New year

What does it mean to reach the end of one calendar year and the beginning of the next?  Is it, like, no big deal to you, or something special?  What are your New Year's traditions? Is it the time you like to kick back and watch Bowl games?  A great excuse to party?  Do you look back, get all reflective and philosophical?  Do you enjoy those year-in-review specials, those “best of” lists?  Or maybe you’re more interested in predictions, prophesies, astrological forecasts for the year to come?  Do you make your annual New Year’s resolutions?  I make almost identical ones each year; over and over, the same items appear.  (A sure sign of insanity?)

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. - Mark Twain

I found one site listing the top 10 New Year’s resolutions most people make, and I realize my list is everyone’s list, pretty much.  Should I feel good about this?  Is there strength in numbers?  Or is it more of a misery loves company sorta thing?  Or worse, kind of a sisyphean exercise in futility (and is that redundant?).  How can we ever break our bad habits and make our resolutions stick?  Behavior modification gets into some pretty interesting stuff, but I'll leave that for another day.

Matters of the heart

We tend to think of ourselves as invincible in my family. "Good genes." Almost a mantra. We've been saying that for years. Relying on it pretty heavily, really. Still, there are a few things we could all be doing better to make the best use of those good genes...

A great gift to yourself and those you care about would be this: Learn CPR. Even if you think you know it, it's changed. The emphasis is on compressions now. The old ABC acronym for airway-breathing-compressions has changed to CAB, because proper compressions administered right way, help keep the oxygen that's already in your blood circulating (especially to your brain) while emergency response is on its way.  In full CPR, breathing still comes into play, but the order of steps has changed.

Check out Hands-Only CPR. It's a great place to start, and it features a free app for your iPhone or Android. You might also enjoy the videos on the side -- the hand symphony and the handwalker. Both pretty fun.

If you take a CPR class, you will likely also receive training on how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator). You may not have noticed them before, but there are AEDs hanging on the walls of many public places. AEDs come with easy step-by-step instructions and won't administer a shock unless one is needed. Here's a good video for more information on AEDs.

Lastly -- today -- learn the warning signs of a heart attack, stroke & cardiac arrest.  It will only take a couple of minutes to read the information.  Hopefully, you'll never be in that situation, but if you are, you'll have a lot more confidence to take action.  Recognizing warning signs and acting quickly can save a life.  It can also limit the damage and recovery time of these injuries.  Remember: time is the critical factor.

This post is dedicated to my brother and his stentorian awakening...