There’s been much hand-wringing over the news that the United States lags behind 41 other nations with regard to life expectancy. Oh my, they say. How could the richest nation in the world be surpassed by lesser mortals? We’re #1! We’re #1!
We’re #1 alright. Thanks to our gluttony and laziness (with kudos to the food industry and the government), we have the highest rate of obesity on the planet. A third of adults over 20 are considered obese. Two thirds are overweight. We gorge ourselves on fast food. Know nothing about nutrition. Refuse to exercise. So, duh, we’ve got heart disease. High cholesterol. High stress. Depression. Anxiety. Addiction.
Thanks to our avarice, we also have record foreclosure rates. A negative savings rate. High expectations for our personal prosperity but an unwillingness to work for its attainment. Or, conversely, we are workaholics who spend our lives like rodents in a wheel, running to pointless exhaustion. The rest of the time we sit, slack-jawed in front of the TV or the computer, passively enjoying life from our Lay-Z-Boy deluxe armchairs. Not exactly Heidi in the Alps.
Many of the nation’s problems are tied to our lack of self-care and low standards for our own health and well-being. Quick to place blame, we are rarely the culprit. We rely heavily on others to slap expensive Band-Aids on the woes we’ve created for ourselves. We are Americans. We are entitled. To whatever we want. From whatever pocket.
What do we want? Whatever we want! When do we want it? NOW!
It’s a twisted existence we’re living. We are ruining ourselves. We are ruining the rest of the world. I’m overjoyed that our life expectancy isn’t the highest. I’ve already had enough and I’m only halfway there.
Yes, Marie, but this morning in the News they found a virus that cause my fat cells to be fatter and larger. I knew this wasn’t my fault, so now I will just wait for the medecine to be available. No more guilt. Let’s have a Big Mac and a shake to celebrate.
Jacques! I can’t tell you how excited I am to hear that! I will definitely stop blaming my poor sick self….
A friend of mine has been using Splenda in his decaf coffee whitened with a no-fat powder, I noticed that he needs a whole can of Toffee Peanuts and later a Coke with his mid-morning coffee. Could it be that this is for him an attempt to make-up for the missing sugar, protein and caffeine in his coffee? I am mentioning this as a perfect analogy for Iraq, in at least 2 ways:
1-
We send in more troops to bring security disturbed by those who want mayhem as a way to get us out of there. This is our way to eventually pull out the troops.
2-
Those who want us to leave bring mayhem …and then a surge of many more of us.
“Lake Move Wot Nar”
The above message is so dangerous I had to conceal it by interchanging the first letters of each word. It translates to :
“If we are to be monkeys, let’s be bononos and not chimpanzes”