Good morning! Yesterday, we received a fictional letter from a man in North Dakota (we could tell it was fake because we don’t yet have a chapter in ND). I’m sharing the letter first but please either just skip it (the letter) or read Coming In June after (that is the big news from the subject line below!!)
You’re awesome, you’ve earned this.
Anyway, first the letter. It started like this:
Dear Rachel, Bryan, and David (he spelled Rachael’s name differently)-
My name is Mike and I live in North Dakota. I saw your nice article on CNN and wanted to reach out to you. I think that I am addicted to looking at screens (phone, computer, TV, etc.). Last Friday, I went as far as telling my family that I had finally made the decision. I was going to enter inpatient rehab for 14 days. I packed a large and a small suitcase (no iPad!) and headed out. I soon found out they don’t “rehab” that and I came back inside and back up to the bedroom to unpack. My wife, Sandra, came upstairs and said, “Hey Mike. Why don’t you start ‘unplugging’ by going to Walk with a Doc – Fargo (doesn’t exist) tomorrow? I meet Suzanne there every week and we have a great time. We have coffee, listen to the doctor, and really enjoy being on the trail. Before we know it, we’ve covered 6-8000 steps; David says being in nature has additional benefits to walking. They call it ecotherapy. Plus, the doctor’s really funny and nice – her name is Michelle.”
Sandy’s kind of cute, so I listened to her. Last Saturday, I called my fishing buddy. Ryan (we pretend fish on the Xbox One). That morning instead of sitting on the couch we headed out to WWAD Fargo – it was easy to find ( how is that??… because there ISN’T one!). We don’t usually do a whole lot of walking, so we were a little nervous. Everyone was surprisingly nice though – it felt like a little family of supporters. Unfortunately, the talk that morning was on “The Top 10 Health Apps for your Cellphone” – it definitely made me feel uncomfortable. Interestingly, the more I was outside, the less I felt I needed to look at my phone (nature is a potential treatment for ADHD). Ryan and I had a couple (shhhh!) cups of coffee (why are you shushing me, coffee is good for you) and headed out onto Dr. Michelle’s favorite trail – the Doppelganger. Sandy was right – we were talking about squirrels, rap videos, and peanut butter, and the next thing I knew – BAM – 6,734 steps! It wasn’t only that my WWAD pedometer read such a great number (at 9:15 am to boot!) but I knew I was adding 7 quality years onto my life (2,555 days). Dr. David, you talk about how walking eliminates heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s – I have family members with those things and I hate them! The diseases, not the family members! Whoa, that was close.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the DoppelGanger – I felt good all day. In addition, it was a nice fringe benefit to know I cut my risk for those diseases.
Well, this has been nice and I just wanted to tell you that we all love Walk with a Doc here in North Dakota (WE ARE NOT IN NORTH DAKOTA!!!) Please stop in for some Juneberry pie if you’re ever visiting one of your chapters up here.
Stay Stupid and Stay Classy – or whatever you say.
Mike
As you can see, we’re batting zero in the Dakotas, so if you have any connections??
We all wish you a meaningful and memorable Memorial Day. Thank you for reading.
david
