A community WOF check
If our community was to have a warrant of fitness health check, what would the report look like?
I soon realised it wasn’t as easy as a simple ‘well man check’. Nevertheless, I thought it worth a try.
Presentation: The Mid North community presents with a slightly odd appearance, smart in places and dishevelled in others and not used to wearing shoes. 5/10.
Skin: Sun-damaged from hard work and good times, the odd scar but overall functioning. 6/10.
Vision: Impaired, bilateral cataracts thus negating the possibility of forming any aspirational vision of how the future of Northland could look. 1/10.
Hearing: Lots of ear wax. He probably can hear if he wants to, but needs to make an effort to remove the debris. I get the feeling he doesn’t actually want to listen so quite happy to leave the wax for now. Thus prone to making incorrect assumptions on what he thought was said. 2/10.
Bowels: A diet lacking in fibre. Is now at significant risk of serious constipation. Engineers now working to construct an ‘enema’ plant to cope with predicted exponential increase in output . . . 3/10.
Bladder: Incontinence becoming an issue. Prone to sudden flooding. Farmers equally concerned about urinary retention and lack of a good flow. 4/10.
Mobility: Good but only due to grit (hint) and determination. Gets around despite significant pain. Reluctant to take painkillers. Peripheral small joints failing and spine could do with a specialist surgical opinion urgently. 5/10.
Heart: Strong as an ox. 8/10.
Emotional wellbeing: Mixed. (Ministerial review to follow — another hint). Result: Fail 4/10. Satirical musings aside, we could and should take better care of ourselves. Reflecting on how we can move forward, I caught up with Lester Hall, a local artist of national repute.
Having used his creativity to paint one of the mopeds Mike King is using to traverse the length of New Zealand, Lester is now driving the support truck and has been privy to Mike talking about our emotional well-being or ‘mental wealth’ as he prefers to call it.
Lester has been impressed by Mike’s thoughts on how to mitigate the mental health crisis we are facing. I learned from Lester that Mike, quite rightly is not looking primarily to the mental health services, which are swamped with the workload.
Instead he wants us, your community, to create fewer mental health issues in the first place. Creating mental wealth, through a combination of positive self reflection, ‘don’t be your own worst bully’ and peer support to show we are all able to listen and be there for each other, is the aspirational vision.
He has my full support. The ‘Mike King I am hope tour’ will roll into Kaikohe on Thursday, March 29 before finishing up at Cape Reinga the next day. If you get the chance to listen to what he and his team have to say, I am sure you will be inspired.
You still need to eat a lot more fibre though.
" Creating mental wealth, through a combination of positive self reflection, ‘don’t be your own worst bully’ and peer support to show we are all able to listen and be there for each other, is [Mike King’s] aspirational vision."