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Dear ,
In church last week we welcomed a new pastor who is relocating from
London. (Does that make him a pasteur? If so, does that mean we'll be
pasteurized?) Anyway,at the end of his welcome speech he asked for us
to pray for, among other things, their family's safety while driving
since it will obviously benefit everyone on the road if they remember
to drive on the right side of the yellow line.
I snickered to myself until I remembered that my daughter babysat
for them a few nights before and that they'd given her a ride home.
Not that I wasn't listening to the sermon or anything but that reminded me that last week the entire country of Samoa switched it's traffic from
driving on the right to driving on the left. Take a moment and just
imagine what a brave undertaking that is. I can name four people on my
street and one person in my own home that would scare me into staying
off the roads for a goodlong adjustment period if we were forced to do
the same.
Here's how Samoans did it. First they talked about it for years.
Then, the government prepared for months by adding new markings and
speed humps on key roads. They called a three day alcohol ban to deter
accidents and a two day island wide holiday to minimize traffic. Then
on a designated Monday morning at 6am, the Poobah of Samoa took to the
airwaves and had everyone stop their vehicles, move to the opposite
side of the road and then, amidst honking horns, ringing church bells
and wailing sirens and with an air of boisterous celebration, they all
resumed their travels.
I am guessing that this has been an interesting week or two around
Samoa yet from what I can gather from news reports, accidents have been
minimal.
Unlike our British Pasteur who, upon arrival on American soil, just
had to stop driving things the way he used to drive them, all on his
own, which has got to require some concentration (and faith in God),
the Samoans at least could comfort themselves with knowing that
everyone else was in the same boat (or car in this case) as them and
that even though they might be tempted to turn right instead of left or
vice versa, and even though they might not wanna do it, the healthiest
thing to do was go with the NEW flow.
I wish I could have a health and fitness Poobah initiate something
similar to get people to start exercising and eating right. After all,
a bad lifestyle might not be as instantaneously disastrous as driving
on the wrong side of the road, but not exercising, combined with
unhealthy eating can be just as dangerous as not wearing a seat belt
not to mention that obesity in this country is more life threatening
than a fatal car accident. Stop laughing. I'm serious,
People! Just like following car safety laws, eating right and
maintaining cardiovascular health can be even more life-lengthening
then safe driving!
Hey, wait a minute. We could possibly get someone like Dr Oz to pick
a specific date, we all start thinking about it, mark our calendars and
we all wake up on D-Day and, like it or not, agree to make some major
changes in how we drive our day from now on! We could get the stores to
ban junk food sales for the week (!!!) and give free exercise classes in
parks and make it almost impossible (or at least very hard) to fall off
the fitness wagon. All of our friends could honk their horns at us (or
some horn honking lifestyle equivalent like taking the gun -er, I mean
donut out of our hand or cleaning out the junk food cabinet for us) if
we fell back into old patterns. Sure it would be tough and
uncomfortable. Some mornings we might not FEEL LIKE driving the new way
but after a month or so, if we knew everyone else was doing it, it
would all become second-nature and we wouldn't even remember driving
the wrong lifestyle. We might hit a few speed humps (skipping the walk
on a rainy morning)or even have a fender-bender (think late night
munchies combined with PMS and a friend who wants to go to Dairy Queen)
but over time we'd all adjust. I bet within one week there'd be a
ground swell of well-being! In just seven days our belts would show
some wiggle room and our energy levels would be higher. We'd see more
of our neighbors on the sidewalks and our sense of community
connection would increase which, by the way, is also equated with living
better for longer.
The initial DT's would've passed and feeling good in
our bodies would surpass any momentary discomfort or memory of how good
Big Macs taste.
The Samoans are making this switch so that they can import cars less
expensively from their closer neighboring countries rather than paying
more to import them from farther away. That's good motivation to make
such a big change but there'd be even greater benefits to our country
from my Fitness Revolution Idea. I am so tired of reading daily about
our supposedly unsolvable Health Care Reform. A big part of the
solution is literally right under our noses, all we have to do is close
our lips to processed foods, foods with added sugar and saturated and
trans-fats and to walk 30 minutes every day. In my opinion, the
majority of health costs in this country and the reason they continue
to increase are due to obesity-related diseases and the only way for us
all to bring costs down, according to The Gospel of Penny, is to get
healthy by slimming down to a healthy weight by eating good food and
exercising 30 minutes every day. Does this sound ridiculous? Does it
seem totally impossible? Doesn't it sound more doable than driving on
the opposite side of the road? So the next question is where do we
start?
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