Not ready for Betty just yet
Betty White is doing those commercials for people who can't get up (65 and over) and I just bought another bicycle at 69. Well, I'm not ready for the garden yet — to plant or be planted. Movement in some form or other is just something I have enjoyed throughout the years. It also helps with the bowel movement or lack thereof. And speaking of bowel movements, as one watches this constant stream of what can only be described as feces coming at us through the miracle of television, is it no wonder we feel like crapola?
I can't help but feel blessed that my one and only vice for lo these many years has been this addiction to exercise because it has been through that medium I believe I have avoided several health problems I see being spewed over the airwaves. Now I realize a lot of those ailments are carried through the gene pool but many can be avoided by movement.
I could go on about myself but that would be boring, so I want to talk about you and particularly those of you who are considered "seniors," which in today's medium can be anywhere from 40 to whenever some television "doctor" decides you are old. I'm sure most of them stay at the Holiday Inn.
It's obvious these guys want us to get to the point of needing help because that's when help can arrive for just a few dollars a day in the form of Betty White or a stranger living in your house and cooking wonderful meals or stealing your jewelry one earring at a time. Not that Betty White wouldn't be a stranger, after all, we only know her from television.
Let's be honest, the reason many people can no longer move is because they haven't been moving. The fact is, we all exist in this wonderful miracle called the human body, created by a God who believed in walking. Read the Bible and you will find that most of the apostles were walkers. Granted, this may have been because the donkey was considered an expensive mode of transportation. The price of straw kept going up, but still, they walked. Why, even God himself walked for a short time in Genesis (Genesis 3:8) "in the cool of the day" just before he found Adam and Eve walking around looking for that fig tree.
Yes, we were meant for movement and the proof can be seen anytime you observe a walker. People who walk usually have a smile on their face. Joggers frown but that's because they know they should be walking, but jogging makes them look younger, so they jog. They also have this mistaken idea that they will burn more calories by jogging but, just walk longer and you'll catch up.
So, we're meant to move and the question becomes, "Why don't we?" For many it's the sweat factor. Down here in the South, with humidity in the 90s, sweat becomes probable and if I'm a woman and I just washed my hair, well, you can see the problem. Another reason is because we are adaptable animals. Our bodies adapt to whatever it perceives us as needing. If it perceives we need more energy for movement, it will endeavor, through the miracle it is, to supply that energy. I'm sure there are some physiological words that would fit here but the bottom line is that when we fail to move, we send a message that energy is not required and none will be created.
The hard part then becomes taking that first step toward a 40 minute walk to create energy. And so I bought another bicycle that tells me I can still move and psychologically that's the most important thing of all: A belief in self-sufficiency that will last as long as I can move. The belief that while I may have fallen down, I can still get up without Betty or anyone else's help because I've been getting up and moving around for 69 years.
Lastly, the fact is that most of the diseases we see coming at us through the idiot box are self-inflicted wounds in the form of hypokinetic diseases brought on by a simple lack of movement. Now, to be politically correct in order to keep the wolves away, let me say that of course there are those of us who need help getting up, who need help at home. God bless 'em and may he help them secure their valuables, if need be. But for the rest of you, don't shoot the messenger, go take a walk, you'll feel better.
Sonny Harmon is a professor emeritus at Georgia Military College. Visit his blog at http://sharmon09.blogspot.com.
This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 9:07 PM with the headline "Not ready for Betty just yet ."