Author Archives: donsmith

10 Health Safeguards

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I’ve lived in Japan several times over the past 20 years; 8 years total. In addition to learning the language I also learned many things from my Japanese friends family and acquaintances.

One day while at a neighbor’s house, I noticed a traditional ceramic tea cup, something that you might see at a sushi shop. Unlike other similar cups, this one didn’t contain the names of popular fish, it contained 10 four character phrases—all in Chinese characters (or kanji 漢字). Each phrase was in a pattern of “little ___ more ___”. After each of those was one sentence extended versions of the same thing explaining what the more compact phrase meant. With a little further explanation from our friend, I soon learned what pearls of wisdom they were. Very short but significant things we can change in our daily habits to make ourselves healthy. I since have forgotten what most of them were, but I always wanted that cup!

Today after a little googleing I found the same thing on a Japanese site selling hand towels:

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As a note of interest, at first I got many more  websites in Chinese, so my suspicion is that this originate in China; it feels like Confucius as it’s a lifestyle suggestion.

Here’s my rough translation:

健康は素晴らしい 一番の宝物

働き

やっぱり健康が一番

Good health is wonderful, the number one treasure.

Working

健康十守

10 Health Safeguards

一 少肉多菜

1. Less meat more vegetables

二 少塩多酢

2. Less salt more vinegar

三 少糖多果

3. Less sugar more fruit

四 少食多噛

4. Less food more chew

五 少衣多浴

5. Less clothing more bath

六 少言多行

6. Less talk more action

七 少欲多施

7. Less wants more deeds

八 少憂多眼

8. Less worry more seeing

九 少車多歩

9. Less wheels more walk

十 少憤多笑

10. Less anger more laughter

Jolly old England

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I’m in England right now. The western part, but it has yet to rain. Bristol is very nice. So far I like it. Let’s see how the rest of the week goes. Funny how I like that it’s green, but don’t like the idea of it raining all the time. fingerscrossed

Working at home rant

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I work for a major corporation which you may know. It’s big. It’s a good company. For what I do, it works out that working from home works best for me and for the company. But I must admit. Working from home does not always “work”. Or rather, I don’t always work when I’m working from home.

In some ways I work longer hours, or rather work in a wider array of hours. I may wake up early and stay up late for calls in different time zones.

I guess I should not complain. but working at home does have it’s disadvantages. In previous jobs when I was “working from home” it was more like taking a sick day with out taking a sick day; a euphemism for slacking, or the occasional “have-unavoidable-errands-to-run-and-taking-2-hours-out-of-the-day-to-commute-meant-I-would-not-get-them-done.” You know what I’m talkin’ about, right?

Well now I actually work from home. I mean, if I’m not traveling, I’m working from home. I’ve been trying to do this for almost 2 years. Sometimes busier that other times, but I do need to work. The kids and the wife have finally started to understand this concept. I think they finally get it, but it’s been a struggle to get them to understand when I’m working and when I’m just sitting in the office slacking, especially once school it out of the day.

I’m an old man now…

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There are several key stages in our lives. If you are an American living today you can categorize this by how old you are vs. what your life activity focus is. Let me try to explain…

First we are infants, then toddlers; generally we don’t have a memory of this, although how we are treated may effect us. Then we are kids. We have fleeting memories of this time. We may remember something we got for a birthday or Christmas. We may remember something we did, good or bad, and our reward or our punishment. Then we are adolescents. Now we are making decisions for ourselves. We may keep a secret that no one else knows. We start to shape how we will react to others and anticipate how others will react to us. I think the goal in this stage is to prepare for being a young adult. Once we are a young adult we are in command of our lives, but usually this means just our own life.

Then we graduate. We become adults. We start to care for another. That may mean mentally, physically or spiritually. We have relationships outside the families we came from and the friendships we have; this may mean something like starting a family. Family could just mean a spouse. In fact we yearn for creation. We want to be responsible for children, along with our spouse. Instead of being part of the team, we are the co-captains, the managers, the CEOs of not only our own destiny but the destiny of our children.

Then we become old men and old women. In my case I’ve become an old man. Our daughter left for college last Fall. Yes, she’s still dependant upon us for support, but after a short visit with her, I’ve realized that she’s become a young adult. She’s a complete individual. What she does is her own business. I can no longer care for her every need. Although I don’t think she will run off and get married anytime soon, she is well on her way to being an full fledged adult. That’s why I’m an old man. We still have a very spirited 3 year old that will keep me young, but really, I’m an old man.