| The body has a capacity for resiliency and adaptation | | | | doesn't exercise, watches virtually every soap opera |
| permitting us to have the measure of health we do. | | | | and eats pounds of chocolates every week but yet |
| But there is a limit to that reserve. Wrong life choices | | | | looks more trim and fit than you in spite of your tofu |
| will eventually take their inevitable toll. | | | | and jazzercise. Or how about the NBA All-Star who |
| If every time we did something that would bring | | | | eats greasy fast foods, additive-laden soft drinks, and |
| eventual harm to ourselves, to society or to the | | | | candy bars? Using such logic to justify poor life |
| environment, we were given a convincing jolt of | | | | choices is like pointing to people who drive drunk |
| electric shock, most problems facing humanity would | | | | habitually and have done so for decades without ever |
| be almost instantly solved. But that's not the way | | | | getting in a wreck. Just because people can escape |
| things are. Other than sticking our hand in a fire or | | | | immediate harm does not mean such a course is wise |
| falling off a cliff, or similar easy lessons in living, most | | | | and that the odds are not against you. |
| choices require intelligent foresight, a measure of | | | | Here is an even better rebuttal to this myopic view of |
| potential consequences perhaps far into the future. | | | | life choices. The medical image here is a computed |
| Therein lies our problem. We like to cheat, are lazy, | | | | tomographic scan of the head of an inebriated man |
| pleasure-for-the-moment driven, too clever with alibis | | | | admitted to the hospital. In the side view, note an |
| and excuses and particularly good at self-justification. | | | | approximately 2" nail embedded in the back part of the |
| We continue whatever suits our fancy until eventually | | | | skull. In the front view, see that this nail is in the center |
| we are sufficiently harmed, or the contrary evidence | | | | of the brain. The patient disclosed that some twelve |
| becomes so overwhelming that we change due to the | | | | years earlier he had attempted suicide during a |
| brute force of public opinion. | | | | depressive episode, and had used a nail gun directed |
| Although cigarette smoking, industrial smog, water | | | | between the eyes to end his life. Since that time, he |
| pollution, radiation, toxic gases emitted from modern | | | | has done just fine. |
| construction materials, and sedentary living are all | | | | Everything is a matter of odds. If you can shoot nails |
| proven to cause harm, even grievous life-threatening | | | | into your brain and survive essentially unscathed, then |
| harm, they continue because immediate ill effects do | | | | certainly you might be able to smoke, lead a sedentary |
| not occur, or change would mean inconvenience or | | | | life, breathe toxic fumes, be unfit, and eat almost |
| sacrifice. Then there is Uncle Josh, who is now a | | | | anything and possibly escape damage too. |
| robust ninety-four, and yet has smoked a cigar, | | | | For most of us, however, it would be much smarter to |
| chewed tobacco and swigged whiskey since he was | | | | weigh the odds in our favor and use our brain (minus |
| sixteen. There is the brother-in-law who works in the | | | | nails) to exercise judgment and foresight and make |
| nuclear plant and has never developed cancer. There | | | | decisions now that increase the odds for a better, |
| is the classmate you saw at the recent reunion who | | | | longer, happier life. |