Boy, do I realize what it means to be healthy. Three weeks ago, I was
diagnosed
with pneumonia. It's one of the plagues that are ravaging both the town and
campus. My
doctor/friend put me under literal house arrest for two weeks. Susan lovingly,
but
sternly, strapped on an ankle bracelet. You don't mess with the mama!! Boy,
she proved
to have been a Marine drill sergeant in another lifetime. I quickly changed my
classes
into something resembling computerized distance learning so as to minimize any
disruption
for the students. But, the heavy antibiotics and codeine laced cough syrup
made it
difficult to focus. Last week and this, I am allowed only to attend my morning
class and
afternoon class. Otherwise, it's being house-bound for me. Still no exercise.
I had to
cancel a keynote address at the Georgia Conference on College Teaching that I
was looking
forward to attending. Now, I'm being a "good boy" so I can gather my strength
for next
week's Lily-South conference.
So, I am reminded that being healthy means doing what my body and soul
were
designed to do: be on the go. Our heart tells us that it was designed to pump
blood
through our arteries and veins to nourish and flush out our insides. Our lungs
were
design to deeply breath and refresh us. We werent really designed to sit
inside, but to
get out and go. The same is true of our spirit, for it, too, was designed to
be on the
go. It, too, was made to be exercised, to be pushed, to sweat, to grow, to
develop, and
to change. Neither body nor soul, neither heart nor brain nor spirit was made
to for a
status quo.
. You know it is too easy to get tenure, to get to 68 years old, to get
to almost 43
years as an academic, to get near retirement, and say, "I've had it. I'm gonna
rest on my
laurels. I'm not getting involved. I'm not sticking my neck out. I'll get
out of the
water. I'll just do 'my own thing.' I'll play it cool and 'hide.'" God, it's
so easy
not to plunge into life's deep, exciting days and only wade in the safe
shallows. It's
so easy to get a "stuck where you are" existence. The problem is that it's an
avoidance.
It's an imprisonment. It turns a world of boundless energy, excitement,
wonder into a
big, overwhelming, scary place. It's a detour on the road to imagination,
freedom,
creativity, into a dark forest of stagnating, rut-bound, flabby routine. All
this is why
I fear the word "achieved" and "success." You can into trouble if you think
you know how,
you've arrived, that you've got it, and that you don't have to change. It's a
recipe for
losing your know-how, for getting lost, and for losing it; it's a concoction
for getting
bored and boring; it's a nasty mixture for paralysis; it's a foul-tasting blend
of
closed-minded self-righteousness, isolating arrogance, blinding infallibility,
and
immobilizing inflexibility.
You know when I was a child, I wondered what I was going to be when I
grow up. I
think part of my epiphany eighteen years ago was the realization that I should
never "grow
up," that I shouldn't want to grow up, that I should keep on growing and
wondering what
I was capable of becoming and going to be. My body may be on the twilight side
of the
hill, but my spirit is still on the morning side. What keeps me young is that
my stone is
always rolling; I don't let moss gather on it; nor do I let grass grow under my
feet. You
see, to be emphatic, if you don't sharpen the saw, you don't keep the knife's
edge honed,
if you don't engage in that whetstone of constant self-renewal, if you don't
keep on the
go, you'll not grow, nothing will really happen, you'll lose your sharpness,
you'll grow
stale, and you'll atrophy into dullness. Sure, there's no newness without
change, and
change is always challenging, uncomfortable, and maybe painful. But, to stay
healthy
physically and spiritually, I guess I'll just have to keep on experiencing
growing pains.
After all, growing pains aren't merely something preteens experience. They
only occur
when people are growing; they only stop when people stop growing
What got me thinking about this wasn't just being in prison lock-up,
"on the stop"
for two weeks, and "on the slow" for at least two more. It was a book I just
finished
reading. It's a book by the former president of Coca-Cola, Don Keough. The
title of this
masterful, neat, quick read book is "The Ten Commandments For Business
Failure." It's
really about being healthy in the workplace, be it industry or academia. One
statement of
by Keough sums it all up. "You will fail if you quit taking risks, are
inflexible,
isolated, assume infallibility, play the game close to the line, dont take
don't take
time to think, put all your faith in outside experts, love your bureaucracy,
send mixed
messages, messages, and fear the future."
Lots to think about.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__/\ \/\
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/
\ /\
//\/\/ /\
\__/__/_/\_\ \_/__\
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" -
---
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