Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’ — Shawshank Redemption
The high school reunion is an interesting tradition. Essentially, you pay money to take a peek into the lives of all the people you haven’t seen in a decade or more, and rehash the past.
Just had my own 20th reunion this past weekend. It was great to see so many people doing (and looking) well. In fact, as a group, we’re not looking half bad, if I do say so. There were also some train wrecks…but that’s a different story…for a different time.
The turnout for this reunion was pretty good — better than I expected.
But there were some noticeable absences.
The most noticeable — for me anyway — was that of a friend who died a year and a half ago.
It wasn’t an accident that killed him. And it wasn’t sudden. What killed him at the age of 36 was liver failure brought about by heavy alcohol use. Years and years of alcohol abuse. That’s tragic enough, but he also left a wife and two year old son behind.
This was a guy who was always up for a party, but I never knew the extent of his excesses — never even had a clue. In the years before his death I would see him maybe two or three times a year. We’d usually meet for lunch, grab a beer or whatever, and bullshit about the high school days, kids, work, etc.
Harmless, right? Well, apparently there was much much more going on behind the scenes.
I’m told that his doctor advised him to quit drinking two years before his death… then gave him the same advice the following year. He didn’t quit. He was drinking when he was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis a month or two before he died, and then right up until he was admitted to the hospital he would never leave alive.
So what does this have to do with health and wellness?
Well, if you can’t figure out that drinking too much is the opposite of everything we talk about here — then maybe you’re at the wrong blog, dude.
Look, I’m not an doctor — or an alcoholic, for that matter — but it’s no secret that alcohol is something that can eff you up real bad.
Having said that, the point here is how you and I choose to spend our time. Turns out the choices we make are everything.
It’s the decisions we make every day, hundreds and thousands of decisions, big and small, that have brought you to where you are right now. It was a single decision followed by thousands more that destroyed my friend’s health and led to his death.
I know what you may be thinking: Alcoholism is a disease and he had no control over it. Well, just as there are plenty of people suffering from the effects of alcoholism, there are plenty who have stopped cold turkey as well and have chosen a healthier life.
Why? Because they chose to. And they continue to choose this path every second of every day. Is it hard? No doubt, but people do it anyway.
You can choose to wake up early and run 4 miles. You can choose to drag your ass to the gym after you put the kids to bed, even when it’s ten degrees outside and you don’t want to.
You can choose to “eat your vegetables” instead of a Twinkie.
You can choose to stop making excuses and try the yoga class down the street.
The decision and responsibility is always yours. Who else is going to do it for you?
– Mike
Photo by coniferine
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