participating in something that helps people and the communities we are constantly trying to build and improve. Everything that I have read has indicated that a positive attitude will trigger changes within the body that promote health and healing. Feeling positive about the volunteer work you participate in is a terrific way to support what Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous medical missionary commented about altruistic service as "the essential element of becoming truly healthy."

Thomas H. Sander, executive director of the Saguaro Seminar at Harvard University, commenting on social capital research said, "Civic engagement and volunteering is the new hybrid health club for the 21st century that's free to join. This research shows it miraculously improves both your health AND the community's through the work performed and the social ties built." 

So next time you are looking for an alternate way to improve your health without a specific diet element or clever new exercise routine, try seeking out a volunteer position. The intangible benefits alone such as pride, satisfaction and accomplishment may be an important building block to creating a healthier and happier you.

Tecumseh's Wisdom

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.

Trouble no one about his religion.

Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.

Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength.

Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.

If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home. -- The Teaching of Tecumseh

This is verse which I feel is wisdom embodied. I believe that much of what is wrong with the world could be remedied with a bit of review when we turn the mirror toward ourselves and look deeply at what we see. Look deeply at how we act. How we live.

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.

The fear of death is universal. But you can face this inevitable conclusion of our body’s earthly existence fearlessly by pushing it from your heart. If the heart is filled with hopes, there is no room for fears.

Trouble no one about his religion.

This is one of the most difficult concepts for me to grasp. There is rarely a belief system out there that is totally inclusive of others. We tend to be so often the sheep depicted in the Christian Bible that endlessly wander without guiding principles and leaders. But look closely at those principles and leaders and dissect them to find if the core of the essence is one of inclusivity or exclusivity. The golden rule of “Do unto others…”, apply it to your life! 

Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.

I have always thought everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Differing viewpoints cannot be viewed as negative viewpoints. Learn from differing and opposing opinions. Do not judge that I think you are wrong because I don’t agree. And I will not think you wrong to bring your own opinions to the table. I will not assume anything.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

Your life doesn’t have to be perfect but it is the only one that we get to do anything with. Make those anything’s everything and make sure that there is a shine to them.

Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.

Who needs you more than others? The family, friends and strangers in need all benefit when you are able to open your life to them. I often hear that the ones with the most at the end win. But what will the ones left behind remember you for. Your sacrifice, your devotion to others, your money?

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Let your death song be your life. Let others remember the composition of your existence.

Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.

I joke with a friend that when we fall on bad times, we both know that at least one of us will always wave as we go by the other pushing a shopping cart down by the riverfront. But I know it is more than that. It is the universal recognition of humanity and our ultimate connection to it that gives us Mother Teresa’s, Martin Luther King and the scarred and wounded soldiers that served their country. Remember that we know not what form that our God may walk in.

Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.

We all deserve our dignity and should strive to build a place where all can find a safe haven to discover theirs. 

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength.

Be glad you woke up on the right side of the sod each day. The obituaries are filled with those that crossed over from living to death.

Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.

This is an under-appreciated joy in America. We have such a plentiful food supply and the riches to obtain it that we end up taking it for granted. My own wife still has to remind me often to slow down and be mindful of my eating. To taste the food that goes in my mouth, and will energize my body.

If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

Think about what you were last grateful about. Now think about the last time you thought about what you were grateful about. It has been a while I would bet. And don’t think that there are only big things to be grateful for. How about the fact that you are loved by someone for no other reason thab you are you?

Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

Alcohol is not firewater. Firewater is a fuel that destroys and is more a misuse of a substance than being a specific substance. Firewater can be alcohol, but it could be violent video games, drugs or physical violence. Are we doing things that rob our spirit of joy?

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

Look back without regrets. Seek out what fascinated your life and tie a flag to it so when times get tough and you feel lost, you may draw strength from seeing it blown about by the wind of your life force. Let those you will be leaving do the weeping for it is their place to mourn. The day you die should be truly “A good day to die.”

Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

Your death song could be your life. Write that song now.

Mistakes Will Be Made.

"Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life." ~Sophia Loren

I leaned over the side of the boat to wash the fish slime off my hands only to be greeted with “Kerplunk!” My Ray Bans slipped from their perch on the brim of my hat and traveled directly to the bottom of South Manistee Lake. Ohw! That hurt, on so many levels. That undersize largemouth bass I had released moments before was the last thing on my mind.

I felt sick even though I was trying to tell myself that they were just a dumb pair of sunglasses. But my relentlessly unforgiving brain kept up taunting me. “Yeah, just sunglasses. $300 sunglasses. Prescription sunglasses. Only 6 months old. How dumb can you be to place them on top of the brim of your hat to be able to get the hook out of the fish? See, you do so need the bifocals the eye doctor was pushing you to consider. And why no safety strap?”

No, that last thought was a gently echoing message that my wife and fishing partner had moments before delivered to me to consider. In fact it was her bass I had just released that got my hands slimy.

“Why didn’t you have a strap on them like mine have?” she said, “You put this one on my sunglasses for me.”

She was of course right about that. I had spent time rigging a strap for her sunglasses so that just this sort of thing would not happen to her while she was fishing or kayaking. Did I somehow think I was immune to this happening to me?

My point of all this came to me later. After the mosquito repellant dissolving part of my kayak seat later, which after seeing what OFF does to plastic I am having a troubling time thinking about ever spraying it on my skin again. That point is that I am always going to be a victim to doing dumb things. It seems to be a profound part of my nature. Thus far they have not been overly damaging but have been nonetheless annoyingly frequent. Not happening more frequently but kind of consistently constant. Something I am going to have to budget for. Part of the household budget. Mitch’s stupid blunders line item.