Lift Up Your Hearts!

It’s okay—it’s good—to be thankful for small things, too.  It may not be an earthshaking improvement, but I’m thankful for digital cameras.  One key to taking good photographs is taking lots of photographs, and in times past only the professional could afford to do so.  Now anyone can.

Digital cameras are also great for children.  Instant feedback is so much more satisfying than waiting to finish the roll of film so it could be developed—and not wanting to waste any pictures because film + developing = a lot of money.  Now there are cameras that let the youngest learn to take good photographs.

What’s more, good cameras—even video cameras—are small enough to carry in a purse.  A small purse!  Our first video camera was a huge monster that took full-sized VHS tapes.

Organizing photos into albums has never been easier, and there are so many more wonderful things you can do to present them.  On the other hand, having so many more pictures and options makes more work, even if the work is easier.

But that’s a minor quibble.  I love my tiny, handy, good-quality digital camera!

There’s no doubt the sociological upheavals caused by the so-called Women’s Liberation Movement have done much harm, but one great thing to come out of that time is a greater closeness between fathers and their children. 

My father was always actively involved with his children—unusually so for that generation, I believe—even before my mother’s early death forced him to take on double parenting duty.  And yet in his journals of our early years he always refers to the times my mother was not at home as times when he was “babysitting the children.”  No one I know with young children in this century would even think such a thought, much less express it.  How can one “babysit” one’s own child?

My own generation was at the cusp, I think.  Most fathers I knew still thought of their time alone with the kids as babysitting duty, at least when the children were very young, but overall they were beginning to be more involved in their care. That happened most as the children grew older, however—and dirty diapers were still the mother’s domain. 

Now—with the notable exception of breastfeeding—fathers seem to be doing everything.  Some even specialize in dirty diapers!  If the father is the family breadwinner and the mother the homemaker,^* then there is necessarily a difference in the quantity of time each has with their children, but functionally dads have taken on parenting in a way that only mothers had enjoyed.  It’s not that they’ve become mothers—watch a father playing with an infant and you’ll say vive la difference! once your heart rate returns to normal.  They’ve become better fathers.

Today I’m thankful for fathers, past and present, who learned the awesome truth that no selfish pleasure brings as much delight as nurturing a family.

It’s quite possible that the environment we live in is in worse shape now than 50 years ago, especially in places like China and Africa.  But here, now, it looks, tastes, and smells a lot better.  And not just because fewer people are smoking.

I remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire, and when it was said you could develop film in the Genesee downstream from the Kodak factory.  My father worked for General Electric in Schenectady, and used to say that they returned the water to the Mohawk cleaner than it was when they took it out, which was no doubt true but should not be taken as an endorsement of the effluent.

The air in Pittsburgh was so full of smoke and particulates that when the Church of the Ascension expanded, they used black stone in order to match the soot-darkened original.

Automobile exhaust was something awful.  It’s not nice even now to walk or bike along a road full of cars, but nothing like what it was before pollution controls.

I even remember when the Freihofer bread delivery truck was horse-drawn, and you can guess what that did to the streets.  (But I loved to sit on our porch and watch it pass by!)

Environmentally, this is not a secure time to be living.   What’s more, I know that the improvements to our air and water quality are only partly because of pollution control laws.  Pittsburgh is a clean, breathable city because they no longer make steel in the home of the Steelers.  We have outsourced and off-shored our pollution as well as our jobs.

But when it comes to breathing and drinking, I’m thankful for today.

This post could also be viewed as a mere excuse for sharing my favorite Tom Lehrer song of that era.

Into the Silent Land:  A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation , by Martin Laird  (Oxford University Press, 2006)

The physical benefits of meditative techniques are well established, and I’d like to be able to take advantage of them.  What has hindered me is that many—though not all—of the studies have focused on Transcendental Meditation (TM), the Eastern religious aspects of which have led me to keep meditation in general at arm’s length since I first learned of it some 40 years ago.  It will not do to gain a physical benefit at a spiritual loss—I can’t help thinking of The Magician’s Nephew, in which Digory was tempted to steal an apple that would have cured his dying mother, but if he had done so, both he and his mother would have later “looked back and said it would have been better to die in that illness.”

Yet Digory, having passed the test, was eventually given another apple, one that healed his mother in the right way.

Despite all the attention given to TM during my formative years, it turns out that Christian meditation is an ancient and respected practice.  Many of the techniques turn out to be similar, though not identical and of course the focus and intent are quite different.

You don’t hear much about Christian contemplative practice today, at least not outside of the more liturgical traditions—and not much in them, either.  Our cranked-up, frenetic, yammering world is not comfortable with either external or internal silence.

Nor does it help that those who have written about meditation are generally describing the indescribable, which makes them incomprehensible, as far as I’m concerned.  I plowed about halfway through Thomas Dubay’s Fire Within:  St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel on Prayer before giving it up as being 'way too far over my head.

Into the Silent Land covers much of the same material in a shorter and simpler form, but it still leaves my head spinning—and this was my second reading.  So I cannot, at this point, give it an accurate evaluation.  I will say it’s worth a third attempt at some point.  For now, I’ve found a few ideas that I can hang onto and begin to put into practice, which may help illuminate a re-rereading.

Spiritual and physical benefits remain to be seen, but even what little I’ve been able to glean thus far has been of some help with no fewer than three of my New Year’s Resolutions:  Learn to Relax, Pay Attention, and Cast Away Fear.  (See  the Progress section of New Year’s Resolution #11.)

Side note:  Do you, like me, assume contemplatives must generally be introverted people?  Perhaps it's true; those who choose to be monks would be those who are comfortable with silence and solitude—not that all contemplatives are monks.  But having read recently that introverts have more activity constantly going on in their brains—more internal dialogue,  measurable in neurological studies—I suspect that we are drawn to meditation because we need it more.  We need techniques and much practice to be able to still the chattering mind and achieve inner silence.

What would today be without being thankful for our veterans, and all who work and sacrifice to protect the rest of us?

In the spirit of the Good New Days, I’m also thankful for our all-volunteer military.  The military draft cast a long, difficult, and painful shadow on life in the 1960s and 70s.  In that respect it is much better to be young today.  A career in the armed services can be a very good choice—but it should be just that, a choice.  It’s better for families, for society, and for the military as well.

Thinking in Pictures:  And Other Reports from My Life with Autism, by Temple Grandin (Vintage, 2006) (Expanded from the original 1995 version)

I’ve already written about Temple Grandin, the movie, which was the inspiration for getting this book from the library.  It’s well worth reading, and the only reason I’m sending back unread the two other books of hers I picked up at the same time is that I realized I must put the brakes on my reading for a while.  At the very least I need to substitute books I won’t be tempted to review. 

Thinking in Pictures would have convinced me, if Grandin’s own commentary on the DVD had not, that the movie is an accurate, if not perfect, portrayal of her life.  It’s fascinating to read about autism from the inside out, as it were, and also interesting to note her opinion that for all the advances we have made in understanding autism and Asperger’s syndrome, as a child in the 1950’s she had a few advantages over today’s children.  School classrooms were well-ordered and quiet; the noise and chaos often seen classrooms now would have been impossible for her to handle.  Parents, teachers, and other adults worked hard to instill good manners and polite behavior into children; these are difficult but essential skills for autistic children to learn, but they are sadly neglected today.  Finally, there were no video games then, which encourage solitary activity; she was forced to interact directly with other children through board games, outdoor play, and other normal, 1950’s-era activities.

Of even more interest to me is her theory that whatever causes autism spectrum disorders, it is closely linked to brilliant, creative thinking.  Too much of whatever it is deprives a person of the ability to function in this world, but a little bit makes for the kind of folks we cannot do without.  Not only are our potential Einsteins being shunted into special education classes instead of the gifted classes where they belong, but if genetic testing someday allows us to screen for risk of autism, we may never see another Bill Gates.

On the sensory sensitivities of someone with autism spectrum disorder:

Washing my hair and dressing to go to church were two things I hated as a child….  [S]hampooing actually hurt my scalp….  Scratchy petticoats were like sandpaper scraping away at raw nerve endings.

I can relate to that!

When I was a child, I was expected to sit through formal Sunday dinners and behave.  Most of the time I did.  Rudeness was not tolerated and I was taught to say please and thank you.  Normal family activities provided structured opportunities to learn social skills.  Sit-down meals and activities such as playing cards and board games like Chinese checkers taught turn-taking and patience. …Today many children lack this structure.  Video games and time on the computer are spent solo.  Many of my favorite childhood activities required participation with another child.  … Even the normal children today are growing up with more social problems.  Later on they do not know how to behave at work.

I can drive because the operation of the car, steering and braking, has become a fully automatic skill.  Research has shown that when a motor skill is first being learned, one has to consciously think about it.  When the skill becomes fully learned, the frontal cortex is no longer activated and only the motor parts of the brain are turned on.  I learned to drive on ranch roads in Arizona and I did not drive on the freeway or in heavy traffic for a full year.  This avoided the multitasking issue because when I finally started driving in traffic, my frontal cortex was able to devote all its processor space to watching traffic.  I recommend that people on the [autism] spectrum who are learning to drive spend up to a year driving on easy roads until steering, braking, and other car operations can be done without conscious thought.

That might have saved me the debilitating car-phobia I had for many years.  It took me much longer than most people to reach the “automatic” point, and until then, every second behind the wheel was torture.

In an ideal world the scientist should find a method to prevent the most severe forms of autism but allow the milder forms to survive.  After all, the really social people did not invent the first stone spear.  It was probably invented by an Aspie who chipped away at rocks while the other people socialized around the campfire.  Without autism traits we might still be living in caves.

It is likely that genius is an abnormality.  If the genes that cause autism and other disorders such as manic-depression were eliminated, the world might be left to boring conformists with few creative ideas.

Three things that occur more frequently in people with high mathematical ability than in the population at large are left-handedness, allergies, and nearsightedness.  Both learning disability in mathematics and math talent are associated with left-handedness.  Young children who show very high ability in verbal reasoning and mathematics are twice as likely to have allergies as the rest of the population.  Students with extremely high ability are also more likely to be nearsighted. The old stereotype of a little genius with thick glasses may be true.

During my career, I have met many brilliant visual thinkers working in the maintenance departments of meat plants.  Some of these people are great designers and invent all kinds of innovative equipment, but they were disillusioned and frustrated at school.  Our educational system weeds these people out of the system instead of turning them into world-class scientists.

On her vocation in the livestock industry:

I do not believe that my profession is morally wrong.  Slaughtering is not wrong, but I do feel very strongly about treating animals humanely and with respect.  I’ve devoted my life to reforming and improving the livestock industry.  Still, it’s a sobering experience to have designed one of the world’s most efficient killing machines.  Most people don’t realize that the slaughter plant is much gentler than nature.  Animals in the wild die from starvation, predators, or exposure.  If I had a choice, I would rather go through a slaughter system than have my guts ripped out by coyotes or lions while I was still conscious.  Unfortunately, most people never observe the natural cycle of birth and death.

A couple of generations ago, overseas travel for pleasure was only for the rich.  Even business travel was uncommon, unless one was a missionary or in the military.  Today we visit our family in Switzerland more frequently, with less effort, and possibly even with less relative expense than my family travelled from New York to Florida to visit my grandparents when I was young.

Telephone service was once so expensive that long distance calls (remember long distance?) had to be kept brief—as in just a few minutes.  Overseas calls were out of the question most of the time.  Today our grandchildren have long conversations with us on the phone, and we can call Switzerland at six cents a minute.  Skype costs even less (less as in free); the quality may not be as good as I'd like, but it allows us to see each other.  The long-dreamed-of video phone is here!

You think sending a letter via the Post Office is snail mail?  Letters used to travel by truck, not airplane, and on slow roads at that.  Overseas mail went by boat and could take months to reach its destination.  Imagine seeing your spouse, parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, or friends go off as soldiers or missionaries to the other side of the world and having to wait weeks before knowing they arrived safely.  Now mail flies and e-mail is nearly instantaneous.

When I was in college, communication was by mostly by letter, and that not very often.  It wasn’t expensive, but you know how college students are about writing.  Perhaps I would have written more had I not been blessed with parents who didn’t mind footing the substantial bill for weekly phone calls; most of my friends did not have that privilege.  But with today’s instant, varied, and frequent communication—phone, e-mail, SMS, Facebook, blogs—the sudden and unnatural break from loved ones can be a thing of the past.

If one has far-flung family and friends, this is a good time to be living.   Do I wish our grandchildren lived where they could walk to Grandma’s house for breakfast?  You bet!  But with today’s easier and less expensive travel and communication choices, we’re a lot better off than my own grandparents were.  So I’m thankful!

I've removed the Feedjit live traffic feed from the panel on the right because of the ads that are now there.  I didn't mind the ads for Feedjit itself, but I have no control over the others they are now showing.  I have, however, retained the link (under Links/Other) so you can see the feed there if you, like me, find it interesting to see where people come here from and (sometimes) why.

Nobody likes to be sick, and especially nobody likes children to be sick.  But if you are a child, today is a much better time than 50 years ago to face a mild illness.  I don’t mean because of all the new vaccines—I actually look back with some fondness on the days of chicken pox, measles, and German measles.  (I missed out on that other great disease of early childhood, mumps, despite repeated visits to my friend when she was afflicted.)  Nor do I mean the obvious improvements in the treatment of many diseases, and in emergency medicine, not that I’m not grateful for them.

What I’m thankful for is that we have outgrown the sick-children-must-stay-in-bed philosophy.  Bed is fine when you’re too miserable to do anything else, but in the 50’s and 60’s bed rest was still considered an important part of the cure, and often imposed long after the child would have been much better off up and about.

I don’t remember my own confinements lasting overly long, perhaps because I enjoyed the opportunity to be the center of attention, to be served meals in bed, to read as much as I wanted to, to have my parents sit with me and play games—I particularly remember a car/plane/boat race across the U.S. game on a tray that I never tired of—and to have my mother at my beck and call, at the sound of a bell, a buzzer, or a flashing light—whatever fun device my dad and I had concocted to get her attention.

But I’m not certain Porter’s relationship with his mother every completely recovered from the well-meant instructions from their doctor to keep him in bed for half his kindergarten year because he had been diagnosed with mononucleosis.

I am grateful that doctors today seem happy to assume that if a child feels like staying in bed, that’s probably what he needs, and if he feels like getting up, that’s a good sign he’s ready for more activity.

But I have very fond memories of that race game.

The older I get, the easier it is to give in to the habit of grumbling.  It's not easy to watch the world go to hell in a handbasket without complaint, and it’s part of the necessary wisdom of the elders to make the younger generations aware of what they are in danger of losing.  But too much of that attitude is unhealthy.  It’s bad for society and worse for the individual.  What, then, could be a better choice for my November New Year’s resolution than to cultivate a habit of thanksgiving?

Some of my favorite Bible verses are related to an attitude of thanksgiving.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  (Philippians 4:6)

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18)

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.   (1 Timothy 4:4)

The Bible also warns against grumbling, it being one of Israel’s troublesome sins.

Do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.  (1 Corinthians 10:10)

Most of my resolutions have come to me well in advance of my 8^th of the month deadline, but this one, despite the clarity of the choice once it was made, did not.  It was especially interesting, therefore, to see how quickly after I made the decision I started seeing confirmation everywhere.  Not that I should have been surprised—‘tis the season of Thanksgiving!

The latest Christianity Today includes an essay on gratitude by Mollie Ziegler Hemingway; unfortunately it is not yet available online.  Hemingway makes the point, quoting Cicero, that “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”  She also provides a serious antidote to my statement above that it's not easy to watch the world go to hell in a handbasket without complaint.

Consider German pastor Martin Rinckart, who served a town that became a refuge for political and military fugitives during the Thirty Years War.  The situation in Eilenburg was bad even before the Black Plague arrived in 1637.  One pastor fled.  Rinckart buried another two on the same day.  The only pastor remaining, he conducted funeral services for as many as 50 people a day and 4,490 within one year.

Yet Rinckart is best known for writing, in the midst of the war, the great hymn that triumphantly proclaims this:

Now thank we all our God,

with heart and hands and voices

Who wonderous things has done,

in whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms

has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

and still is ours today.

We sang that powerful hymn—in both English and the original German—at Janet and Stephan’s wedding, and I’ve long appreciated it, but I did not until now know its history.  You can learn more about it, hear the traditional tune to which it is sung, and view the words in German, at NetHymnal.

On the lighter side, Hemingway’s essay also alerted me to this video on grumbling in the midst of plenty.  Apparently it has been viral online for over a year, but if I’d never seen it, probably some of my readers haven’t either.  As modern comedy goes, it’s not terribly offensive, but neither is it grandchild safe.  It does, however, fit well with this resolution, and perfectly wtih my Good New Days series.

Developing an attitude of thanksgiving will take much practice, hence the title of this resolution.

Progress Report

I've taken to reading my list of resolutions out loud at the start of every day.  It does help keep me thinking about them.

#1  Read More Books  I'm doing even better here than I expected.  I've already met my year's goal of one book per week, and am only three books short of meeting the outside-chance, five-per-month (on average) goal that I thought was very unlikely even a month ago.  Next year I plan to revisit and analyze each resolution, but here's a preview for this one:  I'm convinced that the reason I've been so successful here is largely due to the fact that it is the only one of my resolutions that is easily quantifiable and measurable.

#2  Rediscover Feasting  I'll say one thing for Fasting Wednesdays—they certainly make me appreciate the other days of the week!  That said, I'm finally getting to the point where I can do without food for a day without thinking much about not eating.  That's a big step forward for me.

#3  Learn to Relax  I've been reading Into the Silent Land:  A Guide to the Christian Practice of COntemplation (that will be a link once I post my review) and while it's a difficult book, it has already helped me some here.

#4  Like More Things  Last month I reported learning to enjoy running.  This still needs some work before it's really "mine."  On the other hand, I think I'm solidly a fan of honey now.  There are still some forms I'm not that fond of—unfortunately, they tend to be the most common ones, like clover, which accounts for my heretofore lifelong averson—but our local beekeepers, Winter Park Honey, have taught me that I like far more varieties than I dislike:  raspberry (my hands-down favorite), blackberry, tupelo, Florida wildflower, avocado, fireweed ... who'd have thought varieties of honey could be so different, and so good?

On the non-food front, I'm learning to apply my Swiss laundry lesson to other chores:  Don't resent the time they take, don't rush to get them over and done with, don't even try to make them into a game, or to use the time for other purposes (composing essays, listening to books on tape).  Cultivate instead an appreciation for the task itself:  the dance-like rhythms of housecleaning, the feel of a baby's soft skin when changing diapers, the pleasure of physical exertion while shoveling snow, the satisfaction of watching words arrange themselves into a coherent paragraph, the deep forest scent on one's hands after pulling weeds.

#5  Pay Attention  Techniques from Into the Silent Land have thus far helped more here than with #3.  The idea of calmly, patiently, consistently and without self-reproach bringing the mind back to its proper focus of attention has been particularly useful.  It reminds me of a loving mother, helping her child learn to resist the temptation to grab a forbidden object by gently, but persistently, moving the child's hand back to where it belongs.

#6  Cast Away Fear  Believe it or not, Into the Silent Land seems to have applicability here, too.  I wish it were an easier book to understand!

#7  Talk Less, Listen More  It's funny, but when Porter is away I find myself taking over some of "his" regular conversations, such as with the folks who sit next to us at concerts, and certain people at church.  This involves both talking and listening more.

#8  Enjoy Spontaneity  I haven't written my planned GTD update yet, because I'm not nearly as far along in the process as I would like.  But in October I discovered that I've made more progress than I thought.  Thanks to having clearly spelled out for me what needed to be done before we could leave, and what could wait, I was able to enjoy our nearly spontaneous trip to Miami.  That's quite a change for me.

#9  End with the Beginning in Mind  Not much to report here, because of falling behind with GTD, but when I do manage to set things up for the morrow before going to bed, the next day always goes better.

#10  Care More about Other People—and Less about What They Think  I'm working on this—but as I said in #1, it's easier to report (and to make) progress when it's more quantifiable.

Among all the changes in the lives of females over the last 50 years, I rate the improvement in clothing options as one of the best.  It may be my autism spectrum tendencies coming out, but to me the comfort factor in what I wear is of utmost importance.

Until my senior year in high school, girls were required to wear dresses or skirts to school.  Even after the hard-won change, jeans were still out of the question.  Because I have loathed wearing dresses since my earliest memories, this did nothing to make my school years more enjoyable, even though my mother, God bless her, did her best to make my dresses from comfortable material.

By the time our girls were of school age, the situation had improved dramatically.  Pants, and even shorts, were acceptible school attire—so much more practical, especially for active elementary school students living in Florida.

I do know families who insist, even today, that their girls wear dresses.  I would never do that to my children, but I'll admit that if such dresses as they generally wear had been an option in my day, perhaps I wouldn’t have minded so much.  In addition to accepting pants appropriate apparel for women, we seem to have become much more tolerant of a wide variety of dress styles and lengths.  When I was very young, dresses for little girls were stiff, scratchy and frilly—a nightmare for a touch-sensitive girl—and by my teen years skirts were uncomfortably short and getting shorter.  Practical dresses of a decent length and comfortable material might have won me over, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Even so, pants are the very best for climbing trees, and I never wanted to wear clothing that tied me to the ground.

I’m very thankful that today’s girls—and women—have more choices.

Taking a slight diversion from my Good New Days series, today I am thankful for cooler weather.  Fall has been terribly late in coming this year.  In our early years in Florida we sometimes turned the furnace on at the end of September—those  were the days when Climate Change meant the series of unusually cold winters that destroyed the citrus industry in Central Florida—but this year we needed the air conditioning right through the end of October.

But for the last few days I have been able to enjoy wearing jeans again.  I have put a blanket on the bed and dug out my winter pajamas.  Lows in the mid-40’s and highs in the mid-60’s, with bright sunshine and a pleasant reduction in the humidity:  that’s my kind of weather.  It makes me feel alive, and happy for no particular reason at all.

This morning when I woke up, the inside temperature was 60 degrees.  Normally that's cause to turn on the furnace, but by Wednesday we’re supposed to be back up into the 80’s.  So for now I’m thankful for the joy of wrapping cold fingers around a hot cup of tea.  I may even break out the oatmeal for breakfast, and enjoy a steaming hot cup of cocoa!

 Healing through Exercise:  Scientifically-Proven Ways to Prevent and Overcome Illness and Lengthen Your Life, by Jörg Blech  (Da Capo Press, 2009)  Originally published as Heilen mit Bewergung (S. Fischer Verlag, 2009)

We all know exercise is good for us, right?  So who needs yet another book telling us so?

Knowing what we should be doing is one thing, but actually doing it is another, and Healing through Exercise provides motivation in spades.

Beware the cure that is marketed as a panacea, we are told:  if it claims to fix all ills, it’s probably a fraud.  That’s sound advice, but Jörg Blech makes a convincing case that simple, regular exercise is as close to a cure-all as we’ll ever find.  Whether the issue is heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, cholesterol, hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease, back pain, cancer, impotence, ADHD, depression, brain development, immune system health, stress overload, or “old age,” moderate, regular exercise is essential—and in some cases even sufficient—for preventing illness and restoring health.  We’re more familiar with the preventative side, but Blech cites study after study showing how exercise can even reverse existing damage.  It’s never too late to take advantage of the benefits of exercise.  (Note to self:  this should be incentive to get started at any age, but never an excuse for procrastination.)

The specific studies and amazing results showing the power of exercise to heal are too numerous to detail, although as usual I’ve provided some teasers below.  I highly recommend that everyone find and read a copy of this book, especially if you are young, old, middle-aged, or have children.

The bottom line?  Get moving!  It’s critically important, the best thing you can do for your physical and mental health.  Get your children moving!  It’s essential for the development of their brains as well as their bodies.  It doesn’t need to be onerous.  Thirty minutes of moderate exercise (such as brisk walking, jogging, or bicycling) five times per week seems to be the threshold at which all sorts of wonderful effects begin.  Make that 60 minutes, and throw in some light strength training a couple of days per week, and you will be giving your body and mind a real treat.  Furthermore, the effect is cumulative, so every little bit of action you add to your day will make a difference.

According to the evolutionary biologists, we have to rethink the old view of exercise:  movement is by no means just a useful added way to improve our health.  In fact, it is absolutely necessary for the human body to work normally.

You can debate all day about the value of an evolutionary perspective, but whether you say “evolved” or “designed,” we surely weren’t meant to spend most of our days sitting.

In the United States, children grow up in a world that leaves no time and no room for physical activities.  For most of the baby boomers, it was common either to walk or to ride a bicycle to school.  In these days, kids are moved around in minivans, and teachers have a hard time advocating walking days.  Once in school, students will rarely be challenged physically because many school systems struggle to finance a physical education program worthy of the name.  At recess, video games and other gadgets have taken the role balls and skipping ropes used to occupy.  The idle members of generation XXL spend their youths indoors, and they would rather travel online than by foot.  Granted that some ten-year-olds design impressive Web pages, but many have difficulties climbing, jumping, or pitching a ball.

The abandonment of exercise is a global trend affecting not only kids growing up in American suburbia but also youngsters living in walkable areas of Europe.  Wilhelm Nieblung has a doctor’s office in the idyllic Black Forest.  As he puts it:  “Many children in our town are not able to balance backwards.”

In [the] early years, while the brain downsizes and develops at the same time, it is extremely important that a child has sufficient physical exercise.  Good coordination of the body helps to preserve nerve cells in the brain and promotes their wiring to each other.  Evidence indicates children need a certain minimum amount of exercise to develop a brain malleable or plastic enough to adapt to ever-changing environments.

Children can develop their mental abilities properly only if they do enough running, jumping, and physical playing as well.  Motor and cognitive skills develop in unison and stimulate each other within the brain.  Researchers in the field of neuroanatomy at the University of Bielefeld sum up what that means for parents, children, and teachers:  “Learning needs movement.”

If we train our motor abilities by exercising, at the same time we strengthen regions of the brain that are important for paying attention and other cognitive capabilities.  Playing sports makes us smarter, and all children can benefit from this effect.

Physical activity not only enriches chemistry in the gray matter; it also alters the structure of the brain.  First, exercise promotes the production of new nerve cells in the hippocampus….  Second, exercise creates new synapses, thereby establishing and maintaining the vast network of connected nerve cells in the brain.

The brain of an active creature produces especially high numbers of nerve cells that can be used to process … new stimuli.  The new cells mature into fully functioning neurons when they are challenged with new tasks.  In the absence of such challenges, it is thought, a big portion of the new nerve cells die before long.  And in the absence of physical activity, the production of new nerve cells largely ceases.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that strikes with age….  Besides age, there are other risk factors.  It may not be a good omen when family members have suffered from Alzheimer’s because that suggests a genetic predisposition to it.....  These factors are hard to change … but there is another way to postpone the onset of the disease or to prevent it altogether:  activities such as brisk walking or bicycle riding….  Older men aged 71 to 93 who walk at least two miles every day cut the risk of Alzheimer’s in half, compared to people the same age who walk only a quarter of a mile per day.

William E. Kraus at the Duke University Medical Center has found that a certain type of exercise is especially good at keeping lipoproteins in check:  longer spells of moderate exercise seem to be more beneficial than shorter, more intensive workouts.

Exercise is … a proven and reliable remedy for people with hypertension, although this is not widely appreciated.  [F]requently the treating doctors are to blame, says Hans-Georg Predel of the Sports University in Cologne, Germany.  He has made the sobering observation that physicians “often don’t consider the effectiveness of an intervention without drugs and that they lack a sufficient expertise in prescribing lifestyle changes.”

If you, like me, have been subjected to regular bone-density (DEXA) scans since reaching a certain age, you will be interested to note that some countries—Germany is one—no longer pay for the procedure on the grounds that bone density measurements have been shown to be useless for preventing broken bones in the elderly.  So have drugs prescribed for osteoporosis.  What does help?  Exercise.

Time and again, trials of menopausal women have confirmed that moderate aerobic and strength training make the spine stronger.  And in order to reduce hip fractures, walking seems to be the best medicine.

Although exercise is one of the most potent and effective remedies in existence, it plays only a small role in medical-school training.  For this reason, American doctors rarely recommend exercise.  Even though some doctors do prescribe exercise, physicians can make a much greater profit with drugs and operations.  Faith in the power of medicine is another reason why people tend to underestimate the value of exercise.  The number of back surgeries has increased dramatically in recent years, while pills for high blood pressure and drugs to lower cholesterol have sales in the billions of dollars.  This fuels the medical industry and might meet the expectations of many patients, but it still amounts to nothing more than tinkering with the symptoms.

Even when doctors are willing to use the new science of healing through exercise, they often find that patients would prefer an invasive procedure and drug regimen, rather than the supposedly silly advice of bicycling 30 minutes a day.

The sun is shining, the air is cool, and I need to go for a walk.  See ya!

When I was a child restaurant meals were very rare, the stuff of vacation travel and anniversary dinners.  My father carried a homemade lunch to work, just as we children carried ours to school.  When we did eat out, the food was rather ordinary—though I'll admit I thought a Howard Johnsons hot dog followed by their special peppermint stick ice cream was the highlight of many a vacation.

I wouldn't trade our homemade meals and family dinners for any five-star restaurant, but what I love about eating in the 21^st century is the great variety of food now available from cultures and traditions all over the world.  From Indian to Korean, Ethiopian to Moroccan, Thai to Lebanese—this is a great time to be eating!

 No More Christian Nice Girl, by Paul Coughlin and Jennifer D. Degler (Bethany House, 2010)

No More Christian Nice Girl?  Yuck.

Don’t judge a book by its cover—or title—I told myself; there must have been a reason why I accepted this book from the publisher for review.

Flip to a random chapter.  Yeech.  If the title made me gag, this chapter nearly made me lose my dinner.  Well, accepting the book is a promise to review it, which implies I must read it.

I didn’t care much for the beginning, either, but fortunately, it got better.  I don’t like the authors’ style, so it helped to separate that from the content.  They do have some good points to make.

Foremost is the idea that even in the 21^st century too many women have bought into the idea that they must be “sugar and spice and everything nice”—and for Christian women, this is often exacerbated by the messages they receive from their churches.  However, being “nice,” as opposed to being good, turns us into unhappy, frustrated doormats who try to please everyone, do other people’s work for them, injure our own families by never being able to say “no” to others, and generally end up doing more harm than good in the process.  What’s more, we lose rather than gain respect and appreciation for all our efforts.

The authors make the point that “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” is not precisely the Jesus presented in the Bible, and that by glossing over passages that show his righteous anger, hard words, and assertive actions, we give ourselves an inaccurate model to follow when considering, “What would Jesus do?”

Even though I, myself, have some of the problems the authors delineate, I was not inspired by this book.  I’d like to see the same topic dealt with in a way that feels less condescending.  But that may be just me; I’m sure there are many “Christian Nice Girls” whose fractured and stressful lives could benefit from the wisdom the authors present.

Here are some things I did like:

Before looking at how God created most women, a quick caveat:  The research findings presented are for the majority of women.  Some women’s brains are wired more like the typical man’s brain, and the reverse is true of men as well.  Having “majority wiring” is not better or more pleasing to God than “minority wiring.”  Both types of wiring are valuable and useful to God, whether they are found in women or men.

I appreciated this.  I’m tired of books that say “women are like this,” or “women want that”—such as the Eldredges’ Wild at Heart and Captivating—when as far as I’m concerned they miss the boat completely.

The sugar-and-spice expectations start in infancy when baby girls are dressed in ruffles, pastels, and bows while boys are dressed in brighter colors and sports-oriented clothing.   Adults treat girl babies more gently than boy babies, even though girl babies are physiologically heartier and stronger.  Parents provide dolls to daughters and trucks and sports toys to sons, and reward play behavior that is gender stereotyped.  Across the world, girls spend more time doing household chores and helping with child care, while boys spend more time in unsupervised play.  It’s true that girls may prefer to play “relationally” with toys, and may want to be helpful given their empathetic wiring, but when Christian parents, often unknowingly, send solely the message “girls should be nice and helpful and boys should be active and independent,” they are hemming in their children and making it more difficult for girls and boys to grow into the full 360-degree image of Christ.

Still?  After all these  years?  Apparently so.

Some churches don’t allow women to be involved in any form of leadership, unless it’s singing on the worship team or teaching children.  This means that the important insights and contributions available from women’s god-given, intuitive, empathetic minds are undervalued, unheard, and unheeded.  In other churches, where women are encouraged to be more assertive and expressive, it’s often highly compartmentalized.  Being animated and spirited is okay—but only during worship.  It’s good to be courageous—when sharing the gospel.  It’s right to be firm—when disciplining your children. … And when women are allowed to lead, some are trained that when it comes to a disagreement, men win by virtue of gender, not accuracy.

Christian Nice Girls tend to minimize their negative experiences by saying, “What happened to me wasn’t that bad.  Other people have had it worse.”  Yes, perhaps other people have had it worse, but that doesn’t mean that what happened to you should be ignored or judged as unworthy of examination.  You have to look for what’s perpetuating a problem before you can fix it.

What are people learning from their relationship experiences with you? Firmly speaking the truth in love and maintaining healthy boundaries in relationships will teach most people to treat you respectfully.  However, not everyone is teachable, and ultimately, you aren’t responsible for how people accept your truth spoken with love and grace. ... If someone is not teachable, you will completely waste your time and energy if you try to teach them what they aren’t interested in learning or changing. … [P]ray for them, get out of the way, and let God get to them.  He will orchestrate life lessons that will teach them what they need to know.

Most people grow up watching mothers pick up after their children, finish the last of the dishes, etc.  Women like to help, and it is hard to stop this rescuing behavior in the workplace.  But it’s a big mistake to rescue incompetent co-workers by doing their work for them.  Everyone needs a helping hand now and again, but there is a difference between giving someone a helping hand and enabling them to be a perpetual slacker.

Women bond by sharing the intimate details of their lives….  Because of their strong need for approval, Christian Nice Girls share more than is necessary or wise to connect with others.  This can come back to haunt them….

You have to set limits with [some] people, or they will tend to take increasingly large amounts of the energy, time, money, and talent God gave you to accomplish his purposes.

For Christian Nice Girls with anxious parents, the message transmitted was “Life is to be feared.”  This type of caretaker hovers like a search-and-rescue helicopter, transmitting fear and overprotecting children by:

• Not allowing them to regularly go outside and play in a reasonably safe neighborhood, but watching them like a hawk when they are allowed outside, which thwarts their play.
• Setting limits that would only be appropriate for a much younger child on how far they can ride their bikes or walk with friends.
• Overreacting to and overanalyzing normal childhood developmental challenges or minor injuries.
• Painting a verbally frightening picture of the world by continually pointing out any possible dangers, however remote or unlikely.
• Performing tasks that they could do themselves … which reinforces beliefs of inferiority and powerlessness.
• Intruding into and trying to control all aspects of their children’s free time, relationships, and jobs.
• Constantly calling them on their cell phone … just to “see how they’re doing.”
• Making all of their children’s decisions.
• Rescuing their children from any mistakes and not allowing them to suffer any negative consequences.

Needless to say, this is as important for boys as for girls. It could have come straight out of Free-Range Kids.

God takes the sin of cowardice very seriously.  Revelation 21:8 states, “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”  Cowardice is included among the worst temptations you can give in to.

Ouch.