�Who Says You Can�t Teach an Old Dog a New Trick or Two�

I am always pleasently surprised to see just how different others see life as compared to I.

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered: “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

“We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

“We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

“We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

Wishing all a happy Canada Day!!

Just dropping by to wish all fathers a Happy Father’s Day.

Today I’m in the gym and after my workout I decided to run for 20 to 30 minutes on the treadmill. After about 5 minutes a nice young lady came up and began to run on my right. I looked over and asked her how fast she was going (you got it – what ever speed she said she was going, I was going to be going a little faster. Why – because it made her laugh and brightened her day and made a boring run a little more entertaining. After about 10 minutes she looked over and said well I should be able to out run you – I guess she was referring to my age – but she didn’t haha!

Now on my left was an older gentleman – 4 years older than me to be exact. As the young lady and I were joking around, he jumped into the conversation and said “Well when you hit 60 it won’t be so easy, because that’s when you get arthritis, gout, aches and pains and you’ll be lucky to even move at this age.”  

Well I’m sorry but I am fully aware that we are all victims of our own demise – soooooooooo – I replied with, “Are you taking all precautions to prevent future attacks like maintaining adequate fluid intake, weight reduction (he was at least 50 to 60 lbs overweight), making dietary changes, reducing your alcohol consumption, and taking the appropriate medications to lower the uric acid level in the blood.

No response.

About 5 minutes later he chipped in again with, “Now all my teeth have started falling out.” I immediately realized that he was seeking attention, which to be honest is perfectly OK because we are all seeking attention in our own way (like writing blogs) – BUT – he kept going, and going. Finally if I had any hope of enjoying any part of my run I stated, “If we don’t care for our body when we are younger it will break down that much faster when we get older. So now you will need to double your efforts, and take extra good care of yourself from here on out.” 

His response, “I used to do 10 miles a day, then I went down to 5 and now I’m down to 1 mile, I mean what’s the point the world is in such bad shape there’s really no reason left to care.”

Now if you are reading this blog chances are that you don’t see life this way, but I assure you that you are the minority. With over 65% of N. Americans over weight, it proves that we are finding to many excuses to justify our condition and not enough self-honesty to turn it around.

Left Calgary on Wednesday afternoon – arrived in Jakarta on Friday afternoon. Had a couple of meetings on Saturday and will travel to Bandung in the morning!

I will be back blogging on Monday!

Have a wonderful weekend