Pandemic & Pain Be Damned, Keep Damn Legs Kicking

Fox’s Tucker Carlson got some grief for suggesting the average life expectancy of a Covid victim is the same as the average person’s, but what’s being missed is obvious importance of one’s over all health … regardless. ABC’s Jeopardy! Says it was at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 that J.T. Stinson coined the phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” And, that link between a healthy life style & longevity is more true during today’s pandemic than ever.

Tucker was right, at least, to the extent his main point is that Covid (as well as influenza) is by far & away most dangerous to the elderly, and especially those with already weakening aka underlying conditions. Besides a healthy daily diet, a daily exercise routine is widely-recommended by medical experts everywhere. The point was driven home recently by my own doctor during the latest annual checkup. And, there’s a reason Medicare literature hammers away at it, too.

Case in point is my good friend, a sweet yet street-wise 101-year-old lady with a special zest for life. Any day she can be seen walking along the streets of DC’s Foggy Bottom, either going out for groceries or just plain limbering up those legs of hers. It’s not that she doesn’t have many a pain … she readily shares her diminished eyesight, appetite, memory & balance; yet, I’d swear she’s spryer & sharper than the wheezing overweight politicians she passes on the street. She may not eat much any more, but what she does take in is mostly nutritious. The lesson for a longer, more enjoyable life at any age: Pain be damned, keep those damn legs kicking.

Davd Soul