Insidious Adaptation

It was the night after a long run, one where I went out too far, gone too long, didn't eat enough either. It was a time when I thought I could push it a little more, a little farther, and maybe I could finally obtain a coveted self-accomplishment to allow myself a little peace. "When I hit 15 miles, then I will buy those new shoes."  I will never buy the shoes, I just need something to look forward to, even if that, "thing" will never be allowed to happen.  It was at the end of one of those days, where the push of an accomplishment consumes any other idea that is life and the payment for such an accomplishment, isn't just the fatigue, for that is masterable, but it is the mental craving for something.  I have a theory based loosely in logic, one of chemicals and exercise; the longer the exercise, the more the chemicals used, so then the less brain chemicals there are later. Either way, I was burned, a longer, deeper burn that muscles provid...

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord."- Ephesians 6:4 What is it to provoke someone? What is it to influence a life in corruption? When we interact with people, do they walk away worse than before meeting us? Nobody wants to admit they could be a contributing cause to the destruction of another because that is a lot to take on, and counseling says that people are responsible for their own actions. All very true, even the painful part of acceptance. However, what if in our pursuit for self-satisfaction we eat up and produce noxious fumes polluting the purity of life along the way? What if on our way to weight-loss we post pictures promoting our thinner physiques as our salvation to an otherwise pathetic self? What if on the way to becoming a doctor we produce long, difficult sentences to show our knowledge, thus superiority? What if in my accepted way of self-promotion I provoke you in a negat...

A choice to change isn't exactly where the change starts is it? Like isn't the choice to change just acknowledging a change needs to occur and the reason for a change is what is being addressed? Is the reason for change because of a consequence, because of something so significant that it can no longer go unnoticed? Take weightless for example, many people claim they need to change their diet or lifestyle to lose weight, but then instead of taking out what they must already recognize as the problem materials, by way of recognizing lifestyle choices, they go too far and want a restrictive diet plan. Doesn't it make more sense to start with acknowledging why the change in the first place? After all, the holidays are a time where it becomes socially acceptable to eat more indulgent foods therefore putting on weight in a lot of cases, especially if the rest of the year you were working on diets only to let it go at the end and do it all over again the next year. Isn't start...

My body may be sick, but my soul, she is weary. It is the man inside that has been sick my entire life, My. Entire. Life. The word MY cannot be acknowledged there enough, for it is my life right? Me! The problem with sickness isn't the sickness itself, for whether it is a cold, flue, stomach bug, depression, anxiety, these reactions and ways we interpret them are neither good nor bad, but just are, yet, we submit. WE submit to the flu and gather around those who have it, comforting, loving them, "say prayers," and all rightly so, for the, "flu" as we know it to be does have the potential to hospitalize or kill a person as the media likes to give their annual account of flu-related deaths. The, "flu" or a, "cold" seem to be these underlying spirits that promote fear and hyper-cleansing. Yet, then there are "superbugs" that evolve from such hyper-sanitary areas making us sicker than ever, maybe by resistant strains of the sickne...

"Trick or Treat." "Yes, good, say that. We knock and we say that." My coaching is weak, I don't think I ever said "trick or treat" when I was a kid, probably just a "hello." But us fathers want our children to be better than us right? So, the follow through, the delivery, that is what has to happen here. Let's see if she sticks the landing. ... "Look at them run up there." A few houses in and a neighbor and new friend of our daughters are together, no longer needing an adult to guide, but convince each other this is safe, this is what we do. "Did you say thank you?" I ask my daughter, "Thank you." She says to a now-shut door. "Sweetheart, let's say thank you to them." "Ok." The walk from one house to the next started slow, apprehensive, turned into a slight jog for the children, then a run from the house almost going into the street. A few falls, a couple crash...

Cartoon depictions of worldly desires tend to make a situation more acceptable, more tolerable, less critical. The depictions of a friendly Santa, the cartoon ghouls, the jokey turkey with a personality fighting with a can of whipped cream. The comfort of child-like nostalgia, we are trying to recapture what we once had, innocence. Not innocence in what the the world has shown you through years of experience, but in knowing God as well. Ouch, see, that is the harsh stuff we don't want to hear. However, once one looks at what nostalgia in this world is, once one pieces apart why we feel a certain way, even a good way, we tend to see through the smoke of it all. Why do this? Why look into even the good emotions and see what causes them? Why would I stare at a box of Pop-Tarts, looking into why they provide comfort, a sense of slight warmth that all is right in the world, despite knowing it isn't? Because we cannot have one side of a coin without the other. We must understan...

Gun laws, something of a debate these days. After all, when inanimate objects start to take over, killing hundreds a year, I too have my concerns. If only there was a way to understand the workings of tools that have evolved over the past few decades into these killing machines. Unfortunately, I have not come across the self-workings of a handgun, much like a hammer or the stinging steel of a blade. Therefore, I will attest to what I do know a little about, being human. Though my experience in humanism has only been 32 years, I have spent much time in this brain of mine, and in the last fifth or more helping others with what they present in their mind. This makes me nothing of an expert, however does allow me to contribute a perspective with intent to assist those who try to control. Those are left tired and angry, spreading soiled words on their children and so on. One apparent, and safer route to travel down is that of ice cream, or more specifically, ice-cream-type foods, a, ...

Neither “good,” nor “bad,” yet somehow we still need to judge something in one way or another. We cannot do this with food however, for as I have said before, some nutrient-poor food with a high caloric count, still has benefit to someone. Food is in abundance at this point in the Western world, so we get to be picky. We get to choose what we like, and people can get away with, “not liking the taste of water.” As much as a teeter-totter gets a slight weight shift to go one way or the other, people’s perspectives are only as good as the information they receive. Except, if that isn't accurate, then..? Food provides energy, provides nutrients in their naturally-packed and most-easily absorbed form to satisfy. What happens when we eat foods that are processed where nutrients are removed for various reasons really has more to do with our discontent than it does anything else. Being dissatisfied is why people experience such displeasure with life and therefore respond so poorly. Disco...

A marathon started as a commemoration of the run made by  Pheidippides , a messenger from the  Battle of Marathon  to Athens, who reported the victory. It became an Olympic event in 1896 and now there are many races held across the world, yearly. The total marathon is 26.219 miles and for more people to experience the running atmosphere, there is also a version of half that. Here in Lincoln, Ne that version of the fabled run is highly adapted.  Why are we all running though? Why do we all gather, wait in line, pay $60, dedicate almost our entire weekend, to run 13.1 miles? The common sense here escapes a logical man. If someone wants to go run 13.1 miles, or 15 miles, or the whole 26.2, then they are free to do so whenever they want, without paying and everything. In fact, with social media and Bluetooth devices hooking us up more than a cardiac patient at a hospital, we can even display our achievements to thousands of people online. Again, all logic point...

5409, 5410, 5411 Every step, closer to a higher number, however, further from who I want to be. A, "relapse" by every use of the in the word. In terms of poor, inefficient behaviors, I am revisiting them, reabsorbing them as my own. The numbers on an electronic, overpriced pedometer, counting steps have been around for a long time. Now, the fitness industry has made it even easier to identify success, if you have done enough or not. Little do the producers of such devices realize, people like me, our mind, is always counting. Our mind is always aware, unlike the electronic device in lieu of a traditional watch, nothing we do is passive.... 6302, 6303, 6304 I can't help but glance. I cannot help but be curious if the progress I feel I have made, determined by an intrinsic value, transfers to the outside world, in these numbers. Have I done more or less than I thought? Unfortunately, it is almost always less, for man does tend to over assume fitness activity and un...

The last drink has been drunk. The final call has been made. The work day is over. The dessert bowl has been all scooped, and re-scooped, and there is simply, no more left. What happens when it's all gone? Well, "it" as we use it, has to be defined, which for each of us, could really be anything. IT could be pleasurable, IT could be an achievement, IT could be love, IT could be hate, IT could be pain, IT really could be anything we give it power to be, but IT will come to an end, for anything as we know it to be, will cease to be.   Like a blank piece of paper after all the work initially torn away, discarded, a part of ourselves, never to be seen again, however, built on, better.  A sad and disgruntling thought as I ponder what I can then rely on. Can I rely on my daughter, no, for she will either grow and move on as I want her to, or she will  suffer  from the debilitating effects of the conclusion of the human condition, the diagnosis we all must face. C...

What’s the best way to determine if you’re hungry? That’s right, being born into another body with an alternative mind, one that knows when to eat and has not yet been tained by the highly processed, stimulation provided by the entertainment-driven society we live in and adapted the priority of food as this "comfort" as you may have done, subconsciously of course. That, my friends, is one way to guarantee that you will now only eat when truly necessary. If you are unwilling to do a Black Mirrors act, thus being a new, improved version with some twist of a consequence, then I suggest eating foods that are actually used for their intent. If eating for entertainment then you will choose entertaining foods. If you are eating for hunger, then foods that actually satisfy hunger, what the body requires at the time in the amount it needs at the time, will be what is desired.  Now, this can be as specific or general as you want, but essentially, you want one-ingredient foods, f...