“Those who live their lives in poverty simply do not take in enough nutrients to sustain their bodies.”
For a while there, I actually thought that we had a way out of the present times that, in the words of Thomas Paine “ try men’s souls. After all, with the typhoon season upon us, families losing homes to landslides and massive floods, the fact that they hurriedly passed Republic Act 9729, the Climate Change Act of 2009, seemed to point the way out of our present travails.
Well, not really. As an NGO person pointed out to me, the law actually just creates another government body chaired by the President that will get in the way of the work being done by government agencies with NGOs and others. Then, it seems, too that a big meeting on Climate Change will take place in Stockholm in 60 days and would that mean only just still one more place to travel for our numero unong turista?
If what is happening to us is retribution for the damage we have caused in our environmental resources in this overcrowded archipelago governed by the benighted and exploited by the greedy, then, we really have no chance to do any quick corrections that will need a surfeit of political will, the one thing that any group of four Climate Change commissioners (who will most likely be politicos instead men of science) will not have. With the President at the helm, expect not much to happen to that commission.
Will we meet the challenges Climate Change will be throwing our way? Probably not with any possible attitudinal change until the next administration comes into office if, that is, the new ones will have the capability to transform society and the Filipino people.
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It is not directly part of Climate Change but we are also health-challenged as a people and nation and the present weather is not doing any of us any good. As a golfer I am in constant contact with persons who have had more difficult lives than I. These are the caddies who age faster than the players do.
This is also partly because of climate change. A golfer of 70 or even 80 will sometimes look younger than a caddy of 50. In fact, there aren’t many caddies who will be past 50. Their survival rate after 50 is not very good.
Those who live their lives in poverty simply do not take in enough nutrients to sustain their bodies.
Francis Bacon waxed eloquently over aging: “Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.” Perhaps, but typhoon weather will bring out in aging bodies the impact of age. We feel it in our bones and in the way that our bodies react to cold, the wind and walking in floodwaters. Typhoon weather is, as lawyers will say, an aggravating circumstance.
What to do? Take the usual precautions, old man. Lifestyle change in the form of exercise, diet, and avoidance of toxic situations and relationships and a growing pharmacopoeia in our medicine cabinet.
In my case, at 70, besides the maintenance medication for hypertension, I make sure that I take a lot of water – the better to thin the blood and wash out all that beer from last night. I have a juicer that I use to give me enough vitamins and look out for herbal solutions. I am partial to Amway products especially Nutrilite Double X which gave Jamaica its Olympic golds in the sprints.
For some time now, because of a gift from a friend who recommended it by giving me several cans, I am back to drinking what passes as the milk that I used to drink as a boy – Ensure Gold. He told me that a glassful would give me a much-needed nutritional boost for the day.
Taking a leap of faith, I tried the food supplement made by Abbott Nutrition for sexagenarians. The vanilla flavor tastes great, felt like I was drinking a glassful of milk. Ensure Gold is better, contains 28 vitamins and minerals, dual fiber formulation that help digestion and heart-friendly Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. In short, stuff that strengthens bones, lowers blood pressure, and fortifies the heart and immune system. In other words, it helps keep in shape exactly all the vital inner workings that go awry as we age.
I am not an endorser; that job is given to actor Ronaldo Valdez who, in a TV commercial beats his fellow actor son, in a game of tennis.
That hasn’t yet happened to me in any golf game. In fact, attending my 60-year old cousins birthday in Cebu, he beat his two older cousins handily two days running.
(I realize that what I have been discussing brings out how different we live from other Pinoys who are not only not able to buy the medication that they need, they sometimes do not even have what they need to buy food for their families.)
I started this column with the express idea of discussing Climate Change, Sadly, there hasn’t been anything about it except that four commissioners will be appointed with the President as the head of the commission, which indicate to me that not much can be expected of the new commission Thus, I was derailed into writing atypically on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Clearly, a senior moment!
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Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. ~Mark Twain
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Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. ~Samuel Ullman
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You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. ~Douglas MacArthur
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hvp 10.25.09
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