Taking a Peek into the Future

Death is our destiny.  None of us with any preciseness can declare when our where that time will come, but it is the byproduct of life as we know it and it is inevitable.  We can do nothing to alter this fate.   Cryogenics can put it on ice and delay it, but eventually we will succumb to it in the end.

As we live, we see others leave us long before they have lived a full life.  I ask, “why them”?  There are multiple elements and circumstances to be analyzed, and even then, it is hard to arrive at a definitive reason.  As I mentioned in a previous post, timing is everything.  Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is fraught with hazards.  Risk is everywhere all the time.  When adding human behaviour in its various forms to the mix it makes the time of our final destination much more variable.

As I move into the early autumn of my life, I wonder, “what’s ahead for me?”   It’s not that I am macabre in nature or narcissistic, but whatever happens to me also happens to other people whose life story I am a part of.  So I have made a potential life changing decision…I decided to take a glimpse in the crystal ball of my being.

I am curious to learn the most likely disease or natural cause of death I will meet up with down the road.  Based on family history, I can guess what’s in store for me, but I want more surety.  I know that the final day in inevitable, but if I am aware of what to expect, then I can come up with a game plan to prepare for and slow the speed of my demise.  I guess it’s about trying to control a piece of something that overall is uncontrollable.  So today, I am ordering a genetic marker test that will suggest my genetic predisposition for 200 common diseases / conditions that I might encounter. 

For the last few years I wanted to do this, but the cost was a prohibitive.  My wife Mary and I did a DNA test to join the National Geographic genome database to find out that our ancestral origins were in Africa and our great, great….great grandfathers migrated to Europe.  No big surprise there. 

As a natural course of studying diversity, I discovered how similar we are in regard to our genetic makeup.  Humans share 99.9% of the same 3 billion base gene pairs.  The common variances (0.1%) we see account for differences in eye colour, hair colour, skin colour, congenital conditions, etc.  Our DNA over time has altered it mutations for some people to better allow them to adapt to their environment, hence dark skin colour gives added protection to people in locales where the sun and heat are plentiful.  Interesting enough is that chimpanzees share 97% of the human genome.

Is that scary, or what? 

I am amazed at just how complex the human body is.  I am also awed by the science of it all, especially since my brain is not wired to fully understand it all.  While the science of genetics is still evolving, I believe the researchers have come far enough to where they can now make confident assertions based on DNA tests and analysis. 

DNA testing is still controversial.  It is not for everyone.  Some people do not want to know what they are most likely to see in the future.  Some people may want to know, but will constantly worry about the results from the test.  While the argument rages on about medical ethics, discrimination and privacy related to DNA testing, I am discounting that noise and taking the chance to know more about me. 

I am smart enough to know that the results will not provide me an absolute measure of what to expect.  The environment will certainly have it’s say in how long I or any of us survive.  But it does give me a glimpse of hopefully the long-term future. 

Thankful Today and Every Day

Today in America people are celebrating Thanksgiving.  They express what they are thankful for and gather together for a festive meal.  This is one day that most people stuff their tummies with turkey and/or ham and all the trimmings that go with it.  This is also the one day nobody is counting calories nor do most people care what the scale may say the next day.   Some will trek out tonight to camp out for “Black Friday.”  Only in America.

I am thankful for countless blessings and gifts from heaven above.  I am thankful for the freedom to exercise free will in the pursuit of happiness, so long as I cause no harm to others.  I am thankful for my parents who gave me the beliefs and values that taught me right from wrong.  I am thankful for my wife who keeps me on the straight and narrow, most of the time J.  I am thankful for my children who are the light of my world.  I am thankful for my grandchildren who allow me to see the world anew.  I am thankful for all the people I have had the chance to meet and for my extended family and friends.  In short, I am thankful for all I am and all that I have.

The question that begs to be asked is, “why do we consciously have just one day that we take time off to be thankful?”  Personally, I am thankful for every day that is given to me. Truthfully,  in the busyness of life, I don’t take time every day to pause and extend gratitude for the fortunate life I have been afforded.  I do not have to look very far to find people less “lucky” than I.  Thus, being thankful should be a constant for each of us beyond the one day we designate. 

Spending time in forests, the mountains, the beaches with my thoughts and camera brings my focus toward the awe of the world about me and the thankfulness to be a part of it.   Note to self, get out and get away more often to see the beauty of where I am and give thanks every day. 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

Super-Size It

It’s been a long frustrating and exhausting day at work.  It’s around 8 p.m. and I head home.  On the way home I decide I am too tired to cook dinner.  I pull into one of the two McDonald’s on my route home and order a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, French fries, and a Sweet Tea – the drink preference assumes you live in the southern U.S. and ingest it before I get home.

 I don’t take time to think about the 900 calories I just consumed.  The way I feel based on my day at work is that I don’t really care much about calorie intake at that moment.  The recommended intake of calories for the average person is 2,000 per day.  Let’s hope the breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day tallied to less than 1,100 calories, because it makes me even more tired just thinking about exercising to burn off anything over 2k calories. 

The Quarter Pounder at McDonald’s made its debut on the national menu in 1973.  It was a super-sized 4 oz. pre-cooked beef patty compared to the 1.2 oz. single hamburger beef patty.  I guess I can take comfort knowing it is not a true quarter pound burger after it is cooked and the grease is drained.   Because it is less than a half or a whole our psyche tends to ignore the relevance of its size. The amount of food became noticeable when a super-sized option began.  McDonald’s ended its super-sized fries and drinks in 2004 in response to a movie that demonstrated a diet of McDonald’s meals was not a healthy choice and larger portions contributed to increased girth.  We become what we eat.

Moving past McDonald’s.  Think about the last time you went to a restaurant.  What did you order?  How big was the plate that your food was on?  Even a salad can be enormous.  Were you able to eat it all?  Did you request a “doggie bag” to go?

Lessons in my early years taught me not to be wasteful, so I belong to the clean plate club.  Based on my observations where people eat, it seems there are less and less people belonging to this club. To belong to this club, you must eat everything on the plate…unless it’s green peas J.  Because I feel I am compelled to eat it all, I do not often eat out because of the portion sizes.  I can’t afford a new wardrobe with a new waist size. 

For most of us, there is the magic age somewhere between 35 and 45, when our metabolism shifts into the lower gears, and the pounds pile on which requires much more effort to trim it off.  I have access to a gym, exercise equipment and exercise DVD’s that can help me keep fit.  Truth is, I am very inconsistent about using any or all of those things.  I used to be able to cut weight quickly to stay in my weight class when I boxed many years ago.  I once could eat what I wanted, as much as I wanted, and not be concerned about packing on the pounds.  These days, nagging back aches and deteriorating painful knee joints are not real motivating factors to push myself to fitness.  And, the diets I embark on might last a week at best.  It’s really hard for me to say no to a couple of donuts when someone else brings them to the office.  My love for donuts goes back to when I was a young lad and ate a baker’s dozen in one sitting after church and this feat was acknowledged in the next Sunday sermon.  You can imagine how embarrassed my folks were.  I strike it up to belonging to the clean plate club J.  Some people concede at some point that it is an impossible task to lessen the load we carry, so the spare tire and love handles become a permanent personal accessory.  I am not quite of that mindset, yet.

I recently attended a conference on obesity.  Medical experts in the field advised that the current generation may be the first generation in our history who will not outlive the prior generation in regard to years lived.  Scary stuff.  The primary reason is due to the current rate of child obesity and the subsequent medical conditions that are associated with obesity. 

Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 30. The “normal range” for the average person is 19.5 -24.9 BMI.  Between 25 and 29.9 BMI is considered overweight.  BMI is considered to be a better predictor than what scale says, because it factors in weight and height.  My gauge is the mirror, and it’s not a pretty sight.   

 In 1980, less than the 10% of the adult population were obese.  In 1995, less than 15% of adults were obese.  In 2010, 35.7% of adults are considered obese.

In 1990 the average male weighed 176 and the average female weighed 140.  In 2010, the average male and female were both 20 pounds more than they were in 1990.  A survey was done in both periods asking people whether they saw themselves as being overweight.  The perceptions for both time periods were not significantly different, which indicates we haven’t noticed we are getting bigger over the past 20 years.  I guess if I am bigger today than I was 20 years ago (which I am), and so is everyone else, then in a relative sense nothing has really changed when I compare my body size to someone else.

How did we get here?  For starters, we are taking in, on average, 300 more calories per day than we did in 1985…super-sized portions. Other contributing reasons include:

1. Lack of sleep allows us to store fat more efficiently. And it is harder to exercise when we are tired.
2. Stress may cause our bodies to release hormones that store more abdominal fat and slow down our metabolism, as well as create a desire for high-carbohydrate foods due to their effect on increasing serotonin.
3. Medications.  People being treated with drugs to control depression, mood disorders, seizures, migraines, blood pressure and diabetes, among other medical conditions, have reported weight gain. The same goes for people taking steroids, hormone replacement therapy and oral contraceptives. The effects have been attributed to an increase in appetite, alteration in fat storage and changes in insulin levels, all leading to people eating more.
4. Medical conditions: People with certain medical conditions such as hypothyroidism or Cushing’s syndrome tend to gain weight with the increase in cortical production. These maladies cause a decrease in metabolism and generalized fatigue, leading to our bodies using fewer calories from the food we eat.  Genetics have a role in the shape of our bodies, but it is the environmental and external factors that have the most impact in molding that shape.
5. Hormonal issues: Menopause in women and the yet-to-be-officially-recognized andropause in men are blamed for weight problems. We tend to become less active, have a slower metabolism, poorer sleep and increased rates of depression, all of which affect the amount of food we are eating.
6. When and where we eat: Skipping meals (usually breakfast), having too many snacks, eating out frequently or eating late at night have all been implicated in causing weight gain. Eating while watching TV, sitting at the computer, while reading or in the car can all contribute to weight gain due to how this mindless eating adds so many calories to our bottom line.
7. Lack of physical activity.  Children are getting less physical activity in school, which carries over to after school.  Addiction to video games and social media contribute to sedentary lifestyles.
8. Fatty foods, Processed foods and Additives: The easy availability of high-calorie dense processed foods, the excessive use of artificial sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup, MSG and other food additives have all been related to weight gain.  Most North Americans consume at least 37 percent of their calories from fat (usually the wrong kind of fat such as animal fat and refined vegetable oils). This is way more than our bodies can handle.  If you have a diet that is too high in fat, it puts you at risk for obesity, adult onset diabetes, certain cancers, and arteriosclerosis (hardening and plugging up of the arteries).  One additive we often overlook is synthetic hormonal steroids given to animals that end up on our table and to cattle producing milk.  Synthetic hormones act as toxins in the body and can be difficult to get out of your system. One of the main side effects of synthetic hormones is WEIGHT GAIN, especially around the abdomen, hips and thighs.
9. Emotional issues: The term “emotional eater” has almost become a cultural phenomenon, seemingly spreading like a virus.
10. Our metabolism: Do you have a faulty metabolism from repetitive dieting or your yo-yoing weight due to too much fasting and feasting over the years?

The magical formula, so I am told, is to manage the portion size of your meals (downsize), regularly incorporate food into your diet that is close to its natural state (organic, fresh veggies and fruit), limit processed food to a minimum, exercise at least 3x a week for more than an hour each session and reduce high carb and sugar intake.  Sounds easy enough, right? 

The problem with that is many fold.  Poorer people have more of a challenge eating healthy which contributes to managing their weight.  The reality is that it costs more to eat healthy, unless you eat out a lot, and that can be pricy and often not a good choice on several levels.  Added to that, we are creatures of habit.  In general, we seek pleasure over pain, and food tends to bring us so much pleasure.  So many times the least healthy foods (pastries, pizza, ice cream, Quarter Pounders with Cheese, etc.) are those we interact with the most because frankly they just taste the best and satiate our craving(s).  It also is difficult to break away from cultural influences in regard to food.  Many foods in the South are fried…they even fry vegetables – fried okra, fried green tomatoes, etc.  Lard and grease galore, but it sure does taste good when it hits that palate.  And, it goes without saying, outside of Texas, barbeque is all about pork…and too much pork makes up portly. 

Another reality I recently learned is that a large number people who live in rural areas in South Carolina and are at or below the national poverty level do not have a full-service grocery store in their community that provides fresh produce or meat.  Thus, their choice is limited to largely processed foods.  Processed foods are less expensive.  For example, Raman noodles have little nutritional value and are loaded with lots of saturated fat and sodium, but it is simple to prepare, can satisfy hunger and can be gotten at a low price.  A handful of fresh peaches, especially when out of season, are more expensive than the nicely packaged single serving fruit cups that have the diced peaches swimming in high fructose corn syrup.  And, organic products are almost always more expensive than non-organic foods.   

In these same communities, it has been reported that some  individuals who were walking or riding bikes on the side of the road for exercise were struck by vehicles.  They used the roads for their exercise because their town had no sidewalks.  These realities are not an excuse for obesity, but I understand better how a person can get there.

 At the end of the day in order to lose weight you have to expend more calories than you take in.  That requires a commitment to: 1) change eating habits, 2) make better nutritional and smarter food choices, 3) start and sustain a consistent exercise regimen, and 4) say no to that Quarter Pounder and those super-sized portions.

Am I willing to sacrifice my inner desire to eat a couple donuts the next time they arrive in the break room?  Am I willing to reprogram my brain to realize that I don’t need to super-size my hamburger, when a smaller patty will be enough?  Am I willing to ask for a “doggie bag” in the restaurant?  Am I willing to say no to the stuff that tastes so good, but is killing me, literally and figuratively?  Am I willing to make time to exercise regularly?  It comes down to - how bad do I want to lose that weight and those personal physical accessories I have acquired?  I figure, if the folks on the Biggest Loser can do it, so can I. 

Each and Every Person Has a Story

I recently attended an educational session related to grief.  Grief isn’t just about response to death, but a response to loss.  It is coping with living with loss or losses. It wears a lot of faces…despair, fear, relief, guilt, resentment, rest, peace, pain, happiness from reminiscing, etc.   

We all lose things along the way in our journey of life…family, friends, possessions, pets, etc. – all tangible things we can see and touch.  Other things that bring about changes in defining who we are as a person either in our own mind or in the mind of others creates a loss of identity and forces us to reinvent ourselves. The latter is often intangible; hard to pin down and most often not as immediate as the former.

There is a traditional model we have used in healthcare for many years that helped people understand loss and grief.  This model was introduced in 1969 by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her book titled On Death and Dying, who based it on her work with terminally ill patients.  This model has 5 stages:  denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  It is supposed that each person experiencing death or loss moves through each stage at their individual pace.  This theory and model is now being challenged and a new approach is now being used by many in the pastoral care community in healthcare.

This new model focuses on a narrative of one’s life – one’s life story.  Every story is unique.  There is a plot that explains what has happened.  There is a theme that helps tie meaning to what they live for.  There are characters, some major and some minor, who all have their own stories.  There is a time period from birth to present and there is continuity in the story because time is sequential.

Sometimes when there is a loss, the story does not make sense.  It’s like someone ripped the pages or a chapter out of the book…”I don’t know how to go forward.”  Yet, somehow most of us manage to move past that loss.  Those missing pages can never be replaced, but the story continues after the loss and the book has more chapters to add. 

Narrative and stories are connected to meaning.  A disruption in the story because of a loss may alter the meaning.  For example, if a person loses their spouse, they have a new identity (widow or widower) and with the loss of identity as a spouse there is an alteration of his/her meaning of life, i.e., purpose for existence.  It is the meaning of life in our life that truly drives us forward.  It is also one of the largest items we struggle with in loss – “What does this mean?”  “I don’t know how to make sense of it all”  “I don’t get this.”  “Why me?”  “What did I do to deserve this?” “I guess the doctors have given up on me” “Why did God allow this to happen?”

Dealing with loss is never easy.  It is most helpful when there are others to support and help the person with the loss think about their life in new ways.  The worst case scenario after a loss is arriving at a place where despair and meaningfulness dominate a person’s being.  The good news is that meanings can be reconstructed and people can have multiple meanings. Remaking meaning does not require a person to come to closure over their loss. That chapter or those chapters that have been written will remain as long as the book adds pages.  The story is not over for as long as we live. 

Nearly every weekend I spend a couple of hours logging about 5 miles on my pedometer on the soccer pitch.  Last weekend, I was walking, running and shooting on an empty field when a young boy asked if he could kick the ball at the same goal I was kicking at.  His brother was playing in a soccer match at an adjacent field.  I started talking to him and noticed he had an accent.  I asked him questions that gave me information about who he was – Thomas was 12 years old who was recently adopted and was originally from Latvia.  He told me he had not played soccer for a couple of years.  He proceeded to pull down his sock and pull off his shin guard to show me the bump from a fracture he received on his leg when he played in his native country.   He went on to tell me his family recently went to the Bahamas for spring break and found it to be hot there.  I didn’t want to tell him about the heat that was forthcoming this summer...I doubt if it ever gets over 90 degrees in Latvia.

Thomas pushed me to clock 8+ miles on my pedometer that day.    As we parted, I thought about his story, his losses and his new beginnings that bring forth new meanings.  For him, a new chapter has begun and for each of us we found common meaning on a page in our individual and collective story – football.

A Just World

Last week I attended a week long training session in Charleston, SC to learn more about implementing a Just Culture in an organization.  It was extremely educational and gave me a lot to ponder related to law, sociology, philosophy, psychology, culture and life as we know.  Here is a simplistic preview of lessons learned.

A fundamental tenet in Just Culture is that all humans are fallible.  Perfection is a noble goal, but it is unattainable.  We will make mistakes.  We will slip.  We will have lapses.  We will drift into a false state of security and take risks we believe to be justifiable.  It is part of being human. 

Another fundamental precept in Just Culture is duty.  All people have a duty to each other to cause no unjustifiable risk or harm to another person…this is the higher order duty, one given to us by God.  Causing harm would be conduct that endangers the things we protect:  life, liberty or autonomy, and property (something we can lose, i.e., family, house, reputation, etc.)

There are two other subordinate duties that we subscribe to:  Duty of Procedural Rules (work policies and procedures), and the Duty of an Outcome (getting to work on time). 

In the United States there are 3 values we hold dear per our Constitution:   life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Life is provided by God, and/or our Creator.  Liberty is the opportunity to exercise free will.  The pursuit of happiness is the driver of behaviour for most of us.    

Doing what makes us happy can create pure joy if acquired without harm others.  The reality is that as we selfishly go about pursuing happiness, we often engage in risky or reckless behaviours to get there.  Let’s look at something as simple as exceeding the speed limit.  We can reasonably assume that people are happier if they get to a determined destination sooner than later.  Over the past year, on a 35 mile stretch of interstate, I have arrived at the scene of 6 over-turned vehicles 2 to 10 minutes after the actual event.  All were single car events travelling over the speed limit. Half of those accidents had fatalities.  I saw a body in the median of one accident before EMS arrived.  This individual was thrown from his truck and my car was the third or fourth one to pass by the accident after a couple of cars had stopped before my arrival to provide aid. 

Almost all drivers exceed the speed limit from time to time.  Some people go beyond the speed limit without being aware and self-correct once they realize they are there.  My sports car is one that requires vigilance to watch the speedometer.  In a Just Culture, this infraction is considered a human error.  Others will intentionally exceed the speed limit, but stay in the socially “safe” zone of no more than 10 miles per hour over. These folks consider it safe, because they have never had an accident and they know that most police will not enforce the speed limit until it gets beyond 10 mph of the speed limit.  This infraction is considered at-risk behaviour.  Anybody  who goes over the speed limit by more than 10 mph could be considered as engaging in reckless behaviour.  Obviously, the faster we go, the more risk we pile on in extending harm to self and others.  It could be argued, that anyone going 1 mile over the speed limit could be reckless behaviour with the argument being; what makes us more qualified to judge what is the maximum safe speed that the engineers who built the road?  Society and cultures generally determine which conduct falls into any of these categories.  On an individual basis, it is the silent personal voice that tells you what you are doing is wrong and negligent, yet you do it anyway…reckless.

Historically, in the legal system, we look at the outcome when there is an accident.  Let’s say we have two people who both are driving under the influence.  They know it is wrong.  There is no intent to harm.  It is a gamble.  One person gets pulled over by the police and is fined for this crime, but does no jail time.  The other person has an automobile accident and kills a person in the car his/her vehicle hit.   It can assumed that this person will be incarcerated and the time in jail depends on which state the event occurred.  The conduct is the same for both people, yet we have different penalties.  Justice or not?  When we gamble, luck (being at the wrong place at the wrong time) determines the extent of punishment.  The legal system is flawed because people created it, and people are fallible. 

In a Just Culture we do not factor in the outcome of the event.  We search for the cause of the accident and examine the behaviours / conduct of the people involved in the event.  Most often, investigations lead to system breakdowns that either generated or supported the error(s).  If it was a human error, then we console that person.  If it was at-risk behaviour we counsel that person and give them alternative behaviours to employ in the future.  Reckless behaviour incurs disciplinary action. 

Life, as we know it, is finite.  For every birth there is a complementary death.  Life is a social value.  Social populations create imposers to establish laws, rules and regulations to protect life.  For example, in the 1960’s and 1970’s lap seat belts were optional accessories in cars.  It was found that there was a 30 – 50% higher rate of fatalities in accidents of people who did not wear seat belts.  As a result, New York, in an attempt to save lives, was the first state to create a rule that required the wearing of seat belts mandatory in 1984.  To protect life, we have to give up some liberty.  This does not suggest we move to socialistic form of government, but sometimes we have to protect ourselves from ourselves. 

In our society there has always been a challenge to balance free will / liberty and people’s pursuit of happiness. History has shown that we continuously change as events of the day raise social awareness to the point that the collective society demands Imposers to create social order. 

The events of 9/11/2001 required us to think differently about immigration, travel, terrorism, and protection of life and liberty.   No longer can we say our farewells at the gate in the airport, unless it is a minor flying unaccompanied, and we subject ourselves to possible personal searches as we make our way to the gate.   Is it inconvenient?  Absolutely!  Does the security checks impede on my pursuit of happiness?  Of course it does!  Is it a necessary evil that helps to assure society that air travel is “safe?”   Yes!

There is plenty of controversy around the proposed gun restrictions.  The current prevailing argument is around the infringement of the 2^nd Amendment of the Constitution:  the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It is freedom and liberty many people highly value.  Recent mass casualties from firearms designed to dispense a large number of ammo in a rapid fire delivery have suggested that we need to have an imposer create laws, rules and regulations to protect life, which subscribes to the higher duty.  In the end, the collective social conscious will eventually dictate the outcome, whatever is it, whether we agree with it or not as an individual.  That is the democratic way.

As we navigate into the future, we will have imposers for our collective and personal benefit, but as free Americans we will also have the freedom to do what many in the world cannot.  A Just Culture can change an organization to be more tolerant of mistakes people make that are not a result of reckless conduct and design more effective systems to afford people to make safer behavioural choices and reduce likelihood of errors.  A Just world can exist if we collectively adhere to the highest order duty – cause no unjustifiable harm or risk to others.  With 7 billion people and varying personal and cultural agendas, this task is easier said than done, but not impossible.   And so, the mission begins, one person at a time for the sake of a just world.