Today has been my first full day on Guam in more than 3 years.  I’m surprised at how much remains the same as I remember.  24 hours is still a long time to fly.  The people are still friendly, and I would almost swear it is still the same lady calling me every time I walk by offering me (and any other male walking by) a massage for $40 with the option to pick another lady if I don’t find the first one pretty.  Yuck…I thought she was talking about a massage the first time 4 years ago.

On the other hand, it has also been a lesson in how much I’ve aged.  Still, I ran 2 miles this morning which over the hills of Guam in this heat was harder than the three miles I ran at home.  I also found it is no longer a little feat to walk 4 miles round trip to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a shirt for my wife.  I am officially old…and over weight.   I figure I will be able to look on  her in that shirt remembering I was able to walk 4 hilly miles in heat to get it after running earlier in the morning.  As for why it was difficult, what can one do save start/continue exercising again.  I will be damned, if I am to reach the 240lbs I was a decade ago with out making a serious effort to fight the lbs(currently 232lb.).  Even with weight gain as a common side effect of the drugs I take for MS, I hope much of that is because of the inability to exercise due to fatigue.  To this I go back to my saying I used as a sign off for a few message boards over the years:

“Do what you can when you can until you can’t.  Then feel no regret.  To the extent I have been able to look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day feeling I have lived up to that ideal, I find I can feel some pride rather than disgust as I meet the haggard gaze staring back at me.”

For those in Japan today after the earthquake, after shocks, tsunami, and nuclear reactor disaster all I can do is marvel at their society’s calm and orderly reaction to the series of disasters with so little chaos.  There seems to be far more stories of the best of humanity rather than the lesser side of humanity which sometimes thrives on chaos.  For those who feel the world teeters on the edge, I can only point to how the best parts of humanity are so often seen in the worst situations.  My heart goes out to all of those in Japan along with my respect and well wishes.

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2 thoughts on “”

  1. Funny part is I wrote these blog entries while travelling, and I’ve never been able to get them to merge in with my normal blog:
    http://thelifewelllived.blogspot.com/

    While I was away, I must have missed one of the “l’s.”

    Still, thank you for the comment. I don’t get many comments, but I have enjoyed thinking there have been more than a 1,000 times somebody has looked at what I wrote. When I started it was to keep track of experiences as a foster parent for sick children, but it’s sort of morphed as time goes on.
    Again,
    Thanks.

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