Live, Love, Laugh and be Healthy

“Wake up, wake up you sleepy head
Get up, get up, get out of bed
Cheer up, cheer up the sun is red
Live, love, laugh and be healthy”
          -paraphrasing Harry Woods, The Red, Red Robin, 1926

Find a better instruction manual. I dare you. The original words to the song of course encourage, “live, love, laugh and be happy.” But the root meaning of the word health is “whole.” In 1946, the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” which sounds pretty much like the origin of the word from the beginnings of language. Thomas Jefferson’s contention that, “without health there is no happiness,” further supports replacing the redundant “be happy” with “be healthy.” Wake up, wake up you sleepy head. Live love, laugh and be healthy. Find a better instruction manual. I dare you. For additional information about this year's theme click here.