Cars and Calories

So it’s Super Bowl weekend. Do you really care about the game? I mean if your team isn’t there, it’s a little….meh. Don’t get me wrong, I love football and will watch the game…but mostly, aren’t we really going to check out the commercials, the parties, and the food. I’m attending a get together that has dubbed itself the “Super Commercial Party”. People are in it for what happens between the game. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the commercials…they are generally somewhat funny.
I got to thinking though. Are we able to enjoy the commercials as a symptom of a greater issue? I mean the game is a culmination of a lifetime of work for those involved. It’s brutal, yes, but there is artistry. There is timing and strategy. There is skill and luck. Hope, joy, and heartbreak. There is soul. Yet, like most things we tend to be drawn to the shiny object…the commercials and the halftime show. The ADD in us kicks in and the 30 second flashes of beer humor and new stuff, overwhelms us and thrills us. The cheap and easy, the quick and simple, the junk food, the easily digestible….so it is in our entertainment, so it is in our lives. The band Saves The Day has a song with these lyrics: ” her life was magazines and faithful TV screens, selling an empty dream, of cars and calories, and everything in between the sun and Saturn’s ring, but the price tag can’t be seen….” You see we become addicted to the glossy, the flashy, the easy come, easy go, the me first, right now, right now, right now……mindset. The concern becomes: are we this way in our health?
If these attitudes are the prevailing mindset of our culture then they must surely apply to our health….why workout and eat in a nutritious manner, I can get a surgery or take a pill. Need to quit smoking…they’ve got a pill for that, too. You see we have become so addicted to the 30 second flashes of well constructed false life that we don’t know how to be any different, even in our health. The thing is, this doesn’t work. The U.S. spend twice as much as any other nation on healthcare, but we are ranked 37th in the world….that is horrible and we should begin to understand that perhaps medically we, as a country, are not experts.
Real health is not found in “rapid release action”. It is found in the daily grind of the small choices. Choosing a bottle of water over soda, walking instead of riding, meditating instead of stressing…these small actions are just examples, but all the small choices add up to big gains. They, however, require patience. A commodity in our culture. It will take time to lose the weight or to have your spine reshaped via chiropractic. The patience will be rewarded in bountiful ways that you may not even imagine. As you become more healthy, in a real way you take back control from this overcaffeinated, instant gratification world. You see things differently and can see the traps that are the cheap and easy. Your apple tastes better than the rot of fastfood, your mind is simple and clear, and through your adjustments your innate intelligence, the manifestation of God’s design in you, is unlocked and controls and offers you real healing from the inside out. You give your body the time and materials and it gives you life and health unbridled. Sounds like a fair exchange….no?
As you watch the commercials at the Super Bowl or during other programs, shake your head and sigh. Laugh if you want, but know happiness isn’t found in cheap thrills and neither is your health.

Wishing you health: above-down, inside-out, Dr. Graham, chiropractor