Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The prolonged year of the virus is slowly moving towards an end. It will never end, but I hope we have learned a few things that we can all do.

The pandemic is declining. It is like a math function that tends to but never reaches zero. The limit as time approaches infinity is zero, but time never reaches infinity, so the pandemic never reaches zero. Enough math.

Lessons I hope we learn. There are two general categories: (1) our own health and (2) the health of others.

Our Own Health

We learned that being unhealthy greatly increased the chances of severe illness or death. Let us move from the unhealthy end of the spectrum to the health end.

Obesity: Lose weight. You don’t have to be 300 pounds to lose weight. Most men can lose 40 or 50 pounds and be significantly healthier. If you are a weight lifter, this doesn’t apply as you have muscle mass. The vast majority of us are not weight lifters. Losing weight will make us healthier. That leads to many other benefits.

Immunity: Get off prescription drugs that weaken our immune systems. This is not easy for many of us. Get healthier (see obesity) and the need for prescription drugs lessens. Don’t take prescription drugs that weaken the immune system. We have seen that oooops here comes something that requires a good immune system.

Diabetes: Do what you can to avoid this. Again, get healthier while you can.

The Health of Others

Many of us wore masks and were vaccinated because we didn’t want to spread the virus to others. We were concerned about others. Good! Let’s keep that up.

Driving: Be nice on the road. Consider other drivers.

Alcohol and Driving: They don’t mix. Stop it. Just because you are below some “legal limit,” don’t drive with alcohol ANY ALCOHOL in your system.

Protest and Property: When we break a window, we break people. Property is not life, but it is life threatening. Medical practitioners take great care when people return to see their homes after a natural disaster. People have strokes and heart attacks when they see their damaged homes. If you protest, do so peacefully with great regard towards the property of others.

General Regard: Let’s be nicer to everyone else. It doesn’t cost anything and it goes a long way.

Pollyanna

Okay, a lot of this is naive pollyanna stuff. So be it. We paid the cost of the pandemic. Let’s accept the education.