Hey Coach - Thank You by Dr Ronald Sinagra

There are certain people or times in your life that leave an indelible mark. The experience is powerful, and so positive that it stays with you throughout your life. The irony is that when you’re going through it you do not realize its impact. You may at times even hate that person. It may not be until years later that you look back and see the magnitude of this individual’s effect on your life. I was fortunate to have a coach that taught me the fundamentals of honor, discipline, self-respect and success. I thought it was time to say thank you.

It is remarkable how fate can change your life with such subtlety. It can be as simple as a walk through one door and not the other, or a chance meeting on line in a store. Whatever the circumstances, major events can have minor beginnings. My experience began when my football coach wanted me to stay in shape during the winter. He requested me to join the wrestling team. Coach was the dean of discipline. I feel certain his disciplinary approach had some influence on the “request” for me to join the team. Wrestling was not on top of my list of things to do. I was a sophomore and the idea of rolling around on a mat in tights was not appealing. As per my football coach’s “request,” I joined.

I attended A.G. Berner High School in Massapequa. I was on the Junior Varsity team when I met “Coach.” From the moment we met, he would constantly beleaguer me. He drove all of us hard and many a time I considered quitting team. Sensing this, he would pull me aside and tell me, “The door is for quitters, I didn’t think you ‘were a quitter.” Then he would grin and you knew he cared. No one ever left.

Wrestling is a unique sport. Classified as a team sport, it is also the ultimate individual sport. Success comes from within. Coach would always tell us to persevere and work as hard as we could. Preparation and conditioning were the keys to success. I vividly remember that sometimes Coach would be annoyed when you lost. Then other times he would give you a hug or a pat on the back. I didn’t understand! Then I realized he would only blast you when you quit, were not in shape, or were afraid; basically, when you let yourself down. Coach was teaching us not to fear life and give it our best shot. Self-respect and self-discipline were taught and learned. “Respect everyone and fear no one,” was a favorite mantra. Coach had a way of giving you confidence to do your best, to go for it and to dig down deep within yourself to show that you are capable of levels of success that you never thought possible. Coach also taught us to lose with dignity and honor. We were not allowed to blame others. He would say, “Go home and look in the mirror. Did you prepare yourself, practice hard, and give it your all without quitting? How can you lose when you’re already a winner?” He was turning boys into men and more importantly, he never quit on us!

So here is the irony. Did I win a State Championship or a County Title? No. I was actually not a very good wrestler and I never listened to Coach back, then. I didn’t listen until years later, when I faced the challenges of the academic and real world. It was when I feared failing Chiropractic school that I remembered all the lessons Coach had preached. Chiropractic was my dream and those lessons of self-discipline and never quitting, made it a reality. To this day, when I apply the lessons I learned from Coach to my life, I never fail. It was an honor and privilege to wrestle for Coach Jim. I owe him a debt of gratitude I can never repay. I want Jim to know he made a huge difference in my life and the lives of many others! Hey Coach - Thank you!


The Envy of Angels by Dr Ronald Sinagra

Have you ever noticed how many places the word “God” is used in our culture? It is printed on our currency,“ In God We Trust.” Our criminal justice system requires a swearing in with our hand on a Bible and we are told to tell the truth “so help you God.”A chorus of “God Bless America” starts the seventh inning stretch in baseball. When you sneeze, “God bless you” is a common response. The use of “God” pervades our culture and vocabulary on purpose because our forefathers did not want us to forget what is vital. So why have we lost the understanding of our true nature and spiritual existence? Is it political correctness? I am not sure. What I am sure of is that when we lose our connection to “God” we mislay our true spiritual self. A man alone is a small thing, but a man who is conscious and connected to his “God” and spiritual side is a great thing. Our physical existence is so fleeting, beautiful and fragile that one might call it the “Envy of Angels.”

Do you believe in heaven or angels? I certainly do. If you do, then you understand heaven is a place we go to when we leave the physical body. Almost everyone who came before us is there. So this body is not who we really are. It is the temporary home of our soul and spirit. Life is just a temporary departure from our true home, our true existence. We are spiritual beings on a physical journey, not the other way around. If we can remember this each day so much stress and unhappiness we create for ourselves will disappear. We can then embrace our journey with grace and enjoy its twists and turns such as: hard work, personal struggles, raising children and growing older. If we remember our spiritual side we can savor each part of our lives. How sad it must be to view only the physical body and its 70 to 80 years of possible life span and label it as whom we really are. All too often we see the retired athlete or Hollywood starlet who no longer can compete with younger stars crumble into despair. They believe all that is good is gone and never see the big picture. When we detach our true selves from this body, we can see the glory of this short life and embrace each phase. So why would angels envy us? It is because of our humanity! We are perfect in our imperfection. Being human is beautiful and the spiritual world can only look back and remember what it was like. To angels, our whole life is just like the “good old days.” The things that we take for granted are what angels miss. Our society overrates the material at the expense of the spiritual and we all get caught up in it. Do you think any angel or soul in heaven would look back at life and miss: a car, a house or material possessions? No way! They would miss the touch of a child’s hand, the feel of sand between their toes, a spring breeze, a chill in the air, their first kiss, falling in love, the smell of a holiday meal and the comfort of home. And yes, pain. Pain is also a part of this experience. It lets us know we are alive both physically and emotionally. Anyone who lives their life avoiding pain never really grows or can fully experience life. Angels probably yearn for the things we fail to appreciate. Just a chance to be alive! When we look at life as a spiritual being having a physical experience, it is incredibly liberating. Viewing our bodies as a “loner” and not designating them as who we are allows us not to stress about growing older and all the other self-perceived physical attributes which we dislike. Unlike our physical bodies, we are perfect. This imperfect, flawed, aging body is just a temporary home used for our journey! It’s also important to remember that you can’t age thought! Your thoughts do not age, unless you let them. Do not let an old person into your head.

Live every day to the fullest as time is a fleeting thing. Embrace all stages of this life. See it, feel it, taste it, touch it, just love it. Somewhere, there’s an angel who wishes they were in your shoes.

Valley of the Blind by Dr. Ronald Sinagra

Author H. G. Wells wrote a story called “Valley of the Blind”. It is about a traveler who is lost in the mountains and is facing certain death. This formerly wiry man is on the edge of exhaustion when he discovers a hidden valley. Upon entering this valley, he finds a thriving community but as he looks closely, he realizes all the people are blind. Not only are they blind, they don’t even have eyes. These people welcome him and save his life. As he talks to them, he realizes not only do they not have eyes, they never did. The concept of vision is beyond their comprehension. In time, he meets and falls in love with a daughter of one of the community leaders. He asks for and is granted her hand in marriage. All goes well until the community leaders hear of his talk of vision, which is creating chaos among the people. Eventually the leaders no longer tolerate the newcomer’s talk of blue skies, green pastures and the like as it goes against all their teaching. The traveler is told he cannot marry and will be put to death for heresy. He is given a choice though. If he has his eyes removed and promises to cease speaking of vision, he will be spared. In the middle of the night, the traveler sneaks away leaving behind his love and faces death alone in the mountains. He would rather face death than give up his vision and be forced to live a lie in the valley of the blind.

I have shared this story because it is the perfect metaphor for many issues facing Americans at the present time. It appears that many of us have the eyesight of an eagle and the vision of a clam. We are currently in a nationwide debate on health care reform. Don’t be fooled. This is not a debate on reform but a debate on who pays for a failing system. We have not examined its approach, methods, or most importantly, its results. The World Health Organization ranks the United States 37th in the world regarding health. We are just ahead of Slovenia and behind Costa Rica and Columbia. The United States spends 45% more on health care costs than every other country in the world. Our debate on health care is not asking the most vital question; “Can our current system work?” I believe it cannot work and we as a nation are not willing to look at the truth. I want to share some startling facts about our health care system. The United States represents only 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 45% of the world’s prescription drugs. The American Medical Association reported that “conventional medical treatment” is the third leading cause of death for Americans. From 1993-2003, over 7.8 million people died as a result of conventional medical treatment and medical mistakes. These numbers are staggering. This is more dead Americans than every war the United States has ever fought COMBINED! Recently, I viewed a talk show and the host asked a medical doctor why we ranked so low in the world regarding health. He replied it was due to the 40 million Americans without health insurance. I was dumbfounded. To fix our crisis you give 40 million uninsured individuals access to the third leading cause of death in this country? True reform would include a stark look at all aspects of health care, not just access and payment by principle and practice.

Why is this happening? How can we have the best medical doctors, hospitals, and technology, spend the moist money, and still fail? There is a simple answer to this. Our system is not designed for health. If asked to define health, most people give the wrong answer. People just don’t know. “Taber’s Medical Dictionary says: Health is a state in which all body function is normally active, not merely the absence of disease, infirmities, and symptoms.” What is the primary role of our hospitals and medical doctors? It is to treat disease and infirmities. In the definition, Taber states that health consists of more than what we obtain in our health care system. Are you starting to see the problem? There is health care and crisis care. Most of our system falls under crisis care and our country has the best crisis care in the world. I wouldn’t want to live without it. The problem arises when you use crisis care for health care. When this is done our system fails miserably. We need a system that educates people about health and one that promotes the maintenance of health and restoration of health in the sick. If we continue with our current “wait until it breaks” approach, combined with the over use of prescription drugs and surgery, we will continue to fail.

Our health care system has become a pawn of big drug company ideals and money. I believe we are not taught the meaning of health for a reason. If you understand the ideology of health, you will never accept drug therapy as health care. We are indoctrinated from childhood that over-the-counter and prescription drugs constitute health care. We are bombarded by all forms of media that the answer is drugs. Drug companies have a calculated plan to push this type of thinking. They now even bypass the M.D. by using television commercials to push their products. Patients now enter their doctor’s office and ask for a certain type of drug based on a commercial. After hearing the side effects in these television advertisements, are you surprised health is not the result? The conditioning of our society by this propaganda is astonishing. I have seen drug commercials for products that include possible side effects such as lymphoma, seizures, stroke, and death. Yes… death! P.T. Barnum would be proud. The M.D. is also the target of this plan. On September 9th, 2009, Newsday reported that Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion dollars for a marketing scheme. Federal agents called them a repeat corporate cheat for pushing their drugs with offers of golf trips, vacations and more. They even promoted drugs for conditions they are not approved for. As stated earlier, this is a calculated plan for you to believe that health care is drug therapy. The days of patients over profit are gone. This is big business working for huge profits, not for you.

America has become a dispensary for prescription drugs and what is lost along the way is health. Not only do we not look to restore health; we have lost faith in it. We empower disease and discredit health as our ultimate combatant for illness. We have reduced the healing power of a healthy body to an afterthought. We have learned to accept illness and put our faith in a laboratory with its drugs and its false promises of health. J.H. Tilden, M.D. said: “The study of disease per se leads to chaos. Only knowledge of health, the study of health can give true knowledge of disease, for disease is handicapped health”. Disease is a by-product of poor health and we have been falsely taught the opposite. This falsehood has people living in fear and focusing on illness and germ paranoia instead of working to be healthy. It can be seen quite clearly with the Swine Flu “pandemic”. The media and those promoting vaccine sales are creating a panic. There is no talk of staying healthy to prevent illness. Instead, we run like scared rats to get a shot. We have become powerless victims! Dr. Dennis T. Jaffe, in his book, “Healing From Within” offers a different viewpoint. “The patients must be guided towards discovering the healing powers that lie within him. Faith and pills and external treatments can be replaced by faith in oneself.”

It is my opinion that our system of health care is failing because it is ignoring the most powerful force on this planet… life! NASA searches the cosmos for life, yet with health care, we refuse to acknowledge this life force that animates all living creatures. The healing spark is real and tangible. Bernie Siegal, M.D., author of “Love, Medicine, and Miracles” says: “Within each of us there is a spark, call it a divine spark if you will. But it’s there and it can light the way to health.” Instead of embracing this God given miracle of life we choose to empower illness, disease, drugs and fear. Dr. Richard Cabot of Harvard University added this: “God and the wisdom of the human body constitutes ninety percent of the hope of patients to recover. The body simply has a super-wisdom, which is biased in favor of life rather than death. These are the powers on which all of us depend for life. I earnestly recommend the medical profession let the patient know of this great force within him.” We as a nation have done just the opposite. We have minimized our inner healer, making us feel like powerless victims. Enough! You have a choice. You can have faith in yourself and live a fearless life or you can scurry back to the valley of the blind. Have the courage to open your eyes. The choice is yours.

The Boy With No Feet

One of my fondest memories as a boy was my grandfather. He was an Italian immigrant who truly came from nothing to live the American dream. He amassed wealth, friends, family and a knack for storytelling. His stories were meant to teach his children and grandchildren life’s lessons. One story was “The boy with no feet.” He told me that one winter he was so poor that he had to walk with no shoes. He was cold and feeling depressed about his condition. “Why me? Why must life be so hard for me? I don’t even have shoes!” he cried out. Then he came across a boy sitting in the alley, he had no FEET! It took me many years to truly appreciate what my grandfather was trying to teach me. “I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, until I saw the boy with no feet.” As with many of life’s lessons we tend to forget, this year I remembered.

The holidays are a beautiful time of the year. For some people they can be difficult. This year was a tough one for me. I was going through one of those periods when I was looking at my life half empty not half full. Maybe it’s Walt Disney’s fault but where is the white picket fence, and happily ever after? When I was young I always thought it would be simple. You graduate high school, then college, you call in love, get married, two kids, picket fence you know, happy! What happened? Through the glow of Christmas lights I keep thinking how different life really is as compared to what I believe it would be. I though the toughest task was to establish a career. I was wrong. It is relationships and/or marriage. They never taught us that in school. I do know one thing for certain. 60% of my friends have not failed at their career. So there I was over the holidays feeling depressed over things that might have been. Thinking how lonely and hard life can be. I was about to get a rude awakening.

I am a firm believer in God. I also believe that God may not have a written plan for everyone but he bathes us in opportunity. It is our job to see his wisdom in earthly events. A relative was very sick in December so I went to see her in the hospital. I found out what wing she was in and followed those silly lines on the floor. Thinking I was about to enter her wing, I walked into the pediatric oncology ward. I honestly believe this was one of God’s interventions. As I walked through the door I saw little girls with I.V.s in their arms and no hair on their heads. I was overcome with sadness. There were small boys with dark circles under their eyes wearing little baseball hats. My heart hit the floor. The ironic thing was the children were still acting like children. For the most part they just wanted to be kids. They did not totally understand, but their parents sure did. I did not think anything could move me more than seeing these kids until I saw the pain in their parents’ eyes. It was something so deep, so hurtful it defies description. I kept thinking how devastating it must be to be a parent and be powerless to help your baby. That must be the toughest pain this world can create. As I left the hospital I realized this as my “boy with no feet.”

The events of that day were a true wake up call. There are times when we all fall into a self pity mental state. Of all the blessings in our life we look to what is missing from our wish list. We rarely give thanks or feel good about how lucky we really are. I relived my experience in the hospital thousands of times in my head. I kept coming up with the same conclusion: I DON’T HAVE REAL PROBLEMS, I HAVE INCONVENIENCES. I believe that is true for most of us. When we examine how the rest of the world lives, we Americans need to give thanks and realize how blessed we are.

We all have disappointments and most of us probably feel something is missing at some level or wish things had turned out different in life. The lesson here is not to allow what we think is missing to overshadow all the good in our lives. As you think back to “the boy with no feet” ask yourself are you healthy? Is your family healthy? Do you have friends? If you answered yes, then you are truly a rich “man.” Finally, try to remember, if we are not happy with what we have why would God give us more? Life is good, let us not forget!