The American Heart Association launched a new wellness program, and not a moment too soon. Look at these AHA statistics: The statistics are alarming. Each year Americans suffer 1.2 million heart attacks. Cardiovascular disease and stroke continue to be the nation’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers, claiming 870,000 lives each year. Furthermore, 140 million people – 66 percent of Americans – are overweight.
Can you believe this? All of our “advancements” you would think would increase our health and length of life, but not so. And what do you think the American Heart Association says is the leading cause of it all…?
The AHA writes: Americans also are working longer hours. In fact, Americans are working an astonishing 164 more hours per year than 20 years ago. More of the nation’s workforce is in sedentary occupations, which leads to physical inactivity, which leads to greater risk for heart disease and stroke.
With all due respect to the American Heart Association, that’s not news. We Americans know as a whole we are overworked, highly stressed, fatter than ever and caught in the cycle like a gerbil on a spinning wheel and can’t get off… or can you?
Come on folks, let’s face it. The bottom line to all this madness, illness, disease and death is there is a lack of individual responsibility. Think about it for a moment. Why is the question at hand? Why do people work such extra long hours? Why aren’t people out and about and more active? Why has the country become overweight as a whole? Why do kids as well as adults sit on their ever growing larger, flabby fat asses adding to the continually increasing illness and death statistics? Want the answer… you probably already know the answer but don’t like to admit it because we tend to shy away from the truth… it’s because it’s allowed.
It’s really that easy to understand when you break it down. When I think back to when I “needed” something as a kid, like the new toy or game, I would hear my father say, “You don’t need it, you want it. Wants are not needs.”
Do kids need to spend as much time in front of a computer, TVÂ or video screen? No, they need to get out and play and be more active. Do most adults need everything they and their kids have, forcing them to work more hours to pay for it all? Let me answer that… hell no.
Let’s go back to that insightful philosopher we called Dad, and tell me if you ever heard this one. When I would say something like, “But George has one.” The reply was almost always, “I’m not George’s Dad, I’m your Dad and the answer is no.”
Usually the answer was no not because my Dad didn’t want me to have things, he just couldn’t afford it. And guess what we all can’t afford? Illness, heart disease and death. Do we need to pay for $300 game systems for a child so we need (not want) to work longer hours, divide the family from being together and reduce physical activity? Do we need to supply kids with cell phones that they can’t pay for so they can call their friends in the hallways between classes? When did reasonable thinking and firm decision making end?
I suggest what we need is a bit of confidence to take a stand and make the tough decisions that our parents were so good at, because they needed to. Thanks Dad. Thanks for teaching me the difference between wants and needs and passing it down to my son, who by the way doesn’t have his own cell phone, spends time playing like we all used to and is healthy and happy. And unlike my Dad, I can afford everything my son wants … but I know what he needs.
