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THE VALUE OF HEALTH
As I sit watching the steady stream or humanity pass in and out or the doors in the doctor's orrice, I am constantly reminded of my fortune--good health.
Fortunes are generally based on wealth; mine is no exception. Though sometimes not exposed to public view, my wealth or energy is an unrailing resource.
Health is an asset which cannot be overstressed. To the individual it has three main aspects--mental, physical, and emotional benefits. How often one pities the inmate of a mental institution! Constantly tormented by weird halluc.inations, he presents a sad picture--now sitting forlornly with his t?rror-rilled eyes focussed on space, now jumping up in rright, now in a v~olent spasm of hysteria. His case is pitirul, but his ruture is even more so. His past, present, and future is wrapped up in the word "fear"--rear of death. Illness plays havoc with anyone's mental stability.
vlhat is more heart-breaking to any wire and mother than to see husband and rather carried away by an ambulance to spend the rest of his days in an iron lung, a victim or polio? Let her be the one to tell you that the physic.al benefits of health can never be replaced by money, entertainment, or rriends. Now she must put her children in another's care while she spends her own strength supplying their bread and upkeep. Let the man be the one to tell you that nothing can make up for long useless years imprisoned in a life-giving cell. For a man the reeling of uselessness is more deprP.ssing than a score or worries that beset one in the business world. Certainly th~r·~ is no substitute ror physical ritness.
Emotional stability is essential ror the successful completion or any task. Nervous break-downs are becoming more and more rrequent because people or to-day have not learned to live with their emotions. To-day1s worriers will be tomorrow's failures because they reruse to accept the truth of the adage, "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due." The people expect their doctors to be able to hand out a panacea to cure them, when the entire secret lies in the ability to know oneselr, and then to live peaceably with that self. Nany people who are mentally and physically "perfect" rall down completely in emotional health.
But there is another side or the picture. Five days a week scores of youth can be seen exercising vigorously during recess period at school. They present the picture or health--sound minds, sound bodies, and sound emotions.
They do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will look after i tselr. The amazing thing to an onlooker who lacks any or these benerits is that children take their health for granted. It is theirs to enjoy, protect, and use. It is essential therefore, that they be taught the true value or health so that they may wisely consider it their greatest fortune and thereby secure ror themselves a promising ruture.
By: V irginia Chenault XIIA First in Upper School Essay