The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."– John Ruskin
This quote fits for me. My publisher informed me that the final editing will be sent to me by Monday for review. After that, no more changes can be made. In some ways, I think that’s going to be a relief. I’m more than ready to have this phase over with. I certainly think about myself differently. For the past four months or so, I have been more involved with writing this blog. So my thoughts and writing (thinking and doing) have been focused on communicating ideas about health and aging. I might be getting healthier.
My running and training have been affected by expending so much psychic energy related to the book. Yesterday, I was tired and walked a lot during my 6 mile training run with Linda. Today, Tony and I ran a 10 mile trail run. I am still tired. I walked and at times ran well during training. However, I was happy to have that run completed.
Tony and I were talking about being tired and about running. Caveman ran either way from danger or to catch food. He likely did not run for the enjoyment of it. Running is difficult and hard work. For me, I got serious with my running because I wanted to do well in the sport of ride and tie. That was my goal and running helped facilitate it for me. Tony, ran because he wanted to do well with motocross and then with endurance riding i.e. the Tevis. Neither one of us run simply because it is easy or fun. That does not mean that there are not major benefits from running. In essence, it is beneficial but not easy.
Guess what? A recent annual report of state-by-state comparisons of health measures in every US county was completed and the findings about city versus country include the following: 1.a higher percentage of rural children are overweight; 2. 66% of all traffic fatalities in the US occur on rural roads; 3. 25% of the total US population live in rural areas while they have only 10% of the physicians; 4. More suicides per hundred thousand per rural dwellers; 5. Life expectancy is lower in rural areas.
It is believed that health advantages and cities may be a function of age, income, and educational levels of its residents. Rural dwellers tend to be older and less educated than their counterparts. Rural children aged 2 to 5 are nearly twice as likely as urban kids to consume more than 24 ounces of sweetened beverages a day. From 6 to 11 rural kids consume more grams of fat per day. Nationwide, 19% of rural children aged 2 to 19 are obese and 36% of them are overweight which more than urban kids are. These statistics were found in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, July 12, 2011.
One advantage for country living is that rural children didn’t have as much asthma, allergies and autoimmune disorders as city kids. Those of you that live in rural areas, have kids or grandchildren it’s time for attitude adjustment and behavioral health changes.
Go US girls soccer. Beat the Japanese team.
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