The weekend was a bit too much fun. My good buddy Rob joined me at the Waverly Diner on Saturday morning for eggs and meats and dozens of coffees. Sunday, we hit Hometown BBQ in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and followed it up with some Ample Hills ice cream across the street. The rest of the weekend was spent splayed out on my couch in sweats.
It makes me happy to know there is no such thing as being completely healthy, and AJ Jacobs wrote a book about it - Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. Jacobs tried to use every bit of research and advice he could to be the healthiest person in the world. And, as the title of his TED talk jokes, it nearly killed him.
He tried to apply sunscreen constantly, as recommended by dermatologists. He wore a helmet walking around the house. He threw his desk chair aside and walked over a thousand miles on a treadmill while writing the thing.
It was a nice reminder for me that the world doesn’t want you to be healthy. We are a danger to ourselves. If we wanted to be healthy, we wouldn’t sit at desks and let our blood collect in our butts. We wouldn’t enjoy whiskey or cocaine, and we probably wouldn’t live in cities. We wouldn’t drive around in cars, or be around large crowds, or blast Sugar Ray in our ears on the way to work every other Tuesday.
Health is a negotiation. A losing battle. Between you, your mind, your body, and everything around it. And even if you bought a custom-fit bubble suit and did your online research, worms will still eat your brains.
I can almost see why smoking is like meditation. You can take a drag of something you know is bad for you but provides that oh-so-necessary peace of mind. A deep inhale to remind yourself that you won’t always do it right, and that’s okay. Sometimes you need BBQ and sometimes you need ice cream.