How many of us are smokers/ex-smokers?

[Jugular]

All this discussion of what might have triggered "MS", the philosophies, and Nietzsche's question of choice, remind me of something that I wrote years ago:

I built myself from the ground up
from the ground up to my eyes
using sticks and stones
and rocks and trees
Earth's sweet waters and wine
I hear a sound
and I name myself
I still see the sky go by
I look around in the open air
and remember my dream of life

I dunno, it just fit for me.

I have smoked forever (pot too), and done just about every recreational drug available (without needles). I was an indestructable "natural athlete" and a life-long vegetarian. I have been eating only organic foods for 25 years, yet I still got "MS". Sheesh. One would have thought that the organics and robust physique would have protected me through all those wild years...

I do not think that blaming ourselves has any merit. I knew a man who never smoked a cigarette, never had a drop of alcohol pass his lips, yet he died of throat and lung cancer at an early age. We probably all know someone like that.

I have always liked Ecclesiastes III (or as the Byrds would have it - Turn, Turn, Turn):
To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under Heaven...

Philosophy redux - it makes things easier to deal with. For me.

Do those who have never smoked, experimented, drank, went to extremes, gambled and lost, got lost, forgot, did stupid things - actually live longer? Or does it just seem that way?

[1eye]

It's the corollary of time flies when you're having fun. When life becomes pure hell, time stops dead altogether and you live forever. Murphy again.

[1eye]

Well, I liked this thread, so in a vain attempt to revive it:

And now for another smooth segue:

I like that that whole thing about all the choices leading up to now, etc. It's connected, I think, with what I said before about genetics and timing and kismet and all. It's not that they smoked after you were conceived, but how long after, and also what they had to eat for dinner before, and a lot of other combinations and permutations that ended up as you. So yes, bad luck, good luck, luck in general.

Segueing again: tricks. Specifically, new tricks. When you drive in traffic, you are continually adapting an array of learned skills to a continually changing set of new circumstances. Hopefully there will be enough commonality there that you will not hurt anyone.

Older people are slower drivers. Why? You can't teach an old dog new tricks. What I am getting at is, very few of the things we do are actually new tricks. New tricks, completely new ones, mean new firing patterns among nerves that are tricks because they accomplish a task, and because they are newly repeatable at a new rate. If we have never done that task, that way, at that speed before, that is a new trick. If drug manufacturers could bottle the ability to learn new tricks, a lot of money would change hands in a very short time.

Some of what pwCCSVI have lost, in common with older folk, is learning ability. It's harder to figure out how to get one foot in front of the other than it used to be, too. So there are two components: loss of old tricks, or procedural memories, which happens because of the damage of CCSVI, and acquisition of new ones, which is much much harder, as age creeps, or CCSVI progresses. The body is intelligent. It can handle either. It takes time, more and more, as we go, but if homework is kept up to date, I think the battle can be won.

How about this plan? Every day: 1. Learn a new word. 2. Learn a song. 3. Do 10 reps of an exercise you never did before. 4. Say an old word. 5. Play an old song. 6. Do 10 reps of an execise you already know.

I know, too late for new years resolutions in April.

[Cece]

April resolutions are the best sort, they flower much sooner.

Great ideas, 1eye.