As I walk around where there are a lot of people I am struck by two things, the preoccupation they have with staring at their cellphones and how many are obese.
It was not always this way. I remember growing up in the early 60's and I knew of only two obese people. One was a friend's father and another a classmate. Today, fat acceptance is pushed and men and women walk around with their slabs of fat on display. There was a time when obese women in particular would dress discreetly to hide how overweight they were. As I just said, those days are long gone. Thankfully, there were no cellphones back then.
What am I getting at? The point is, most Americans have lowered the standard as to what can be the best version of themselves. Appearance? Doesn't really matter. Cover your body with tattoos, dress like you are a resident of the local city mission or have a body that is either to light to fight or too fat to make it up three flights of stairs, it doesn't matter. Also, having a preoccupation with being entertained through movies, TV, sports, etc. and you have a people who are mostly watchers, not doers.
But, that is hopefully them not us. Perhaps this can serve as a wakeup call or reminder to some of you out there to make things right in your life.
Looking around and being aware, I see every indication that tough times are coming for us Americans. Don't be caught being asleep at the wheel as they say.
The following was written by author, athlete Dave Draper several years ago and gives an overview, in a humorous way, of how things went down the crapper in this country.
The Decline by Dave Draper:
"Here is a rough bullet-summary of a devastating decline of modern mankind. Laugh it up. Pretend it's a badly scripted, poorly directed B-flick from a Hollywood starring the Osmond family.
Fitness takes hold in the '60s and erupts in the '70s. Swell. Big biz and big bucks do their dirty work: feeding frenzy, deception and hype, confusion and gluttony. No comprehensive education offered, intended or achieved, just sell, exploit, sell. Aerobics will set you free, buy a $7,000 treadmill.
Fast food arrives in the '60s --- just what we needed --- waistlines and appetites grow, time shrinks.
Schools drop athletic programs and classes on nutrition. Junk food and fast food is installed in school halls and cafeterias instead.
Fast-track living increases across the fruited plains to accommodate rising costs; God's replaced by a second job, second car, second mortgage and declining morality.
Generation gap in understanding critical need for sound exercise and right eating widens... going, going, gone.
Less family life, more single-parent families, less home front education from the now nutrition- and exercise-ignorant moms and dads results in the development of horrible eating habits and passive lifestyles.
Computers and video games replace physical play and sports for adults and kids alike, Standard game rules: 1) Sit on butt and 2) Press the buttons.
Governments miss the picture by light-years. The FDA and other agencies are 70 years behind the times in nutrition information they offer to the populace.
Sugar and grain lobbyists and fast-food bosses control the government and they control society, the herds, the sheep.
Terrorism, wars, serial killers and small and large thieves --- wickedness --- removes the prevailing wind from the ship's sails and strain at man's hopes.
The match is not over yet. It's time to get back up and fight like a man, right here, right now. Exercise, eat right, think right and grin with joy, and build enabling discipline and enliven the weary character along the way."
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