Any good historian should have as his/her motto, "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
I was sitting here with a cup of coffee, playing Flow and thinking about thinking. SO often on facebook my friends and relatives post nostalgic stuff. "'Like' if you remember _____." "What the world needs is more 'Mayberry' and less 'Honey Boo-boo.'" "When I was young [or when we were growing up], _______."
No less of a philosopher than Socrates railed about the degeneration of young people. There's probably an expression like "the world is going to hell in a hand-basket" in every language our earth has ever known. The stoopid shit about our society's ills that we're bombarded with, daily, could for all intents and purposes be an echo of a statement of frustration thousands of years old, bouncing off rock after rock, going 'round and 'round and 'round....
There's very little new under the sun. Not "nothing new" as the old saying goes, but certainly little in the sense of selfish and greedy behavior by humans -- it's all been done before. The world is a playground for ambition and cupidity, and has been since the dawn of time.
If you think "the world" was a simpler place and at a "better time" when you were younger (or your grandparents, etc, were), you might want to read more things that were written DURING the time in question. Those times were just as perilous and frightening to the people living then as our current times are to us. Looking back on them -- knowing NOW how things turned out -- it's very tempting to see the risks as less risky (American Revolution, anyone?), and the questionable as a duh-situation (stock market crash of '29), but when you're in the middle of it, there's a whole different perspective coloring your opinion.
The world wasn't less complicated when we were children -- ordinary people were just less aware of what went on behind closed conference-room doors. If you want to enjoy again the innocence of the environment you knew, all you have to do is turn off the television and radio, unplug the internet, and refuse to listen to the gossip around you. Cultivate the zen-beginner-mind you had before you started school. Brainwash yourself. Innocence is attainable, but at the cost of knowledge and wisdom.
Everything depends on your point of view. There never WAS a golden age. "If ignorance is bliss, then 'tis folly to be wise." Choose. But don't try to convince yourself that stress and frustration didn't exist in the 1950s, or any other time in history for that matter.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
it ain't fear -- it's about reason
Did everybody in the house read the Robb Wolf site post...?
As happens from time to time, I started to leave a comment, and broke off short because I prefer to get long-winded on my own blog instead of being tedious on someone else's. :-) So here I go:
I watch what I eat MOST of the time, so I can eat whatever I want SOME of the time. With an aging and intolerant body, I would feel absolutely horrible if I always ate what I ate on my recent vacation. How would that enrich my life? No, i want to feel as good as I can, as much as I can. That means I have to eat ONLY what promotes my personal well-being ... most of the time.
There are forces out there which want to label this behavior as disordered. I believe that THEY are the deranged ones. If I know that excess consumption of nightshades, for example, disturbs my digestion, where is the virtue in stubbornly gorging on these foods, when there are so many things I like better?
Then if, with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, I choose to describe foods as "evil" which tend to make me feel bad if eaten too often, it's more a verbal shortcut than an actual perception. Food isn't evil. Eating food isn't evil. Hyperbole can be amusing.
But really, why does anybody CARE what another person prefers to eat, whose health is not particularly dear to them? There's something really disturbing about the preoccupation we see, far too often, with personal habits of STRANGERS!
Amy's article makes a good point -- obliquely -- that if one is going to "cheat" one is a perfect idiot not to enjoy it. Her imaginary subject wasn't tempted by the devil; wasn't tied up and MADE to consume that fictional slice of bread; had no pressing reason, in fact, not to indulge himself if he felt like it. He was an imaginary moron, more interested in labels than real life.
Had he been diabetic or celiac, it would have been different. He wasn't even like me -- I suffer predictably when a certain threshold of intake is crossed. He has nothing but a self-chosen philosophy standing between himself and something he had a desire to do. His perspective is warped, or he has so little to think about that he's thinking about TRIPE.
As happens from time to time, I started to leave a comment, and broke off short because I prefer to get long-winded on my own blog instead of being tedious on someone else's. :-) So here I go:
I watch what I eat MOST of the time, so I can eat whatever I want SOME of the time. With an aging and intolerant body, I would feel absolutely horrible if I always ate what I ate on my recent vacation. How would that enrich my life? No, i want to feel as good as I can, as much as I can. That means I have to eat ONLY what promotes my personal well-being ... most of the time.
There are forces out there which want to label this behavior as disordered. I believe that THEY are the deranged ones. If I know that excess consumption of nightshades, for example, disturbs my digestion, where is the virtue in stubbornly gorging on these foods, when there are so many things I like better?
Then if, with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, I choose to describe foods as "evil" which tend to make me feel bad if eaten too often, it's more a verbal shortcut than an actual perception. Food isn't evil. Eating food isn't evil. Hyperbole can be amusing.
But really, why does anybody CARE what another person prefers to eat, whose health is not particularly dear to them? There's something really disturbing about the preoccupation we see, far too often, with personal habits of STRANGERS!
Amy's article makes a good point -- obliquely -- that if one is going to "cheat" one is a perfect idiot not to enjoy it. Her imaginary subject wasn't tempted by the devil; wasn't tied up and MADE to consume that fictional slice of bread; had no pressing reason, in fact, not to indulge himself if he felt like it. He was an imaginary moron, more interested in labels than real life.
Had he been diabetic or celiac, it would have been different. He wasn't even like me -- I suffer predictably when a certain threshold of intake is crossed. He has nothing but a self-chosen philosophy standing between himself and something he had a desire to do. His perspective is warped, or he has so little to think about that he's thinking about TRIPE.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
a speculation
Ya know how some hypothyroid people seem to label themselves with adrenal fatigue? They have a set of symptoms that are more typical of hypERthyroidism, but they have the lab tests that show high TSH, for example -- and it's gotta be SOMETHING.... So the wired-but-tired problem sounds like an adrenal complication. Progressive doctors of endocrinology recommend treating the adrenal problem before tackling the thyroid imbalance.
What I think is happening is that the individual isn't hypO, isn't hypER, may not have abnormal adrenal function ... they have a histamine (or similar) issue that creates wildly-fluctuating responses by both glands.
To successfully treat adrenal fatigue, according to the websites, one needs to improve sleep (through various techniques, including "unplugging"), cultivate relaxation, eat the right things, supplement, get some exercise but "increase joy" -- that sort of thing. But the bit is, that regimen is good for regularizing thyroid function, too! In fact, there's probably not one system in the body which would NOT benefit from it.
When the thyroid isn't happy, but not actually diseased, one sees all kinds of variations in its output. Add to that all the things that can exacerbate issues or interfere with transportation, reception and conversion, and you end up with SYMPTOMS. Symptoms of hypo, of hyper, and of adrenal problems. And WITH all these fluctuations, a physician who only treats via lab numbers will "never" get treatment right -- s/he will doodle around with (worst-case) Synthroid dosages for months on end, or -- if half-intelligent -- with an animal-source product. This will take bloody forever, and may never result satisfactorily. In that case, being frustrated with their own incompetence, they will conclude there's something special wrong with YOU, and will next propose killing or excising that part of you they are too ignorant to heal.
Yes -- before messing with thyroid, treat adrenal fatigue -- just don't be sold on the idea that milking your adrenals with stress is the whole problem. What stresses your adrenals stresses your thyroid, AND the rest of the body's systems too! Paleo/primal lifestyle is designed to help with those stresses.
BUT ... a lot of paleo/primal food darlings can be tripping your histamine traps! Those big-ass salads are more full of antinutrients than they're telling you. Raw cruciferous vegetables? Their sulfur content -- or is it the cyanide? or both? -- is BAD FOR YOU. So much for the vegan's best source of calcium.... And the fermented vegetables -- concentrated histamine nightmare. Potted meats, ditto. It was after a yummy charcuterie platter (that made me feel absolutely awful) that I first suspected my problem was not "allergies" but histamine intolerance.
What to do, what to do.... It's not easy to define exactly what's wrong with us, when we just don't feel WELL, but we have no acute symptoms. Some people are breaking the bank with diagnostic testing so extensive the blood used would satiate Dracula. Ironically, it's very easy to begin with self-treatment because -- duh -- paleo-lifestyle tweaks can't possibly do anything but good! More good-quality sleep for busy people -- who the HELL is going to object to that? Even the idiots will have a hard time finding a sleep-equivalent for "but you shouldn't remove a WHOLE FOOD GROUP!!!" ...but of course it's perfectly okay to be a vegetarian and remove a whole food group then....
I trust i'm not the only person who gets disgusted with all those "experts" who say one shouldn't try ANYTHING without competent authority in supervision. Our collective conversion into a bunch of damned SHEEP seems to have begun with dieticians and personal trainers saying we MUST NOT go on a walk or cut out sugar without their input! And what the AMA has done to protect THEIR monopoly looks kinda like the Mafia.
So, yeah -- do you feel nervous or anxious, but show symptoms of hypothyroidism too? RUN TO YOUR DOCTOR!!! (oops, I should have posted the "sarcasm alert" logo -- I need to find one of those.) Or maybe, DON'T run to your doctor. Turn off the television and put down the laptop two or more hours before bedtime. Put on your amber glasses and read a pleasant book. Stop eating sugar but don't substitute aspartame. Don't have one glass of wine too many (alcohol may put you to sleep, but won't let you stay there, taken in excess). Make sure you get all the nutrients you need, in a form and manner your body can actually absorb. Take a relaxing 20-minute walk rather than pound the sidewalk with your running-shoes for an hour. Do a couple of "planks" instead of worrying about beating the crowds to the gym. Eat fatty fish instead of reading YET ANOTHER article about how fish-oil capsules don't do any good. Eat a lamb-chop. Eat some (cooked) greens. Purge your facebook friends of those who don't make you smile (or at least "unfollow" people you can't dump).
BEFORE you add more pharmaceuticals to your life, sit down and think about what nourishes YOUR well-being. Do that. I promise -- you don't NEED an RD to tell you what your body really wants -- if you listen to it, it will tell you all by itself.
What I think is happening is that the individual isn't hypO, isn't hypER, may not have abnormal adrenal function ... they have a histamine (or similar) issue that creates wildly-fluctuating responses by both glands.
To successfully treat adrenal fatigue, according to the websites, one needs to improve sleep (through various techniques, including "unplugging"), cultivate relaxation, eat the right things, supplement, get some exercise but "increase joy" -- that sort of thing. But the bit is, that regimen is good for regularizing thyroid function, too! In fact, there's probably not one system in the body which would NOT benefit from it.
When the thyroid isn't happy, but not actually diseased, one sees all kinds of variations in its output. Add to that all the things that can exacerbate issues or interfere with transportation, reception and conversion, and you end up with SYMPTOMS. Symptoms of hypo, of hyper, and of adrenal problems. And WITH all these fluctuations, a physician who only treats via lab numbers will "never" get treatment right -- s/he will doodle around with (worst-case) Synthroid dosages for months on end, or -- if half-intelligent -- with an animal-source product. This will take bloody forever, and may never result satisfactorily. In that case, being frustrated with their own incompetence, they will conclude there's something special wrong with YOU, and will next propose killing or excising that part of you they are too ignorant to heal.
Yes -- before messing with thyroid, treat adrenal fatigue -- just don't be sold on the idea that milking your adrenals with stress is the whole problem. What stresses your adrenals stresses your thyroid, AND the rest of the body's systems too! Paleo/primal lifestyle is designed to help with those stresses.
BUT ... a lot of paleo/primal food darlings can be tripping your histamine traps! Those big-ass salads are more full of antinutrients than they're telling you. Raw cruciferous vegetables? Their sulfur content -- or is it the cyanide? or both? -- is BAD FOR YOU. So much for the vegan's best source of calcium.... And the fermented vegetables -- concentrated histamine nightmare. Potted meats, ditto. It was after a yummy charcuterie platter (that made me feel absolutely awful) that I first suspected my problem was not "allergies" but histamine intolerance.
What to do, what to do.... It's not easy to define exactly what's wrong with us, when we just don't feel WELL, but we have no acute symptoms. Some people are breaking the bank with diagnostic testing so extensive the blood used would satiate Dracula. Ironically, it's very easy to begin with self-treatment because -- duh -- paleo-lifestyle tweaks can't possibly do anything but good! More good-quality sleep for busy people -- who the HELL is going to object to that? Even the idiots will have a hard time finding a sleep-equivalent for "but you shouldn't remove a WHOLE FOOD GROUP!!!" ...but of course it's perfectly okay to be a vegetarian and remove a whole food group then....
I trust i'm not the only person who gets disgusted with all those "experts" who say one shouldn't try ANYTHING without competent authority in supervision. Our collective conversion into a bunch of damned SHEEP seems to have begun with dieticians and personal trainers saying we MUST NOT go on a walk or cut out sugar without their input! And what the AMA has done to protect THEIR monopoly looks kinda like the Mafia.
So, yeah -- do you feel nervous or anxious, but show symptoms of hypothyroidism too? RUN TO YOUR DOCTOR!!! (oops, I should have posted the "sarcasm alert" logo -- I need to find one of those.) Or maybe, DON'T run to your doctor. Turn off the television and put down the laptop two or more hours before bedtime. Put on your amber glasses and read a pleasant book. Stop eating sugar but don't substitute aspartame. Don't have one glass of wine too many (alcohol may put you to sleep, but won't let you stay there, taken in excess). Make sure you get all the nutrients you need, in a form and manner your body can actually absorb. Take a relaxing 20-minute walk rather than pound the sidewalk with your running-shoes for an hour. Do a couple of "planks" instead of worrying about beating the crowds to the gym. Eat fatty fish instead of reading YET ANOTHER article about how fish-oil capsules don't do any good. Eat a lamb-chop. Eat some (cooked) greens. Purge your facebook friends of those who don't make you smile (or at least "unfollow" people you can't dump).
BEFORE you add more pharmaceuticals to your life, sit down and think about what nourishes YOUR well-being. Do that. I promise -- you don't NEED an RD to tell you what your body really wants -- if you listen to it, it will tell you all by itself.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
not time to give up glutathione yet!
Today i'm drained.
During the last day of our cruise, and during the long one of travel (rising at 6 and not getting home till 11), i failed to take my glutathione, though i managed to get the first-thing-in-the-morning and the last-thing-at-night supplements. MISTAKE.
Yesterday i didn't do much but cook lunch and dinner (easy things), but today i finished the unpacking and putting-away, then visited the grocery. It doesn't help that i woke at 5:30 with a plugged head, draining sinuses and a raw throat! Serious allergy-season is upon us.
Grass pollen and atmospheric mold are high. Pine and walnut pollens are moderate. My upper-respiratory tract is screaming. No way in the world am i going down to the basement and start the laundry!
Bless J for doing dinner tonight -- it's steaks and stuffed mushrooms (Fat Fast recipe, shockingly easy considering how fantastic they taste).
There IS good news, though: when i weighed in this morning, i was almost back to my pre-vacation weight. Most of the retained water has been flushed away. Spenser let me brush him this morning. Tomorrow we resume our weekly trips to the Missouri Botanical Garden, then we'll go to Michael's for liver'n'onions, then to Costco for more lamb and a beef tenderloin ... fish too, maybe.
Life is good, despite the weariness.
During the last day of our cruise, and during the long one of travel (rising at 6 and not getting home till 11), i failed to take my glutathione, though i managed to get the first-thing-in-the-morning and the last-thing-at-night supplements. MISTAKE.
Yesterday i didn't do much but cook lunch and dinner (easy things), but today i finished the unpacking and putting-away, then visited the grocery. It doesn't help that i woke at 5:30 with a plugged head, draining sinuses and a raw throat! Serious allergy-season is upon us.
Grass pollen and atmospheric mold are high. Pine and walnut pollens are moderate. My upper-respiratory tract is screaming. No way in the world am i going down to the basement and start the laundry!
Bless J for doing dinner tonight -- it's steaks and stuffed mushrooms (Fat Fast recipe, shockingly easy considering how fantastic they taste).
There IS good news, though: when i weighed in this morning, i was almost back to my pre-vacation weight. Most of the retained water has been flushed away. Spenser let me brush him this morning. Tomorrow we resume our weekly trips to the Missouri Botanical Garden, then we'll go to Michael's for liver'n'onions, then to Costco for more lamb and a beef tenderloin ... fish too, maybe.
Life is good, despite the weariness.
Monday, May 26, 2014
i've said it before but i'll say it again...
It WILL be a pleasure eating more nutritiously again! Now that I've pretty well whipped hypothyroidism through methylation and micronutrients, I may have a little more latitude than I did last summer but I STILL have to mind the plant toxins to which I have particular sensitivity.
Despite making a total pig of myself, I arrived home about three pounds heavier but with significant puffiness in my hands, feet and ankles, indicating I was pretty well weight-stable but retaining water very uncomfortably. This happens whenever I fly, but it was better the time I flew at the end of a "whole 30"! Of course we know that raised insulin causes water retention -- just ONE of the reasons to eat for lower insulin!
My bad right knee was a bit uncomfortable (not significantly miserable) throughout the entire trip, but my left knee twinged on a couple of occasions, indicating specific toxic foods had been hidden in my intake! I went very lightly on that kind of burden MOST of the time, but there were a couple of blowouts! :-D I really got overheated on Sint Maarten and the only place with a/c in view was the Hard Rock -- mea culpa! (The children loved it.)
I walked my ass off! I thought I was completely adapted to stairs because of my big old house, but doing them in heels or flipflops is a whole 'nother experience! :-) At home i'm usually barefooted, but walking gracefully (straight back, tummy sucked in) up the elegant staircases in three-inch heels and long gown, with a drink in one's hand, puts a slightly different stress on one's anatomy! Perhaps I should practice? ...Naw, the dress and drink are okay, but i'd rather skip the shoes for awhile.
I wore my vibrams on St. Thomas and my tennies on St. Maarten -- vibrams win again! They are just SO unstressful on the feet! They make good water-shoes, too ... but actually swimming in them puts stress on the knees -- more weight when I kicked! But damn do I hate walking on seaweed! You just don't know what's lurking in its depths....
***
The cruise organizers (mostly, two hard-workers named Becky and Debbie) found Royal Caribbean significantly better than Carnival from their point of view (and many others concurred). From ours, it's close to a wash. On both, the food was good but not consistent. Our balcony this time was bigger and better, and the bathtub superior (our accommodations were essentially the same "level" on both). The room service was late EVERY SINGLE TIME, and our daughter's family consistently got shorted on their orders. Carnival definitely has a better water-park for the kids.
The specialty-Italian restaurant on RC was OUTSTANDING -- our best meal on the boat! The service there was hugely attentive, while the theoretically-higher-level steakhouse fell short not only in that respect, but also in the variety and imaginativeness of the menu and food preparation. The main dining room has issues with coordination! Some members of our party (granted, the kids) were finished on a few occasions with their three courses before the rest got their entrees. Kinda looks like the sommelier's staff needs beefing up, too. In fact, in some places drink service was so incredibly slow I suspect their beverage department could use an overhaul.
All in all, every one of our party had a wonderful time. My daughter, who is in life-insurance underwriting, learned some useful things from a professional point of view as well as a personal one (she's writing a report to her VP on the need to make LDL screening more targeted in difficult cases). Her husband (one of those people who "don't need to" watch their diet) is inspired to go more paleo. One of the door prizes we (collectively) won was Fred Hahn's slow-burn DVDs -- we're all excited to try out his philosophy!
As usual, I got a LOT of good information, interesting ideas and valuable tips! I was excited to meet and listen to Dr Eric Westman, and some other physicians among the other speakers (some I've never heard before) were an additional treat! We are ALL annoyed by the mediocre, cookie-cutter doctors our friends and families have been mistreated by, but it's heartening to know that there ARE exceptionally-good ones out there too! It's a privilege to be able to get their inspired responses to one's own questions!
But the icing on our low-carb cake was the way the kids went around with the big grins on their faces! They LOVED going to the supervised events offered (we won't call it baby-sitting) during the day and evening so we could do grown-up stuff (their mother enjoys blackjack). They were impressed with the ice show and magician as well. And as for meeting the "characters" ... well ... just check out the faces.
Despite making a total pig of myself, I arrived home about three pounds heavier but with significant puffiness in my hands, feet and ankles, indicating I was pretty well weight-stable but retaining water very uncomfortably. This happens whenever I fly, but it was better the time I flew at the end of a "whole 30"! Of course we know that raised insulin causes water retention -- just ONE of the reasons to eat for lower insulin!
My bad right knee was a bit uncomfortable (not significantly miserable) throughout the entire trip, but my left knee twinged on a couple of occasions, indicating specific toxic foods had been hidden in my intake! I went very lightly on that kind of burden MOST of the time, but there were a couple of blowouts! :-D I really got overheated on Sint Maarten and the only place with a/c in view was the Hard Rock -- mea culpa! (The children loved it.)
I walked my ass off! I thought I was completely adapted to stairs because of my big old house, but doing them in heels or flipflops is a whole 'nother experience! :-) At home i'm usually barefooted, but walking gracefully (straight back, tummy sucked in) up the elegant staircases in three-inch heels and long gown, with a drink in one's hand, puts a slightly different stress on one's anatomy! Perhaps I should practice? ...Naw, the dress and drink are okay, but i'd rather skip the shoes for awhile.
I wore my vibrams on St. Thomas and my tennies on St. Maarten -- vibrams win again! They are just SO unstressful on the feet! They make good water-shoes, too ... but actually swimming in them puts stress on the knees -- more weight when I kicked! But damn do I hate walking on seaweed! You just don't know what's lurking in its depths....
***
The cruise organizers (mostly, two hard-workers named Becky and Debbie) found Royal Caribbean significantly better than Carnival from their point of view (and many others concurred). From ours, it's close to a wash. On both, the food was good but not consistent. Our balcony this time was bigger and better, and the bathtub superior (our accommodations were essentially the same "level" on both). The room service was late EVERY SINGLE TIME, and our daughter's family consistently got shorted on their orders. Carnival definitely has a better water-park for the kids.
The specialty-Italian restaurant on RC was OUTSTANDING -- our best meal on the boat! The service there was hugely attentive, while the theoretically-higher-level steakhouse fell short not only in that respect, but also in the variety and imaginativeness of the menu and food preparation. The main dining room has issues with coordination! Some members of our party (granted, the kids) were finished on a few occasions with their three courses before the rest got their entrees. Kinda looks like the sommelier's staff needs beefing up, too. In fact, in some places drink service was so incredibly slow I suspect their beverage department could use an overhaul.
All in all, every one of our party had a wonderful time. My daughter, who is in life-insurance underwriting, learned some useful things from a professional point of view as well as a personal one (she's writing a report to her VP on the need to make LDL screening more targeted in difficult cases). Her husband (one of those people who "don't need to" watch their diet) is inspired to go more paleo. One of the door prizes we (collectively) won was Fred Hahn's slow-burn DVDs -- we're all excited to try out his philosophy!
As usual, I got a LOT of good information, interesting ideas and valuable tips! I was excited to meet and listen to Dr Eric Westman, and some other physicians among the other speakers (some I've never heard before) were an additional treat! We are ALL annoyed by the mediocre, cookie-cutter doctors our friends and families have been mistreated by, but it's heartening to know that there ARE exceptionally-good ones out there too! It's a privilege to be able to get their inspired responses to one's own questions!
But the icing on our low-carb cake was the way the kids went around with the big grins on their faces! They LOVED going to the supervised events offered (we won't call it baby-sitting) during the day and evening so we could do grown-up stuff (their mother enjoys blackjack). They were impressed with the ice show and magician as well. And as for meeting the "characters" ... well ... just check out the faces.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
had a wonderful time -- wish it weren't over!
It's a remarkable thing, though, that at the end of a perfectly decadent vacation, it's nice to be going BACK TO A "PERFECT" DIET! :-D
Most of the low-carb crowd does their damnedest to behave themselves, and they encourage each other to stick to the straight and narrow. They carry real butter to the cooking stations and ask the dining-room and kitchen staffs to please only use fresh real eggs -- none of that stuff that comes in cartons! They ask what's in the sauces, and make sure the waiter doesn't come near the table with the bread-basket.
Who would expect a cruise ship -- epitome of self-indulgence and non-stop partying -- to be a kind of boot-camp for the food-serious? ...But it IS.
Our family was fortunately at our own table -- we would have been a HORRIBLE influence! ;-) Of course, it doesn't matter -- those people are hard-core. They work REALLY hard to do it right. Ya know how the young primals who hang out at the gym sneer at all those old, fat, middle-aged, red-faced, wind-broken "losers"? No way on god's earth are the former as mentally strong or as full of character as most of the low-carb cruisers i saw!
We're talking about people with a history of serious illness, of decades of struggling with overweight by doing exactly what EVERYONE told them was how to be fit and healthy ... you know, the low-fat LIES we grew up and grew old with!
There were several young families, too -- slim, vibrant people with bright-eyed, nice, smart kids. There were quite a few folks who look quite young until you get close to them; more than one of the speakers looked like "babies" from a distance, but their intelligence and experience shine out along with the faint sheen of silver in their hair....
I and my husband are, in fact, very poor representatives of this community. We drink, we indulge in
"evil" goodies (we consider the brakes off, in holiday situations like this) -- we misbehave outrageously! Our hats are off, though, to our "colleagues" who are so dedicated to their lifestyles and goals even during what may be a trip-of-a-lifetime to them!
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