It's Do-Or-Die Time, Caroline

Exercise has been shown to be helpful in slowing cognitive decline.


It has often been said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. If that is the case, I think I should turn myself in before I do or say soimething I will be punished for. I'm not talking like the 23 months Michael Vick got in prison. I think there are far worse punishments. It's just that I feel like I'm learning a little bit about a lot of things these days. For example, I learned today that the bird in Poe's "The Raven" is supposed to represent the evil in nature. I hadn't given it any thought before now. I also learned that the scarlet letter in the Hawthorne book of the same title stood for "Able" at the end instead of "Adultery" which it MUST have stood for in the beginning. I have also recently learned that I suffer from the TOT Syndrome: that part of memory loss in which the answer is right on the Tip Of the Tongue, but it won't come out. It's frustrating when that happens...like I can never remember the name of the Kevin Smith movie which satirized religion that I found so funny ("Dogma") or that book which was an international bestseller that held all sorts of secrets about the Templars and was made into a crappy movie starring Tom Hanks (The DaVinci Code).
Sure, I can remember them NOW, but not when I needed that information earlier this week. Heck, I even had a hard time just now trying to remember what the letter A stood for in The Scarlet Letter...sheesh!
So, anyway, I think I just remembered the point I was going to make when this all started. I read today in a human development text (next week is finals week, after all!) that the decade between 50 and 60 is called the "Do-Or-Die" decade because this is the time when people decide to work at being healthy through exercise and diet or decide that they will be facing chronic illness and a shorter life span. s]Seems like an easy choice, doesn't it. Apparently, it is not.
It's also pertinent that Carolyn Kennedy recently turned 50. This was brought to my attention by the fact that she was on the cover of the latest AARP magazine and the fact that she's currently touring to promote a book of reminiscences about Christmas in her family and throughout history. While I do not plan to buy or even read the book (bah! Humbug!) it is interesting that she has taken the opportunity to retain cognitive function this late in life through authorship. I write obscure blog entries...she writes a blockbuster book...hmmm.
Now that we're both part of that decade, I hope she gets some exercise and stays away from junk food, too. I'd hate to think I was the only one going to live to be 120 (the natural life span of humans--another factoid recently discovered).
Know too much...know too little...I think it's all the same. My sweetie will outlive me, though, because she exercises around the house all the time!