Making the Biggest Difference

Many contemplating "retirement," are scared out of their wits that they won't be able to secure competent and trustworthy "caregiving," when they get to that point in their lives -- without considering for a moment, that first thought should go to "doing it yourself," as one's best option.

That is to say, that first and foremost, before resorting to another's help -- one should make every attempt to improve their own efforts to "care" for themselves, and thus make themselves better -- in the many facets of that meaning.  The biggest difference, is that one has a vested interest in getting better -- and not getting worse, and therefore, more dependent on that "help" -- which then becomes a self-aggrandizing momentum of its own, resulting in utter and hopeless, irreversible dependency.

That is as much conditioning (learned adaptation), as absolute physical necessity.  The outcome depends on one's initial, as well as subsequent responses -- predisposing eventual outcomes.  Many on encountering an obstacle in their lives, will be discouraged and defeated, while a few will be determined to overcome those obstacles so that they do not become a handicap or disability -- but rather, their own unique adaptation, despite the general rule.  Many world champion athletes, actually come from that backdrop -- of needing to overcome their arthritis, polio, deformity, and disability -- to become the best in the world at that performance and activity -- because their whole life hinged on that inflection point.

They could accept defeat -- or find another way, even if they had to create/discover it themselves.  That's how the great discoveries of the world have been made -- as well as the great discoveries in every individual life.  It's not the discoveries scientists make for everyone -- without exception, but the discoveries every individual makes in the course of their own lives, that matters the most.  That is what makes the difference in every life -- the discoveries and decisions they make in their own lives.

The mass manipulators will say that is not so -- that one has no choice in the important matters of one's life -- but to go along with the masses, and do what everybody else is doing -- because there is no exception and choice in these matters.  It's almost as though Nature had designed that as a test -- to eliminate the weak and unconfident, for only those of immense and unshakeable confidence, could prevail in these challenges against convention, conformity and tradition -- so that there can be no exception.

That is how the status quo is continued -- even as much as it is problematical, and produces the well-known problems, that have never been successfully challenged and solved before.  Nobody has broken beyond -- to challenging and shaking the paradigm at its very roots and assumptions.

The best care cannot come from another -- because no other has a greater vested interest in that outcome.  It is one's own life -- and cannot be sacrificed for another, or expect that another will sacrifice theirs for one's own -- no matter what they say to convince one otherwise.  To do so, would be foolish, and one would not expect a fool to serve one better than one could themselves.  Like in every other case, one would employ themselves, to assure they are hiring the best, the most capable and honest -- and that would be themselves, if that were truly so.

Your Health Is YOUR Job

Because of the excessive specialization and fragmentation of jobs and roles in societies even of the recent past, many people don't think they have a job and/or responsibility unless they have the specific job title, and pay that goes along with it.

That has disastrous consequences when such people "retire" -- and can take on any job they are willing to pay themselves.  They are not in the habit of "paying" for anything themselves -- and are only accustomed to think of "being paid" -- at which they are willing to do anything, but if they have to decide what to pay themselves -- will choose nothing, or as little as possible.

That is the damage in thinking of oneself as less than the whole of society -- or as individuals, which means the indivisible whole.  Such people are always fighting with themselves, struggling with themselves in everything they do -- and even think it highly enlightened and ennobled of themselves, if they only "compete" against themselves -- and so undermine and sabotage themselves all their lives, as the only thing they know what to do.

So when one suggests that they must look after their own health, their immediate knee-jerk response is, "Who for?"  While it is nice to think of one's spouse or kids, it should be obvious that one must attain their greatest health so that they can perform and do their best at whatever they do -- and not that, they should sacrifice their health in the doing of anything, including suffering serious injury or death.  An intelligent person is always weighing the risks against the rewards, in determining what is the best course of action.  The ultimate price, may be his life, or less dramatically, their health thereafter.

That consideration must be foremost in every living thing -- which is the real meaning of "fitness," and not that a brief moment of glory, justified a lifetime of pain and disability.  One is not on earth, to "sacrifice" for everyone else -- and be the pawns and entertainment for those who feel others exist for that exclusive reason.  Everyone has a right to live their own lives -- as best they can -- and not that it is true only for a rare few living at the top of the pecking order.

One's health is the quality of their existence -- rich or poor, tall or short, gifted or not.  Their health is their best life.  And so for many not to regard it as their greatest asset and treasure in life, means nothing else will have greater worth -- if they abuse their own health and bodies in such obvious ways.  They really don't care enough about themselves -- to care about anything else more.  It can only be less.

That -- more than anything else, is the great challenge of these times, of people having to learn to value their own health as their greatest possession -- and make the most out of it, and not regard it as a hopeless cause, and a great inconvenience.  That is truly their whole purpose and meaning for being -- to be the best they can be.  That is not something separate and apart from everything else they do -- and then all their efforts are contributing to everything they do, and not canceling out everything else they do -- as is most obvious in the tortured writing of many whose every sentence is a contradiction and denial of everything else they've said previously.

So one wonders, what is the point -- of anything they do, but to oppose themselves and negate any effort they make -- no matter how hard and valiant?  That is a lot of people's conditioning strategy -- to simply oppose themselves, as though that was ever an intelligent thing to do.  But one can spin their wheels endlessly in that manner -- and of course, have nothing to show for it -- but to "grow another day older, and deeper in debt."

Yet many people still live their lives that way -- enshrined and encouraged in song and literature -- as their conditioning (indoctrination), that that is what life is all about -- from time immemorial, to at least their generation also.  But if that is the problem of that age, what is the point in carrying on that tradition -- instead of ending it, by creating another path.  What is there to be lost but that bondage to the past -- that merely nullifies their existence?

So when one wonders, what will this generation of retiring Baby Boomers do? -- the answer should be obvious, that from Day One of Retirement, their only job is to actualize the greatest health they've ever manifested and thought possible for themselves -- as the first step of any journey to anywhere, and without that preparation, they simply won't be up to any task -- and will truly have lived their lives in vain, never finding out what that is -- when their very being, is their doing.

Making the Weak, Strong

The problem with making the competitive model the basis for individual lifelong (health) improvement, is that its purpose is not to make the weak, strong, but to simply eliminate the weak from further participation -- which is disastrous as a public health program.  So there is no mystery why the prevalence of obese and inactive individuals living substandard lives is so alarming.  That is the whole purpose of those competitive activities -- to derive and identify the one winner, and not to help the billions of others by confusing the issue, with their continued participation.  Then the judges have to "find the needle in the haystack," rather than see only "the last man standing."

And while that can be an amusing thing to do, it's not real helpful when the purpose becomes keeping as many people "in the game" as possible, so that they all don't end up warehoused waiting to die from an early age -- as many view their lives now, beginning even during their 20s -- before they have even hit their prime and peak.

The reason we have "education," is to make the ignorant, informed and educated about things that should matter, and not just to eliminate them, so that we teach only the smart, and then proclaim we are the greatest teachers in the world, and know what we are doing -- because the only "student" remaining, knows more than all the rest.  Then the danger and threat to society becomes what happens to the overwhelming rest -- and not that there is just one champion who will live life for all the rest -- as the pharaohs, emperors and kings of a much more primitive time.

Hopefully, we no longer condition people for living in such a world, when only one winner can live the fullest life -- but that possibility, exists for everyone in that society.  Then truly, we can see how far we have come as a civilization -- in that everyman now, can live as well as only kings could live in the past, with literally virtual access to everything -- limited only by their ability to find the needle in the haystack of information, marketing and propaganda.

Thus the real function of education, is to ask first, why is one learning what is being taught, and not simply because that is what everyone is being taught -- with never a question, "Why?"  In this way, the first can often be last -- in learning all that can be useless, counterproductive and destructive, because they are too willing and eager, to jump the mark for a quick start and advantage -- thinking it is just enough to be at the front of the pack, before asking where it is going -- as it often is, to their own destruction.

That is the competitive way, and not asking the right question, of what makes the weak, strong?  You can never come to the right answer, by not asking the right question -- but when one asks the right question, the answer is there.  Many are not even aware they are asking any questions at all -- so sure are they that they know what they are doing -- until they can't, because of injury or unbearable pain or discomfort warning them they should stop.  The body is wise in its intelligence to recognize that -- despite all the advice and encouragement otherwise.

But when everything makes perfectly good sense, there is no such resistance and objection -- because it is not crippling, but enabling and empowering -- and one would not do otherwise, because nothing else makes more sense to do -- if one still does anything at all.  Most people are actually advised not to do anything until and unless they consult with "professional opinion" (over one's own senses) -- which they can rely on to be dependent for the rest of their lives -- as only fit to follow another's orders, including and especially their own well-being, keeping them weak and dependent forevermore, and getting worse, with every passing year.

That is what we too familiarly recognize as the "aging" and "disabling" problem that is the epidemic of these times -- that the weak simply get weaker, all their lives, with no hope of a recovery and turnaround.  That is just the "normal" aging process, these experts will proclaim -- and for that, they will always be "there" for us, and never the possibility, that we will ever be strong enough not to need them.

Then society goes into a hopeless downward spiral without end, as the only possibility, in that people can only get worse, and never better -- and then want to get worse, faster -- to get even more aid and so we get to the current health care crisis of increasing, endless resources for the dying -- rather than the living.

The Will to Overcome

At some point in every life, they choose to give up -- which at times, can have even greater survival value than choosing to fight -- against insurmountable forces.  At times like that, one is wise to go with the flow, rather than face a certain obliteration.  It doesn't matter how great a swimmer one is -- in the face of a tsunami wave; one should just run as fast as one can to higher ground way beforehand.

So choosing when to fight, and when to flee, is a key survival skill -- as is assessing when to give up entirely, and then to battle on, when it can make a difference -- and not just being in vain, so that one eventually regards every undertaking, as futile and hopeless.  That is the utter despair of one's existence -- that one can make any difference at all, in anything one does -- anymore.

If one is young and obviously able, such desperate acts are often the test, that it really does matter what one does -- and life is not just a video arcade game of "virtual reality," that blurs into the rest of one's life and desires.  If one is of advanced years, we often dismiss that erosion of confidence and competence, "normal aging," which more than a few, are now starting to question, if there is anything "normal" about it -- or whether that is merely a carryover of the previous life that was notably "short, nasty and brutal," and the life we were conditioned for.

But when that life changes, many of the older, are not reconditioned to live in the new age -- in which all the young usually are -- unless they have these throwback "educators," who believe that what education was good for them, is also inviolably good for the newest generation -- and the new should be indoctrinated into the old, rather than the old into the new.  And that is the crux of the problem in every age and generation -- when the differences grow greater, as well as people living longer.

Many look like they shouldn't even be alive, yet they are -- but largely hidden from view because that is not what we want to recognize, as where most of our health care expenditures are producing.  It is much more costly, to keep the dying living, than it is to support the living, and their obvious will to live and overcome whatever obstacles stand in that actualization.  They have a life of their own -- that transcends every other life to support and control.  They are not simply dependent on all the others for their life -- but create it for the many others.

That is what is overlooked in the thinking that all must be equal -- no matter what, as the supreme principle of the universe -- to which every other consideration must be subservient to.  Some things matter more than others -- which the most observant, label as "significant," and of greater significance -- than everything merely being the same, or equal.

Unfortunately, in the government schools of political correctness -- that vital understanding, is lost and overridden, in favor of what the bureaucracy has determined we all must believe, repeat, and propagate -- as the business of citizens, to make all subservient to the will of those who determine that for everyone else. But that absolute and tight control, breaks down when change (of the information/understanding) is too rapid, for the controlling agencies to maintain a tight rein.  That happens when there is a massive sea change -- like a hundred tsunamis, when everything that was previously thought (taught) to be true, turns out to be false -- and even those formerly in control and supervisory positions, are swept away with those changes.

That's what we see happening now -- in the aging paradigm of these times.  Increasingly many, are not aging in the traditional pattern, but a distinctly different life form is emerging, and manifesting itself.  That is the story of the evolution of life -- even while the current reign of the dinosaur, seems absolute and eternal, but nothing lasts forever, even in the minds of men.  Shortly it is written, that it was always that way.

But it was just the challenge and triumph of its own time -- and that will change again.

We All Must Become Bodybuilders

The distinguishing characteristic of aging and deterioration, is muscular atrophy or shrinkage -- obviously visible as sagging and wrinkled skin -- for which there is no dynamic, underlying support -- of the musculature.  That is less obvious in the obese -- because of the mass that supports the skin, just as artifices like botox do in filling out the spots that have basically collapsed because there is no underlying supporting structure -- as the muscles are designed for.

Thus one can tell right off, whether that specimen is "robust" -- or in declining health, which is the major cue in life as to a prospect's chances of success or failure, which in the successful and healthy, determines the course of their lives.  They don't make bad choices, but instead, make better and better choices -- which makes the quality of their lives improve with age, rather than revealing the accumulative effects of a life of bad choices.

First we have to acknowledge, that the quality of our lives is a choice -- and not just random fate, so that all choices result in the same outcome, so it is futile to hope to do better.  Many people try to pass off that despair as the wisdom of being older -- and so go through the motions of doing something productive and meaningful, while having no idea of what they are doing, much less how they could be doing it better.

For such people, nothing really and actually makes a difference, but they go along unquestioningly -- because one can't be wrong doing what everybody else is doing -- even if it is obviously and categorically not working.  Their sole criteria of "right," is what everybody else is doing/thinking, regardless of whether it makes no difference.  It is the end-all and be-all, just to do what everybody else does -- including the complaining of the futility of their activities and lives, because that is what everybody else does.

But assuredly, some things do make a difference -- and the reason there are differences, and not that an "enlightened" society must now ban all differences -- and agree that everything must be the same.  Obviously, that is a giant step backwards for individuals as well as civilizations -- and human evolution.  The thrust of evolution and progress, is that we become more discriminating -- and not less -- to the ultimate achievement that we cannot distinguish any differences in anything.  The supreme achievement of life, is to be able to distinguish differences (qualities) that no other person can distinguish as well -- or even realizes there can be.

That obvious difference, is whether one is getting better, or worse -- and determining what behaviors and activities result in those conditions -- in all the things we do, to produce the preferred outcomes that enhance our lives and prospects for the future -- all the days of our lives.  It doesn't make much sense, for life to get unrelentingly worse each day, all the rest of our lives -- until death is a welcome release, and then lament that end.  Better one should go suddenly at the peak of their powers -- especially at a hundred.  That alone would be a life extraordinarily lived.

But the present pattern, is that one peaks fairly early in life (40), and then may spend half as much in decline -- claiming that is the normal and healthy, and the only thing that can be expected, as the way life is -- despite the fact that life was not always so long, and kind.  Life before, was "brutal, nasty and short," and people were conditioned to such lives -- but now, that is not the only way it can be.

But a better life doesn't just happen.  It happens because people deliberately make it happen -- in all that they do, as the organizing principle of their lives.  For the first 40 years of one's life, it is not so  important to be a bodybuilder, one as one ages, it is increasingly important and obvious that that is what one must do -- but is presently, when most people stop and abandon all hopes of becoming one, because the present regimen and conditioning ideas, fail to work -- and prove futile and discouraging.  That is not inherently the case.  It is simply that the popular notions are wrong -- and fail at those times they must succeed -- that really matter.

And that is the major determinant of the quality of life in that latter half of one's life -- that makes those years golden, rather than the unrelenting torment it has become for those who no longer care -- about anything anymore -- or can tell the difference.