Seriously, Why?

The USA is about  to celebrate two hundred fifty years of existence as a republic where  it had become a dominantly successful super power during the last seventy five; yet, why the nagging question about the uncertainty of its ability to hold on to it for the foreseeable future. 

Seriously, why? 

"At the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin, "well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" He gave a trenchant reply that resonates today: "A republic, if you can keep it."

Why did Ben Franklin say it and what was he thinking then? But let's first make sure we understand what a republic is and how it is different from how democracy works.

"A republic is a form of government where representatives are elected to make decisions on behalf of the citizens".

In a democracy decisions are  made based on majority rule, reflecting the will of the majority of the populace. Decisions may be reached either through direct participations of all citizens or by proxy representatives they elect to represent them.  So, why is that different from a republic?  The majority always rules in a democracy; "a republic emphasizes the protection of individual rights and minority interests, often through a constitution.

Make note: "Democracies can exist within a republic, but not all democracies are republics".

Did Ben Franklin have a premonition about  a republic's ability to sustain itself? Or, had he read and believed that the fate of empires seemed to have had predestined shelf lives throughout history? Had he known that all powerful empires that emerged could only manage on average 250 years or merely ten generations before they succumb to gradual decline, first from internal pressure and self-inflected turmoil before another empire takes over? The process was always a zero sum  game, it always seemed.  One empire declines as another emerges to take its place. Is that what's about to happen? And why?

Seriously, why - to get to the heart of what seems to ail this country - is the theme of neo politics these days focused on fundamentally changing what this country is all about?  After 250 years from a fledgling union of thirteen original colonies to fifty united states of almost 350 million people, why the call for change that is deemed to radically pivot from the course that so far has been guided by what its founders wrote on the 1776 document that they signed virtually with their own blood.  For 250 years the country has done very well. It attained unprecedented wealth and wield influence like no other country before it, saved much of the world twice during two world wars, so, seriously why change what had worked for 250 years?

Just recently in the words of U.S. congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio Cortes, otherwise known as AOC, in a recent interview, a quote below:

"The New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez answered a question about potentially running for higher office in 2028 by declaring: “My ambition is to change the country.”

Eighteen years ago was when it may have started:

“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” So declared Barack Obama in Columbia, Missouri, on Oct. 30, 2008, on the cusp of his historic presidential election.

Those are just two troubling indicators echoed by many voices from other politicians such as the newly elected mayor of New York City, to the one in Seattle, to a very vocal and popular senator from Vermont and many others who claim to prescribe socialism as the new political elixir. Troubling times indeed, according to those who'd rather conserve the old ideals of two hundred fifty years against the liberal application of remedies that have  been tried in many places that all, without exception, ended in dismal failures each time.  (Please refer to an earlier musing, "Are We Still Talking About Socialism?", March 8).

"Tax the rich" has become a tired mantra from the very same politicians whose campaign donations depend on rich supporters. 

"Most of the government’s federal income tax revenue comes from the nation’s top income earners. In 2023, the top 5% of earners — people with incomes $272,209 and above — collectively paid over $1.27 trillion in income taxes, or about 60% of the national total".

Seriously, why attack the sector of the population that pays 60% of the country's annual revenue?  That is either crazy talk or plain and simple politics of envy.  Another recent AOC quote follows"

"You can’t earn a billion dollars," Ocasio-Cortez told Glazer. "You can get market power. You can break rules. You can do all sorts of things. You can abuse labor laws. You can pay people less than what they’re worth. But you can’t earn that, right? And so you have to create a myth... you have to create a myth of earning it."

So some of her ardent supporters like Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey and George Soros did not earn their billions? Did they break all kinds of rules? These are just a few examples of phenomenal accomplishments achieved in a free market system that she and her ilk would like to abolish. Yes, that's right, only in a free market economy that college dropouts like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Zuckerberg, Hewlett and Packard were able to build billion dollar enterprises; that AOC and Bernie Sanders want to demonize. Has she even given it a thought that her iPhone was just a generation from its birthplace in a California garage on the efforts of Jobs and Wozniak?

In the world of these radical politicians, "rich" is an evil word, yet private jets that they routinely use to spread their ideology are products of "rich" corporations that pay the 60% that the government collects. For someone who went to college with a degree that dabbled in business AOC was clueless about her reason for opposing the Amazon business proposal to build a new headquarters in New York that would have benefited her district in Queens, an idea favored by the majority of her constituents.  She seems to exhibit also an illiteracy in history for claiming the American revolution was against the wealthy. Here's a newspaper quote: “The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time, and we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and the state,” claimed a clueless Ocasio-Cortez..." It was in fact about a revolt against taxes that her party is pushing today so, seriously why?

The fundamental question that Ben Franklin may have anticipated was that a republic can be enslaved by the very same politicians chosen by the people to represent them by doing everything they can to remain in office without term limits.  The founding fathers did not anticipate that politicians  were going to make public service a career but for just a period of time before going back to vocations they had before volunteering to serve, not as an occupation until well into their 80s.

This republic instead, to the dismay of the signers of the Constitution if somehow they can see it today, is festered with career politicians corrupted by greed for power and a cozy livelihood with very little to account for.

That is what happened to a republic that takes more into account the loud voices of even the few who choose to change what had worked for two and a half centuries. Term limits will never become a remedy because the very same politicians who opt to remain in power will never write such a law. In a democracy, a plebiscite can vote to impose term limits by the power of the rule of the majority.  But not in a republic. 

The state of Texas, once the Republic of Texas before gaining statehood, is the model of a republic government and the nation can learn from it. 

. Texas legislators are part-time officials, serving in the Texas Legislature.

. Many legislators maintain regular jobs outside of their legislative duties.

. Common professions include lawyers, business owners, educators, and healthcare professionals.

. Some legislators may take leave from their jobs during the session to focus on legislative responsibilities.  

Ben Franklin has nothing to worry about "if you can keep it", because today's career politicians will make sure to keep it.  The republic clearly works for the likes of AOC, Schumer, Sanders, McConnel, and Pelosi, etc. who surely will want the republic to work in perpetuity to perpetuate their grip on power. The people will simply have to endure. One significant note: among the list of long serving politicians on an average of 55 years in office, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a huge majority (check it out). And what is interesting is that these political parties are labeled Republican and Democrat.

Over the years, from as early as 2015, I've written about democracy and socialism from time to time. My favorite and the favorite of many  is "Mountains to Molehills" and "99 Cannibals and 1". Please just copy the link to your search bar and click.

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2018/07/mountains-to-molehills.html

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2016/12/99-cannibals-and-1.html

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2015/07/democracy-of-ants.html

The Joys and Challenges of "Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen."

I just recently made up that German word. Google will redline it all the time but it will not with Kummerspeck (?) which means (literally, grief + bacon): "A playful term for weight gained from emotional eating or comfort eating". Sincere apologies to  my German readers but they'd understand how I came up with Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen.

The English language has a way of evolving that is unique to it, that makes it a model of efficiency when coming up with a new word, often using portmanteau - combining parts of real words, such as motel from motor + hotel; from smoke + fog, we get smog. Unlike in German which simply strings together several whole words for a new  lengthy compound word with either a more precise meaning, i.e., blitzkrieg which is from two German words: blitz - lightning; krieg - war, which means "lightning war" or rapid assault as a battle tactic or in playing rapid-move chess or as a defensive play in American football; or, indirectly implied as in  “Handschuh” (hand + shoe) to mean "glove" in English. 

Before we get to the heart of this musing, let's get a couple more real German words here. "Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän: Translating to “Danube steamship navigation company captain,” it’s famously cited to show just how lengthy German words can become. How about, Backpfeifengesicht?, (slap + face): Literally, “a face in need of a slap.” A cheeky term for someone who’s being annoying.

Wasn't that fun? Just so the reader knows how I came up with my own new German word.

My made up word, Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen, means "stay at home senior living" and that is where we are going. Folks with the good fortune of having lived long, thus far, who elect to stay at home, more often than not, deserve the new lengthy made up word - an allegorical reference to long life. There are challenges, sure, but we find that those can be outweighed by a lot more joys if we seek and practice them.

First of all, anyone who has achieved  eight decades of being alive has at least earned the right to muse about the joys of a homebound life. At this point many of us octogenarians and over have had their shares of travel, of leisure outside the home, the obligatory social mingling, church and other forms of social interactions that no longer  need to be constantly padded or deemed necessary.

Advice to go out more, see "what's out there", find ways to be out of the house, usually comes from those younger by at least a decade or two, mainly friends and relatives alike. They are well intentioned but not necessarily "wohlmeinender Ratschlag", which means  literally, well meaning advice, again in German.

Instead, let's explore, literally and figuratively, the joys of a home-bound-life. But first, we are not talking about living as a hermit. We will still need to do the obligatory grocery shopping, trips to the hardware and garden centers, to the pharmacy, the much needed doctor's visit, the dreadfully but regularly scheduled moments at the dentist chair, and the regular exercise (walks around the neighborhood, at the mall or trips to the gym (for those among us who can). The good news is that we can be fair-weather-practitioners of all of these. There is absolutely no need to do groceries at the slight indication of rain, cold weather or when we're under the weather. I go  to the gym when traffic is the lightest, and not during the hour when young kids are let out from nearby schools or when I simply don't feel like it. Oh, the blessings of retirement and the copious amounts of not having to do anything.  

However, just the idea or reality of not having to do anything can also mean a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things. But it must begin with one thing. Attitude!  Attitude is the primer, the motivator and ultimately the power to move anything from anywhere nearby to somewhere nearby; from the state of idle restfulness to the beginning steps of a reasonable  journey not dictated by distance from home because there are things far deeper in home-bound living.

Guilt-free napping is one of the joys allowed, even encouraged,  in Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen! However, one study had shown that naps do have health benefits even for active workers. Examples of big corporations that allow naps at work, labeled as power naps, are Google, Zappos, Procter and Gamble, Facebook, etc.  Actually, naps can be essential at recharging brain power or boost post mid-day cognitive ability.  Imagine that, seniors. Your favorite couch, between noon and one thirty today, is the most craved after by every hard-charging executive or every muscle-weary assembly line worker.  That alone is enough to give you power over countless folks who are prone to marginalize your existence, either intentionally or by omission.

Take the ordinary cup of hot coffee. Remember when you were still an aspiring climber of the corporate ladder or pipe welder or bean counter in accounting when a cup of coffee was merely a required elixir to get you going from a state of forced wakefulness to a partially functioning commuter or carpooler? Now, you are enjoying the rich and full bodied aroma of steaming coffee, the warmth between your two cupped hands as the sun begins to filter through the window on a cold morning. Or, how about enjoying the coffee as the news on TV confirms the kind of morning weather to expect as you listen to the distant rumble of thunder and the intermittent flashes of lightning from somewhere over the horizon.

One early and chilly April Monday morning in 2007 I woke up to the unmistakably heavy pitter patter of raindrops on the roof. I was pulling the blanket away from my body to get up when it suddenly dawned on me, pun heavily intended, that I had just started a new way of living. It took some getting used to for a while but I did eventually get the hang of it. I realized I just retired two weeks earlier, after thirty five years.    

Like a lot of retirees, there were the usual travel itineraries, the company alumni get-togethers, organized luncheons and theater and sports attendances that later became less and less regular for  my wife and me as the years piled on.  

Then a complete halt to those activities when my wife was diagnosed with Parkinson's four years ago.  I had to mention that as a way to make note for the readers of a certain age that sometimes a diagnosis has an untimely way of intruding like a rude awakening to spoil the view of the sunset of  our lives.  But that is okay because, again, we go back to what I wrote a few paragraphs back about what could be our silver bullet - Attitude!

From a previous musing I wrote about embracing the role of caregiving after my wife's diagnosis. That role naturally became the linchpin that made Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen the natural segue to the new stage of living. Of course, the transition for me is made less difficult because my woodworking hobby is a home-bound past time, caring for orchids indoors is even less distant and naturally household chores speak for themselves. Cooking may not necessarily be a chore if one turns it into a hobby of discovery. Other than the other chores mentioned earlier, my time at the gym to swim gets me out of the house for just an hour at a time.

The relatively wider financial legroom we have now - something we never fail to be grateful for - makes it possible for someone to come every Saturday to clean the house and help with the weekly laundry. She is actually by now  a part of the family we get to see every week. There is so much to be thankful for, indeed.

I can't possibly go through every example so if I must put everything in a nutshell, I go back to Attitude! I turn unloading the dishwasher into a time and motion study.  Someday I aim to unload it in less than 4 minutes. That includes putting them back in their proper places in the cupboard.  So far, I am not breaking the 4-minute mark but it's a challenge. Woodworking is for now an infrequent activity except for the occasional project.  I have not updated it lately but the blog : https://easywoodworking-tolerba.blogspot.com/  is still getting a lot of views.  Soon, readers will see the latest knife project on the Damascus blade.  I've always wanted to have one but not until I found a blank blade for sale that required fashioning a handle for it. It took longer than usual to pull off but it's done.

Damascus blade is made from forging two different steel material - one soft and the other hard steel, folded over many times during the forging process that result in the distinct wave patterns on the face of the blade.

Now, how do I manage to spend time at the workshop and able to respond when my wife needs my help.  Commercially available are several alert gizmos that come with a caller at the press of a button and a doorbell ringer plugged into strategically desired power outlets. I put one in the workshop and another in between the living and family rooms.  My wife has a caller she wears around her neck.

As a household project, I recently installed additional LED sconce lights in the family area that allows for a bright but soft daylight in the family/breakfast area.  For anyone my age, I must say, please take great care with this undertaking where ladders and electricity are involved. Trust me, I did it at a virtually glacial pace. My fascination, almost an obsession with lights, as I explained to my wife, goes back to the time growing up in the Philippines when we did not have electricity until halfway through my high school. It meant that for a good part of our education, my sisters and I studied and did our homework under kerosene lamps. The reader will note from my woodworking blog several projects on light fixtures.

Cooking I do not find to be a burden but one to be taken up just like any hobby.  The motivation is actually strong: after all, I have to eat too.

Below is my own version of a ginger-based Filipino meat and veggie soup - "tinola" - that, if I may say so myself, has become one deliciously sumptuous lunch fare, served with white boiled rice on the side with air-fried eggroll or some chicken adobo.

Again, it is Attitude!  Attitude!

Happy "Bleibzuhauseseniorenwohen" everyone!

HRV, RHR, REM, BRPM, She, etc. ??

Continuing on "The Weight of a Life That Matters", let's explore further along the line of how best to take care of our physiology or, at the very least, have a way to track how we are doing so that the rest of our journey is still fun and relatively free of the usual concerns about fitness and general well being for those among us of a certain age. So let's get right to it.

Those are all acronyms in the title, the first one is likely the least known - 

(HRV) Heart Rate Variability  - but we'll get to it later.  REM, you're likely familiar with because it stands for Rapid Eye Movement and it is the most essential of all our sleep cycles. It is during that time, our dream cycles, when our brain does all the sorting of our memories, regulates our emotions and more importantly,  sharpens our  cognitive functions.

What this means is that our physiology begins and ends with how well our brain is working.  It is the central processing unit (CPU) that regulates and controls everything that is happening to our body - from growing  fingernails to producing insulin, how we feel warmth or cold, discerning the differences between ideas or arguments, to producing red blood cells, etc. It can do that because this particular CPU has 90 billion neurons to rely on that can do 100 trillion connections at a time. To give you an idea of the enormity of that capability, try to imagine counting one connection per second. You will still be counting for the next 30 million years; your brain makes those entire connections at a moment's notice.  It comes with a price, of course. For a body part that is a mere 2% of our body weight, it consumes 20-25 % of all the calories that our body processes from all the nutrients that it consumes. 

Now, the super computer that beat Kasparov in chess was one roomful of interconnected computers, manned and maintained by several technicians and engineers, air conditioned to low room temperature settings and consumed several hundred watts per minute. Kasparov's brain weighed a mere three pounds, powered by what he had for lunch and dinner.

So, first things first.  We need to take care of our brain. It does not demand much. Proper diet is good. But what it needs the most, fundamentally and by necessity, is a good night's sleep. But what is a good night sleep? A decade or so ago short of a laboratory setting, electrode attachments and other monitoring tools, there was little the average person can do to collect and retain data on basic breathing and heart functions when our bodies are physically stressed during exercise or when at rest. More on this in a bit.

Now, our body is a machine and runs like an engine. Our nose, mouth, and trachea make up the air intake manifold. Air exchange is done by the lungs where red blood cells carry oxygen that is pumped through the heart to mix with fuel (food and/or drinks) during digestion and waste in our blood is filtered by the kidney. If we allow our brain a good rest and recovery, exercise our heart and keep our kidneys at optimum filtration capacity we shall have achieved  more than half of what is required for proper maintenance. It is a given that every body part is essential; however, the brain, heart and kidneys are the super parts. This takes us to the acronyms in the title of this blog.

Almost three years ago I parlayed some amount with a purchase of a smart watch.  It was not the most expensive by any means but I was quite surprised at what it is able to keep track of.  Actually, all I needed it for was to keep track of the number of laps and the time it took me to swim 1000 meters in the pool. Before that I merely counted the laps in my head and  check the time it took me to do it on my old watch.  This new watch, however, will also track a lot of other data not related to swimming. It can be used for tracking walking steps and running and even for golf, once the golf app is downloaded to your phone.

First the swimming part. Once set with the proper length of the pool it counts the laps for me automatically and records not just the total time but time for every 100 yards, best and slow time per lap, number of strokes, average stroke per minute and per length, speed in mph, the average heart rate and recovery time in hours. Based on my age, which is part of the input it kept on record, it advises me a recovery time  of 24-26 hours, which actually means I need to rest for at least one day before swimming again. I assume if I were younger than the eight decades of being alive I could probably swim everyday. Below, one of several stats the watch downloads to my phone.

Then here is the other data it tracks and keeps. The watch is linked to my phone and all throughout the day it tracks a lot of stuff that includes the number of walking steps.  For example, even though walking is not an exercise regimen for me, it still tells me that on average I managed 6-7,000 steps! 

Here comes the HRV. It is a measure in milliseconds of time between heartbeats.  Now, there's no universal "good" or "bad" HRV number'. However, that number tends to decline with age. The number can get lower between heartbeats which means a slightly faster normal heart rate.

Age Group Typical Range (ms)

20-29 40-80

30-39 35-70

40-49 30-60

50-59 25-50

60+ 20-45

Important: These are approximations. Someone with an HRV of 25 isn't necessarily unhealthy, and someone with an HRV of 90 isn't automatically in great shape. Your personal baseline is what matters.

• Age (HRV naturally declines with age, and ranges differ for children)
• Fitness level (trained athletes typically have higher HRV)
• Genetics (some people naturally run higher or lower)
• Sex (women often have different patterns than men)
• Health conditions (various conditions affect baseline HRV)

To paraphrase, a higher HRV - longer elapse time from one heartbeat to the next - means that  a high HRV means a lower heart rate as to be working less than a faster one given the same set of conditions. But that is not all that matters. Resting heart rate (RHR) is a much better gauge.  Given the same conditions, a lower resting heart rate indicates that the heart does not need to beat fast to push or pump the same amount of blood while at rest so that there is still a lot of head room when vigorous exertion is needed.

Tour de France cyclists are known to have RHR at between 35-40 beats per minute. A Guinness world record is 28 for one older gentleman who apparently by mere genetics was endowed with a rare, slow running heart when at rest.

The benefit of exercise, swimming in my case, results in my low RHR of a daily average of 50 beats per minute and an average high  of 113 while swimming. The watch also records during sleep my breaths per minute (BRPM). "Vigorous" times, expressed in minutes, indicate level of exertion on a daily basis.

The bottom line is that a smart watch like this is and should be an investment in your health to keep track of some activities that may matter for proper assessment. I think it's a good investment.

For general guidelines in day-to-day maintenance of our health I came up with the last acronym in the title above - 'She'. It stands for Sleep, Hydration and Exercise.

Sleep, as mentioned earlier, has a profound effect on brain health and cognitive ability.  (Refer to my earlier blog - To Sleep Perchance to Dream). Hydration or our intake of the proper amount of water everyday, typically 8 cups per day, deserves our special attention.

Just a few years ago my primary care doctor referred me to a renal (kidney) specialist because based on my blood work results my eGFR was 1-2 points below the minimum. The acronym stands for estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate. Factoid: Today, there are 10,840 stand-alone dialysis centers (excluding those in hospitals) in the U.S., making it almost the largest health-related "cottage industry", second only to the number of urgent care clinics nation-wide at 11,900.  Kidney disease has become  a serious chronic disease. Today it is estimated that there are 100,000 patients waiting for donor kidneys on a wait list of three years or more.

"When looking at your eGFR results, a higher number is better. In general, an eGFR value lower than 60 is a sign that your kidneys may not be working properly. An eGFR lower than 15 is a marker of kidney failure".

Today, there are 37 million Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD) that come in 5 stages, although the last one is the one that is critical (likely to need a transplant).

This takes us to proper hydration. Not too long ago I was at my renal doctor's office for my check up. She sees me once a year as she monitors and assesses the results of my bloodwork. I mentioned to her that recently I started closely monitoring my water intake and I realized how far off I was with my hydration when I started monitoring via the same app as on my cellphone that picks up data from my watch.  She told me to have another blood work in a month to see what my eGFR is going to be, now that I am strictly keeping to an 8 cup regimen of water intake. I start my morning even before breakfast or coffee with two glasses of lukewarm plain water. Much of my hydration, as recommended, is consumed in the first half of the day - 5/6 cups before lunch.  I do not count the 2 cups of coffee.

Sure enough my eGFR greatly improved (the higher the better, 60 being the bottom floor).  I mentioned this to my primary care doctor two months later during my annual physical. Along with my routine blood work, she ordered an eGFR test as well.  The result was another above 60 reading. For my age that looks fine to the doctors. However, 90 and above is what is expected of young kidneys and the range of 60 and above but below 90 can be an early onset of chronic kidney inefficiency.  As we get older maintaining an above 90 reading is an uphill effort for kidneys.  Doctors therefore look at anything over 60 for the older folks as acceptable.

Anecdotally, not a scientific finding or statement by any means, I would like to believe that perhaps all I needed all along was proper hydration. And, believe it or not, hydration is likely the one less likely given the same attention as we do with diet and exercise in most people's hectic modern life.  So, drink water conscientiously at 8 cups per day.

Exercise by almost universal acclimation is needed so we will not spend any more time on it.  Instead, let's pay attention to the brain - especially towards how best we can keep it healthy as we travel through the latter years.

For a very long time it was believed that we're stuck with the number of neurons at birth, then we tend to lose some to a diminishing number of about 10 per cent in old age.  But there is good news of late.

"In 1962, scientist Joseph Altman challenged this belief when he saw evidence of neurogenesis (the birth of neurons) in a region of the adult rat brain called the hippocampus. He later reported that newborn neurons traveled from their birthplace in the hippocampus to other parts of the brain. In 1979, another scientist, Michael Kaplan, confirmed Altman’s findings in the rat brain; and in 1983, he found special kinds of cells—called neural precursor cells—with the ability to become brain cells like neurons, in adult monkeys".

Considered at first to be true only in animals it is now believed that we can grow new neurons. It is still new in the field of neuro-science but according to Science News Today:

"The adult brain is not a static organ but a living, changing system, capable of reorganizing itself, forming new connections, and, in specific regions, generating new neurons. This remarkable capacity is known as neuroplasticity".

"Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change its structure and function in response to experience, learning, environment, and injury. It operates at multiple levels, from molecular changes within individual neurons to large-scale reorganization of entire neural networks. Through neuroplastic processes, the brain adapts continuously, sculpted by how we think, move, feel, and interact with the world. This adaptability is not a rare or exceptional phenomenon; it is a fundamental property of nervous systems".

My wife had commented once that even though English is my second language I write better with it now than from way-back-when since  the day I retired (2007). I said that is because I never stopped learning the language; my curiosity level remained high on any subject along with the yearning to keep learning about a host of other stuff deemed to be in a class of so called useless information, i.e. knowing that there is such a thing as "the average muzzle velocity of a sneeze" *.  Actually, I have news for everyone.  There is no such thing as useless information as far as the brain is concerned. To the brain, knowing or processing information is what it wants to do. Denied of new information, nothing to work on to stimulate it, or be entertained by it, the brain loses interest to the point of stagnation. 

I said in one of my earlier blogs that the universe is made up mainly of three components: matter, energy and information.  The brain needs all of them: gray matter that it is made of, energy to keep it going,  and information to keep it entertained, uses it, stores it  and disburses it.

As the saying goes, use it or lose it.

Keep it entertained and it will serve us all well.

* The average muzzle velocity of a sneeze is about 70 miles per hour. The idling hypochondriac brain hears it and asked: "What? What happens then when someone sneezes in a roomful of people at the doctor's waiting room? What if it was in a full elevator?

"The Weight of a Life that Matters"

Born on May 30, 1929, Nancy K. Schlossberg is one rare 95 year old lady who today continues to inspire and encourage not just those of us of a certain age but everyone - young and old - faced with the constancy of life's changes, challenges and the inevitable transitions we all go through - particularly that of facing the inevitability of aging.  She has written ten books that include, "Too Young to be Old", "Revitalizing Retirement" and "Retire Smart, Retire Happy".

What caught my attention is this one little quote from her:

"The goal is not just to add years to life, but to ensure those years still hold the weight of a life that matters."

That led to the present participle 'mattering' (as in English grammar) embraced by modern psychologists:

"Mattering is defined by researchers as feeling valued by ourselves, our family, our friends, our colleagues, and society — and then having an opportunity to add value back."

Ms. Schlossberg is Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland. After her husband passed away in 2011, she had wanted to move to a retirement community and perhaps to transition later to an assisted living facility but her son told her that she was too young for that.  Thus began her motivation to inspire people in dealing with the inevitable changes that each one of us must go through at every stage of our lives or how to transition from one  to the next.

The timeline of her life is quite remarkable when we consider that she was a newborn when the stock market crashed in 1929 which ushered the Great Depression; she was just six years old when the Social Security Act (SS) was enacted; she was not even a teenager when the second World War began; she was a teenager when the boom years started (birth of the baby boomers); and she was an adult to witness the unprecedented growth of the country  and the USA's rise to economic and military dominance from the late 50s. 

Her generation, commonly referred to as the "Silent Generation" - with the surviving numbers  getting leaner with each passing day - is characterized by traditional values and work ethic, known to "prioritize stability and security in their personal and professional lives". Their contribution to post WWII economic growth was measurably significant.

I guess we need to listen to her.

"As a 96-year-old psychologist who has spent decades studying life transitions, Nancy K. Schlossberg has found that the most difficult shift isn't retirement itself, but the decades that follow. In co-leading a group called 'The Aging Rebels' in Sarasota, Florida, Schlossberg has observed a recurring theme among those in their 80s and 90s - the 'freedom paradox', where total autonomy can lead to a sense of feeling marginalized and disconnected."

What she found in her studies was that often when retirement comes for the many who used to dream about the freedom that is presented by the euphoric prospect of not having to go to work everyday has its own challenges. After having done all the traveling (for those who can afford it) and when every bucket list was checked off, the activities or inactivity of a randomly structured life are not completely free of complications; or, if not complicated, boredom can be an inexplicably annoying intrusion.  Indeed, for some, freedom becomes a confusing paradox in the absence of structure.

The common theme of her books is, of course, all about coping with life's transitions along the chronological order; otherwise known as the aging process. If we begin the chronological order at the moment of retirement we find all kinds of life changes that involve financial planning, health management, social adjustments, loss of a loved one or caregiving to a loved one, just to list a few.

".. as we age, that freedom can quickly turn into a sense of feeling 'marginalized' without a clear purpose or reason to get up each day. One former nurse in Schlossberg's group described the relief of no longer having schedules or responsibilities, yet also feeling a loss of connection and competency. Schlossberg suggests that to navigate this transition, we must look past the 'bucket list' and focus on finding ways to 'matter' - to feel noticed, cared for, and depended upon."

I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs about a similarly themed subject that the price to living longer is to grow old. And to grow old is to face the reality that the once youthful and vibrant machinery that is the human body must deal with all kinds of maintenance checkups and mitigations. Not too long ago Ms. Schlossberg humorously quipped, “First of all, I’m 94, so you do spend a lot of time running from doctor to doctor, and it becomes a part-time job.” 

What are we of a certain age going to do?

1.) The relief of no longer having schedules or responsibilities can bring a feeling of loss of connection and competency. Folks who are physically able find volunteer work a wide path from which one may find access to social connections, new friendships and to common issues and pathways ordinarily not found or explored.  There is one pitfall to avoid - prolonged immersion in social media to the point of obsession. Keep track of the time spent on social media indulgence against  actual physical activities.

2. Pick up your curiosity level to that when you were a young child.  The brain wants to stay busy, so keep it doing exactly that. There is a difference between being a passive scanner of information and an active searcher of it and it is never too late to know more about how the solar system works, how  jet plane propulsion is different from propeller driven aircraft or just how it is that a plane flies at all? How is a rechargeable battery holding and keeping energy different from water behind the Hoover Dam? This may seem facetious to us but the brain does indeed want to know.  Actually, think back to when you were a child when you were full of why-after-why questions.  Where did all those level of curiosities go? What better time to pick them up than now when you have all the time in the world.

3. Don't forget to express your gratitude openly. It is one thing "to think about it", it is another to verbally say it to your loved ones and to friends.  Most of all, and this is important - express it directly, according to your faith or belief system - to a higher power because if you are convinced that you are a creature then there is ample reason to acknowledge the existence of the Creator.

4. Acknowledge each morning that each time you wake up and get out of bed is an everyday prelude that is not so easily achievable for some, even impossible for others.  Every morning is a gift to be opened, the whole day is another extension.  We might as well use it.  

5. If you are a caregiver to a spouse, a sibling, a parent or child, consider yourself the fortunate one first. Second, embrace the nobility of caregiving.

6. While taking care of our physical health is a given, devote as much time to taking care of mental and emotional health. 

7. Worried and fearful like this cat?  I wrote four years ago, after Covid, on January 1, "2022 and Managing Our Fears"

 

"How then should we manage our fears? We don't. We use fear to stay vigilant and careful, to instill discipline and to avoid doing stupid things. And Yoda would say, "Worry, however, we should not". Worrying is like treading water. You could expend a lot of energy doing it but it gets you nowhere. So, you might as well swim and go somewhere.

Still anxious over anything and everything? I have four words. Be like the cat below and "Don't Worry About It"

And gain on the weight of a life that matters

 

 

What Makes You Really You

"Through the eyes of the beholder" describes one's  perceptions of anything or anyone, often to differentiate it from how another person may perceive the same.

You are one person in the eyes of one but you could be a different one in the eyes of another; or, you can be the same person to many but you are never one person to all. Nevertheless, you are one person different from the next one.

Dr. Seuss said it best.

What you are to others is one thing.  What you are to yourself is another. This takes us to one truly unique ability that allows us to reflect on our thoughts and feelings that, as far as we know, is uniquely human - a highly complex form of self awareness where some animals are only capable of basic self-recognition.

While there are varying degrees of self awareness among certain species, we have the most advanced cognitive abilities to not only have an acute sense of self  but also to have developed a conscience as an individual and the collective sense of morality and ethical behavior as a society. 

The question is how did all of these come about? How did consciousness develop from a collection of otherwise inanimate mass of tissues, bones, fluids, blood and blood vessels, cells, molecules and atoms? You are self aware, have consciousness but none of any of your anatomy actually recognizes you.  Imagine looking behind your two eye sockets, through the lens, past the cornea and  iris, to view the world around you, and you wonder who is this entity that is doing the viewing? Actually, the upright images that you think you see are actually projected to your retina upside down:

Now, you know the brain is the one doing the correction.  It interprets it for you.  Wait. Where are you  in the midst of all of these?

Before we attempt to answer that question, let's first realize that physiologically you are not for the most part the same person that you were ten years ago. You shed your skin every 2-4 weeks. A good part of the dust that you see and clean up in your house is human dead skin. The cells of the lining of your intestines are refurbished every 2-3 days. Your red blood cells last only for about 120 days, so you get new ones every so often. You, if you still have a set of thick hair, get new hair follicles every 3-7 years while your entire skeletal system gets renewed with new bone cells every 10 years, approximately. 

You have trillions of cells in your body but what you have today are not exactly the same cells yesterday.

Suffice it to say that the physical you is not the same as the conscious you. The only part of your physiology that remains unchanged, except for maybe 10 % of it, are the neurons in your brain.  And you have oodles and oodles of them. So, is that where the real you is then?  But each individual cell in your neurons does not know you. So, it must take the entire clump of them that gives you self awareness and consciousness.  They make you you.  But how?

First this. Physiologically, you are mostly water (hydrogen and oxygen as H2O), carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, about 99 % in all. Individually, down to the atomic level, none of them knows you, yet you are this discrete being different from the next one. Speaking of down to the atomic level, every electron that orbits every proton in an atom is exactly the same electron found in every element in the universe. In other words, every electron is identically the same as the next one, regardless of whether it is in an atom in  molecules of water, watermelon seeds, the venom of a black mamba, or what is in granite or high carbon steel, etc.

So, at the electron level, we are all identical - electron by electron as with the entire universe, so to speak.

The thoughts that you currently have while reading this, then glancing away to look at the four walls, or out the window, or trying to take in what you just read, are what make up your consciousness.  You just know it is you reading. This prompted 17th century philosopher and thinker  Rene Descartes to say, "I think, therefore I am".

Eventually, what you are doing or thinking will end up in your subconscious mind.  You are what you think you are and you know that everything around you, including those already set in  your memory, and everything you know about people and stuff, and doing things with as little effort to think about how or why become part of your subconscious.

"Neuroscientists say that our subconscious mind is much more powerful than our conscious mind".

Powerful, yet it has no physical attributes that you can physically measure, weigh or touch. It's just that one discrete entity behind those two eye sockets.  But, it is you or colloquially, "You are It" .

There must be a lot more to this conscious and subconscious stuff. One of the greatest mysteries of consciousness or some kind of derivative of consciousness are stories about near death experiences.  These are about cases of people recalling what they saw or hear while clinically dead and  resuscitated afterwards.  There are differences and similarities between many of the stories, although the scientific community has doubts and have often come up with explanations rooted in psychology and natural brain activities.  There is no scientific proof or verifiable explanation of a single incident that is beyond doubt. To this day, there is no scientific basis that near death experiences (NDEs) constitute proof of life after death.

Then there are cases of out of body experiences associated with NDEs. One exceptional case, among many that had been written about, was that of Pam Reynolds Lowery, from Atlanta Georgia. She had a brain aneurysm at the brainstem and that she was not likely to survive if surgery was attempted to remove it. However, one brain surgeon did the surgery by lowering her body temperature to 50 deg F, stopped her heart and breathing and drain the blood from her brain completely to preclude rupture, her eyes taped shut and headphones over her ear that emitted "loud clicks to block auditory input". 

"Pam reported witnessing her surgery from above the doctor’s shoulder, describing specific details about surgical tools and conversations that she could not have observed through normal means. Cardiologist Michael Sabom, among other experts, has found her account persuasive, believing it adds to evidence of consciousness persisting beyond clinical death, despite skepticism attributing such experiences to anesthesia awareness".

Pam not only survived the surgery, she lived for many more years after that.

Until such time that NDEs and out of body experiences can be verified by science beyond any doubt, those shall remain in the realm of the unexplained.

After having read all of the above, and having given it some thought, won't you agree that there is no question that you being you is one of the greatest wonders of the world, much of it you don't know how and least of all, why?   There's a lot in there I inserted between the lines for your inquisitive mind, your conscious thoughts, and the power of your subconscious to explore; not the least of which is this: does your subconscious exist independently of your physical self?

"To Sleep, Perchance To Dream"

Next to the most often quoted of all of William Shakespeare's words, "To be or not to be", is "To sleep, perchance to dream", both from Hamlet's famous soliloquy, Act 3 Scene 1.

I am no Shakespearean scholar nor do I  desire to be one but there is something about the above quotation that makes me wonder.  Did old William just touch on the two subject matters that frequently occupied the minds of the people during his time - sleep and death? But is it not also even more remarkably so today? More on this in a bit.

Did you know that people can fast for a week and would be fine afterwards but sleep deprivation even for just 2-3 days is considered torture in international law. Gandhi fasted in at least three separate episodes of his life from 1932 to 1943 and the longest on record was 18 days which showed little or no  ill effects on his physical and mental health. On the other hand,

.."staying awake for 24 hours causes similar cognitive effects as a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10%, which is higher than the legal limit for driving."        according to the CDC

 

“Sleep deprivation is a high interest loan with steep payments in the form of health consequences.”      -------- Dr. Abhinav Singh, Sleep Physician

The occasional all-nighter to finish a project, a report, or complete doing something on a deadline may have no ill effects if done only once in a while but "borrowing" hours from each daily pattern of sleep could result in chronic sleep deprivation with serious health consequences.

Then there is a world-wide demand for sleep aid and medications for sleep related issues  that in 2025 reached $84 billion and is expected to rise to $163 billion in 2034, barely half a generation from now.

Apparently, advanced mental capacity notwithstanding, only humans suffer from sleep disorder or, is it because of it that makes us vulnerable? Dolphins and whales deal with it by having half their brains go to sleep while the other half is wide awake in alternating fashion while resting. Mammals that they are, the need to breathe air is dealt with through this awesome biological adaptation in a watery environment. I guess whales and dolphins do not suffer from insomnia.

Let's get back to old William S.

There are many interpretations of Hamlet's soliloquy but even today do we not see the message to the ambitious executive, the startup business entrepreneur, or the rich worrying about losing their accumulated wealth?

    

                     "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

                      The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,"..

Or, to the worrier, the heartbroken, or anyone filled with hopelessness in the face of misfortune:

"Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them.."

 

".. The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep".

Was this grappling with existential questions about life and death? Or, was it contemplating the fear of the unknown after death?  And there too are feelings of despair that some of us may suffer.  But, was it not about sleep too?

If we go by the recommended eight hours of sleep per day, it means spending a third of our lives unaware of what is going on around us. Speaking of being unaware, that is what  general anesthesia does to us during surgery or routine colonoscopy (for those of us of a certain age who have undergone this procedure). But did you know that under anesthesia we do not dream? So, not only are we not aware of what is going on under anesthesia, we do not feel pain, we do not remember anything and we do not dream.  Not only are our reflexes and involuntary movements suppressed while under anesthesia, mechanical ventilation is needed to help us breathe.  The anesthesiologist, whose presence during these procedures is a must, ensures that heart and blood pressure and other vital signs are monitored and that the patient is able to breathe. In other words we are totally in a state of unconsciousness; but are our brains deactivated during all that time? 

But what does that mean?  Is our subconscious also offline?  Is that about as close as we can experience - need we say it - death? To sleep but perchance to not dream! 

But death we need not talk about; instead, let's examine sleep.

 

In normal sleep we dream. However, why are our dreams not quite so normal? I mean our dreams are often weird, silly at times, but dream we do anyhow.

"No one has a single, definitive answer for why humans dream, but neuroscience has moved well beyond guessing. The brain is intensely active during sleep, cycling through stages that each produce different kinds of mental experiences. The leading explanations point to several overlapping functions: consolidating memories, processing emotions, rehearsing threats, and fostering creative thinking. Rather than competing, these theories likely each capture a piece of what dreaming does for us".

So the brain does really want to remain active while much of our physical body is at rest?  But why the silly scenarios, such as, being on a business trip in some unknown city and not able to find your way back to the hotel; or, getting ready for a business presentation and you have no clue about what to present; or, finding yourself with business colleagues ready to board the plane and you are the only one without a boarding pass; or, how about witnessing an airplane crash and when you get to where it fell, you only find a burning chicken, etc. Except for one, those are some of my dreams, long after I've  retired, mind you.

What about nightmares? Is the brain merely trying to scare us?  Or, left alone without our conscious supervision, is the brain just being naughty or capricious while we are sleeping, to get something out of our system and relieve us of daytime stress?

Or, does the brain do it to free us of wild ideas about talking spiders where some have the ability to detect gravity waves, lions and hyenas debating theology, and marauding witches, or conversations between an angel and the devil, etc.  Wait, I wrote those, and if the reader cares(d) to read about them from some of my earlier blogs, you'll know what I mean. So, it's not that. I do hope it's not that.  We'll leave that to the neuroscientists and psychiatrists.

According to one U.N. estimate, 16% of the world's population suffer from insomnia, more among women than men, while those 65 years old or older suffer the least. Shall we guess that women are typically the worrier and those past 65 don't worry too much because they've "been there, done that"?

Granted insomnia is not a permanent malady for most, we are still talking about a billion people having problems with sleep at one time or another; put another way, one in seven people is affected.  No wonder sleeping medications and other sleep aids are a booming business.

Aside from sleep aids and medications, we get a host of advice, "proven" techniques and tricks to getting a good night sleep from friends, from doctors, from  media influencers, etc. 

The reader will get one from me as well. Part of a questionnaire our primary care doctor used to ask me during my annual physical is about how well I sleep at night. I told him what my wife usually says about my sleep pattern - that I fall asleep at the flip of the light switch. At each physical since, he'd remember about it and he kept telling me that it is a blessing to be able to do that. He did ask me once how I do it. I told him that I don't think much about how I do it other than actually using a mental switch the moment I close my eyes.  

Of course, falling asleep at the flip of a switch is an exaggeration but it is pretty close. Then I told him that there  is one interesting question; "What do I do when on rare occasions when sleep eludes me after several minutes when the switch has been flipped and I'm still awake.

I would imagine myself lying along a narrow and gently flowing stream, water slowly cascading over rocks and stones and there's a small fire nearby.  The doctor asked if I'm inside a sleeping bag or on an air mattress. That is never part of the scenery, besides, I've had no experience in real life doing it, not once ever, so the discomfort of the stony ground or wet grass are not in the realm of my imagination. I do imagine  being under a blanket but not worrying about mosquitoes and other night flying insects, snakes slithering by or some nocturnal rodents passing through.  No mosquito nets either. It's the stream, the fire and the blanket that do the trick, a mere stage scene with no basis in reality, yet it works. A variation is sleeping inside a teepee, fire nearby, or on a desert sand or beach under a palm or coconut tree.

But there is the question of falling back to sleep after waking up for one reason or another. A trip (or two) to the bathroom is a common reason - guys of a certain age know what I mean.  Well, I read somewhere a while back, or was it a YouTube presentation, that there is a trick that works all the time when falling back to sleep is an issue.

Here's how it works.

1. Think of a word, with perhaps 4-6 letters.

2. Starting with the first letter, think of as many words as you can that start with that letter, then do the same with the next letter, with the aim of doing all the letters.

Example, you thought of the word - "cover" - starting with 'c', you think of:

cup, cobra, capsule, Cuba, etc., then followed by 'o': ocean, oven, optical, ox, overnight, etc. and on to the remaining letters v, e, r.

The more unrelated the words are to each other, the more effective it is because, we are told, the brain is set up that way during sleep. It goes through all kinds of unrelated scenarios - a disorganized calisthenics of thoughts (my description) - and that's what makes our dreams weird and unreal; a warm up for the brain to take over the landscape of a dreamful sleep.

But it works. You are likely not able to complete the entire exercise before falling back to sleep.  

All that being said, I caution the reader that I am not a sleep psychologist (if there is such a thing as sleep psychology) and I am just relating what I read or saw.  Worth a try though.  It just might surprise you.  

Failing that, get up, get out of the bedroom and read the entire Hamlet soliloquy, and see if it will not put you to sleep. Or, at least you'll see proof of the evolution of language  and why some words succumbed to inevitable extinction. 

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause—there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action.

Well, it's time to say, "Tonight I bid you to sleep, let your brain clean up the clutter and toss them out, and keep only those worth remembering the next morning.