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Not everything but several things you always wanted to know about wellness
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Glen Oak Park, Peoria, IL, August 11, 2016
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Choosing When to Die Healthy
Ingersoll's Last Speech: What Is Religion?
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Introduction to the 731st Edition
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Greetings and good wishes.
This edition contains a single, letters-to-the-editor and the first part of Robert Green Ingersoll's last speech.
Have a great weekend.
Look after yourself and be well.
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Your Right to Die Healthy, When You Bloody Well Feel Like It - and Not a Moment Thereafter
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 Is life worth living? Well, I can only answer for myself. I like to be alive, to breathe the air, to look at the landscape, the clouds, the stars, to repeat old poems, to look at pictures and statues, to hear music, the voices of the ones I love. I enjoy eating and smoking. I like good cold water. I like to talk with my wife, my girls, my grandchildren. I like to sleep and to dream. Yes, you can say that life, to me, is worth living.
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
Introduction
A September 21 story in the Australian newspaper,
The Age by Fiona Stewart asked,
Should age be relevant to the right to die? In Australia's Northern Territory, the
Rights of the Terminally Ill Act was passed 20 years ago, but lasted less than a year before the federal Parliament in Canberra closed it down. The law allowed a terminally ill person, if adjudged to be of sound mind, to enlist the aid of a willing doctor for assistance in dying. The law provided that no doctor would be prosecuted for doing so.
However, the law was silent on the age issue. It never came up during the legislative debate in the Northern Territory. Today, four states in the U.S. plus Switzerland and three countries in the European Union allow doctor assisted suicide. (The preferred phrase is aid in dying.) Until 2014, only the Netherlands allowed euthanasia for children, placing the minimum age at twelve years. In 2014, Belgium removed the law's reference to an age requirement, reasoning that suffering is suffering, regardless of date of birth. The law has been used sparingly in Belgium. Administered by the Federal Euthanasia Commission, a terminally ill 17-year-old used this method to put an end to what was termed unbearable physical pain.
Wellness Ethics
REAL wellness enshrines reason, exuberance and athleticism (exercise and nutrition) as dimensions of a dynamic process for living life to the fullest possible extent. There is a fourth dimension, as well - liberty, which essentially means embracing the freedom to live your life the way you want to live it - and dying healthy, as late as possible. The curtain should be dropped when you and nobody else decides the time has come for doing so.
Literalist readers, please understand that die healthy does not mean die while still in robust physical health. Sometimes, you have to read a bit into an unusual phrase. Die Healthy is a metaphor  Grant Donovan and I have advanced for many years (and detailed in two books) which we embrace still as cheerfully as ever. It means retaining control, the finger on the proverbial button or trigger that insures you decide when to call it a life, at a time when, in your judgement, the future is bleak without promise. The decision to die healthy is best made when it's still possible to smile, to feel somewhat serene, knowing that any prospect of even a moderate degree of good times ahead is nil. Thus, with a parting thought about experiences (WOs and DBRU equivalents)
epic and triumphant, with confidence and courage founded on a disdain for needless suffering, the curtain is released and a fortunate life is closed with fond thoughts of those you love.
A Belgium psychiatrist, Dr. Lieve Thienpont, will address an Exit International conference in Melbourne, Australia next week. He will describe the categories that qualify Belgians for medical assistance when seeking to die: psychiatric illness and young and old people who declare themselves tired of life. In the U.S. the good doctor would get a welcome such that the late Jack Kevorkian would seem like a man whose popularity could have won the presidency in a landslide, for even in Belgium, he is highly controversial. Pro-lifers are gobsmacked over the very idea that anyone should get qualified assistance in ending his/her own life under any circumstances. In response, Dr. Thienpont asks, if treatment, let alone cure, is no longer possible, then why should such people be forced to live on if they want out?
Besides the theocratic arguments that only a deity may decide when death should come, the issue becomes complex over the matter of establishing the mental, and thus the legal, capacity of those seeking help in dying. Terms like eugenics and the bogeyman of a slippery slope often come into play.
Not everyone is comfortable with a pragmatic approach to some of life's most persistent questions, including when enough is enough regarding human pain and suffering, what is a minimally acceptable quality of life and, of course, who should get to make such calls.
My own view regarding the last of these questions, provided consciousness is in play, is who else but the one whose life is at issue?
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COMMENTARY: GRANT DONOVAN
A very fine article that could not be improved by any reworking at this end.
My only comment relates to the assumptive nature of the current euthanasia debate. It starts from a presumptive position that life is preordained and so valuable that it must be enshrined in laws and not trusted to individual sovereignty. When the easily observable, inherent fact is that life is random and meaningless and should be terminated at any age by the individual for any reason and no reason. I'm not sure what gene the need to control other people's lives sits on but it is certainly dysfunctional. Fortunately, thousands of people around the world each day beat the legal system easily by invoking their right to suicide. These people could definitely do with some assistance to die without pain. It's a very screwy world that puts time, energy and millions of dollars into stopping one person exercising control over their own existence, while simultaneously bombing the crap out lives they don't value.
This is true across religions.
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Grant Donovan, Ph.D. is the founder of the Australian Wellness Foundation.  Grant has worked in the wellness education field for more than 30 years. He has co-authored a number of business and wellness books, including two with Don Ardell, the latest being Wellness Orgasms: The Fun Way to Live Well and Die Healthy. He also co-authored Coffee Conversations: The Simple Leadership Secret of High Performance Workplaces," with Shane Garland.
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Ingersoll's Last Speech: What Is Religion?
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Editor's Note: This is Robert Ingersoll's last public address, delivered before the American Free Religious Association in Boston on June 2, 1899. He died July 21 at his Summer home in Dobbs Ferry, NY.
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It is asserted that an infinite God created all things,
governs all things, and that the creature should be obedient and
thankful to the creator; that the creator demands certain things,
and that the person who complies with these demands is religious.
This kind of religion has been substantially universal.
For many centuries and by many peoples it was believed that
this God demanded sacrifices; that he was pleased when parents shed
the blood of their babes. Afterward it was supposed that he was
satisfied with the blood of oxen, lambs and doves, and that in
exchange for or on account of these sacrifices, this God gave rain,
sunshine and harvest. It was also believed that if the sacrifices
were not made, this God sent pestilence, famine, flood and
earthquake.
The last phase of this belief in sacrifice was, according to
the Christian doctrine,  that God accepted the blood of his son, and
that after his son had been murdered, he, God, was satisfied, and w
anted no more blood.
During all these years and by all these peoples it was
believed that this God heard and answered prayer, that he forgave
sins and saved the souls of true believers. This, in a general way,
is the definition of religion.
Now, the questions are, Whether religion was founded on any
known fact? Whether such a being as God exists? Whether he was the
creator of yourself and myself? Whether any prayer was ever
answered? Whether any sacrifice of babe or ox secured the favor of
this unseen God?
First -- Did an infinite God create the children of men?
* Why did he create the intellectually inferior?
* Why did he create the deformed and helpless?
* Why did he create the criminal, the idiotic, the insane?
* Can infinite wisdom and power make any excuse for the creation
of failures?
* Are the failures under obligation to their creator?
Second -- Is an infinite God the governor of this world?
* Is he responsible for all the chiefs, kings, emperors, and
queens?
* Is he responsible for all the wars that have been waged, for
all the innocent blood that has been shed?
* Is he responsible for the centuries of slavery, for the backs
that have been scarred with the lash, for the babes that have been
sold from the breasts of mothers, for the families that have been
separated and destroyed?
* Is this God responsible for religious persecution, for the
Inquisition, for the thumb-screw and rack, and for all the
instruments of torture?
* Did this God allow the cruel and vile to destroy the brave and
virtuous? Did he allow tyrants to shed the blood of patriots?
* Did he allow his enemies to torture and burn his friends?
* What is such a God worth?
* Would a decent man, having the power to prevent it, allow his
enemies to torture and burn his friends?
* Can we conceive of a devil base enough to prefer his enemies
to his friends?
* If a good and infinitely powerful God governs this world, how
can we account for cyclones, earthquakes, pestilence and famine?
* How can we account for cancers, for microbes, for diphtheria
and the thousand diseases that prey on infancy?
* How can we account for the wild beasts that devour human
beings, for the fanged serpents whose bite is death?
* How can we account for a world where life feeds on life?
* Were beak and claw, tooth and fang, invented and produced by
infinite mercy?
* Did infinite goodness fashion the wings of the eagles so that
their fleeing prey could be overtaken?
* Did infinite goodness create the beasts of prey with the
intention that they should devour the weak and helpless?
* Did infinite goodness create the countless worthless living
things that breed within and feed upon the flesh of higher forms?
* Did infinite wisdom intentionally produce the microscopic
beasts that feed upon the optic nerve?
Think of blinding a man to satisfy the appetite of a microbe!
Think of life feeding on life! Think of the victims! Think of
the Niagara of blood pouring over the precipice of cruelty!
In view of these facts, what, after all, is religion?
 It is fear.
Fear builds the altar and offers the sacrifice.
Fear erects the cathedral and bows the head of man in worship.
Fear bends the knees and utters the prayer.
Fear pretends to love.
Religion teaches the slave-virtues - obedience, humility,
self-denial, forgiveness, non-resistance.
Lips, religious and fearful, tremblingly repeat this passage:
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
This is the abyss of
degradation.
Religion does not teach self-reliance, manliness, independence,
courage, self-defence. Religion makes God a master and
man his serf. The master cannot be great enough to make slavery
sweet.
If this God exists, how do we know that he is good?
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(
Note: The final part of this speech will be featured in the next AWR, number 732. If you just cannot wait, the entire oration can be read at the
Secular Web
.)
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From
Lenore Howe, Canterbury, VT
I couldn't agree more with your essay on dying healthy. I'd go a step farther and suggest that along with your first social security check, you get a necklace with a amulet containing one pill that would put you to permanent sleep. Then you can just go when you are good and ready.
Bruce Midgett, Missoula, MT
Thought I'd weigh in on the comment by that Rev.
Gottabekiddin II guy. I usually dismiss his blather, but I gotta say, this time he hit it right on the head. Brilliant, just brilliant.
From Lutz Hertel, Dusseldorf, Germany
Dear Don - Enjoyed your essay on the continued mix-up of wellness and other terms, all somewhat related, yet markedly different in important ways. I thank you for addressing definitions once more, though surely there will be a need to do it again - and again. One must get tired of perpetually preaching wellness 101. I look forward to comments from those with a different understanding.
In Germany the wellness word is employed for services, like relaxation massage and other pleasant body treatments (excluding happy endings). This includes activities like sitting in a sauna, basking in a hot tub or just lying on a relaxation couch. Well, I suppose all and more of the kind might fit with a range of daily exuberence-supporting activities that induce serenity and calm, relaxation and WOs. Be that as it may be, the distinctions you provide between wellness and prevention remind us that wellness is not a product or service, but rather a mindset, philosophy or way of living that orients everyone to seek and embrace life-enhancing experiences, momentary though they may be, that seem beneficial for mental as well as physical well being.
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Robert Green
Ingersoll on Vivisection - The Hell of Science
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Vivisection is the Inquisition - the hell of science.
All the cruelty which the human - or rather the inhuman - heart is capable of inflicting, is in this one word. Below this there is no depth. This word lies like a coiled serpent at the bottom of the abyss.
We can excuse, in part, the crimes of passion. We take into consideration the fact that man is liable to be caught by the whirlwind, and that from a brain on fire the soul rushes to a crime. But what excuse can ingenuity form for a man who deliberately - with an unaccelerated pulse - with the calmness of John Calvin at the murder of Servetus - seeks, with curious and cunning knives, in the living, quivering flesh of a dog, for all the throbbing nerves of pain? The wretches who commit these infamous crimes pretend that they are working for the good of man; that they are actuated by philanthropy; and that their pity for the sufferings of the human race drives out all pity for the animals they slowly torture to death. But those who are incapable of pitying animals are, as a matter of fact, incapable of pitying men. A physician who would cut a living rabbit in pieces - laying bare the nerves, denuding them with knives, pulling them out with forceps - would not hesitate to try experiments with men and women for the gratification of his curiosity.
To settle some theory, he would trifle with the life of any patient in his power. By the same reasoning he will justify the vivisection of animals and patients. He will say that it is better that a few animals should suffer than that one human being should die; and that it is far better that one patient should die, if through the sacrifice of that one, several may be saved.
Brain without heart is far more dangerous than heart without brain.
Have these scientific assassins discovered anything of value? They may have settled some disputes as to the action of some organ, but have they added to the useful knowledge of the race?
It is not necessary for a man to be a specialist in order to have and express his opinion as to the right or wrong of vivisection. It is not necessary to be a scientist or a naturalist to detest cruelty and to love mercy. Above all the discoveries of the thinkers, above all the inventions of the ingenious, above all the victories won on fields of intellectual conflict, rise human sympathy and a sense of justice.
I know that good for the human race can never be accomplished by torture. I also know that all that has been ascertained by vivisection could have been done by the dissection of the dead. I know that all the torture has been useless. All the agony inflicted has simply hardened the hearts of the criminals, without enlightening their minds.
It may be that the human race might be physically improved if all the sickly and deformed babes were killed, and if all the paupers, liars, drunkards, thieves, villains, and vivisectionists were murdered. All this might, in a few ages, result in the production of a generation of physically perfect men and women; but what would such beings be worth,-men and women healthy and heartless, muscular and cruel-that is to say, intelligent wild beasts?
Never can I be the friend of one who vivisects his fellow-creatures. I do not wish to touch his hand.
When the angel of pity is driven from the heart; when the fountain of tears is dry, the soul becomes a serpent crawling in the dust of a desert.
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R-E-A-L wellness - lifestyles and mindsets guided by reason, inspired by exuberance, supported with athleticism and enabled by liberty
R -
for reason, decision-making based on facts, evidence and science.
E - for exuberance - focus on happiness and joy, meaning and purpose, etc.
A - for athleticism - sound nutrition and vigorous daily exercise for fitness.
L - for liberty-freedom from superstitions & all forms of magical thinking.
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Wellness Orgasms: The Fun Way to
Live Well and Die Healthy
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THE AWR ADVISORY BOARD
Carol Ardell, St. Petersburg, FL
Grant Donovan - Perth, Australia
Lutz Hertel - Dusseldorf, Germany
Bill Hettler, Stevens Point, WI
Steve Jonas, Stony Brook, NY
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Bandersnark (
Alice in Wonderland
) courtesy of
WORD-A-DAY
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Rod Lees - Noosa, Australia
Bob Ludlow, Waynesville, NC
James Mayr - Pensacola, FL
Bruce Midgett - Missoula, MT
James Miller, Bad Gleichenberg, Austria
Iris Vander Pluym - New York City, NY
Dave Randle, St. Petersburg, FL
John Sinibaldi - Seminole, FL
Toshi Tsutshumi, Tokyo, JAPAN
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LINKS TO DON'S BOOKS, VIDEOS, CARD GAME, etc.
V
ideos
Available
Other Resources
- High Level Wellness Card Deck
An educational process is facilitated with cards that explain and promote a quality of life philosophy. Players discuss their views of issues and reflect on open-ended questions. REAL wellness perspectives and principles (by Professor Don) guide players in the direction of day-to-day positive choices. Every card in the deck conveys a REAL wellness idea and its many applications.
The game cards feature statements on one side and a question on the other side of each cards. There are 10 cards in each of the five core and overlapping wellness themes, namely reason, effectiveness, e
xuberance, aging and meaning.
Share the AWR
Are you looking for a publication that offers depth, genius, imagination, taste, reason, sensibility, philosophy, elevation, originality, nature, intellect, fancy, rectitude, facility, flexibility, precision, art, abundance, variety, fertility, warmth, magic, charm, grace, force, an eagle sweep of vision, vast understanding, instruction, rich tone, excellence, urbanity, suavity, delicacy, correctness, purity, clearness, eloquence, harmony, brilliancy, rapidity, gaiety, pathos, sublimity and universality and indeed, perfection? Well then, I recommend Voltaire. (Note: This summary of qualities is taken from Goethe's description of Voltaire, as discovered in Robert Green Ingersoll's On Voltaire, 1894.)
If something a bit shy of these qualities that yet supports a positive, rational and comprehensive approach to life lived well, the AWR might be just the thing.
The AWR is free, the better to boost chances that more people will rely less on medications, experts, products and services and more on my opinions, no - wait a minute, I mean more on themselves, with support and encouragement from like - minded friends. Quality of life is a more attractive focus than remedies and cures.
Let's make it easier for more folks to learn to think clearly, live well, act sensibly and enjoy more personal freedoms.
Feel welcome to forward this edition.
Thank you.
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Ignite Tampa Bay - 5 minute speech
Life Is Meaningless
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5980 Shore Blvd,
Suite #808
Gulfport, FL 33707
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