Check Out These Blog Posts From Steve McEllistrem

We’ve been told for decades that exercise is good for us, that it will keep us feeling better, healthier, and even lengthen our lives. But is that really true? Certainly exercise strengthens the heart and improves circulation, which raises the oxygen levels in the body. It lowers the risk of heart diseases like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and as we age, it reduces the amount of bone loss we might otherwise experience. It also keeps our weight down ...

Most of us Americans have been raised to be self-sufficient or at least to aspire to self-sufficiency, to be individuals first and members of society second. The lone hero fighting the system or the bad guys compels our adulation. We admire Dirty Harry, Wonder Woman and Katniss Everdeen. We see accepting help as a weakness, as a sign that we’re incapable of accomplishing our mission (whatever that might be) on our own. We take pride in our self-sufficiency and for ...

Over the years, I’ve acquired lots of books – some of them nonfiction, but many more that are fiction. For a time, I had as many as a thousand volumes in my home library. I eventually began the process of culling the works, donating away those I felt certain I would never read or re-read. On the one hand, it was difficult having to choose which volumes to let go. On the other hand, I found it rather liberating. Of ...

I have friends who are liberal and friends who are conservative, and while both consider the people on the opposite spectrum to be completely wrong, they also have a problem with centrists. The conservatives tell me that moderates encourage or at least enable the liberals in their agenda to move the country leftward toward socialism, while the liberals tell me that centrists want to keep the status quo and not make the changes necessary to a vibrant society. Some accuse ...