When the Chickens Come Home to Roost | Healthy Aging Series: S11 E20
I’ve run two marathons in my life. The second marathon I ran, I called, “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost Marathon.”
Actually, the name everyone else chose to call it was, The Air Force Marathon.
First, why did I run it?
Well, the answer is, I wanted to impress the man who I would later call Papa Hoss, or my father-in-law. I wanted to show him I too was a bad ass. That’s right, he was and still is, a bad ass. As a sidenote, despite having ALS, he still gets in more steps than I do each day. And he does it all in his home.
I’m not sure if he asked me or I asked him, but we decided to train and run it together.
Have I mentioned he was and is a bad ass?
What I mean is, prior to running the “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost Marathon,” he had run several marathons, several Ultramarathons, and if there is such a thing, Mega-marathons, and he placed or won his age category in most of them.
He was a machine, perfect stride, and perfect cadence.
He would run a marathon and then come home and mow an acre of grass with a push mower.
He ran three marathons, one ultra, after we ran the Air Force Marathon.
Hoss’ Bad Ass Training Schedule
You always have a long run each week during the 4-5 months of training. Hoss’ training philosophy was run 8 to 10 long runs over 20 miles and two runs over 26.2 miles. He believed it was important to pass that psychological barrier of 26.2 miles if you want to have a PR (Personal Record).
That’s a lot of mileage on top of the three or four other runs during the week.
Needless to say, the chickens came home for me.
About two weeks prior to the race, I started experiencing pain on the soles of my feet and on my heels. You’ve probably guessed it; I developed Planter Fasciitis.
I discovered that it wasn’t something that I had done wrong that caused it. It was more likely something that I neglected to do.
You’ve heard of Sins of Omission and Sins of Commission. Maybe this is more like Habits of Omission or Habits of Commission. In this case, it was a Habit of Omission or failing to stretch my Calf Muscles and Achilles Tendons.
I’m not sure who I inherited my Calf Muscles from, but they are muscular. Your Calf Muscles are attached to your Achilles Tendon, which is attached to the fascia that surrounds the muscles on your soles and heels, and the facia tears and becomes inflamed, and it hurts.
I ran the full marathon with Plantar Fasciitis. The chickens in this case were plantar fasciitis because I neglected to stretch.
Wisdom From Folk Tales
I’ve been sharing Folk Tales during this season, and I’ve chosen one that is an example of Habits of Omission.
I’ve chosen, The Willful Child. It’s short but poignant.
Once upon a time there was a child who was willful and did not do what his mother wanted. For this reason, God was displeased with him and caused him to become ill, and no doctor could help him, and in a short time he lay on his deathbed.
He was lowered into a grave and covered with earth, but his little arm suddenly came forth and reached up, and it didn’t help when they put it back in and put fresh earth over it, for the little arm always came out again. So the mother herself had to go to the grave and beat the little arm with a switch, and as soon as she had done that, it withdrew, and the child finally came to rest beneath the earth.
Of course it’s sad and odd at the same time. God willed a willful child to die.
Of course, someone would say that the chickens coming home to roost was the child’s untimely death because of her willfulness.
I’m not here to provide criticism about the theology of this Folk Tale.
I’ve actually known people who had somewhat similar views of God’s interventions in the lives of humans that echoed the view shared by this folktale.
I once knew a man named Fletcher Walker, who would warn his grown children that if they used their children as an excuse for not going to church, God might just take the things (their children), that they use as an excuse, from them. Eeek!!!!
So it’s not a complete misinterpretation of this Fairy Tale to believe that this child died as a result of God’s intervention due to the child’s willfulness.
Remember, it’s a Folk Tale, not a theological treatise.
The child is buried, but her arm won’t stay buried. They try over and over to keep it buried but the willful child refuses to stay buried. Willful to the end, or even past the end.
So even in death, the chickens had come home to roost.
But then, the mother took a rod and struck the arm, and it with withdrew and stayed buried.
I get the sense that this might’ve been something that the mother had neglected for most of the child’s life.
The chickens had come home to roost because of the mothers Habits of omission, her failure to discipline her daughter.
In this case, “Better Late than Never,” was sadly bitter.
Parenting without Fear of Chickens Joining you for Dinner
Okay, I’m guessing that this Fairy Tale was told around a warm hearth, to a small group of young adults preparing for parenthood, to encourage them to discipline their children before it’s too late.
I teach parents that every child needs to learn two things:
First, they don’t always get everything they want.
Second, sometimes you’ve gotta do some things that you don’t want to do.
If you neglect those two things, most likely, the chickens are headed your way.
The Chickens for Everyone Else
But the application of this folk tale is for everyone, everywhere, all at once. What about other areas of your life?
Well, you can’t neglect your body.
I’m writing next season, season 12, in my spare time from the 2025 Harvard Medical Review Annual. There must be 200 articles for taking care of your body.
Most of the articles mention exercise and nutrition. There are articles about oral hygiene, sleep hygiene, and weight management.
If you want to take care of your body, there are things that you have to do, and things that you have to avoid.
Keep in mind, the chickens are going to come to roost if you don’t.
You have to take care of your finances.
First, get out of debt.
Second, save money.
If you don’t do this, the chickens are coming.
You have to take care of your relationships and your marriage.
Marriages die on the vine all the time due to neglect.
You have to talk together, play together, hold hands, go out on dates, never flirt with anyone but your partner, watch TV series together, never forget to tell them often that you love them, go on vacations together, and send Dudu and Bubu GIFs to each other, just to name a few, to keep your marriage alive. If you don’t take care of your relationships, watch out for the chickens.
You have to take care of your brain.
You have to read, write, study new things, memorize favorite poems, or scripture verses, learn to play the piano or guitar, play sudoku, or chess, and anything else that will exercise your brain. At seventy-four, Hoss and my Mother-in-Law are learning French!!
Of course, as a therapist, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention take care of your mental health.
Have you heard of Geriatric Depression?
I’m not going to say that Geriatric Depression is the chickens coming home to roost in your life, but I will emphatically say that if you neglect your mental health, you put yourself at risk for this mental health disorder.
Who wants to spend their marginal decade, which is the last decade of your life, with anhedonia, which is the inability to feel pleasure, or cynicism, which is a mild symptom of depression, or a lack of friends because you’re a Don or Debbie Downer, and on top of all this feeling hopeless.
I don’t want to experience that when I get older.
My father suffered from Geriatric Depression. His father died from Geriatric Depression. He lost his appetite, quit caring for himself, quit eating and died.
If you don’t take care of your mental health, the chickens are coming.
So, read my blog. There’s lots and lots of advice about taking care of your mental health.
Honestly, this episode is really about personal shortsightedness.
You have to look a little down the road in your life and prepare.
What is your life going to look like in a decade if you neglect it and failed to take care of it.
I never ran another marathon.
I am satisfied and enjoy my visits with Papa Hoss, but neither one of us is running anymore.
But, I have hiked, backpacked, cycled, wall climbed, weight lifted, managed my weight, flossed, washed my eyelids due to Demadex Blepharitis, eaten fiber Gummies as my doctor prescribed, managed my stress, read, written episodes for my blog, gone on dates with my wife, and all the other things in order to keep the chickens from coming home.
It’s never too late to build a protective fence around yourself, and it’s never too late to manage, when, where, and how many of the chickens come home to roost.
