Second Quarter 2024

Are You Well? Like Father Like Son.

In May, my son Charlie anchored his high school’s 4x800 relay team during the state championship track meet. When the third runner handed him the baton, they were in sixth place. When he completed his two laps, they were in third. They broke a school record and made the medal podium for the first time in the event. His split time would have won the state championship in the individual race by almost two seconds. 

Many who know me well are now wondering what I am talking about with the like-father-like-son stuff ? When I ran, my coaches would put away their watches and bring out the sundial…speed is not what my son and I have in common. However, after the race there is a picture of Charlie’s teammates on the podium without him, and if you look really hard you can just make out his image behind the podium, vomiting. 

That was an annual ritual when I was in high school. Football camp began each and every year with the running of the 800, and every year I would show up out of shape from having fun all summer and would have to push myself to make the required time for my position group, which I always did…then I would go under the bleachers and puke. My brother has similar stories, and we joke about the Osborne Puking Gene. 

In these cases it comes from pushing ourselves right to our limits, which in Charlie’s case was to win a medal. For me, it was because I showed up out of shape. I grew up before the days of “wellness.”
Most employers these days have wellness programs. They started largely to give employees an incentive to stop smoking. By quitting smoking, they could save money on health insurance. They quickly expanded to other healthy habits like diet and exercise, again with the incentive to save some money on insurance. 

To read the full report, please download the PDF.