Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Something to ponder...

Observations.

A skill that is well worth honing, easy and free to accomplish, yet few are those that undertake it well.


Please note, 'observation' has nothing to do with 'judgment'...just because you 'see' something doesn't mean you have the right or responsibility to judge and interpret that observation. It's not the scientific way...


And so I take pretty much the same road home each day...and although my time can vary by more than an hour, often do I see a care-giver out walking. She is dressed in hospital type wardrobe, and there is a nursing care facility along my route near her pedestrian paths...she wears a back brace, or at least a black brace used for lifting at stores...or patients, possibly.

She is not overweight, and she is walking a respectable distance as I see her on various roads close to the facility, at various times. The walking seems to matter to her a great deal, given her regularity, even in the heat.
And I think to myself, 'Good for her!' She's out and about, regardless of the weather.

Always in her nursing garb. Always with the black brace on. Always walking some sidewalk as if on a mission.
I applaud her. If only I were to stick to a workout schedule like that, daily...alas, I find it hard these days to do that, but I can only come up with excuses.

However, there is one nagging observation that perplexes me.
She is always smoking a cigarette.

Always.


She's walking, and I assume to better her health in some way...and regardless of when and where I see her, she has a lit cigarette in her hand. It is an odd, incongruous association, nonetheless.
Which makes me ponder all the more. What does she want to accomplish from her walks? The cigarette part is a real disconnect for my brain.

Not unprecedented, such observations I've made in the past...I've seen a group of road cyclists working hard, only to stop on a grassy area and one of them immediately light up. I've seen back-to-nature types hiking in wilderness areas, only to see them later on a break and somebody puffing on a coffin nail (
oops, there goes a judgment!). Just doesn't add up justifiably in my brain, and I wonder what goes through their mind as they do it.

I'm not a smoker and never have been, so I can't speak to the whys and addictive factors that figure into decisions to smoke. But it makes sense that if you want to do something healthy for your body, smoking is counter-productive.

I mean, if you want to lose weight, you don't go eat a box of twinkies...oops, another story for another day, that one!


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