Gov. DeWine Fails to Encourage Better Personal Health Habits

Yesterday, July 15, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine gave an impassioned speech to encourage the state's residents to double down on their efforts to "slow the spread" of COVID-19. Although he did concede that mask wearing alone would not be enough to battle the virus, the emphasis was undeniably on this one measure. 

I do believe that Gov. DeWine truly cares about Ohio, as do I. I've lived in this state for my entire life. He is making decisions based on the information and scientific "consensus" that he thinks is best. I admire all of his hard work and positive attitude throughout this entire ordeal. He took quick action in March and has held regular briefings to provide Ohioans with updates ever since. He has allowed protests and, until recently, did not mandate mask wearing in public places, except for employers and employees. (Masks are now mandated in public for everyone living in counties in the "red zone" of his color coding system.) Religious services have always been exempt from the mandates for mass gatherings.

DeWine's tone yesterday seemed to be an attempt at a fatherly approach, trying to be gentle while admonishing the children that they have dropped the ball and need to quit being slackers. The standard parental guilt trip was applied as well. He even played the "killing grandma" card! The pat on the back was given for how well Ohioans rose to the challenge at the start of the pandemic, but now we need to not only wear the masks in public and social distance, we should also go back to isolating ourselves from one another. You know, so we don't kill grandma. 

A neighborly barbeque is too much of a risk. Does he want to keep the economy recovering, and keep people from going insane, or not? We go to grocery stores, hardware stores, shopping malls, work places, fitness centers, and the list goes on. But don't have a family reunion? At least he didn't try to shame us out of going to church. 

The thing is, we were told by credible doctors with immunity expertise that a spike in cases would happen once the country opened back up. Remember California doctors Erickson and Massihi, the urgent care physicians on the front lines that the radical left and mainstream media dismissed as frauds, because they are conservatives? All over social media, their video was taken down, their professional opinion, as immunity experts, silenced.

The good doctors told us that because healthy people had been quarantined, isolated from one another, staying mostly indoors, social distancing, not being exposed to microbes necessary for our health, wearing masks, and all that jazz, people's immunity functioning would be very low, causing an increased vulnerability to pathogens. We would then see a dramatic rise in illnesses. These doctors have now been vindicated. Yet the blame is being squarely placed on people not wearing masks. 

Zach Bush, MD, one of the rare triple board certified doctors in the USA, has said that by wearing the masks, we are killing ourselves. He is not the only one. Doctors have come up with effective treatments for their patients and are saving lives, yet this information has been withheld from the general public. OSHA trained PPE specialists have warned that the widespread mask mandates among people who haven't had the proper health screening and training on mask use are dangerous and potentially deadly. Yet here again, important information the public has a right to is not provided by government officials or the mainstream media. 

And Governor DeWine failed, as have all the high profile doctors on the case, to encourage the one thing that would absolutely improve our situation. That is, to take responsibility for our personal health habits. The USA is a notoriously unhealthy country. We have an obesity epidemic, even among children. Our people smoke, overindulge in alcohol, suffer from alarming rates of drug addiction, are largely sedentary, don't get enough exercise, fresh air, sleep, or sunshine; eat too much junk food and are nutrition deprived, work too much and have high stress levels and crappy relationships. If we had taken better care of ourselves in the first place, and if we had quarantined only the high risk and sick people, we would not be in the royal mess we are in--although the whole question of increasing cases is subject to debate in regard to how much of the rise is due to exponentially more testing, and the death rate keeps going down. 

Why aren't we being told to slim down, quit eating so much sugar and junk, eat nourishing foods, get outside in the sun and fresh air, reduce our stress (the media encourages stress!), exercise, take a vitamin and mineral supplement, especially zinc and vitamins C and D, get enough sleep, and spend time--in person--with loved ones with whom we have healthy relationships??? The trinity of excellent health and a strong immune system is comprised of good sleep, food, and exercise habits. God designed us to be social creatures. Hugs are proven to promote good health. Happy relationships reduce stress. Contact with others and the microbes that are necessary for our health is key to managing this crisis. It seems all the wrong things are being promoted, and people are obeying the narrative like followers of a cult. (The "coronavirus cult" will be a future topic, so stay tuned!)

Since I can't control other people, places, or things, I am choosing to focus on my own personal health and that of my family as a whole. I'm doing the things proven to support good health. It's not too late for folks to develop better health habits and for it to make a difference in the number of hospitalizations and deaths. We should have been encouraged to do the right things back in March. We should have been told that this virus is a wake up call, that we need to live better. We need to change the way we grow food and produce meat and dairy products. We need to stop producing so much air pollution from both city industries and chemical farming (Roundup) in rural areas. We need to stop killing ourselves with our lifestyle so we will be strong enough to deal with an epidemic. We need to encourage herd immunity. 

Mask wearing is a psychological bandage at best, for most people in most cases, and is already causing injury and could lead to death. It hasn't been proven to help. What if it's significantly contributing to sickness? I encourage everyone to fight for health freedom and to take personal responsibility for the state of your own health!
 

How to Let Go of Your Story (Part 2)

I thought about going back to the previous post and removing the "Part 1" from the title. I feel overwhelmed by this concept of letting go, or transcending, the story of what my life has been. It seems like this topic could have endless parts. Yet perhaps I can take it a bit at a time, not looking too far ahead, and just see where the path leads. 

Along the lines of Dr. Zach Bush's thinking, I do believe it's possible to set on the path to a whole new life in one day, to make not only a beginning, but even a dramatic shift; however, I don't think the change can possibly be completed in a 24-hour period. And that probably isn't what he was implying anyway. 

I found a place to start in today's Gospel reading, from Matthew 7:6, 12-14 (DRV), in the words of Jesus:

"Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you... All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!" 

The image at the top of the page shows a man weighted by the burden of sin, his baggage too broad to enter through the narrow gate. It seems that more and more people are daily choosing the wide, winding gate over the straight and narrow, pushing through it in misguided droves. The souls of many in our nation and around the world are in a dire state. I don't believe this is a time, during intense civil unrest, to advocate for positive thinking and merely hope for the best. I think the time is well overdue for calling a spade a spade. 

What we're seeing in America are the dogs and swine trampling on the pearls, tearing away at what is good, true, and beautiful. These people spit upon the Golden Rule. They do unto others what they would never accept being done to them. I will not associate with anyone who supports the violence and destruction. These villains don't want to go anywhere near the narrow gate. They despise what is holy. 

Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group with an open agenda of Marxism. They are narcissists who care for no one but themselves; opportunists with purely political motivations, without an ounce of understanding of human dignity. Not only do individuals need to let go of their own stories; but if this country is to be saved, we have to reject, as a people, the evil intentions of those who are violently thrusting stories upon us, shoving their narrative down our throats. If we do not swallow the bile of these stories, we will be called racists, white supremacists, bigots, and the list goes on. We will be persecuted. So be it.

I think that detaching from the Marxist narrative, turning our backs to it, dropping the baggage of their twisted stories, and pointing our souls toward the narrow gate is the only solution. If what Dr. Bush was talking about is a practice of detachment, and I believe it is, then we need to seek knowledge of what a Christian detachment looks like, which I believe to be a key element on the pilgrimage to sainthood. 

Like our spiritual ancestors, we must become, once again, pilgrims. It's horrific seeing the statues fall at the hands of felons. It's terrifying seeing mobs destroy lives, businesses, history, law and order. The only response I can cling to now is detachment. Their story is not my story. Their story is not the story of America the Beautiful. Their idea of utopia is a path of slavery. Oh, the irony. 

Dive into the Word. Receive the sacraments. Go to Confession and rid yourself of sin and guilt. Become clean, living in a state of supernatural Grace. Wear the pearl of great price. Detach from the efforts of persecution. Call evil what it is. Yes, slavery and racism are evil, and that is exactly the agenda of Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Planned Parenthood, and all of their ilk. But we must remember to pray for those afflicted with malice and lies, both those who lead others astray, and the ones who are mislead. Prayer is the beginning, and the primary vehicle, of detachment. 

If enough of us transcend our stories, we will experience a sea change. Let the marauders do what they will, showing their true colors, and discontinue validating their stories with "diplomatic" responses. Allow them to reap what they sew. Silence is golden. And then, there will come a time to break silence...

How to Let Go of Your Story (Part 1)

Zach Bush, MD

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Zach Bush, one of the very few triple board certified physicians in the U.S., on the Rich Roll podcast, #456, recorded at a retreat in Italy.

"The cubicle you're really living in is your story. You're gonna go back into an environment at home where everybody thinks they know who you are, because you have very carefully created a cubicle that you show everybody. You are a multi-faceted spiritual creature, that has innumerable facets and faces to you. There is such beauty and complexity in you, and yet you choose to show forth faces of a cubicle. And you have created that story of your life and who you are through training. And I would say that's the biggest problem that all of us face in this room, is the story that you now tell yourself of what your life has been. It's keeping you in a box."

Take a moment to breathe deeply and soak this in. 

I listened to the podcast weeks ago and have been thinking about how to do it, how to let go of my story, ever since. I don't have advice to give on how to transcend one's story, but I think I need to spend the rest of the summer trying to figure it out. I believe I was already in the process of doing this months ago, at the end of my grandparents' lives. I knew I would no longer have the key source of support and unconditional love that they had provided my whole life. Sure, I have other support systems and loved ones, but what my grandparents represented for me was unique and foundational to my story. 

I was somehow aware, through the grief and numerous mixed emotions I was experiencing, that I had been trained into a box of who I was supposed to be, and I felt the prison breaking open, turbulently, as I came to terms with my grandparents' passing. I knew that I must never apologize for being who I am. I owed no one an explanation, not for anything that came from my sense of dignity and the sincerity of my heart. It was okay for me to be weak. It was okay for me to be strong. It was okay for me to be myself. 

I do not believe that my grandmother lived in a cubicle. On more than one occasion, when I was thinking that the state of the world had grown so dark that there must have been a time in history that was better, that we could go back to, I asked Grandma what past era was her favorite. She was born in 1928. She would never choose, always telling me that she had enjoyed all of the eras of her life, including the current one. I understand now that she lived in the present. And because she did, because she wasn't boxed in by her own story, she could allow others the freedom to not be defined by theirs. I wish I could ask her how she managed to live this way. 

I had been told a story from my early childhood for many years, over a period of decades, that was always the same. It was a sweet story that I enjoyed hearing. And then the last time it was told, it was changed entirely. The new version cast me, as a small child, in a lurid light. What had been sweet turned suddenly sour. I knew logically that the revised version could not be true, as it was markedly different from what I had heard my entire life. After listening to Dr. Bush, I decided that not only must I let go of the version that hurt me, but the one which had made me happy as well. 

This was someone else's memory. It was not mine, and I did not have to hold onto it. It did not have to define me or have anything to do, either good or bad, with my present self. It was another person's story, that for whatever reason was altered, and it need not mean anything to me. When the story changed, I realized that it had always been an illusion. 

I don't think Dr. Bush was talking about "reframing" our experiences, though that could be a place to start. Rather, I think he was talking about a radical detachment. He doesn't even like the story that is told to introduce him in interviews about his rare accomplishment as a triple board certified doctor. These details of his life are not who he is. 

When we hang on to our story, we will find ourselves stuck. Our stories can play obsessively in our minds. Memory is not necessarily accurate, and the power of suggestion is strong. We have been trained by the stories others have told about us, and that they will not let go of, to hold onto our own stories as well. Curiously, my grandma didn't tell me stories of my childhood. Our relationship is not colored by her stories of me. For this I am profoundly grateful. 

What about you? I encourage you to take the time to listen to the whole podcast. It may sound a bit "out there" in places, but I think the basic idea of breaking out of one's cubicle is solid. Dr. Bush goes so far as to say that we can have a whole new life in a day! And I think the key is to start with small changes. 

Do you want to give up coffee, but tell yourself that you are a coffee drinking person? Do you want to be a dancer but tell yourself you are clumsy, because that's what you've always heard, and you have the bruises to prove it? Do you tell yourself that you are disorganized, a perfectionist, lazy, lonely, depressed, stupid, smart, fun, boring, offensive, nice... ?? What if you did start fresh, today, right this very moment, dropping every story? What a scary thought! Like standing on the edge of a cliff. 

But what if you could stand on the edge and not fall? 

These are the questions.