Now here's something odd - a US president pardoned somebody the other day. Oooops sorry - he didn't, he just commuted a sentence. I'll pull my tongue out of my cheek now.

Let me check my Constitution here. The legal system is set up to provide a fair trial ... to examine the evidence ... and to provide a verdict which is then upheld by the system itself. Beautiful. Elegant. Fair (more often than not). Good stuff. The Constitution of the United States of America - a work of art.

Dateline 2007 ... Scooter Libby's going to jail. Or is he? He was convicted ... and thus, if he's in the same category as any other convicted criminal, he's headed to jail.

But wait! President Bush flies in with his Superman cape on and says "no worries mate, it doesn't matter what the legal system says because what *I* say matters most - and I say you're not going to jail".

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In today's world, the paradigm of health care is based around "going to see a provider for care". Yes, there are certainly instances and circumstances in which this is a necessary scenario. The question I pose today is this - how many health-related issues do we experience that can be readily dealt with on the basis of self-care strategies - if we simply knew how to use them?

Many of the chronic health issues facing our society today - for example, heart disease and diabetes - are integrally related to self-care. "Lifestyle changes" are critical to success with many (if not all) long-term chronic conditions. Along with these chronic conditions, we have another set of conditions that are self-limiting and have their own natural history. Consider the common cold as but one example. How many people get it? Lots. But it has it's own self-limiting course that it takes, and with time (and an environment in which the immune system can respond as it is designed), the condition goes away.

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Over the past few weeks, there have been a lot of stories coming out of Coeur d'Alene regarding this year's Ironman CDA on June 24. My sources tell me it was a difficult day between the very choppy water for the swim and a challenging new bike course. Reports put the waves at up to 3 feet, though from what I could see on the live video, I highly doubt that the whitecaps I saw were on top of 3 foot swells. Having grown up next to the St. Lawrence River, I know my whitecaps!

They gave the participants the opportunity to not do the swim - and to simply make it an "Iron-duathlon". This decision wasn't made until just prior to the swim start.

I have no difficulty whatsoever with keeping participants safe. I totally understand the rationale - and the liability involved.

But let's face it - Ironman SHOULD be difficult. Ironman SHOULD have it's own set of risks. Isn't that part of the appeal in attempting it?

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I am a blues lover ... sing the blues, play the blues, either way I enjoy it. Austin's a great place for live blues music - and admittedly one of my original reasons for moving here. But there is another type of blues that I don't enjoy quite so much - let's call that the summertime blues. When I think of summer in Austin, I think of the heat.

In order to survive a summer of training in the heat, you've got to have some strategies. We all know that training in the heat can become a real challenge. It seems harder to maintain your training pace – if anything, you may feel like you’re running slower. You’re lethargic. Perhaps it just seems like a lot of work. You can't go out early enough in the morning to avoid it. You feel like you can't drink enough to make up for it. So training in the heat is tough - that's a given. But what can be done to make the situation as good as possible?

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First of all, let's start with the obvious: Happy Birthday, United States of America!

July 4th ... a day of celebration of the nation's birthday. A day for ... time off from work, beer drinking, grilling out, fireworks ... what more can you ask for, right?

The Canadian in me would like to remind everyone out there that your neighbor to the North - your number one trading partner and world's longest undefended border-mate - just had a birthday as well.

It was on July 1. Yes, we know you missed it, but a belated birthday card would have sufficed.

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I am a strong believer in the power of language. Language isn't just about "words" - it's also about the personal meanings that we derive from those words. As we all realize, saying what you mean may not be the same as meaning what you say. Add to this the idea that "the meaning of words" and "what it translates to in pop culture" are oftentimes two totally different entities.

I bring this up today because of a great example of this phenomenon - the word "wellness". If we look at the literal meaning of "wellness", here is what we'd find (italic emphasis is mine):

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Creativity.

Inspiration.

Two things that you need to latch on to when they appear at your doorstep. Trust me on this one.

They can pass you by quickly, on stealth mode in your daily grind. It's easy to lose sight of them, or to barely recognize that they are in your presence. But if you stay open to the world around you, stay quiet deep within, you will hear them - and when you do, you must seize them, seize the moment, free your mind, know the flow, sense it, revel in it, submit to it ... and hope that life hasn't passed you by in the meantime.

Sure, easy for you to say.

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