Review: Everything to Gain
Sep. 28th, 2012 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebAs mentioned in my last entry, I got sucked into Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life (copyright 1987, 1995).
It was a pretty quick read. Their goal was to say that even if you've been forcibly retired against your will and have no idea what to do, there are still plenty of things to do and, especially if your financially okay, it might be a good time to start taking extra risks you weren't taking before.
I think the first chapter, "Starting Over," was my favorite. I'd never thought of losing a bid for a second term as President as forcible retirement. Interesting. Admittedly, they did have two big projects handed to them: writing their memoirs and setting up their presidential library. Meanwhile, they didn't even know where they wanted to live, let alone what to do when they got there. They ended up going back to Plains, their hometown, and reconnecting with old friends. Having social bonds during personal crises generally helps.
The story of the library is fascinating. Did you know that presidents have to do the fund-raising and planning for their own libraries? Jimmy wanted his to be a gift to the public, not a monument to him, but that's what the architects designed. So Jimmy decided "I'm not going to have a library."
But a friend found someone to make plans that would be acceptable, and one day Jimmy figured out what he wanted to do with the library. "We can develop a place to help people who want to resolve disputes. There is no place like that now. If two countries really want to work something out, they don't want to go to the United Nations and get one hundred fifty other countries involved in the argument. I know how difficult it is for them to approach each other publicly, and they take a chance on being embarrassed by a rebuff from the other party. We could get good mediators that both sides would trust, and they could meet with no publicity, no fanfare, perhaps at times in total secrecy. If there had been such a place, I wouldn't have had to take Begin and Sadat to Camp David. There've been a lot of new theories on conflict resolution developed since that time, too, and we might put some of them into use."
The second chapter was about a study they put together on "what could be done with present knowledge by informed people to avoid becoming victims of the most common killers and cripplers [of Americans]."
"Our hopes were raised by the seemingly simple knowledge that if we change a few habits we can greatly extend our life span. However, the experts said that changing the behavior of people is the hardest of all missions. A shot to prevent, a pill to cure, something a community can put in or take out of the water, a safety improvement that can be required by law--these are the ways we've made most of our health progress in this century. ...
"When all the medical and scientific evidence was in, everyone was stunned by the scientists' conclusions: deaths today before the age of sixty-five are considered to be premature, and two-thirds of them are potentially preventable. Moreover, the risk factors associated with these deaths are those over which we have a great deal of control--food, exercise, smoking, drinking. According to medical evidence, a fifty-year-old man or woman today who keeps risk factors low can expect to live eleven years longer than contemporaries who don't follow such approaches."
FYI, though you've heard all these before, these are the nine rules they came up with:
1. Do not smoke. (They call smoking "the number-one cause of premature death."
2. Maintain recommended body weight.
3. Exercise regularly.
4. Minimize consumption of foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats, sugar, and salt.
5. Do not drink excessively, and never drive when drinking. ("Injuries kill more Americans under forty than all other causes combined and are an important cause of death among older people. Alcohol abuse is involved not only in most fatal automobile accidents, but also in drownings, homicide, and suicide, especially among the young, and in falls, a significant killer of older adults.")
6. Fasten seatbelts. ("The chances of being fatally injured in an automobile accident can be cut in half by the use of seat belts.")
7. Remove handguns from the home. ("FBI statistics show that handguns kept at home will more often kill loved ones than protect them.")
8. Have regular checkups, including blood-pressure tests.
9. If symptoms of depression or unhappiness persist, seek treatment. "Many people believe they will end up in some distant state hospital, but the truth is that almost all treatment for such problems as depression take place in a doctor's or therapist's office. Nor does treatment need to take years; some psychologists say there can be noticeable changes after only a few weeks."
And they applied this information to themselves. They were already good with the exercising, the not smoking, the light drinking, and eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But they cut down on fat, sugar, and salt, substituting yogurt for sour cream and white meat for red. They only rarely eat rich sauces now and choose whole grains. I suspect they may have moved some handguns out of the house, but they probably keep their hunting guns there.
The rest of the book is mostly about how you can make a difference in the world and how you can keep learning new things. They have so many projects it makes me tired just thinking of them.
Here's one more bit of wisdom: a "simple cure for diarrhea" (a symptom of "the most prevalent killer of small children in the third world") "has been found--one teaspoon of sugar and one-quarter teaspoon of salt dissolved in an eight-ounce glass of water." (Which I assume must also be drunk by the victim.) And here I thought we had to have the pink stuff.
Book Quote of the Day
I'll leave you with a quote from one of their friends: "Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint, meekness, and a great many other things you wouldn't need if you had stayed single." - Jimmy Townsend.
Friend Quote of the Day
"If the motorcycle does not start on the TENTH try, perhaps you should use one of the other FIVE vehicles sitting in front of your house." - IndigoRose
Cake of the Day
Here's my favorite view:
But you can't see her tail. Or her rolling pin.
It was a pretty quick read. Their goal was to say that even if you've been forcibly retired against your will and have no idea what to do, there are still plenty of things to do and, especially if your financially okay, it might be a good time to start taking extra risks you weren't taking before.
I think the first chapter, "Starting Over," was my favorite. I'd never thought of losing a bid for a second term as President as forcible retirement. Interesting. Admittedly, they did have two big projects handed to them: writing their memoirs and setting up their presidential library. Meanwhile, they didn't even know where they wanted to live, let alone what to do when they got there. They ended up going back to Plains, their hometown, and reconnecting with old friends. Having social bonds during personal crises generally helps.
The story of the library is fascinating. Did you know that presidents have to do the fund-raising and planning for their own libraries? Jimmy wanted his to be a gift to the public, not a monument to him, but that's what the architects designed. So Jimmy decided "I'm not going to have a library."
But a friend found someone to make plans that would be acceptable, and one day Jimmy figured out what he wanted to do with the library. "We can develop a place to help people who want to resolve disputes. There is no place like that now. If two countries really want to work something out, they don't want to go to the United Nations and get one hundred fifty other countries involved in the argument. I know how difficult it is for them to approach each other publicly, and they take a chance on being embarrassed by a rebuff from the other party. We could get good mediators that both sides would trust, and they could meet with no publicity, no fanfare, perhaps at times in total secrecy. If there had been such a place, I wouldn't have had to take Begin and Sadat to Camp David. There've been a lot of new theories on conflict resolution developed since that time, too, and we might put some of them into use."
The second chapter was about a study they put together on "what could be done with present knowledge by informed people to avoid becoming victims of the most common killers and cripplers [of Americans]."
"Our hopes were raised by the seemingly simple knowledge that if we change a few habits we can greatly extend our life span. However, the experts said that changing the behavior of people is the hardest of all missions. A shot to prevent, a pill to cure, something a community can put in or take out of the water, a safety improvement that can be required by law--these are the ways we've made most of our health progress in this century. ...
"When all the medical and scientific evidence was in, everyone was stunned by the scientists' conclusions: deaths today before the age of sixty-five are considered to be premature, and two-thirds of them are potentially preventable. Moreover, the risk factors associated with these deaths are those over which we have a great deal of control--food, exercise, smoking, drinking. According to medical evidence, a fifty-year-old man or woman today who keeps risk factors low can expect to live eleven years longer than contemporaries who don't follow such approaches."
FYI, though you've heard all these before, these are the nine rules they came up with:
1. Do not smoke. (They call smoking "the number-one cause of premature death."
2. Maintain recommended body weight.
3. Exercise regularly.
4. Minimize consumption of foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats, sugar, and salt.
5. Do not drink excessively, and never drive when drinking. ("Injuries kill more Americans under forty than all other causes combined and are an important cause of death among older people. Alcohol abuse is involved not only in most fatal automobile accidents, but also in drownings, homicide, and suicide, especially among the young, and in falls, a significant killer of older adults.")
6. Fasten seatbelts. ("The chances of being fatally injured in an automobile accident can be cut in half by the use of seat belts.")
7. Remove handguns from the home. ("FBI statistics show that handguns kept at home will more often kill loved ones than protect them.")
8. Have regular checkups, including blood-pressure tests.
9. If symptoms of depression or unhappiness persist, seek treatment. "Many people believe they will end up in some distant state hospital, but the truth is that almost all treatment for such problems as depression take place in a doctor's or therapist's office. Nor does treatment need to take years; some psychologists say there can be noticeable changes after only a few weeks."
And they applied this information to themselves. They were already good with the exercising, the not smoking, the light drinking, and eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But they cut down on fat, sugar, and salt, substituting yogurt for sour cream and white meat for red. They only rarely eat rich sauces now and choose whole grains. I suspect they may have moved some handguns out of the house, but they probably keep their hunting guns there.
The rest of the book is mostly about how you can make a difference in the world and how you can keep learning new things. They have so many projects it makes me tired just thinking of them.
Here's one more bit of wisdom: a "simple cure for diarrhea" (a symptom of "the most prevalent killer of small children in the third world") "has been found--one teaspoon of sugar and one-quarter teaspoon of salt dissolved in an eight-ounce glass of water." (Which I assume must also be drunk by the victim.) And here I thought we had to have the pink stuff.
Book Quote of the Day
I'll leave you with a quote from one of their friends: "Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint, meekness, and a great many other things you wouldn't need if you had stayed single." - Jimmy Townsend.
Friend Quote of the Day
"If the motorcycle does not start on the TENTH try, perhaps you should use one of the other FIVE vehicles sitting in front of your house." - IndigoRose
Cake of the Day
Here's my favorite view:
But you can't see her tail. Or her rolling pin.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2012-09-29 03:56 am (UTC)And indigorose's quote *was* great!