THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US, LATE AND SOON Do you realize that Death is the #1 killer in America today. The disease is not preventable. There is no cure. Hmmm. This bit of wisdom was reported recently in the Austin Daily News. I just wonder if any government research dollars were used to discover this salient fact? Speaking of health care research, two doctors recently found a DNA connection between damaged cells in the helix and colon cancer. They contended that by studying a family's DNA, predictions could be made as to who would be susceptible to the disease in the future and could take precautionary measures like regular colon testing and modifying their diets. Science has taken health care to new extremes. I am excited about genetic engineering correcting the congenital damage of heredity. Some might believe this is tampering with the "essence of life" and there is something to that. However, we were given talents to unravel the mysteries of life and as long as the scientific process is used to enhance the quality of life I can see no problem with it. Chinese medicine is much more esoteric than ours. In Healing and the Mind, by Bill Moyers, Tai Chi Chu'an is explored in great detail. There is no mystery to it. Perseverance is the key. Many of the students who study this ancient healing practice are in their 80's and 90's having spent the better part of their lives meditating. Chi, energy, floats through the body. The master moves this energy from one part of the body to another. To understand Chi Gong, one must first pass through the senses. Bad energy is removed and good energy is nurtured. Tai Chi practitioners exercise every day as part of their holistic healing program. Oneness in mind, body, and spirit develops through years of practice. Many elderly Tai Chi believers never go to traditional doctors. I wonder what the health care budget in China is? There is so much to learn and so little time in which to learn it. The average person now lives for 78 years. This has increased by more than 8 years in the past two decades. By the time our children reach retirement age, they will have a life expectancy of 90+ years. Living longer will make it possible to learn more. But the more time there is to learn, the more there will be to learn. This is another Catch 22. In The Third Wave, Alvin Toffler predicted that in the year, 2030, 97% of everything a child who was born in 1990 knows will have been discovered in his or her lifetime. Information is exploding. This past week I sent an Internet message to the President via the electronic mailing system established in the Whitehouse. An hour later, I had a reply. I was encouraged to participate in the Whitehouse Electronic Network. The address is: >Internet:Publications@Whitehouse.gov. Hey, what the heck, I said to myself, and off my request went to the Whitehouse. In the morning, I received 6 index files listing all the information available via electronic publications. I began to read through the 600 pages of documents, speeches, phone calls, legislative actions, presidential radio messages, public appearances, comments made by the President while he was out jogging, the NAFTA proposal, Hillary's Health Care Plan, including her introductory comments on it, and so many other types of information that if I listed all them it would take every column inch in this paper. What a far cry from the Bonanza days. I'm not sure how many of you watched the tribute to that program aired on TV a week ago, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Life was much simpler then, except the verities and truths presented in that program still have value today. I'm sorry I didn't videotape it, but I remember watching those episodes and wanting to live in the wilds like the Cartwrights. I guess in a way I do. What most inspired me was the way Ben, Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe demonstrated a profound respect for life. A little dose of that would help this world today. And the week before, the Walton's returned to the homestead for one last Thanksgiving dinner together. As always, many story lines were running through the program. John Sr. and Ben were at odds over the mill; John Boy was getting married; Jason was getting ready to write music for, guess who, "Elvis"; and Grandma did not want to move from the homestead because Grandpa's picture was still on the wall, and his presence was everywhere around them. Goodnight, John-boy. So many things come at us each and every day that unless we withdraw for a moment into ourselves and get "centered" we can easily lose balance. This takes us back again to Tai Chi and meditation. Perhaps there is something which never passes away from us. It is the connection with the past through our memories of what once was. I don't lament my lost childhood, youth, or early adulthood. Life today is too interesting to me to ever want to go back again to the "acne days." Now and then though, it is nice to imagine riding the mountains on the Ponderosa, or sitting on the porch at the Walton's home and watching the family's business unfold before me. At those moments when too much is coming at me, when the world seems to me to be so confusing and I'm not sure just what to do, I just stop and do what many wise people from the past did when the ideas wouldn't flow or when the thoughts were muddled, and that's to take a nap, and hopefully dream, pleasant dreams of days gone by, and yes, pleasant days to come.