Retirement is great -- as long as one is healthy. When one is in declining health, nothing else can get much better. That is dependent on one's health. Therefore, obviously, attention to health must have our highest priority -- and implies the quality and vitality of one's life. If one is getting better, what more can be said? And if one is in a declining health spiral, eventual disability and death seems the only certainty.
Yet many are paralyzed by the fear -- rather than realizing they have nothing to lose in doing everything they can to make themselves better. Certainly, they can't get any worse. But most don't want to change -- even if it means getting better. The inertia is too great -- to get moving again. They don't want to move on; they want to die where they are. Formerly, people made those choices for themselves.
But now with so many health care workers, social workers, home health aides, one can be kept alive longer than their own efforts alone make possible. That is fine -- as long as any other doesn't have to sacrifice their own health and well-being for any other, whether the young for the old, or the old for the young. Often, it is not just one for one, but many for the one, until one has a whole empire serving the needs of The One -- for which any sacrifice, is not too great.
That is not the trend in modern societies -- fortunately. The highest attainment is the greatest self-reliance and self-sufficiency, because everyone is given equal access to all the resources -- particularly information of what they are, and how to access them. But the outcomes and results, will never be the same for everyone because of individual variations that ensures the survival of the species in the diversity of responses to any crisis or challenge Otherwise, one thing would wipe out everyone in an instant -- rather than allowing a few exceptions to the rule, to survive and eventually flourish in drastically changed circumstances.
It could be that some can stand the cold better, while others the heat. But as such, some enhance their survival prospects by moving towards their most favorable conditions -- rather than their most trying and difficult circumstances -- as proof they can withstand anything. Far better, for them to identify and move towards their greatest strengths and favorable conditions -- in optimizing their life and existence. That is what every living thing must do. That is their categorical imperative -- the drive above all the others.
The individual must survive -- in order for the group to. If none of the individuals survive, than the group is not possible. That is why the individual must survive, and beyond that, thrive -- to make all things possible beyond that. And rather than retirement being the end of those responsibilities to do well, it is actually the test tube of experimentation for how life can be -- if one's primary responsibilities are no longer the perpetuation of the present society, and its dependencies. It can be a life of greater independence, than increasing and inevitable dependence.
That is a choice -- that the most able make, because they can. That creates the society of the future. -- and not simply extending the lifespan of failing/fading life. That formula is doomed to extinction. -- because the measure of life, has never been its quantity -- but its quality. And quality is not just more of the same -- but significantly and appreciably different and better.
Those are the foundations of a golden age -- of individual or collective life, when one has access to all the information. The limit then, is not the information, but one's own desire and drive to tap it. Many don't even want to know about it -- because if they did know about it, they'd feel compelled to do something about it -- and so let themselves off of that responsibility, by choosing not to know, and turning away from every possibility of knowing. So theirs is the age of darkness -- repeating life as it has been, for thousands of years before. Or even the generation before.
That is the betrayal of all that have come before us -- not to see what lies beyond. Quite probably, it is of life beyond the money and cares of our traditional lives -- which we think is the ultimate goal and destination. And then we die -- or spend the rest of our lives worrying about it. That too, will come to pass, but to spend the better half of one's life worrying about it, is wasting the best years of one's life -- in the actuality.
All of life up to this point, has been a preparation, for moving beyond the past and knowledge that limits us. Only those who take on the challenge and responsibility of finding out the life never lived or imagined before will enter the golden age of these discoveries. And that is to embrace and embody, all that has gone before -- and go beyond that. That is the golden age of discovery.
The Answer is Out There
The Great Realization is that we know far less than what we don't know -- or think we do. Just because we don't have the answer, doesn't mean that nobody does. It may even be that what we think is hard and difficult, is really very simple and easy -- but our conditioning (education) is to think that everything is hard, and requires years to learn -- especially if the "educator's" job, is their own lifetime job security -- for as long as they can convince their students, that nothing else is possible -- for everything that can be known, has already been discovered, as though knowledge were always a thing of the past, and not the future work of humankind.
For surely, that is the work of everyone -- and not just a self-selected and designated few. It was not always that way, and among the oppressive individuals and societies what makes them distinctive and dangerous as the world becomes more populous. We no longer live and organize to conquer and vanquish every other -- particularly those who do not believe as they do, and demand that everyone does on forfeiture of their lives, as they deem necessary.
That is true even of societies that consider themselves "enlightened" -- as they predictably do -- justifying all actions to enforce their "consensus." Formerly, they owned the machinery of control and propaganda, and so could be fairly successful -- especially in the schools of indoctrination to convince the young and impressionable, that they did know "everything there is to know." But the answers, are not just what they control, and even create -- but the actualities every individual life creates for themselves. That is what is real, and happening, at every moment in time.
How much we know of it depends of every individual's openness to those possibilities -- that they may not know everything there is to know, or even the little to solve the problems of their own daily living -- before presuming to solve all the great problems of human existence -- for everybody else. Invariably, those who never solve the problems of their own living are "too busy" solving the problems of everybody else -- and so there is no time left over for the selfish pursuits of "cleaning up their own act," and in that way the proper work of the world is left undone while much that is unnecessary and counterproductive have highest priority.
And things just get worse, year after year, unfailingly -- even calling it "paradise," or the "Best of all Worlds. " They may not convince everybody of that, but they convince enough people to make that their "localized" reality -- and all that can be known. Dissenters from those lockstep truths, are purged, or purge themselves -- in moving to more agreeable conditions rather than accepting that life can be no other way.
Those are the brutal struggles of societies of the past -- hoping to remain in that past, rather than discover the future in which those problems and difficulties that have tormented humankind for time immemorial, are solved, because that's what people do, and live their lives to do. Either that, or they just accept the lives that were handed down from the past, and go no further -- as the unwritten taboo -- of where no one should go.
Information used to be scarce and hard to come upon -- and societies were organized to maintain that situation as the competitive advantage for those who got there first, even if it meant exploiting their own progeny -- because that is what they were convinced, was what everybody did, from time immemorial -- and that was their fate and destiny too.
Now we know that if we don't know the answer, it is that we haven't asked the right persons -- even if we have to find that out for ourselves rather than just accepting what we know that doesn't work -- as the be-all, end-all of that matter. Those capabilities are programmed and designed into the very tools we use -- not just to hammer nails or threaten others into seeing things the way they would like us to, or even telling us what they know but arriving at the essential question, how do we know? -- and beginning beyond that.
Easy Does It
Most people who think that exercise has to be hard and difficult, end up not doing any -- because just the thought alone, is enough to discourage them. Eventually, it is not even a consideration, or an impossibility -- for some trivial reason. They just never "go there" anymore. What do they do instead?
Exercise is what one actually does -- and not just the thought of doing something, that one doesn't. The human capacity is expressed in this manner -- or loses that capability for the lack of its actualization and expression (exercise). One tends to keep and improve those capabilities they actually express -- as the requirement to keep them intact, fully functioning, and improving as long as one does so
Those faculties not exercised, naturally atrophy and are extinguished as unnecessary baggage particularly with diminishing resources. That is just the way it has to be. So at all times, one has to be choosing to do this or that, and not that by doing neither, all capacities remain in top form -- just because they ought to.
People become good at what they practice (exercise), whether it is beneficial to do so or not. That is their conditioning - and far from doing just one thing, an obviously better approach is to determine what range of movements and actions one wishes to become good at -- even if at first, they don't start off doing it perfectly. A large part of any practice, is to simply become better and more efficient at it -- to make it easier and more disposed to moving in that way. Those variations are not unlimited. -- but they are varied -- and not just one motion, repeated as the entirety of one's repertoire of movements -- enabling all whenever one has to.
The superior performer, has a greater range of movements than just the one done repetitiously and unvaryingly -- as many people's choice of the one capacity they wish to maintain, while the rest are neglected, and predictably atrophy. In this perspective, running alone would be a very poor choice of an adequate response to most real life demands In fact, it is distinctly useless in contemporary life -- when the speed of transmission, is the speed of light and electricity.
The obvious and most visible places people deteriorate, are the extremities of the head, hands and feet, that even athletes who should know better, regard merely as stumps -- which they often become -- because those parts are never moved. That has a catastrophic effect on doing those things most important and critical to do -- and not merely speeding up the autonomic functions of breathing and heart beat. Autonomic means simply that -- that they don't require conscious thought and effort to effect or optimize, and as we often see, many can go on breathing and beating, for many years beyond any other willful motions of intent and expression -- which is the bane of lengthy lives -- with no other meaningful and willful capacities.
Fine motor coordination and capacities is the first thing lost, and is the most reliable predictor of declining health -- rather than breathing and heart beat, that can distressingly continue way beyond most resources to support in that state. The appearance and functioning at those extremities, are the indicators (whether people realize it or not), of vitality and responsiveness -- that most people consciously ignore, and are never taught (or learn), as the highest expressions of human capacity and life.
That is what needs to be exercised -- no matter how much one runs, jumps, bicycles, walks -- without attention to those extremities of expression -- as in writing, drawing, playing an instrument, taking care of oneself as deftly and skillfully as possible. It is a very serious disability not to be able to feed oneself. Those abilities don't just disappear easily -- but have to be maintained, as well as perfected just as children are taught to do, as their basic conditioning (education) in life. But as people get older, all that is taken for granted, and when there is serious dysfunction and disability, few think there is anything they can do about it -- like making that development the focus of their activities (exercise), rather than all the other things that are doing fine without that need for attention and attentiveness.
One has to address those needs and weakness -- and not simply divert all one's time and energies to doing what doesn't need to be done -- thinking that is all one can do.
Appreciate What You Have
The greatest attainment and the key to life, is making the most of what one has -- rather than desiring, and even attaining, insatiable more, which as wise people realize, always is a little more -- no matter how much they have.
That is the first consideration, and not the last, for those who want to be efficient at personal problem solving -- before one can go out and save the world. One has to first direct that improvement to one's personal problem solving -- before it can be effectively scaled to solving the larger problems. Obviously, solving the problems of one's own health, should be the primary director in every life.
That is what it means fundamentally, to appreciate what you have -- to make it greater. That's the meaning of the word -- "to make greater." That is what appreciation does. Once we understand that, we can make a little into infinity. But we can never do that, if we can never appreciate what we already have -- to make it more.
That is particularly the problem of health in older people -- who think they can get better, without doing anything about it. Of course what one does makes a difference, and all of life is not just a random walk in each lifetime -- "signifying nothing."
Jesus said, "I give you talents, but you have to make them greater." Or you lose them. That's the difference between those in good health, and those in failing health -- whether they are getting better. If they aren't, there is no hope -- because it is just a matter of time... But most people can control their own health and destiny to a remarkable degree and extent -- but they have to find out themselves to know the actuality that is their reality. Finding out for oneself, is the quest of a lifetime -- at any time of life. That is the secret.
The Exception is the (Greater) Rule
Some "highly educated people" think that the object in life, is to see no difference in everything -- rather than the uniqueness in everything. And so they think they've seen everything, when they have not even begun to see anything, or to look earnestly. So even when something is new and different, they will only see it as the same, and are quite content to confirm that it is what they already know -- even thought they have not even begun to inquire and investigate. They just know they are right -- and there is nothing more to know. That is the end-all and be-all of any inquiry -- just to confirm what they already know, and have done -- repeated one more time.
In that manner, nothing new will ever be discovered -- but only the ancient wisdom confirmed, reasserted, repeated -- as though nothing new can ever be discovered, or will ever be. And of course, for such people, nothing ever will -- though they will claim to know many things, because they have been the invariably same thing repeated through the generations. Such minds, and therefore bodies, become old before their time, and there is nothing they can do about it -- because that is the way it is -- and there is nothing they can do about it, etc.
People just age badly, because that is what they were meant to do -- and there is nothing to do but commiserate, as the fate all must endure -- and not that life and fate could be any other way, as it must be, for the few who will be the successful exceptions to the rule of failure. One will invariably know only that failure, until one discovers the success against it. That is what individuals who are successful, eventually do. They find a way to overcome and prevail, against the rule of failure, that thus far prevailed and ruled life until that point.
That is what changes life -- and the world, and not just repeating the failures and mistakes forevermore. Individuals find a way to win, and prevail, when the collective wisdom and "the averages" say they can't, and suggest they should not even try, or even think about it. All must simply acquiesce, or give in, to what those who claim to know all, and better, say is the rules for all time -- just as they have always been up to now, and nothing more is possible -- because all knowledge and wisdom, was perfected long ago -- by their chosen ones, and it is heresy to believe anyone can do any other, more, or differently -- under threat of even death, which they feel comfortable and justified to enforce.
That is invariably "the news," just as it has been for all time before -- and not that the real news, is the unveiling of the challenge to the rules revealing a greater underlying truth -- formerly dismissed, as only an exception to the rule, and an aberration not worth knowing about. Thus the "law of averages," remain inviolable and sacrosanct, as laid down previously by "the authorities," which are the self-appointed few of every profession and self-interest. They are "the experts," and no further proof and demonstration, is required other than their say so, which must not be questioned -- or the gods themselves would be upset.
That was the old world order -- that new information revealed as the limits to thinking that retarded the progress, until it too was challenged and overcome -- and life became very different, for the next generations to come. It has always been that way -- until it isn't, and becomes the critical failure, at which life ceases as we know it -- and something radically and unfamiliarly new and different, comes into being -- as the natural evolution of how it must be -- with or without us. Life will go on.
But the question for every individual, is to remain a part of it -- and not the many falling by the wayside -- until we can't. That is quite different, from the many who drop out, because they refused to find a way to go on -- but were discouraged and frustrated at every turn, until they simply gave up trying and waited for their end -- even for however long that might be.
For too many, that is sadly when one no longer has dedicated teachers and guidance for their improvement -- and they are "on their own," to provide it for themselves -- as the successful individuals, they are conditioned to be. Instead, they learn all the wrong lessons -- that plagues them all their lives. Society then has no recourse, except that they must enforce the rules for such persons, because they cannot mature as individuals -- discovering the truth for themselves, as the exception to the rules -- they are uniquely privileged to discover for themselves. That is the reward, of their very living -- and not just what everyone is "entitled" to, regardless of how they live their lives.
That is the reason for their living -- and the meaning and purpose of their lives, they've given to themselves. That is very different from those who think that "Shit happens," and because of that, they have no control over their own lives, but should control everybody else's -- for the same results, or worse. What is important for such people, is that all experience the same results -- without variation, or individuation, because their golden rule, is that everything be the same, for everyone, for all time. That is their "Paradise," and what they strictly enforce.
They simply do what everybody else does -- thinking "more" is all they can do -- and never differently, or better. Such things are not possible -- to their way of thinking. Only more or less -- in only one way of thinking. And so their problems are never solved, but only get worse with time and age -- until the critical failure when it is impossible to continue any longer. But that is not the one way it has to be for everyone. That is the value of those who discover the "exceptions to the rule" -- that reveal the even greater truth lying undiscovered beneath it. It was there all along too.
It was the "simpler" truth -- there for the taking, but nobody could figure out how to make their exclusive profit from it -- and so it languished, neglected and ignored, until impossible to overlook anymore. It was the mountain overshadowing all the molehills people claimed as their exclusive turf and could work their own profit from. That is the greater life beyond present imagination to recognize -- that transforms life immeasurably without such limits and preconceived notions of what it is.
Why We Grow Old
It's not so much age -- as it is whether a person is constantly improving, or constantly getting worse. The surest way for things to get worse, is to deny that there is any problem -- because then one doesn't seek a solution but accepts the problem, as the way things ought to be -- ie. "just getting old."
All of life is a problem we need to solve. The challenges are different at different times in our lives -- but we still have to rise to that challenge every day of our lives. That IS life. That is what all life faces, and when they can no longer meet that challenge, they perish -- quite understandably. That is the way of the world.
Most of the problems that people accept as the normal, are conditions they can do something about -- but are conditioned (educated) to accept them as normal by whatever peer group says it is so. That's why it is good to have a diversity of exposures rather than the consensus that everybody has to be that one way -- of inevitably and invariably getting worse, but maybe going into denial about it.
Some can and do get better -- but not necessarily in the old and familiar ways. Younger is not necessarily better. Better is something else entirely different -- and not just more or less of the old and familiar. And that is the mistake many of the old make -- in wanting to go back to their youth -- instead of exploring and creating the greater life ahead, which no one taught them to do, or was possible, so they don't do it, and can't imagine it possible, or another way.
That is the very crux of the problem.
"Exercise" in the 21st Century
The bottom line is that we have to change our thinking -- as well as the way we talk about conditioning activities. The "old" manner of talking about exercise, is a huge part of the problem -- that one has to run three miles every other day, or have to bench press our bodyweight as indicative of greater fitness. Exercise doesn't work "even" for older people; it works "especially" for older people -- and people in deteriorating conditions.
But those "exercises" can't be ones that increase one's risk of injuries disproportionately to any benefits. That's as preposterous as the health experts advising people to stand up all day -- as though that is the best thing for sore feet, aching knees and backs. I don't know how many times I've heard a 100 year old frail and blind person explain that they fell trying to follow their expert's advice to walk a half hour each day.
That's not an appropriate activity for such an individual. And any running would be worse. But one can create movements they can do in bed, sitting, or standing in one place -- when they realize the really meaningful movement, has to take place at the critical joints of the head, hands and feet -- rather than the attention to the autonomic functions of the heart beat and breathing -- which is the problem when they persist, when movements (and activities) at the head, hands and feet, are no longer exhibited in any meaningful and responsive action.
And reviving 5,000 year old understandings of the human body and health -- as the latest and greatest new insights, are moving in the wrong direction -- towards a 21st century vision of actualizing lifelong health of extended durations. The parameters for these measurements and discussions focus on the wrong things -- and simply doing more of the same things, is not the answer but the problem. People won't do them because it doesn't make perfectly good sense. When things make perfectly good sense, there's nothing more important or effective for them to do to begin each day.
That is the clarity they have to begin each day with -- or no amount of coercion masquerading as "physical education," will overcome.
The Karma (Aging) of Our Lives
All that one does -- is the person they are, and become. That is the significance of growing "old" -- or better and wiser. Obviously, if one doesn't learn to live their lives better, they will suffer for it -- because there is a cause for everything, and is related to everything else -- and not that nothing is related to anything else, and so one can feel free to do anything they think they can get away with -- because nobody will know any difference. Life doesn't work that way. There are consequences to every action, thought and deed -- even if nobody else is watching (knows), because that has never been a requirement for why things happen.
The good or bad, is how well one ages. It all comes home to roost, and take root, as the course of the rest of their days. It does matter what one eats, how one exercises, the excesses one indulges in, the risks one takes, the damage they do, or the good nobody else witnesses -- that all becomes the person they are throughout life, and especially, at the end of it.
A few will know what to do -- to all the challenges of their lives, and continued viability and well-being, while many, will have no clue what to do with every incident (crisis) that arises in their lives. They never learned how to solve a problem, and never thought it was important to -- because somebody else would do all those things for them. That's when many lives unravel, or are revealed for what they truly are.
That's when the truth comes out -- what one has really been doing -- and not just what one would have others believe. By then, it is too late and too overwhelming to undo all the damage one has done to their own lives -- if one continues as one always has. But one can change what one always has done before -- and in that manner, create a whole new course for their lives. But that change, will not come about just continuing to do what one has always done before -- thinking there can be a different result than the one that always has been before. That's not how life works.
Life works in the way we make it work -- as the practice and conditioning of our lives. We get good at what we actually do -- and practice. If that is merely to make life harder and more difficult for ourselves and others -- then being around such a person, will not be pleasant and avoided by most people. So of course the eventual result of "conditioning" activities that make every effort harder and more difficult, is not to make one stronger -- but to make one not do it, especially when healthful activities and movements (conditioning) would be most beneficial -- when even a little would go a long way, while doing nothing, is the problem, and makes it worse. But such people don't know how to make what they have to do possible; they only know how to make it more difficult, and therefore, impossible, not to mention painful.
They convince themselves that the ONLY way to learn, or do anything, is the hard way, and to make it increasingly harder and more difficult, as though somehow at the end, everything they know to be true, is miraculously reversed -- as though that was the way of the world. So they believe to achieve anything in life, one has to do the opposite -- as though that was some guarantee of anything, and are surprised, when nothing turns out as it should -- and that is what they think life is, just a random crapshoot -- in which nothing happens as they would like it to -- and that is what "getting old" is all about.
In such societies, there obviously are no (role) models for successful aging -- but everyone inevitably and invariably turns into monsters -- and as the old "fairy tales" had them, they ate young children who were careless or foolish enough to venture near them. The wise simply avoided them. Hopefully, we live in a more enlightened time when we can make better discriminations of those who aren't so predatory on others BECAUSE they exhibit great independence and self-sufficiency not to suck on the lifeblood of the young and vital -- as the only way they know how to be.
That is the future that makes longevity meaningful and fulfilling, and not just getting invariably and incessantly worse -- without any prospects for life getting any better. The ultimate test of all that one has learned, is the preparation for this life at full maturity -- when they each must go their own way, answering to themselves more than any others. All of life before then, is just a preparation for a life in maturity. The end of immaturity, is not the end of life -- but the beginning of this new way of being, which every society in history, has hoped to create and manifest.
It is not simply the continuation of the old way of doing anything -- at any stage of life. It is to create something wholly, and wonderfully new and different -- as the fulfillment of that society. So obviously, it is not just going back to the old ways of a hundred years ago, or as some pride themselves, in going back to the cave-man era -- as though they knew everything there was to know back then, and worth knowing. All those people lived short, brutal lives -- so that is no blueprint for a future of extended lives of unimagined fulfillment beyond foraging for their daily survival.
We've long passed that life at the constant brink -- to retain that as our highest ideal of what is now possible. All this is built, on what has gone on before -- and what we hope to take to the next level. Obviously, at this time, the great challenge for individuals as well as society, is how do we make the "golden years" of our lives, the best ever? That is wholly possible -- and not simply, how do we make the best of what life has always been before, that always ends so sadly? Can there be a different ending? All signs point to it -- as the inevitable development of these times.
Even Treadmills Can Be Dangerous
Most people, in considering fitness activities, don't calculate the most important -- which is the risk-to-benefit in doing anything. Mountain climbers have a tendency to fall from great heights -- and those who love water sports, have a possibility of drowning. Treadmills force one to move at a greater rate than they are inclined to. People usually meet their end, doing what they usually do -- whether they like it or not. That's just a fact of life -- and living.
Thus, one should spend as much time doing what they truly think is worthwhile -- and do that until the very end. Just watching television, or smoking as one primary activity, robs time and energy from better pursuits. These days, that might be isolating oneself with one's own thoughts -- while absenting oneself from their actual environment, and what is happening in their immediate vicinity. That can be dangerous. Particularly if one is driving a car.
However, that does not mean one should be afraid of everything, or doing anything. One just has to realize the risks -- that there can be danger in anything -- even running on a treadmill. Much less dangerous, is just moving one's body -- relative to itself. Moving the body -- in relationship to external measures, has been the traditional measure of activity -- rather than the internal change of directly improving one's health, which surely, is likely to be more meaningful. That is, the measure of productivity is effecting movement within the body (circulation and respiration), rather than moving a weight a certain distance in an amount of time.
That actually has very little to do with producing the desirable effects in sustaining lifelong growth, while it could retard it greatly through injury and even death. But long before that, one can see the success or failure, in the changing health of an individual -- whether they are improving, or deteriorating (disintegrating) -- most notably at the extremities of the head (neck), hands and feet. Those qualities can usually be determined by the obvious appearance of decreasing vitality and expression -- and measured on performance scales as cognition (mental functioning), grip strength, and balance (foot strength). Those deteriorations, compromise one's level of functioning in all one does -- and even thinks of doing, anymore.
As nearly as possible, one's conditioning activities, should be as close to their actual usage as possible -- rather than thinking that one grows more proficient, by doing something that has no real world equivalent in practical matters. One is not simply trying to become the best at the treadmill -- which is the embodiment of activity with no purpose -- but has become the gold standard for so many. It makes one's heart beat faster -- but so could so many other things, with much more usefulness.
It seems to me that one of the greatest, most useful activities, is to deliberately and systematically optimize the circulation to those parts of the body most vulnerable to the lack of circulation produced by non-use -- and not taking it for granted that that happens just because the heart beats faster -- or at all. The characteristic of effecting a greater flow, is producing an alternating condition of contraction and relaxation (expansion) in any muscle, which is the pumping effect that is distinctive of the heart, but also capable by any muscle conditioned to produce that same rhythmic effect.
To the body, that is the single most useful "work" that can be done -- to maintain and increase one's health, and produce all those other desirable effects of improved appearance and functioning. The cardiovascular flow, has to be effected by the neuromuscular flow of impulses that cause that change in state, and greatest range of expression from the relaxed to the greatest contraction -- beginning at the extremity of which there is that deliberate firing to invoke.
Ignoring that, means the typical failure of the extremities to maintain their capabilities, despite the amount of increased work one may be demanding of the heart alone -- which was never designed to do it all. This is particularly true for those suffering from the deteriorating conditions that begin at the extremities of their body -- and working its way back to the heart because of these circulatory failures -- until the heart may be the only well-serviced and well-functioning organ, even while all else has failed. Obviously, that is even a greater failure than death itself. Unfortunately, that is an increasing possibility is such a singularly misguided focus on the value of conditioning activities -- which should be to increase the range of one's activities and competencies, and not just the one while the rest languish and deteriorate into a horrible end.
The greater life, is much greater -- and not just the one, out of proportion to all the others. That sense of disproportion and imbalance, invariably leads to unforeseen catastrophic results. Life is the whole -- and not just the part, however important we ascribe to it. It is the complete development that has always been the objective of every conditioning (educational) program worthy of its time and focus.
A Sense of Proportion
Exercise doesn't have to be hard (long), to be effective. Even for those who (should) know better, that is a difficult conditioning to overcome -- the belief that something good in small quantities, are not better in unlimited larger ones. While a little walking, running, or any other activity may be all one needs, indiscriminately more has a negative impact -- so it is discovering that delicate balance of greatest benefit for the least risk and wear, is the magic equation -- and not simply more or less, all good and all bad.
The best life, is this constantly balancing act -- of discovering what this optimal relationship of all to all, results in the highest actualization of well-being and functioning. If one takes too great a risk, danger is imminent, if not certain. Nevertheless, that is how many people live their lives -- from one catastrophe to the next -- thinking they are wise. Unlimited risks, do not result in greater rewards. Usually, only a slight increase in risk, may convey an advantage -- but it is still not equal to a little, all one's life.
Yet the very measure of these things, is often and foremost, how much -- instead of, at all -- which adds up over time, whether that is savings, or just to live (fight) another day. So before one becomes too advanced in age, the hope is that one gives up as much unnecessary risk-taking, even while knowing that eventual death is a certainty. Nobody -- not even the gods, seem to have gotten past that one. That is what we know of life. That it continues -- until it doesn't.
There is no thought or action, without its impact, and knowing that, one is always asked to make a choice -- while the foolish think they can "have it all." No matter how much one thinks they know, there is always more that can be known -- and not the lament of the foolish, who think they know it all, and tell everybody as much -- constantly, until they are silenced -- usually by their own actions. That brought one to the time and place of one's choosing. One is likely to die -- or live, doing what they enjoy doing -- rather than at what they seldom, or never do.
That is self-evident truth. In movement, one has to actually go through the motion, and not simply think or wish it so -- no matter how earnestly. The problem is seldom that one has to overcome a great resistance, as it is to move a bodypart at all -- that one has not moved in a long while. That simple movement, would be a 100% or even tenfold improvement -- immediately, particularly in those we have given up seeing such responsiveness again.
But if one conditions such movements and never stops because it is made possible in the doing -- one maintains such movement, because one can. Until one can't.Humanity will get by with some one else bench pressing 500 lbs. or finishing a marathon -- because it has nothing to do with simple, varied, useful movements. Yet that is what we don't do -- and wonder why that is lost. That was never exercised. Instead, they chose to do things that were not necessary to do -- until they couldn't do them anymore, and even then, did not replace them with the simple movements necessary to maintain their viability and responsiveness in any noticeable manner.
What are they choosing to do instead? What is the meaning of a bench press or a squat -- to get to that day when they can no longer bear to move at those joints? And so they don't -- forevermore. It's not a good tradeoff -- but we seldom see anything else. Yet the variety and range of movement, distinguishes one's vitality -- and not just one motion, repeated relentlessly. That is the failure of running or walking, no matter how much it is done. It is only one movement, repeated countless times -- until it inevitably results in destructive wear and stress.
But that doesn't mean that one can't do something else -- just that one thing, of the many things one can be doing. More importantly in one's conditioning, is to do what one hasn't does before -- not just in making a familiar movement more difficult, but in doing something entirely different -- as the conditioning best suited to solving life's many challenges.
That is the conditioning that enhances one's survival chances -- rather than just doing one thing, no matter how proficiently. One is conditioning oneself for success in life -- and not just proficiency in any arbitrary and contrived measure, whether that be running, walking or weight-lifting. The big picture, is much more important than the narrow focus and specialization -- that may have very little value and significance in the big picture -- that is conditioning for successful longevity, which hasn't been achieved so far.
That milestone is achieved by the first person to reach 100, who doesn't look 100 -- as we're familiar with it. That is obviously the logical step in human evolution -- and not just remaining as we are, longer -- which is totally preposterous and meaningless. We don't need to decline longer; we need to improve as long as humanly possible -- even if that takes less, and not more -- in variety and range, to achieve that balance.
Taking Better Care of Ourselves
If things don't change, the coming crisis will be the lack of caregivers to take care of other people -- caused greatly, by people not taking better care of themselves -- first and foremost. If people did that, the need for others to care for them, would diminish greatly.
There is nothing inevitable about decline and deterioration at any time in life -- except that it is an accepted "normal" in many -- especially those who were never very good at it at any point in their lives. Naturally and predictably, they just got worse -- as the only way they knew how to live out their lives, because they didn't see good role models of anything else. They saw only self-destructive types, who inevitably self-destruct -- but there is nothing normal, or desirable about such a path -- no matter how much help from others -- that might entitle them to.
Such individuals do require greater guidance and assistance throughout life -- not only in harming themselves, but others around them -- creating a path of destruction in their wake. It used to be much worse -- but is improving with time. The progress and evolution of human society, is that people become better -- even if they have to make themselves so
That doesn't necessarily create more jobs -- in the traditional sense of doing something for someone else, of which caregiving is the ultimate manifestation of. "Caregiving" may be necessary for babies -- but the object in life, is to become more self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-sustaining -- rather than increasing one's dependence on others, even if that is socially approved, condoned, and provides many jobs for others -- even as the fastest growing industry. That is not a good measure of progress.
It is obviously moving in the wrong direction. When it takes ten to look after one, or even one other to look after one, that is a zero-sum game, no matter how much time, energy and other resources are put into such a scheme. Then those caregivers, haven't the time, energy and resources to devote to themselves, and the most dependent and/or dysfunctional, call the tunes -- for the rest of society to dance to.
Therefore, the only thing that makes sense, is for everyone to become more proficient at caring for themselves -- so that they don't require that attention by others. The obvious cases are bicyclists who believe that it is everybody else's job to watch out and ensure their safety -- as though they don't have that primary consideration for their own. Criminals and other social deviants are a similar drain on everybody else's resources. They think that is the primary reason for everybody else's existence.
That is an immature (erroneous) view of the world, and the place one has in it. The question then, is not what one should do for another, but what can one do to better themselves? That is the most meaningful action any human can take. But that does not mean exclusively for one's own benefit -- and nobody else's, even to being in conflict with everybody else -- for everything. Even to thinking that one is in competition with everybody else, for everything, all the time -- which is even thinking about being in competition with oneself -- to justify and disguise such ignoble intents.
The most productive action, is that which benefits many others -- as well as oneself -- as the first and prime beneficiary. But if one cannot provide that benefit even to oneself, it is a stretch of imagination to think that they are providing that benefit to everybody else but themselves. That was what they called, "sacrificing" oneself for another. A healthy world and outlook, does not require such "sacrifices." The healthy world is where no one sacrifices and subjugates themselves to another -- especially by their own choice and deliberation.
That would be a sustainable and growing society -- and not one consumed by the obsession, "Where will all the future caregivers come from -- when it is my turn to become the chief beneficiary?"
Hopefully, that day never comes, and one dedicates their lives to ensuring that as much as possible. That would be especially true in retirement -- when people have to justify their lives beyond the usual affiliations and occupations. At that point, many lives implode because they've never thought of these things before -- and have to justify their own existence. Life then, is what every individual makes of it -- but their entire life before then, has preparation for.
For many, that will be a disaster -- as they realize they are totally unprepared, and everything they have done, has been a dissipation and waste of every opportunity that ever presented itself -- even to the most underprivileged. That is to say that even privileges, have become everyone's entitlement. Unfortunately, reality is seldom as generous as to be fooled by such sophistry. It demands real results.
The world hasn't seen such actualizations before -- because that is the work of the present generation. That is why we live.
Doing Everything Wrong -- and Refusing to Change
That is a fatal combination. Not surprisingly, that is always and inevitably fatal. One could not expect anything different -- yet many people make up their minds, even at an early age, to do everything wrong, and refuse to change. That is the process of dying, and before that,the slow dying we call "aging," because we refuse to change, for whatever reason. One is set in their ways, and is no longer responsive, and meeting the challenges of their everyday living, appropriately. One simply waits, for the inevitable end -- paralyzed in thought, deed and action. Waiting for the end.
It doesn't have to be that way, and isn't, for those who remain responsive to life -- at every age. But that is the difference -- whether one is responsive, and responds appropriately, optimally, beneficially -- and not just indiscriminately, as though nothing makes a difference, but one keeps on doing it anyway. Obviously, if something is not working, doing more of it, is not going to make the difference one desires -- but only give them the same result -- time after time, after time.
The obvious is that one must do something different, to get a different result, and eventually, the desired result -- but one cannot achieve that, by doing that which doesn't work -- no matter how much more times. Fortunately, there is not just one way things can be done -- but many ways, until one discovers what works wonderfully -- and can move on to the next challenge to a better life. That has always been the challenge of living in any age.
So the solution must solve the problem -- and not just keep it going, and getting worse. The easy answer then, is that one must be doing the opposite of what one is doing, and not just the opposite of what would make perfectly good sense to do, and would actually solve the problem, rather than perpetuating it for all time. That is the culture of dysfunction -- and not a more perfect society, which of course, must be composed of more perfect individuals. It doesn't just happen because people wish it so. They have to do things that actualize that reality -- even if they are the first, the pioneers in doing it that way -- that leads to a better way for others.
But first, it has to be discovered and manifested by one, to make it a reality and choice for others. Until then, we don't know we have that possibility -- until someone actually manifests it -- and not just say that someone (else) should. Few are conditioned to think this way. Most are conditioned to believe they have no choice -- in all the thoughts and actions of their lives. Somebody else is always responsible -- for solving the problems of their lives. But they themselves, think that they cannot solve the problems of their own lives -- in that direct and obvious way, in being the way one lives their lives successfully.
Seldom is it the case that there are "no results." Much more likely, is that there are not the results one desires -- rather than that it is acknowledged that one is getting the wrong results, and the desired results, require different actions -- beginning with the understanding of the problem, and the conditioning that makes it so. One is never simply "doing nothing," but always "doing something" -- even if for a wrong and disastrous result.
Then one sees the cause and effect -- or karma, of actions leading to results. It may not be what we intended, or would like others to believe is true, but it is the result of our actions. Some would have us believe that there is no link or consequence between what we do, and what we experience -- as the result of our actions (exercise), which largely explains (determines) the person we are. That may be a prematurely old and dysfunctional person -- but doesn't have to be, not just because one wishes it were not so -- but doing differently to make it so. That will make a difference. That is the only thing that will.
Nothing More Important To Do
It should be obvious, but to many people, it isn't. They insist they are other than what they actually do -- and would like other people to believe they are. So for such people, there is always the difference between what they do -- and what they wish other people to believe, despite what they actually do. That leads many to conclude that they are "hypocrites" -- people who do one thing, and claim that it is something else, so that others should not trust their own senses, but instead, believe what they say. In that way, others become as confused as they are -- of what their true "intentions" are, in addition to their actions.
That manner of "doing," becomes quite acceptable as the way of the world, where nothing is as it obviously is. Thus, many do not know what happened, until somebody else explains it to them -- in their very contorted logic. Such people are easy to spot, spending most of their time explaining what they are doing, rather than actually doing anything. How could they be?
Doing is always an integrative action. Talking is the act of fragmentation -- of creating many different versions of the one reality. Reality is always the One Thing -- and not many different explanations of what is happening -- which of course, fragments the reality into many tiny parts -- often in contradiction of one another. That is the problem of living in any age.
Many cling to the tiny parts as though they were the whole -- which must be a unifying comprehension, and not just more separate, conflicting realities. That only adds to the confusion -- and never reducing it. Usually, the facts speak for themselves -- rather than needing interpreters of every persuasion and ideology.
So all of life, is a quest for this truth of the matter -- and this truth, will keep them ageless. but when one only lives in the shadows of their delusions, eventually it must come to an end. Before that, is the dying to the truth more and more each day. That's what kills. Dying to the truth. But if one lives fully in the truth, there is no such dying -- for the truth is living in the present and each moment -- fully. Somewhere along the line, we lose that connection, the mind-body, and live increasingly, in lonly the reality of the mind. That is the danger at any age, but especially so as one ages. That is why some do it well, but many do it badly.
That is the final challenge, and we hope to get that right too.
Denial is not a Solution
Many insist there is no problem -- as their way of solving it. But the problems never go away, and naturally grow worse -- though they go into denial, more and more about those realities. Eventually there is a full disconnect -- from the realities and one's explanation of it. Ultimately, nothing is related to anything else anymore, and the explanations (excuses), take on a life of their own, because it has no tie to any reality anymore.
That's what people and a culture are like, when they prefer their wishful-thinking over the actuality of their actual circumstances -- until they can no longer deny or ignore the many catastrophes -- that seem to have come up quite without warning and deserving. "Randomness just happens," they will proudly proclaim, as though that explained everything.
Especially in Paradise. Naturally, there are too many "homeless" and "poor," living in Paradise -- as though such a thing were possible. True paradise would be the elimination and absence of those problems -- and not just the denial of them, wishing it would make it so. As long as they are denied, it is not possible to solve any of them -- but once they are recognized, is the foundation for a solution. Solutions must be based on a foundation in reality -- and not simply the desire that things were not as they actually are -- with no way out, nobody who believes any problem can be solved anymore, because nobody had done so, in many decades now.
It even came to be believed, that the job of everyone now, was to perpetuate the problems -- as their own job security. What would the world be like -- if it wasn't for all the problems to keep idle minds and hands busy?
But the true work of any society, is to improve life beyond what it has been before -- and not just repeat it, for time immemorial -- even if it is "the way we've always done things" -- as the fall from grace and perfection, many believe we began from. And ever since, it's been downhill.
In certain places, that can be the reality -- rather than the improvement most feel are their birthright now. Unless they choose badly, one of the few places where the quality of life seems to be in decline, among those who do have a choice among the many. Just the belief that there can be no place on earth better, prevents one from considering and exploring the alternatives. Those who can, are obviously at an advantage -- over those who are certain, nothing could be better -- even as badly as things are for them.
Improvement is nearly impossible under those conditions -- as the "work" of society, has become the perpetuation of their problems, rather than any resolution of any of them -- which drives off the "fit," as their means to survival. The "fit," are those who can see the truth as the truth, and the truth in the false -- and be able to tell the difference -- rather than deny, that there can be any difference.
