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In the thankful season

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Tuesday, 29 November 2022

Written by Margaret Dickson

I have missed you all!

Like the late, great Charles Kuralt, I have been “on the road,” or more accurately, on the plane for 30 hours, more or less. With various layovers, 30 hours is about what it takes to get to southern Africa and another 30 to get home.

And as we all know, there is nothing like sleeping in one’s own bed! Like Kuralt and most other travelers, I learn a great deal everywhere I go from western Europe to east Asia to the bush of southern Africa.
And, like millions of other Americans, I am always grateful to set foot back on United States soil, where I was born, grew up, and raised my own family. Seeing how other people in other places face daily life makes us understand, cherish, and willing to fight for our American freedoms.

The United States is a relatively new country compared to European nations, India, and certainly China. We are older and more experienced, though, than some African nations, many of which divorced themselves from European colonial occupation in the mid-20th century and are still feeling their way. For some, birth and maturation continue to be painful.

Among the joys of traveling in southern Africa are the well-run national parks and game reserves that spotlight, and more importantly, protect Africa’s spectacular wildlife—lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, and the list goes on. Tourism, the area’s most important industry, supports these efforts.

The harder reality is that South Africa and Zimbabwe both have high unemployment rates and, not surprisingly, high rates of crime and homelessness. Government corruption is a pervasive factor.
Kliptown, a squatter community in the city of Johannesburg, stopped me in my tracks.

No government—city or national—provides any service, including electricity and plumbing, to this community of about 45,000 souls.
One positive is an after-school program for local children established by 3 young men who grew up there which received worldwide recognition as a CNN Hero. A California family funded a brand new $2M facility after seeing the news coverage.

Which brings me to Nancy Pelosi.

Love her or loathe her, Nancy Pelosi tells us our system of government works. Pelosi is the first and only woman to become Speaker of the US House of Representatives and third in line to the Presidency.

Her tenure in the house spanned four Presidencies, the Iraq War, the Great Recession, the Affordable Care Act, and the Insurrection which could have taken both her life as well as our nation’s.
Following an unprecedented attack on her elderly husband, Pelosi stepped away from leadership responsibilities, but she has been and remains a highly polarizing figure in American politics.
For more than a decade, she has been demonized by the opposition.

Nancy Pelosi would not know me from Adam’s house cat, but she probably would not be surprised that more than a decade ago when I ran for public office, mailers went out of the two of us photoshopped together as if we were best friends.

The opposition meant this as a negative, but I was flattered.

I mention Pelosi because she is an example of what works in our country despite our deep and pervasive divisions.

The reality that our nation has survived an insurrection and that legislative power is being transferred, however contentiously, tells us that our structure is holding—at least for now.
We got through our mid-term elections with grumbling and disappointments for sure, but candidates are not alleging widespread voter fraud or refusing to accept election outcomes.

Our United States is far from perfect, but we are working on our issues, just as we have been for about 250 years. I am really glad and thankful to be home.

We must be willing to let go in order to properly receive

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Tuesday, 22 November 2022

Written by Dan Debruler

When was the last time you gave thanks for something you lost?

Forty years ago, Southern rockers 38 Special penned and recorded a song which claimed the charts as it encouraged us to “Hold On Loosely” lest we lose control. While I wouldn’t suggest the entirety of the song is good relationship advice I’ll admit that learning to loosen our grip may not be that bad an idea.

We often have a tendency toward placing too much trust or value in the things around us. That could be money, the job or promotion we’re clamoring for, or a relationship.
These are all things that we desire; things which become objects of our affection.

The danger to our wellbeing is when these things — or a multitude of others— become objects of our obsession. More profitable than the advice from that 80’s radio hit is something we can read in the New Testament book of James.

In the first chapter, we’re invited to see that “…every good and perfect gift comes from above.” (v.17) The writer, believed to be the half-brother of Jesus, opens the book (or letter) asking us to “count it all joy whenever we face various trials.” (v.2) The people knew what James was talking about.

People in the early Christian church underwent both persecution and ostracizing when they proclaimed their belief Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the son of God.

Things they had worked for — their homes and businesses — were stripped away as they found themselves on the outside of the Jewish culture looking in.

Lifelong friends turned their backs on them, many were forced to ply a new trade as longtime customers refused to have anything to do with them (let alone do business with them), and they found themselves exiled — by choice or by force.

The Messiah was the very thing they prayed for, yet when He arrived, to follow Him was to let go of everything they knew and valued.

Sometimes we must let go of things, too. They are often the very things that keep us from something better. Jesus tried to explain this as a wealthy young business leader approached Him asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. He had observed all that was moral, built a profitable business, and seemingly had it all. Jesus told him to “…sell it all, give to the poor, then come follow Him.” (Matthew 19:16-21) Unwilling to let go of the good for the great, the young man went away sad.

And so it is with us. Be careful not to hold too tightly to the things that are more like anchors than oars.

We may find ourselves sinking, ever so slowly, never loosening our grip on the things we once longed for, but which may now be the only thing standing between us and the greatest gift we could ever imagine.

Let go, and thank God for the gifts He gave you, and the even better gifts He’s offering you now.

Carolina leaders should heed Cicero

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Tuesday, 29 November 2022

Written by John Hood

North Carolina has an official state bird (the Northern Cardinal), an official state reptile (the Eastern Box Turtle), an official state insect (the honeybee), an official state mammal (the Gray Squirrel), an official saltwater fish (the Channel Bass), an official freshwater fish (the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout), an official state marsupial (the Virginia Opossum, which seems awfully unpatriotic), and two official state amphibians, the Pine Barrens Treefrog and the Marbled Salamander.

We have something like an official philosopher, as well, although no legislation has confirmed it. North Carolina’s state motto is esse quam videri, which translates as “to be rather than to seem.” You can find the motto on the state seal, among many other places.

While the underlying idea didn’t originate with him, this specific Latin phrasing came from the pen of the Roman orator and statesman Cicero, who was a contemporary (and enemy) of Julius Caesar and a hero to the founders of North Carolina and the United States as a whole.

As a stylist in Latin, a practitioner of Roman law, an advocate of republican virtues over imperial ambitions, a translator and teacher of classical Greek ideas, and a philosopher of metaphysics, politics, and ethics, Cicero had an outsized influence on the world we still inhabit many centuries later.

He is also very quotable. You will find his sayings sprinkled throughout Western literature, law codes, and even inspirational websites. Unfortunately, these quotes aren’t always placed in context, which can sometimes drain them of their intended force and meaning.

For example, North Carolina’s motto is taken from a treatise Cicero wrote on the subject of friendship. He noted that real relationships must be based on honesty, not pretense. “The man to open his ears widest to flatterers is he who first flatters himself and is fondest of himself,” Cicero wrote, and the result isn’t a real relationship of two mature human beings. “Fewer people are endowed with virtue than wish to be thought to be so,” he pointed out. “It is such people that take delight in flattery. When they are addressed in language expressly adapted to flatter their vanity, they look upon such empty persiflage as a testimony to the truth of their own praises.”

Can you think of anyone in public life today to whom Cicero’s argument applies? I can, too. But that hardly exhausts the potential applications of Cicero’s wisdom to modern politics. Here are some other lessons that North Carolina leaders ought to take to heart.

In his treatise on moral duties, addressed to his son, Cicero argued that “while there are two ways of contending, one by discussion, the other by force, the former belonging properly to man, the latter to beasts, recourse must be had to the latter if there be no opportunity for employing the former.”

In other words, force may be necessary to resolve certain kinds of disputes, but it ought to be a rare and last resort. In the political context, this is an argument for letting people make their own decisions and work out their own voluntary arrangements as much as possible, keeping government intervention to a minimum.

In another work, Cicero wrote that “we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue.” Leaders should always look before they leap — and think about the long run, not just the short-term effects of their decisions.

That’s a point about the future. “To be ignorant of the past,” Cicero also wrote, “is to be forever a child.” To study history is to recognize that past generations with the greatest of intellects and best of intentions have often faced similar problems and attempted solutions. Some succeeded. Many failed. All yielded useful lessons.

If North Carolina leaders want truly to be rather than to seem, they could do far worse than heed the philosopher who wrote our motto.

Strength exercises can help prevent ankle sprains

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Tuesday, 22 November 2022

Written by Cynthia Ross

Ankle sprains make up about 25% of injuries resulting in a visit to the emergency room. An injury occurs when the ankle is rolled or twisted in an awkward position. Your ligaments are the stabilizers for your joints that help with excessive movement and most sprained ankles involve movement on the outer side of the ankle.

Recently, I did not see a hole while walking and my ankle went into the hole. I felt it turn, and thankfully it did not result in an injury. I am a big advocate of ankle strength and flexibility and for that reason, my ankle was flexible enough not to sustain an injury when I stepped in the hole.

The importance of ankle flexibility and strength exercises is often overlooked and not addressed until an injury occurs.
The ankle is the first major joint that absorbs shock when our feet hit the ground. Lack of mobility and strength causes the body to absorb the shock in other parts of your body causing an imbalance up the kinetic chain. The result is compensation in other parts of your body which could cause you to have knee, hip or lower back pain.

The term ankle mobility refers to the flexibility of the foot in plantarflexion (pointing the foot) and dorsiflexion (pulling the foot upward). Another form of flexibility in the ankle is the performance of inversion and eversion which is the ankle rolling side to side, which is a common reason for ankle sprains.

Strong ankles are just as important as flexibility. It is the ankle strength that helps us sustain our balance and perform activities such as running, walking, jumping and squatting.
Weak ankles are not something that we may pay attention to but there are signs that your ankles may be weak or have a lack of mobility. Some of the signs include repeated turning, discomfort and swelling, chronic pain, tenderness, and feeling your ankles wobble on uneven surfaces, dancing or walking.

Ankle exercises are part of my classes at the end of a session. You can do simple exercises at home to strengthen your ankles and make them more flexible while sitting, standing or watching TV.
In a standing or seated position practice dorsiflexion and plantar flexion while moving the foot forward toward your shin and pointing. Rotate the ankle in forward and reverse circles. Tap the foot, right, middle and left. Practice rolling your foot over from one side to the other.

Stretch bands can also be used with ankle exercises. The bands serve as resistance when doing exercises such as plantarflexion, dorsiflexion, circles, taps and stretching.
Standing heel raises aid in strengthening your ankles and can be done standing at a counter. Raise the heels up and down or extend half of your foot over a step or riser while holding on to something for stability raising your heels up and down.

Single-leg exercises can also help with ankle strength and balance while holding onto a stable surface and progress by lifting and lowering
your heel.
Squat jumps or jumping rope also add to the strengthening process. Seated ankle strength exercises can be done by pressing the foot on a ball or placing a weight on the thigh while raising and lowering the foot.

It is important to know when to see a podiatrist. Left untreated, weak ankles can lead to activity restrictions. Your podiatrist can recommend exercises and a plan. Ankle sprains generally take an injury two to 12 weeks to heal with varying degrees of a sprain and may need some therapy.

Live, love life with mobility.