Seeing the Obvious

The most difficult thing, is to see what is everywhere around us, because like the air and water, we don't think to even "see" them -- not because they don't exist, but because everything in life would be impossible without them.  And so they are the "givens" -- that we never question, or think there is anything we can do about -- when precisely, that is what we can do most about -- in modifying our health and condition.

That is quite shocking, for those who have convinced themselves, that first they have to make a million dollars, before they can bother to improve their personal condition and health -- rather than that it is by first improving their health and condition, by which making a million dollars becomes possible -- even if it is just being around long enough to receive/win it.

For a person who is very observant, the bad condition many people are in should be obvious -- that despite all that they do, they fail to do that which they must do -- and not that they are doing nothing.  What they are doing -- is putting them into the condition they are in, and not that it has come about because life is unfair, and they were dealt the bottom cards -- rather than all the winners they were "entitled" to.

All along the way, they frittered away all the opportunities they were afforded -- and not surprisingly, wasting the present moment to change all that -- in an instant.  That is the difference between getting better -- or worse.  Merely doing something different.  But most, have been conditioned (educated) to do the same thing -- even if it doesn't work, and that is their problem -- and not that they can simply eliminate the problem and move on to what else life has to offer.  They are stuck, and limited to solving the same problem as they always have -- thinking that is all quite normal, and the way their life has to be -- until it eventually and inevitably kills them.

That is obviously the case with alcohol and other drug addictions, but less so and more acceptable with other diseases and injuries people often inflict on themselves -- including every single athlete who has had to retire because of injuries.  They simply cannot do that anymore.  But that is very different from not being able to do anything anymore.  One simply has to go on and discover the many things they can do -- that they haven't done before -- including making all the right and healthful movements, instead of continuing to do the ones that predispose them to danger, disease and injury.

People often condition themselves by using danger, injury and even death, as a motivator -- that if they don't execute the 500 lb. bench press, their chest or head will be smashed.  Or if they don't dodge the blow the other is trying to inflict on them, the consequences could be lethal.  But it might be less obvious to advise a frail and obviously helpless 90 year old that they should take up walking or running among heavy traffic and hazardous conditions -- just to stay healthy, when thoughtfully, it would make much more sense, to realize all the movements they can do -- from the safety of their own chair, or bed even.

In fact, the most effective exercises, are likely to be those that can be done in one's bed, and particularly, lying in one's deathbed -- and recovering their health fully from that very real debilitated condition.  And if one can do that, those exercises would work even better, if one has a better base to begin with -- but if it is simply advising a dying person that they should run a marathon to be healthy again, that is worse than useless -- but not unlike the advice frequently given by those who think they know better.

So the question is, what movements can one do -- lying in their deathbed, that could change their prospects and improve their health?  Obviously, it is those movements at the head, hands and feet that people retain the ability for responsiveness -- long after they have lost the ability to run a marathon and do 50 chinups.  Yet that is often what the physical expert requires to  prove that one is still viable -- rather than the least movement, that they can exercise to regain their mastery of movement and responsiveness -- that others will regard as liveliness.

So it is shocking, when a person doesn't exhibit movements at the head, hands and feet, while exhibiting it only at the shoulders and hips -- as the movement of the core muscles, or the largest, rather than the most muscles indicative of the greatest range of expression and articulations -- instead of just the one, performed unvaryingly and tirelessly, until the joints have to be replaced, or can no longer be replaced.

At that point, they are forced to stop -- and given no viable alternatives -- since they were convinced, there was no other way.  That should be a huge problem for those who think that running on a treadmill for 30 minutes each day, is all that is necessary to retain all the movements the body is capable of.  Why should we expect to lose all those capacities -- because we haven't expressed them as part of the necessary maintenance for retaining and improving the health of those abilities?

Thus a well-designed program for maintaining one's vitality -- should extend way beyond the shoulders and hips -- to where they have to be expressed meaningfully and masterfully, in work, gestures, speech, writing, art and music -- rather than stop at the heart beat, which tells us very little about the vitality of that individual, and their range of expression and articulation.  Those are the meaningful movements to maintain -- and improve, all one's life.

"Successful" Aging

 It's really about successful living -- at every age and stage.

People who solve the challenges of their lives, succeed at every age and difficulty -- while those who only depend on others to solve all their problems for them, are at the mercy of the "health care" system, and other professionals who charge handsomely for their services -- and advice, whether they in fact, help or not.

"Aging" is really all the failed adaptations coming home to haunt them -- the morbid obesity, the improper diet for one's own constitution, addictions and compulsions, attracting toxic people, and of course, the utter dependency on others to do all their thinking (and ultimately their personal hygiene) for them.

Everyone in a failed circumstances, has made some irrevocable decision that dooms them in that way.  The most common, is a person living in a multistory house they have to go up and down every day -- until they fall and break their hip.  They continue to live there because they want to die in the home they grew up in -- rather than move into a modern ADA provisioned studio -- that mollifies those handicaps.

It should be obvious by now that aging is greatly dependent on the individual choices people make -- some more wisely and successfully than others.  The first thing people have to do when they "retire," is to get into the best shape and health they've ever been -- because the rest of their lives (and activities) depend on that, and failing to do that, impacts everything else they do negatively -- until their lives become only worse, and never getting better, which is what defines life and vitality -- and not just dying a little more each day, and dragging as many into the grave with them as possible, because they've never successfully solved the problem of being/standing alone.

The Problems of the "Old"

The older I get, the more convinced I am, that the problems of aging, are simply the problems of living, and the failure to respond effectively to those challenges.  The accumulated failures, as well as successes, is what ages people.  If we really solve the problems of our living, then there is no aging -- but if we fail to solve them, then failure is our result.  That is why most people's exercises are not effective against aging and deterioration; their exercises are not effective -- and not that exercise per se, fails to prevent against that deterioration.  One can discover, or create exercises, that do in fact address those problems of aging -- particularly notable at the extremities/organs of the head, hands and feet.

If those organs don't age, the body doesn't age.  And the way to do that, is to optimize the circulation to the extremities, as the highest priority -- and everything else is incidental and supportive.  A few people notice that difference -- but those are the people that matter.  The rest are the typical "victims" of life -- feeling no control over their own lives.  Nothing ever seems to work out for them.  

They are the problems of one's individual past -- coming home to haunt them.

So that is what one's life is for -- to solve all these problems and challenges -- as they happen in one's life.  But most people never solve these problems but instead deny that there is a problem -- and then eventually, they overwhelm them.  Instead of solving these problems, they ask or demand that other people solve them for them -- and think then, that it is done -- especially the problems of human relationships and communications.

Among the old people, there is a tremendous problem of loneliness that underlie many of their difficulties -- that they do not confront while they are young, and so it becomes an immense problem for them as they age -- which is the maturing of that problem.  They don't know how to make friends -- really, or just be friendly with people.  Instead, they become demanding -- relying on guilt and manipulation (deception) to get their way -- until the only people left, are those who know what they are all about, and have seen their act and so they are powerless against.  Many just shut themselves off from life -- by never venturing out again.  Instead, they live among the things they hoard -- until one day they are buried by it.  These are not the problems of age, as they are of adjustment -- and that is how we live our lives.
 
So it is a problem of self-management, or a lack thereof, that they've failed to develop sometime in their lives -- because they never confronted any of their problems, and what they have to do to make them better.

They think only the government, or somebody else, can make them better -- and not that they can, or should, do these things for themselves -- including their health.  That is the essential great challenge of these times.  Is health what each individual controls, or is that what government does?  How one answers that question, determines the course of the rest of their lives.

Few believe that is possible.  So one doesn't have to make up these problems like whether we should genetically enhance food (life) -- and all these other small causes that miss the big picture, which is life on the individual level of responsibility and how we actually live (manifest) it.  Many of these old folks are suckers for these movements -- thinking that is what will keep them alive -- but those concerns are meaningless unless they actualize the current possibilities -- of already living the fullest and healthiest life already possible.

Otherwise, it is just another meaningless demand for "More," without any idea of what they will do with it -- just as they have always lived their lives.  And that is their problem.

The Key to Life is Being Healthy

Many people confuse young as "healthy," and old as "dying," when that is not necessarily true.  One can be "unhealthy" at any age -- and healthy at any age as well, which doesn't necessarily mean one will live forever.  In fact, the best way to ensure that one will not be exposed to any risks that might jeopardize their life (and health), is to lock them up so that they will never ride in a car, ride a bike, or swim in the ocean -- which is to eliminate the risks of living a life of experiences -- in favor of just being kept safely, so one will live as long as possible -- without any experiences or participation in what most would regard as a meaningful and rich existence.

So when one of the original founders of the American Experience and culture said, "Give me liberty or give me death," he is in effect remarking, that only a life in freedom (to live and experience a full life), is worth living -- and not just living without that enrichment and engagement.  Thus, people frequently remark when one has met a premature death, "that they died doing what they loved doing," implying that they died happily, living the life they wanted to live -- and died that way also.  That is a fact of life, and nothing will guarantee that a specific individual's life will go on forever, no matter what precautions one takes, how much life or medical insurance one has -- because that is the very nature of that which is living -- that it also will die.

Otherwise, there is no "life," to that which can never die.  It always was, and always will be -- unchanging -- neither getting better or worse, but always staying the same no matter what.  Life is not like that -- at least individual lives are not like that -- and those changes individually, cause all of life to change as well, and so it matters if we individually get better or worse.

Getting worse, is actually the process of cutting oneself off from the rest of life -- so one no longer effectively participates, or engages life with any others.  They are isolated in their little shells and cocoons -- in order to remain completely "safe."  Becoming unhealthy and "disabled," also keeps one safe in this way -- of being excused from full participation, so that one "cannot" -- because of some convenient excuse -- that one is not in the condition to...

That doesn't mean that one has to take up skydiving or scuba diving -- to live fully, unless those fascinations particularly appeal to one, and they will not feel fulfilled until they have checked those experiences off their "to do" lists -- before they die.  There are plenty of others to engage in, and if nothing still appeals, there is always the search further, as an activity in itself.  If that quest is fruitful, then it becomes a viable alternative for where the rest of life can also go -- if it indeed makes compelling good sense to do so.  That is the value of individual choice and action -- that it creates a precedence for where the rest of life may go -- which none may have even thought about before.

Of course, one will never do so, if one is dependent on the approval and applause of every one else to guide them on what that might be -- because obviously, if the others knew, or appreciated it, they would be there doing it first.  So those paths, will be well-trodden -- and crowded, but for those who rely on the crowds to lead them where to go -- they will obviously not be the first there -- though they may consume their entire lives thinking to get there.

If one is not sure where one is heading, the best they can do, is to be as healthy and fit for whatever comes along -- so they are prepared to go where they have to, and not so their condition excuses them -- from everr having to rise to any challenges ever again.  That would be dying to living, and all the disastrous consequences that follow.  Rather than our fates being inevitable, for most, it is the choices and actions we take, that make our lives the way it is.

One has to choose health at the very beginning, and not at the end, when it is already too late to make any difference.  That is the most important lesson one should teach the young -- as well as the old, and not that the old should just give up already and die -- because that dying, may consume entire lives lived that way.  But the person who is healthy, makes all the right choices -- because they can, and that's what they have to do -- to manifest that health.  The sick person will not choose health, but will choose their sickness -- and that is what makes them sick.

A Crisis of Confidence

A decision like this, anywhere else in the world, would be a slam-dunk.

The fact that it is just the beginning for more contentious and costly discussions/litigation, is testament to the total failure of self-government in Hawaii -- where nothing can ever make common sense anymore.

There is nothing inherently natural about the Natatorium that would require an "environmental impact study," to restore it to its natural condition as a beach.  Nature has already put in her vote in tearing it down piece by piece, bit by bit -- and would be the same if restored, just as that $10 M a decade ago to restore just the facade, was money flushed into the ocean.

It's four times the cost -- without considering future maintenance costs, which it undoubtedly will require -- and then all the Friends of the Natatorium will have passed on by then, leaving the children of Hawaii to pay for a legacy of just preserving the status quo and the past out of habit and conditioning (their indoctrination).

Surely there must be other good uses for the money -- maybe even building a permanent homeless shelter -- so that any memorial is a living testament to those who sacrificed their lives to build a better society -- and not just crumbling shells of buildings to remind them of the futility of all efforts.

Choosing Change

Contrary to what the mass media would have us believe, the outcome and quality of our lives has less to do with what we all must do and think, than it does the individual choices every person makes for themselves alone.  So we don't have to convince everybody else of the rightness of any action, before we ourselves choose to follow that path -- and accept those consequences, good or bad.  Life really is that simple -- if we allow it for ourselves.  Imposing that choice on everybody else, is unnecessary -- even if it were possible.

A healthy person would assume that it is the impulse and motivation of every individual to become better, healthier and happier -- but if one looks around at the problems many create for themselves, those are not the choices they make for themselves -- even thinking that the objective in life and society, is to make things worse, unhealthier, more miserable for everybody else -- in learning the wrong things -- and then determining, never to change again.

That is always the fatal mistake from which there is no reversal and recovery, because one has decided that instead of adapting and changing to the world, the world henceforth, must now adapt and change to them -- and in this way, many people get cut off from the flow of life, choosing as they have, to become isolated pools of their own existence, living in their own worlds of their memories, thoughts and fantasies of how things must be -- forevermore.

But life is not like that.  Life is change, people come and go, ideas rise and fall -- and if one can move with it, it is quite a ride, until choosing not to change anymore -- so then, all of life, passes one by.  That is the choice, and not that one has to choose to change.

That is the difference between thought and awareness -- the latter which is reading life directly, as it is happening, while the former is only an idea of what was happening at a particular time, which is obviously, not the present time or situation.  It may not even be a comparable situation -- but an entirely different matter altogether.  Thus, one declares that all apples and oranges are cherries, and devotes the rest of their lives to convincing everybody else of that fact -- and wondering why their efforts are not appreciated correctly.

That causes a lot of people to spend the rest of their days in bitterness and resentment -- never being properly appreciated, and rewarded -- and thus they feel owed, and entitled to whatever they can get.  That becomes their whole world of justice.  Nothing will rectify the feeling that everybody else lives their lives only for their own exclusive benefit -- so they should not have to do anything for themselves anymore, ever again -- including what is necessary to keep themselves healthy, happy and improving.

For such people, life seems hopeless -- and only getting worse.  Their own lives, and the mass media, tells them that is so.  "The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer," and not that individuals make better choices that make their lives better -- and that continues as long as they do.

"Regular" Exercise Won't Do It

Everyone who's ever been involved in athletics or exercise, recognizes that there comes a time when what "used to" work, no longer does, and they have to modify or cut back drastically on what they had been doing -- just to not risk or aggravate further injury.  That's usually what causes even the most successful people in such activities to stop -- because they can obviously not go on in that way.

Pain and injury is not the objective, or the desire of any activity -- but rather the cessation and freedom from such agony -- that is the improvement in the quality of that life.  Like all living entities, the basic thrust of life is to do that which improves that quality of existence (experience), which is the underlying health of that individual, and to do everything possible to avoid that which makes that life a misery -- including and especially ill health that prevents the enjoyment of much that is possible in any life, at any level of it.

One doesn't have to be the "world champion" or 'supreme being" in any activity, to maximize their enjoyment in finding out what it is they best enjoy and thus are good at.  That's what every individual does in experimenting with the myriad of activities and opportunities the world has to offer -- from the lowest to the highest levels of that participation, recognition and validation.

For everyone, it is obvious what that experience of life is, by reading the condition primarily at the head, hands and feet -- which are the organs of expression and articulation to the extent of that development and mastery.  Such mastery is called, the fine motor skills of the body, as opposed gross motor skills most people spend time developing -- in strengthening what they call the core -- beginning with the heart.  Some of these advocates even go so far in their misunderstanding of human functioning and development as to believe that one has to consciously get the the heart pumping -- rather than realize that it is an autonomic function that is the most basic movement that always must occur for life to continue -- and not the last.

That becomes a particular problem when so many now, will continue to exhibit nothing else but these vital signs of heartbeat -- long past when all other voluntary movements and responses (cognition), have long ceased.  These failures begin to manifest at different times in every life -- manifested at the organs (extremities) of expression that few think to make the focus of meaningful and expressive movement -- at the head, hands and feet, and that deterioration is most obvious as the aging and deterioration of the human condition -- much more so than the heart or the hip flexors that will be the concern of those advocating traditional "regular" exercises that fail to address and reverse this decline in people.

The obvious better solution, is that movement has to occur at the axis of movement at the head, hands and feet -- which implies the development and support on the larger structures that support these articulations.  That is the difference, between those we marvel at, and those whose hearts are just beating, with no other signs of voluntary and responsive action.

Most injuries occur at the extremities -- rather than at the core, as the wrist and ankle sprains, the stiff neck in waking up one morning -- that as we go inattentively through life, we activate less and less -- yet are the familiar problems of the weakening of the grip, the loss of balance of the feet, the failure to turn one's head to recognize what is going around them, and then the lack of expression -- including the expressions of the face, hands and feet -- that are the distinctive manifestations of every personality, including thought.

If blood does not flow to the brain, that brain cannot function as well as if it does -- yet realizing that truth and importance, there is almost no physical exercise (movement) that recognizes that importance -- but takes it for granted, that it is functioning as well as it can be -- without that attention and proper maintenance.  But the distinctive appearance of declining health, is the atrophying of the musculature at the neck (and its supportive blood supply) -- indicative of a greatly compromised blood flow to the brain, and all the other senses and organs in the head, which is really, the critical organ of the body -- and what any thoughtful exercise and conditioning program would rightly direct as its highest priority, instead of not giving it any thought or prominence at all -- and wondering why it fails to deter any of the familiar signs of deterioration, especially as people age and their circulatory effectiveness declines -- eventually producing total failure of responsiveness at the head, hands and feet -- while the heart continues beating perfectly.

The problem of circulation, is the greatest distance from the central pump which is the heart, and so predictably, the organs at the head, hands and feet will fail -- long before the heart does, in every case.  And when those critical areas of the body die in that way, one begins to lose the vitality, expressiveness and appearance of health -- that really should be the prime concern beyond the condition of the "core" muscles, and their ability to do a lot of contrived movements -- instead of their primary function and task to provide stability and support, for the fine motor tasks at the hands, feet, and head that characterize skill (cognition) in every activity -- whether they realize it or not.

Even running, is not so much about moving the legs, as it is -- moving the foot at the ankle.  Hitting or throwing a baseball, is not so much about shoulder and torso rotation, as much as it rests on the ability to turn one's wrist.  And driving, or even riding a bicycle, is dependent on one's ability to turn their heads and be aware of everything going on around them -- just as in any sport or activity.

That is the best conditioned person -- not the tunnel-visioned person who knows what only they are doing and wants to achieve, but the one who knows what everybody is doing -- and lets that awareness, produce the right action.