The First Line of Defense

Life has always been precarious; one wrong move, and one could be dead -- in a lifetime of chances.  Eventually, everyone gets it wrong -- and is no more, but in the meantime, there are virtually unlimited chances to get it right -- until finally, there are no more chances.  But chances, are all one can ask of life -- for it is the opportunity to do something with it.  Many young people think life is to piss away as many chances as they can -- before their untimely and premature (tragic) end -- rather than increasing their chances and opportunities in a notably long and thriving life.  And that is what a healthy life and lifestyle is all about -- and not simply pissing away as many chances as one gets -- until the predictable end, they only hope doesn't come too soon.  But what are they doing about it -- besides hoping that things will go well?

That's where lives, health and fortunes diverge greatly -- and not that every life is just a random statistic (as the epidemiologists presume) -- so that it doesn't matter what one does individually and personally, because the outcomes are handed out randomly -- no matter what one does.  Obviously, this flawed view of life and the universe it presumably takes place in, is the major handicap that many do not grow through and overcome -- but get stunted and retarded in a predictable short and miserable life.  But what can they do about it?

That is the beauty of it -- that every life matters, and makes a difference what one does -- individually and personally.  There is no other reality -- and the one that generalizing everything to minimize such differences and distinctions -- causes such calamities and crises, because one insists there are no differences, when obviously, they make a huge difference.  Thus, drinking, smoking and overeating all one wants, is not going to result in the same outcomes as those paying diligent attention to such matters -- and ever making finer and more valid distinctions and discriminations throughout their long and successful lives.

One is doing nobody any favors, telling them they ought to do whatever they want to do, because somebody else will probably suffer the consequences -- because it just gets put into the giant pool of epidemiology and despair of never being able to distinguish any meaningful and substantial difference in one's entire life -- with all the studies on their side -- that average out into meaninglessness.

That world view plays itself out in every sphere of human activity -- so that investors thinking to beat the market -- think that the chances of a bad investment are superior to the prospects of a good investment, because reality will see that everything balances out in the end -- if they simply hold on long enough.  So as long as the universe doesn't come to an end, they still can maintain hope that all will be well -- if they simply live long enough -- but of course, they never do.  Life is too short, for everything to devolve into entropy.

But what matters, is that they are right -- and that is inconclusive, as long as there is still time (for miracles to happen).  Meanwhile, the ants plug along -- doing whatever they can, no matter how their paths are deterred.  They simply find a way to overcome -- and if the end comes for them, that is it -- and life goes on.  They did what they were born to do, and when the end came, the life of the colony carried on.  Every challenge and happenstance was necessary to evolve to what they had become.  That march is relentless -- even if at times, the less fit are culled out.  We just don't know when that will come -- or in what manner.  That process has not been revoked, no matter how much wealth one accumulates otherwise.

Obviously, those with the greatest chance of survival, are those who do everything possible to increase those chances -- not taking foolhardy risks, but taking the prudent ones -- and discerning the difference.  It is not just a matter of who gets to the intersection first -- regardless.  Hopefully, one learns that lesson early and often so that it will not be fatal the first time out.  Ultimately though, we all get to go around life once -- and behooves us to get it right as much as possible.  But thinking it doesn't make any difference, is always the fatal error -- that catches up to one in its own mysterious time and fashion.

Often, that which we study and measure, are simply the easiest and most convenient things to measure -- and not the most significant and meaningful.  It might be that we coincidentally have a heart monitor to sell -- even if it isn't the greatest indicator of health and robustness.  Or a drug, or snake oil for that matter.  Or unneeded, though costly, medical interventions.  In fact, in the present hysteria, those with the least successful outcomes, are those requiring 24/7 intensive care -- and receiving it!  Meanwhile, the homeless are dying unattended in their regular numbers.

All kinds of alarm bells should be going off.  One would think that the poorest are the most vulnerable -- but that does not seem to be the case.  The most vulnerable, are those who are the most affluent -- and can afford the exposure of 24/7 care.  That constant and persistent exposure -- is one's vulnerability to infection -- which can even become fatal.  That gives new meaning to the term, "toxic people" -- even as much as they are well-meaning and good-intentioned.

That is the unique challenge of people requiring the assistance of an army of caregivers to sustain their lives -- for as long as possible, and affordable.  From this, the truly destitute, are virtually immune -- because nobody cares, and the attention goes elsewhere.  That is end-stage affluenza.  In previous times, they would have perished long before -- but now can be sustained indefinitely by extraordinary means.  But the lowest threshold disease, could be fatal.  That seems to be the inescapable lesson of the present health crisis.  Those with a borderline fitness and health, have a hundredfold greater risk of succumbing and being pushed over the brink -- and nothing can be done to help that.

But the critical mass of humanity, is evolving to greater health at this time, by invoking the knowledge of intermittent fasting, the ketogenic diet, and an increasing appreciation of the autophagy (self-healing) that makes possible.  That is what prevents one from getting into the compromised underlying health problems in the first place.  That's where we all need to go.  That is better than all the cakes, candy and ice cream -- especially, all one can eat.  That is not the door to the good life -- but only a downward slope to a lot of chronic health problems of which we now know the end-game.

The fate of humanity is not 100% obesity and diabetes, and all its medical complications, but in a change in the course of that evolution towards greater baseline health for everyone.  That entails cutting out the drinking, smoking, excessive eating, and deteriorating into a condition requiring caregivers to sustain everyone.  That paradigm of contemporary health and living, is unsustainable -- with good reason!  One needs to return and sustain a life of greater intelligence -- from the earliest years or face a dire future -- now that the old plagues, wars, famine, no longer kill off huge swaths of the population -- before they get to old age.

Nature finds its own way of ensuring the survival of the fitness.  The most self-sufficient and self-reliant, have always been most prized and selected.  It doesn't matter how good their health insurance is.  What really matters is their baseline health -- and doing all the good things.  Nobody can do that for anybody else.  That is everyone's "underlying health condition."   Some have it better than others because they spend their whole lives making it so.  But what else is more important to do?

Live responsibly.  Nobody lives forever.  Make the best of it.

Change is Change

Success in life, is one's ability to change -- as circumstances dictate the need for.  Those who make those adaptations best, are highly favored in the game of life -- and particularly, in their own living.  Far beyond the competition with every other, is that competition within oneself -- to do the best they can -- regardless of what everybody else is doing.  That is almost the secret to life -- but there are probably others, as well.  It is only a secret until one discovers it -- and then moves on to the next -- forging ahead in one's life in that manner of constant discovery.

When that ends -- it is the beginning of the end -- and then all in life begins to shut down.  So how to maintain that fire and even add fuel to it -- all one's days, is the hope of every life -- and when that is gone, it is just a matter of time to the end.  Nobody really provides a roadmap to that end -- though we all seem to get there eventually, unfortunately many before their time.  It takes just one slip, one moment of inattention, one carelessness, for all to come crashing down.  So life is a preparation to do the best one can -- because one never knows when it will matter most.

In this way, one learns not to tempt fate unnecessarily -- even if one got away with it many times before.  Eventually the car that was never there before -- appears when it shouldn't -- and then it does not matter who had the right.  Even then, there is never any guarantee of life forevermore.  So it is very important to value every moment as supremely important -- because it could be the last.  But making the best of it, increases one's chances -- and that is the best one can hope for -- always to be increasing one's chances for survival in that present prosperity.

The greatest predictor of future success, is one's present success -- and working to make it even better.  That is one's momentum in life -- that takes on a life and intelligence of its own -- as the summation of every previous thought, word and action.  There is no selective memory only of the good and unblemished -- but the good, bad and the ugly -- as the present outcome.  Most other living forms don't overthink it -- but respond totally to that present reality -- as the summation of every other moment.  They keep it simple in that way.

Even as much as we would want for things never to change again, change will come again -- but our responsiveness may diminish -- or increase, as we prepare for.  Some merely go into denial of those changes -- preferring to relive only in their unchanging memories and minds -- rather than increasing their capacity to live in the greater present possibilities.  Life has always been that way.  There is always more to do, experience, learn, prepare for greater possibilities.  That is not simply the province of the young, but all who choose to live that way.

The problem is that many give up and refuse to go on.  They expect, nay demand, that the rest of the world stay the same for them -- and that is not going to happen, never has, and never will -- so the intelligent person realizes, they have to change, and can do it better than they've done before.  That is the quality of resiliency -- or fitness to improve.  There is no fitness just in staying the same; that is merely falling behind, becoming less capable daily -- largely because it is unexercised, and thus, actualized even in the practice.  But that practice is real, and actual -- waiting for the right circumstances to optimize.

That is the proper understanding of exercise -- of the practice in being.  Practice means doing -- and there is no other.  That's how people get good at what they are doing.  The alternative is not just thinking about doing -- but not thinking at all.  Usually, one is distracted, entertained, consuming -- practicing all the things they don't want to become.  That realization is mindfulness -- and from that emptiness, can come a whole new reality -- a discontinuation of the current mindlessness.  And then all things seem possible.   That is a break from the pattern.  That is change.

It really is the most simple thing -- made complex and complicated by the mindlessness that doesn't want to change -- but to continue as it always has been -- even with its disastrous results.  That conditions one not to even try anymore.  The proper exercise should not be conceived with the idea to make it increasingly more complex and complicated (harder) -- but obviously, to make it simpler and easier -- and always possible.  And that is the problem with most exercise -- it is abandoned at the first opportunity because it is too difficult and inconvenient, rather than made more increasingly inevitable.  That would be the intelligent design of an environment for making it so.  One that actually requires change -- as frequently and varied as possible.

That doesn't have to be hard.  In fact, making it hard or difficult, makes it much less likely to be done.  Yet there is this temptation among the instructors, always to make things more difficult -- as though that is the greater attainment, rather than the ease of movement and range of articulation (expression) in everyday movements.  That -- already is impressive -- when it can be maintained all one's life to 100.  That alone would be remarkable.  Yet, as we know, most people do not get there -- in that kind of condition, which needs to change.

What needs to change, is this manner of thinking that movement must be hard, difficult, strenuous, and only for a few remaining, rather than best expressed and indicated by the movement and range at the neck, wrist and ankle -- which implies the rest.  Faster is actually counter productive -- or duration beyond a minute.  One does not need to build a machine to provide resistance through the full range of any movement; the range produces its own resistance to further movement.  All one needs to do is see that that is so -- by doing it.