Fear Can be a Good Thing

I stopped by Beebe Hospital's off-site Lab Express this morning and left behind a fist full of vials of my blood for a variety of you're-approaching-middle-age-man-just-deal-with-it tests. This afternoon, Doctor Robinson called with some of the results. Generally good news.

My cholesterol, which had been running a little bit high over the last few years, is down. Just slightly, but down. Further, my good cholesterol is slightly up from my last test and my bad cholesterol is slightly down.

This is the result of improving my diet and increasing exercise lately. I'm finally getting serious about this and I owe it all to fear.

Over the last few weeks, I let myself think too much about my health. I'd had a few aches and pains and decided that they meant a return of a blood clot, more pulmonary embolisms,
heart problems, stroke, cancer, etc. It turns out that if you think about this stuff too much, you can generate a serious level of anxiety. Which makes your heart race, and makes your blood pressure rise, and makes your chest hurt. Which feels like it might be.... You get the point.

I had various tests that have satisfied me that I'm actually fine. This summer's blood clot is shrinking on schedule. I don't have a new one. My heart is fine. My lungs are clear. I'm fine. Relax.

But I'm also convinced that if I don't make some changes, I may not be fine next time. So? Less salt. Less fat. Less food. More exercise. More relaxation. Proper priorities.

Seems to be working. I think I'll stick with it.

The Lewes City Dock

This is one of my favorite spots in Lewes. The City Dock is just off the main part of town. It floats along the bank of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal where the canal widens out into a harbor.

I once caught a filleted flounder here. I dropped a line on a hot summer afternoon and snagged a flounder that had been caught by someone on one of the head-boats that sail from Fisherman's Wharf, across the water from this spot. It had been cleaned on the dock over there and the remains dumped overboard into the canal.

That may have been the biggest fish I ever caught in my brief fling with fishing. Even without most of its flesh.

Another Loss for Lewes

I was saddened this week to learn that Howard Seymour has passed away. Howard died at home on December 4. He was 79.

Howard was a member of the Lewes Board of Public Works and sat as an ex-officio member on the Lewes Planning Commission. So, for the last several years I've spent about one evening each month with him. He was a cranky-seeming guy, but he knew all about the city and the utilities that serve the city.

He liked to appear crusty and cantankerous, but at heart he was a sweet, kind, wise man. He will be missed.

We're losing too many of our city's characters. Howard was one of the people who made Lewes unique and special. We've lost Howard. We lost Mayor Smith. It's been a rough year.

British Car Club?

British Car Club?
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

I couldn't help noting that the British Cars in the Lewes Christmas Parade this past week-end was led by... a Japanese truck.

Arts in Education in the News

Two stories caught my eye in today's News Journal. Both touch on issues around the Arts in Education.

The state leaders from around the US gathered in Wilmington this weekend for the Council of State Governments meeting heard about the importance of Arts Education from Daniel H. Pink. Pink is the author of A Whole New Mind, a guide to navigating the shift from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. He told the group of the importance of teaching students to take advantage of their artistic and creative strengths as well their ability to read, write and calculate.

The challenge, he said, for state governments -- especially in an era of federal- and state-mandated academic accountability tests and graduation standards geared toward English, math and science mastery -- is to make room for and encourage students to take part in arts programs that hone those skills.

What pleased me most, though, was to see Delaware's Governor picking up on that theme.

Pink's arguments rang true to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who said she's been toying with the idea of adding an art requirement for high school graduation.

"It's not something I've really discussed with my staff yet," Minner said. "But I've always thought that the arts were important to be a well-rounded person."

Indeed.

Karen and I have been supporters for many years now of a choice school -- the Southern Delaware School of the Arts -- that was set up to use a focus on the arts to support the academic goals of students in first through eighth grades. Both of our girls are students there and Karen is a part-time teacher. The last few rounds of state testing I think have borne-out the efficacy of the school's approach; SDSA students are among the leaders in test scores.

The sports section of today's paper had a profile of Darnerien McCants, former Washington Redskins receiver and now a back-bencher for the Philadelphia Eagles. McCants also attended Delaware State University, in Dover. I became a Darnerien fan when he joined the 'Skins partly because he had been a Delawarean, partly because he was an underdog, and partly because when he did get a chance to play, he exceeded expectations.

Darnerien never did quite fit into the current plans of once and present Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs. I like to think that that is just because of the bigger-named receivers that have been brought in this season. He was released by the Redskins and picked up by the Eagles. His playing time for the Philadelphia team has also been limited.

And yet, as the newspaper profile makes clear, Darnerien McCants has more to do in life than just catch footballs.

When it was mentioned to Darnerien McCants that he's an athlete who also is an artist, the Eagles wide receiver smiled and shook his head.

"You got that backward," he said. "I'm an artist who's also an athlete. My football career could end at any time, but I'll be creating art as long as my hands and my brain are working. Art is forever."

He credits his teachers in the arts program at Delaware State with awakening the artist in him. And he's not limited to one medium, as his web site makes clear. Darnerien McCants paints, draws and sculpts, he writes poetry and music, and he sings.

I was interested to note, though, that it wasn't until he got to Delaware State that McCants found an arts program to engage his native talent. There'd been no support in the schools he attended growing up in Maryland. This is no knock on Maryland; I grew up there myself. I think it's more a function of the times than the state.

Now, McCants is looking ahead to the inevitable end of his football career.

McCants is thinking about his life after football, but he knows trying to make a living off his art would be difficult. So his goal is to become a high school art teacher and also coach at that level.

If he follows through on that idea, I'll be a fan of Darnerien McCants for a long long time.

Irony, Thy Name is... Irony

Life is good. The Village President of the suburban Chicago village of Justice has been charged with fraud.

Secret Desire to be an Outlaw #45

There's a growing trend towards PhotoCakes -- birthday cakes whose icing features images, sometimes copies of old baby pictures, cunningly rendered in the many-hued icing now available.

Often these are the sheet-cakes favored for office birthday gatherings for co-workers. And they sit there by the mailboxes all day as people wander by sneaking small slices throughout the day.

I've noticed that people tend to avoid cutting into the photo section as long as possible. As a people, we must have some deeply ingrained reluctance to cut into a baby's face with a kitchen knife. I think this is a good thing, by the way.

I find I have this slightly disreputable desire to arm myself with a small tube of cake-decorating icing that I might whip out when no one is looking and draw cartoon mustaches on those pictures.

I must have some anti-social tendencies. Anti-cake, anyway.

Home for the Holidays

For Thanksgiving, we headed over to the suburbs of Washington DC and spent a night in my childhood home. This is the view out of the front windows.

I grew up among trees, and hills. Fall was truly a time of fallen leaves for me.

Are Fuel Prices About to Fall?

A Local Focus

I was a bit surprised today to read a story on the Michael Scanlon plea agreement in my local bi-weekly newspaper, the Cape Gazette.

Scanlon pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy stemming from the Justice Department's investigation into high-powered Washington lobbyists. He's a former member of former House Speaker Tom DeLay's staff, and is a big-time lobbyist.

Now, I was once in news broadcasting in a small market. I know that, to effectively report on a national story, you sometimes have to find the local angle. But I was surprised today to read this headline:

Rehoboth Beach lifeguard
pleads guilty to conspiracy

It turns out that Scanlon is also a former member of the Rehoboth Beach Patrol. A lifeguard. So the story included a discussion of how the charges, and the unfolding scandal in Washington, might reflect on the resort town.

Buckson said there is no connection between Scanlon'’s federal conspiracy charges and his work as a lifeguard. "I don'’t think they'’re related. I don'’t think they're connected, Buckson said.

That's Rehoboth Beach Patrol Capt. Kent Buckson.

It seemed odd to me to be reading about this story in terms of the Rehoboth Beach Patrol. What do the worlds of resort-town lifeguards and Washington insiders have in common? More than I thought, apparently.

While Scanlon was known as ruthless in Washington, he was also a generous friend to many Rehoboth Beach lifeguards.

He allowed friends and lifeguards to use his house in Dewey Beach and his vehicle. Rehoboth Beach Patrol Capt. Kent Buckson said that in 2004, several guards were shuttled from Georgetown to Daytona Beach, Fla., for the U.S. Lifesaving Association National Championship aboard Scanlon'’s private jet.

Lifeguards with private jets. Who knew?