self care

This week there was another hunter accident.

This time no one accidentally shot another, it was a heart attack.

The hunter was a bow hunter, a relative of friends. He was in his early 50’s, a heavy smoker, who never saw a doctor or did anything to take care of himself.

He was an avid hunter (bow hunters are that) and fisherman.

It is just that his body could not keep up with his wishes. He had pushed his luck long enough. This time he sat down on a rock to rest, or to relieve the pain in his chest, and never got up again on his own power.

I am not a great friend of hunting, but that is not what this is about. Ignore your car, don’t change the oil, or even check it and sooner or later that proud beast will let you down, maybe where you don’t want to be.

At 20, we all look good, but as the years pass taking care of the machine we call our body pays off, a little and then big.

Yesterday we had dinner with a friend who is on a severe diet. His heart acted up last year. He is serious about taking care of himself. No free oil of any kind, little to no sugar, little salt and so on. While the meal was not really what I might have chosen, it was not all that bad and my friend seems to be doing very well with it, and if I had the choices he has I could adapt as well.

I guess that is part of this “life is an experiment” thing that I seem to espouse.