Weekend special

Filling in for the Saturday reporter allows me to post a bonus entry in the Heart Month Blog.

I'm feeling pretty good about the American Heart Month Project after getting my last three Sunday stories in on Friday afternoon. This week's package focuses on the American Heart Association and its work to improve the cardiovascular health of all people.

When I first heard the organization's lofty goal of reducing cardiovascular disease and stroke 20 percent by 2020, I admit I was skeptical. But the more I thought about it, the more I looked into the subject and the more I wrote about it, I came to understand the motivation:

All the tools are available now. It is a matter of empowering people to use the tools to improve their own health and achieve a better quality of life. It is also important that people have access to the tools and understand how to take control of their own health.

It is in line with why The Tribune-Democrat launched the American Heart Month Project last year and why we've  been doing the October Breast Cancer Awareness Project since 2008: In knowledge there is power.

Although I have to say that makes me think of the sign I just saw in a Somerset County restaurant: Knowledge is knowing a tomato is fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in fruit salad.

We can only hope that with the knowledge we share, comes the wisdom to use it.

Personally, I was invigorated by my morning trip to the Flight 93 Advisory Commission meeting in Somerset. Not only did it give me a preview of what is coming to the Flight 93 National Memorial over the next couple years, but it gave me a chance to do my daily walking in a different neighborhood. I always enjoy a fresh scene and I have come to like seeing various types of home designs and checking out how people make their properties unique.

In my rush to get out the door for the Somerset confab, however, I didn't remember to step on the scales at home. So I don't know how our night on the town treated me. I don't think I over ate, and when I took my Life's Simple 7 checkup from the American Heart Association, http://mylifecheck.heart.org, it told me I should eat more fish. And the salmon was delicious.

NOTE
I actually wrote this and posted it to The Tribune-Democrat website on Saturday, but didn't get it on here until Monday! (my bad)