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Healthy Aging By Sharon Johnson Thanks for a 'summer seminar' This is not my real job. I am an educator, not a word merchant. I write weekly columns on healthy aging for community consideration - and for my own satisfaction. I feel blessed by the opportunity. I think of these columns as a contribution to health promotion and disease prevention. I craft them on Sunday nights at the computer in my plant-filled home office. I do not expect them to change readers' behavior - but one never knows. Many months ago, I wrote a column about the engaging pastor of my church, Robert Larson. I am told the column actually caused a few people to reassess their religious involvement. I know it caused Paul Sollie to attend a Sunday service at Ascension Lutheran Church. I saw him in the parking lot afterward and he told me why he was there. It was summertime and there was a guest pastor, and I am not sure whether he ever returned, but he was there. Paul also came to all the classes I taught on healthy aging last year. Well, almost all of them. He even brought his wife to one. He asked great questions and contributed ideas, anecdotes and even occasional jokes (well, one - but it was a good one). This is as close as I may ever come to having a fan. I wanted to get to know this man better. So I phoned him and (bless him) he invited me over. We talked. We sat on buckets turned upside-down in a yard and watched his caged chickens eat grass. It was a 64-square-foot pen in which he was raising grass-fed "healthier chickens." The cage was moved daily to ensure the chickens always had fresh, chlorophyll-filled grass to eat. For an hour we sat and watched these chickens eat. Quite soothing, actually. We talked about Paul's observations on the changing face of agriculture, and his angst about the poor quality of the food available to us. Paul is a freethinking expert on innovative poultry raising. Since last summer, he has been trying to teach me about the health advantages of grass-fed chickens. He is a retired schoolteacher who is still teaching. At 70-plus years, Paul is a man who eagerly embraces each day as an opportunity to learn and grow. He thinks our diets are very flawed. He knows that the heart-healthy omega-3 present in his chickens (and in seafood) is a savior of sorts. That is why he raises those chickens "the right way." Omega 3 and those handsome, grass-eating chickens deserve a column of their own. This is Paul Sollie's column. I have been planning to write it for a long time. He has been on my mind. And, before this year ends, I wanted to publicly thank him for that "summer seminar" he gave me. We can be thankful for many things: a preacher (one of many in this valley) who gives from-the-heart sermons that actually do change behavior and for people like Paul Sollie (one of many in this valley) who love life and extract newness from it every single day. Blessed, indeed. Sharon Johnson is an assistant professor in family and community development at OSU Extension and a member of the Senior Advisory Council. Reach her at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.