In the realm of a cautionary tale: The virtues inherent in using our bodies to their full physical potential appropriate to age and opportunities and condition of health are self-evident in healthier outcomes. But people should be guided by good common sense, and not push themselves beyond their physical endurance. My husband had for years in his late 60s and early 70s taken to running through the forested ravine. I could never have done that, nor did I. Eventually he realized his knees and ankles were being affected, and he stopped.

Yet there are many who do just that only to discover there are consequences inimical to their well-being, and that realization usually arrives when they find themselves in severe health challenges. The warning symptoms may have been there, but habit and devotion to a certain kind of repetitive and dearly held activities keep people from realizing there is a time to reassess.

One of our acquaintances whom we've known for many years through leisure encounters on the trails in the forest in our community, is one such example. Formerly with an emergency response unit of the RCMP, this very physical, fit man with an overload of nervous energy has been plagued in the past five years with a multitude of ills. And they're serious health problems. He was an avid extreme sport aficionado, and challenged his body continually to perform episodic extremes when he would participate in organized runs, bicycle competitions, and often enough combinations of various competitive sports.

Years ago he began suffering from lassitude, dizziness, faint spells and general lack of well being. Diagnosed with congenital water on the brain, he underwent a series of operations resulting in a shunt implant that drained the water from his brain into his abdominal cavity. The tiny implanted pump had to be recalibrated time and again until it was adequately fine-tuned and each time meant invasive surgery. His problem was solved, however, with the help of the implant.

That problem, in any event. He resumed running and bicycling and events-participation to challenge his store of energy and endurance. One bicycling collision and fall resulted in surgery on his clavicle and a shoulder. Discomfort continued requiring a second, more successful surgery. Convinced he was fully recovered he travelled out of country to take part in other competitions and the last one saw him in excruciating back pain. He had emergency disc surgery but the pain never quite subsided, leaving him unable to perform anything moderately physical in nature.

Restless by nature, pursuing opportunities to exert himself physically, he has been forced into early retirement, and forced by the circumstances of his failing physical properties to become close to a recluse, living with constant pain. Another surgery is scheduled, with the hope that he will be enabled to recover some of his former satisfaction in life. He's just a young man comparatively, in his mid-50s, after all. His wife gives us regular updates on his condition. She remains physically active, taking their three high-energy sheep-herding-breed dogs out for their energy-consuming daily forest hikes. Her continual remonstrations with her husband came to nought.