You should aim to walk 10,000 steps a day “The first company that produced pedometers came up with the 10,000-step benchmark without any data, as that was considered an auspicious number,” says Lieberman. “Since then, plenty of studies have shown that steps a day is a reasonable way of measuring physical activity. As you increase your step count, you reap increased benefits, but it tails off between about 8,000 and 10,000.”
Hutchinson (Author of author of Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise._ agrees: “There’s nothing magic about 10,000 steps a day, but it is pretty good advice. In general, the best target is probably ‘a little more’ than what you’re currently doing.’’
How many steps do I make or take each day?
I am not sure as I got rid of my fitbit.
For some reason of carrying a tracking device by choice kind of got to me so I stopped wearing it.
I was also starting to obsess about it a little bit.
Besides, I always walk with my wife so I can ask her.
enough to do in serving God, country without abandoning themselves
On November 15, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, quoting George Washington, issued a General Order Respecting the Observance of the Sabbath Day in the Army and Navy.
Abe quoting George.
Ought to be good enough for anybody.
Mr. Lincoln wrote:
The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for men and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the divine will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.
The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. “At this time of public distress,” adopting the words of Washington in 1776, “men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.” The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended:
The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.
Hoping and trusting
That we might endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.
hurricane waiting rain raining and wind blowing not much else happens
It became evident to me after a few fast rounds with the radio that the broadcasters had opened up on Edna awfully far in advance, before she had come out of her corner, and were spending themselves at a reckless rate. During the morning hours, they were having a tough time keeping Edna going at the velocity demanded of emergency broadcasting. I heard one fellow from, I think, Riverhead, Long Island, interviewing his out-of-doors man, who had been sent abroad in a car to look over conditions on the eastern end of the island.
That is a short excerpt from EB White’s famous essay, The Eye of Edna (The New Yorker, September 25, 1954) where Mr. White told the story following Hurricane Edna using live reports … on the radio.
It was on my mind today as Hurricane Idalia came by.
Lots of dire warnings.
Lots of views of other places.
But here.
Rain raining.
Wind blowing.
The tide might be high but there is that blue moon anyway to help that along.
But you don’t want to be caught out in this if it gets worse.
So the wait continues.
Back in Mr. White wrote that. “The radio either lets Nature alone or gives her the full treatment, as it did at the approach of the storm. The idea, of course, is that the radio shall perform a public service by warning people of a storm that might prove fatal; and this the radio certainly does. But another effect of the radio is to work people up to an incredible state of alarm many hours in advance of the blow, while they are still fanned by the mildest zephyrs.”
The people I used to work with in TV News always shouted, “We are here to INFORM you, not scare you!”
And pass along advice.
As they did in 1954 when Mr. White noted, “… a man was repeating the advice I had heard many times. Fill the car with gas before the pumps lose their power. Get an old-fashioned clock that is independent of electricity. Set the refrigerator adjustment to a lower temperature”
I never thought about the clock today but I made sure my phone was charged though that will depend on cell towers being up and working.
Mr. White said, “There are always two stages of any disturbance in the country — the stage when the lights and the phone are still going, the stage when these are lost.”
All these moderns connections and conveniences.
Haven’t really come that far in the face of a Hurricane I guess.
I will tell one thing that caught me off guard.
I have been watching the storm all day through my window.
Its gray and windswept.
I know these days from growing up in Michigan.
Then I went outside for a quick trip to grab some supplies and I ran out the door and ducked my head … into the 40mph 85 degree storm.
It WAS HOT.
From my window, it was a COLD gray Michigan day.
Walking into 100% humidity and seeing folks in T shirts and shorts caught me off guard.
misapprehension, willfully blind, plausibly ignorant of facts
I had to hammer out some of these words to fit into what I self style a haiku.
The words should have been:
> misapprehension of facts
> willfully blind
> plausible ignorance
These are all terms used in recent newspaper articles to describe legal defenses or legal avenues that can be used to explain the actions of defendants in a this big lawsuit in Georgia.
Nowhere does anyone seem to suggest saying, “I didn’t do it.”
Because they did.
But, with the right wording, what they did was not wrong.
Right wording like a misapprehension of facts.
Right wording like willfully blind.
Right wording like plausible ignorance.
Hard to believe but back in the day I was a 4th grade Sunday School teacher.
I was asked to a be a summer fill in and it lasted 10 years.
(I know that means that if ever I am charged with any type of crime the headline will read, “ONE TIME SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER CHARGED WITH …”)
I would do a series of lessons based on the 10 Commandments and I would ask the boys if they tried to follow the 10 commandments.
SURE – YOU BET – OF COURSE they would answer.
Then I would describe a simple scenario for the kids in my class where they, the kids, were at home on a Sunday Morning and their Mom had left a candy bar on the kitchen counter and told them to not touch the candy bar.
In the story the Mom leaves the room and the kid eats the candy bar and when the Mom comes back and asks what happened to the candy, the kid says to himself a certain cuss word and then says out loud, “I don’t know.”
I then said that the kid …
Coveted the candy bar.
Stole the candy bar.
Took the Lord’s name in vain.
Lied about taking the candy bar.
Did not honor his parents.
And since it was on a Sunday, did not honor the Sabbath.
In five minutes, said kid broke 6 of the 10 commandments.
Not bad for a 4th grader.
Then I gave them this scenario.
Same kid and this time, his parents are going out and they say, DO NOT GO TO THE PARK.
The parents leave and the kid rides his bike to the park.
Later when the parents come home, they ask DID YOU GO TO THE PARK?
And the kid says with care, I went for a bike ride.
I would then ask the class, did the kid lie?
The kid DID go for a bike ride.
The kid DID NOT say I DID NOT GO TO THE PARK.
Did the kid lie?
I then pointed out that the commandment says, DO NOT BEAR FLASE WITNESS.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
And I let those 4th graders think about it.
Of course the Court Case in Georgia is not about 4th graders but adults.
Adults who maybe should know better.
Adults who probably know about and push the 10 commandments.
As Huckleberry Finn said, and I quoted this just the other day, “Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.“
when your turn is next sometimes person went before is Simone Biles
Watching the latest performance of Simone Biles I am reminded of Jack Buck describing Kirk Gibson’s home run in Game 1 of the Oakland Athletics 1988 World Series.
If you don’t remember, Mr. Buck said, “I don’t believe what I just saw.”
I digress but while a lot of people remember the quote I don’t believe what I just saw, they remember that Vin Scully said it and they are wrong.
Vin Scully said, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.“
For my purposes both quotes work.
Watching Ms. Biles, I don’t believe what I just see as she makes the so improbable, the so impossible, happen.
Somewhere in this blog I relay the information that some physicist studied Ms. Biles and with the laws of physics PROVED that what she did was not possible to be done.
Something a long the lines that it takes longer to decide to swing a bat than it does for a pitched ball to reach the plate.
It must be magic.
I am content to leave it there and just enjoy it except that might just not be fair to not recognize the toughness of mind, body and training Ms. Biles has to go through to reach this level of magic.
But an odd thought came to me as I watched a clip of Ms. Biles in action.
As she finished, she ran off the mat and hugged another gynmast.
A gymnast watching the same performance.
A gymnast watching the same performance knowing it was her turn next.
To stand there and NOT SAY, NOPE – NOT ME – SOME ONE ELSE – GOTTA TIE MY SHOE – JUST TAKE THE NEXT PERSON … that alone also takes a lot of magic or something.
What could that next gymnast be thinking?
In the case of Ms. Biles, it does seem that there teammates are some of her biggest fans.
It happens often I guess.
Probably just as bad for the gymnast who went before Ms. Biles.
I remember once hearing a talk by a lawyer about how to handle difficult moments in court.
This lawyer said the dumbest thing you could do was try to hide something that everyone just saw.
You drop your files.
You tip over your coffee.
Don’t act like it didn’t happen, look at the jury and look at the judge and shrug or something.
This lawyer said tell the jury everything, especially as a young lawyer.
He took a question and someone asked what do you do if you are a young lawyer and the opposing attorney was Edward Bennett Williams(at the time a big name), what do you do?
The lawyer said tell the jury.
The lawyer said, tell the jury that you are a brand new, just starting attorney.
Then point to the other lawyer say to the jury, DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS?
THAT is Edward Bennett Williams!
Edward Bennett Williams!
DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS?
Make sure, the lawyer said, the jury knows who is David and who is Goliath.
The audience had a follow up question.
In that situation, if you are Edward Bennett Williams, what do you do?
Oh, said the lawyer, if you are Edward Bennett Williams, you will know what to do.
I for sorry for those of us who aren’t the Simone Biles of this world.
The race is not always given to the swift.
But in the case of gymnastics …
Like so many things in my life, if I can’t do, I will just enjoy watching those that can.
