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FEBRUARY ISSUE SEW IT SEAMS Pasre Three ^ Make Health Adjustments The difference between an op timist and a pessimist, it’s said, can be summed up in the way they look at a glass half filled with water. The pessimist says it’s half empty — the optimist says it’s half full. Those two viewpoints are es pecially evident when we talk of health. There are plenty of pessimists who see the glass of life as half empty, and draining fast. They discuss their real or imagined ills in endless detail, or they worry in secret and in spect themselves for “sjTuptoms” each time disease is brought to their atention. OPTIMISTIC VIEW Fortunately, most people take the optimistic view. They think of health in terms of what they have, not what they’ve lost. They are concerned not so much with this ill or that, but with the sum total of their physical, mental and emotional well being. Health is a tool which they use in living, and they are too busy using it to worry much about whether it has been dulled a little on one edge. The optimists are right, of course; it’s the use that counts. History is full of magnificent ex amples. The poet Milton wrote of the world’s beauty, though he was blind. Beethoven composed great symphonies, and Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, though both were deaf. And Helen Keller, born blind, deaf, and dumb, broke through the walls of silence and darkness to become one of the most famous women of our time. Many similiar examples can be found among those active today. Vic Wertz, stricken by polio as a boy, is now a star first baseman for the Cleveland Indians. Sam my Davis, Jr., lost an eye recent ly, as did Paul Muni, but both mastered the handicap to con tinue brilliant careers in the en tertainment world. Harold Rus sell, who lost both hands in World War II, went on to star in “The Best Years of Our Lives”, and Charles Potter became a United States senator from Mich, after losing both legs. This kind of intelligent use of health resources is by no means limited to people with excep tional talents. We all know peo ple who have accepted a physical limitation and have gone on to live satisfying and rewarding lives. As a matter of fact, all of us do the same thing — to a de gree. We may not have a major handicap, but we do deal with |> the same problem on a more manageable scale. As we grow older, and as illness or accident takes its toll, we learn to live and work and function with health resources which may not be all they once were. TOUGH AND ADAPTABLE Fortunately, we are made of tough and adaptable stuff. By ad justing to our physical liabilities, and by good management of our health assets, we can lead active, useful, and happy lives. Whether you have an apparent problem or not, you should “take inventory” of your health assets through a regular check-up with physician and dentist. That will take care of a lot of little things before they get big. Health management consists also of taking simple, common- sense pireoautions. Overweight, for instance, is one of the most common health problems in America today. It places a heavy strain on the circulatory system, causes a sharp reduction in gen eral vigor, and sometimes en dangers lie itself. It can be over come in most cases by the exer cise described as “putting both hands on the edge of the table and pushing yourself firmly back.” For others, health precautions might consist of getting more sleep, if vitality seems to ebb during the day. It might consist of starting a few minutes earlier every morning, to take the hurry and worry out of getting to work. Or it might be a matter of eat- slowly, in a relaxed and quiet at mosphere, if too much tension is beginning to upset the digestive system. COMMON SENSE Adjusting to changing circum stances in health is also a matter of common sense. Thanks to med ical science, which keeps adding to life span, most of us can ex pect to face the problem of mak ing adjustments in our way of life sooner or later. Both our needs and our inter ests change with age. The man who worked hard for success may decide with advancing years that it’s time to relax and enjoy it. The man who took part in ac tive, competitive sports may find that fishing has become more suited to his taste, and the couple who used to do the Mambo may find a new interest in reading together. They may find, in fact, that adjustment has led them to a richer, more satisfying life than they led before. Scissors! Perhaps several exclamation points after this word would de scribe more accurately the way the Safety Committee felt about scissors after they saw January’s accident report. When the final accident reports were in a total of 14 cut hands were reported, one of which re sulted in a lost time accident. After studying this report Joyce Chapman and Kathryn Johnson made a study of scissors handling and came up with the following suggestions for oper ators to keep in mind: When cutting material with scissors always keep the hand which is holding the material well away from the scissors. When ripping out threads with scissors, always rip away from you. Never place scissors in your lap. (If scissors were lying in your lap and you suddenly stood up, the possibility of a serious accident if the scissors fell on your foot is obvious.) Always place scissors on the machine where they cannot be viabrated off by the motion of the machine. WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? Democracy, the line that forms to the right. It is the “don’t” in “don’t shove!” It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles — it is the dent in the high hat. De mocracy is the recurrent suspi cion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the polling booths, the feeling of communion in the li braries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is the letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It’s an idea that hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words to which have not gone bad. It is the mustard on the hot-dog and the cream in the coffee. To one in whom love dwells, all the world are brothers. —Buddist text USE SCISSORS? BE CAREFUL! _ Mildred Owens of Utility Department at Hudson, poses prettily above with a pair of scissors which in a twinkling can turn from a useful tool into a harmful injury-inflicter. In just a slip of the hand a pair of sharp scissors can snip through the cloth to an unsuspecting hand. Last month cut fingers led the list of accidents at Anvil Brand and Ossie Wright, safety director, urges all operators to take special precau tion with scissors. Mildred has been with Anvil Brand about three years. Use Scissors Correctly
Sew It Seams (High Point, N.C.)
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Feb. 1, 1956, edition 1
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