The Effective Pulpit

There's just something about people who find fault in general society, and do their utmost to steer people in the right direction, overlooking themselves. Like doctors, who have been assigned the task through their choice of profession, of diagnosing and healing. They're busy people, tend to eat too much like everyone else, and have little time to spend on exercising themselves. Their general health is seldom any better than that of those whom they see in their practise.

And just think back to when people who were gravely ill or those requiring intervention surgeries being admitted to hospitals where smoking was common and accepted. When non-smokers, irritated and annoyed by all the smokers around them; their doctors, other patients, even those whom they shared temporary room with in the hospital setting, had to submit to the inevitable; cigarettes everywhere, with no escape.

Hospitals where people requiring special medical intervention like surgery are received - and where, because of inadequate attention to common-sense hygienic practises, germs and viruses are rampant - where better a place to pick up an infection than a hospital? In that same hospital, the food that is served can also be injurious to one's health. All the nasty, poor-nutrition choices available anywhere, are there in blooming technicolour on one's hospital food tray.

It's not very polite to be personal in this way, but when an obviously morbidly-overweight individual identified as the 'executive director, Physical and Health Education Canada', has her photograph in the newspaper, along with an admonitory letter to the public speaking on "Ontario children's poor eating habits spur sharp warning"; a response to an article previously published, one does a double-take.

The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario had commissioned a study of the health of children and youth in Canada, and published their findings. Statistics that indicated today's youth may be in poorer overall health than their parents when they become adults; more prone to exercise-deficit and weight-abundance leading to higher incidences of heart and stroke problems; adult-onset diabetes and other debilitating, life-shortening illnesses.

Those who speak with authority on the subject of health, nutrition, mobility and exercise, should also look the part. We lead by example, not by word-of-mouth. Those who take it upon themselves to represent societal needs should be prepared to preach from the pulpit of personal conviction. Which should be reflected in their personal approach to those very same topics, reflected in the most obvious way; their image.