Take Care

"Take Care". You take care, TC, You must take care.

These 2 words are used so commonly that in SMS or internet chat most conversations end with them. I was listening to Radio FM from Dubai and the RJ said at the end "Apna bahut ache se khyam rakhiyega".

My wife keeps on telling me the same thing every day from 2000 kms away.

MY QUESTION IS - Is it really possible to take care of oneself. And, if it was so easy, why would 25% of world's population be suffering from Diabetes? Why is obesity all around? Why the gyms are empty and the bars full?

I think human beings are not designed to take care of themselves. They are designed to take care of others.

Lets take the example of a young mother, a girl who never took care of her own health, takes such excellent care of her child's health and hygine. So much so that she gives up her own sleep and comforts to take care of the child for the rest of her life. A mother at age 75 would still take care (or at leat want to take care), of her child the same way, when she was 25.

Second example - A man taking care of his family. He will sacrifice his own desires to fulfill the desires of his wife & children. I live in Gulf. This is a earning ground for millions of people, who leave their families behind and work in high temperature extremly unhealthy conditions, to make the lives of their families better.

Do they care about themselves? They live on basic facilities and highly compromised lifestyles, but make sure their sons and daughters eat in good restaurants and study in decent schools, back home.

So, the question once again is - Can one really care about himself or herself? And the answer is NO. Most of us cannot Take Care of ourself. We are designed to be taken care of by some one else. While we can take care of others.
maybe when we are young and full of energy, we think we take care of ourselves. The fact is ; Its not we, but nature that is taking care.

But once you cross the mid age of 40, you officially enter the old age. And that is when you need more than ever some one to take care of you, and you to take care of some one.

Robert Browning a poet in 1800s wrote in his finest work "Rabbi Ben Ezra" ;

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,