I have a reputation. For changing things. It annoys the hell out of some and excites a few. Me? I guess I thrive on it, despite the anxiety it always raises inside of me.
A few posts back I spoke about my personal future, where I was headed, what mattered to me. Coupled with my personal search, I've been thinking about realigning this blog for awhile, to bring greater focus to it beyond "the musings of an aging boomer". Today, I did some research on my postings, identifying themes (you'll notice some change in 'labels'). The result? Change.
"AgeWise" has become "The SpiritedNP: Change for the Health of It". This better reflects my blog's address in the great ether, as well as bringing a clearer focus. Health ...of individuals, our community, and the planet. They've always been interrelated but the interdependence is growing exponentially.
Health -- the root is an Old English word that means "whole". That's one broad concept -- to be(come) whole. In the 21st century, we've delegated achieving "health" to technocrats -- doctors, pharmaceutical researchers, nurse practitioners, dentists -- and have lost sight of the environmental, political, and spiritual components to health. Yet to achieve health, a complex web of relationships must function at the highest possible level. While health certainly comes from a culmination of personal choices, an important determinant of health results from the societal and political milieu in which we find ourselves. If that weren't true, then we'd be having a whole lot more health from living in the richest (are we still?) country in the world.
Yes, we make choices -- what we eat, how much we move around, the work we do, the relationships we make or abandon -- these choices and more, influence our health. But our health is also intimately wound up with how well or poorly we are governed -- for government policies and their enforcement shape the world we live in. Economic policy determines how wealth is distributed and greed is restrained; environmental policy determines the quality of our physical environment; agricultural policy determines what food we have available to eat. And so it goes.
Our country is facing the biggest challenges of my lifetime. And almost certainly, the biggest opportunities as well. We have the chance to become the healthiest country on earth, leaving an invaluable legacy to those we love. True patriots, in my view, are Americans who are willing to commit to a healthy lifestyle as well as lobbying for the changes needed to ensure a healthy environment. For only by achieving both, can we meaningfully reduce the economic burden on ourselves, our society and our families. Our President continues to remind us that the government can only do so much. It is obligated to act on our behalf, to bring about change that will ensure a healthy environment and economy. But while government can ensure that we have the resources to maximize our health, we have a personal responsibility to make wise choices. And wise choices are impossible if we are uninformed, if we cannot imagine the consequences of our actions.
This blog is dedicated to making its own small contribution to our ability to choose wisely, to bring about change "for the health of it".
A few posts back I spoke about my personal future, where I was headed, what mattered to me. Coupled with my personal search, I've been thinking about realigning this blog for awhile, to bring greater focus to it beyond "the musings of an aging boomer". Today, I did some research on my postings, identifying themes (you'll notice some change in 'labels'). The result? Change.
"AgeWise" has become "The SpiritedNP: Change for the Health of It". This better reflects my blog's address in the great ether, as well as bringing a clearer focus. Health ...of individuals, our community, and the planet. They've always been interrelated but the interdependence is growing exponentially.
Health -- the root is an Old English word that means "whole". That's one broad concept -- to be(come) whole. In the 21st century, we've delegated achieving "health" to technocrats -- doctors, pharmaceutical researchers, nurse practitioners, dentists -- and have lost sight of the environmental, political, and spiritual components to health. Yet to achieve health, a complex web of relationships must function at the highest possible level. While health certainly comes from a culmination of personal choices, an important determinant of health results from the societal and political milieu in which we find ourselves. If that weren't true, then we'd be having a whole lot more health from living in the richest (are we still?) country in the world.
Yes, we make choices -- what we eat, how much we move around, the work we do, the relationships we make or abandon -- these choices and more, influence our health. But our health is also intimately wound up with how well or poorly we are governed -- for government policies and their enforcement shape the world we live in. Economic policy determines how wealth is distributed and greed is restrained; environmental policy determines the quality of our physical environment; agricultural policy determines what food we have available to eat. And so it goes.
Our country is facing the biggest challenges of my lifetime. And almost certainly, the biggest opportunities as well. We have the chance to become the healthiest country on earth, leaving an invaluable legacy to those we love. True patriots, in my view, are Americans who are willing to commit to a healthy lifestyle as well as lobbying for the changes needed to ensure a healthy environment. For only by achieving both, can we meaningfully reduce the economic burden on ourselves, our society and our families. Our President continues to remind us that the government can only do so much. It is obligated to act on our behalf, to bring about change that will ensure a healthy environment and economy. But while government can ensure that we have the resources to maximize our health, we have a personal responsibility to make wise choices. And wise choices are impossible if we are uninformed, if we cannot imagine the consequences of our actions.
This blog is dedicated to making its own small contribution to our ability to choose wisely, to bring about change "for the health of it".
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