Sometimes you rediscover something you loved in an unexpected way. That has happened this Christmas holiday with our older daughter Reilly home from college.

After one-and-a-half years, she came home in November for a six-week hiatus, a long break that is part of a trimester system where she goes to school.  With all three of our kids, it’s clear they need a break when classes are done.

You can see the fatigue and stress.  With finals over, they can relax and seep into our couch, take naps, read whatever they want, veg in front of the TV.

I think that is something  eliminated by most students in college:  Watching TV.  So, when Reilly comes home and becomes addicted to a show, catching up all at once in this condensed period she has while not cracking the books, it isn’t a surprise. It makes sense to enjoy some down time with a program that is fun.

When “West Wing” was running on TV in the 1990s, it was an award-winning series.  Year after year, it won prizes for writing, acting, “Best Drama,” and who knows what else.  All I can remember is it was repeatedly critically acclaimed. 

As an occasional watcher, I appreciated the plots, context and how well Washington, D.C. culture was captured (we were living in the D.C. area at the time).  At the same time, because I wasn’t addicted, I didn’t watch the show week after week after week.  Instead, I would catch it here and there, enjoying the story line, but not mesmerized.

Reilly changed that.  She started NetFlixing it as her school year wound down, and continued once she got home.  Seeing her parked in the easy chair, feet cocooned in a quilt over our roaming radiator, was too comforting to pass up, so I joined her one evening after I’d been standing, getting drawn into the plot of the episode she was watching.

Ultimately, nothing matters regarding specifics about political issues or what the final “solution” is on West Wing.  That’s because the show is about the tension involved in crises-oriented events and how the characters interact in during times of high stress on an international stage.

Yes, there is humor.  Yes, there is great dialogue.  And yes, you become engrossed in important issues of the day.

The show gives you more that all that.  Watching it today puts the 2013 political dialogue in context.  The positioning and posturing from the 1990s isn’t necessarily different from today.  What is different is the number of tools available to shout out your view.  He who controls the dialogue controls the outcome.

Other things stand out. The show is thoughtful.  It takes time to flush out opinions, giving context, developing incredibly extenuating circumstances and showing the humanity of those involved as they agonize over making hard decisions that affect millions of people in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.

Sitting in the room with the cold outside, blankets pulled up on the easy chair, the screen flickering, Reilly and I laugh, give knowing glances to each other and shout and occasional “WHOA” as a twist of events throws the plot out the window.  You have to challenge yourself because the show challenges you.

That’s great TV.  We need more of it today.

What do you believe?  Are you willing to listen intently to someone who has a strongly divergent opinion from you on the “issue thermometer?”  In real life, we want to tune out people who don’t look at things the way we do.

On the West Wing, you are forced to confront yourself, your biases, and the incompleteness of your views.  It’s fabulous stuff.  And you learn just a little more about the world in every episode.  

Given the direct prescription drugs-to-consumer advertising movement, one would think that people are informed about the side effects of any given drug.  If you’re going to ingest something, don’t you want to know how it will affect you?

Even if you do read the small print after you get a prescription, or even if you listen closely as your doctor describes potential side effects, you actually have to put your psychological and emotional blinders on to take the medicine.  That’s because if you paid attention to all the possible things that could go wrong, you’d worry more about that then the malady you had to start with.

All it takes is listening to one TV ad for “Affluensica,” the new drug just out  and designed to mitigate the symptoms of an affluent upbringing for teenagers by parents who don’t discipline them.  You may have read about this dire malady in the past week, one that can only be alleviated by “Affluensica,” the medicine to “get your teenager’s head back on straight.”

The problem is, like all of these drugs, they come with unintended consequences.  If you take Affluensica, you expose yourself to all kinds of new risks.  Will a teenager listen to his doctor and repeatedly gulp down the pills as he’s been told?  Hard to tell.  If he does pay attention to the unintended consequences of Affluensica, he might hesitate.

For this hypothetical drug, imagine the TV ad:  “Is your son affected with the dreaded disease Affluenza?  Then he might be a candidate for Affluensica, the prescription drug available only from Lobotomee Pharmaceuticals, designed to make him stop disobeying authority and thumbing his nose at his parents.”

Video of healthy, good-looking young male engaged in happy earnest conversation with two richly dressed parents.  “With Affluensica, you’ll find yourself talking WITH your son rather than AT him.  Affluensica is available in six-month injections to ensure patients take the appropriate dosage.”

Roll to end of script, with the young male playing with the family dog, prancing through a bucolic hillside.  “Like other drugs, Affluensica can create unintended consequences.  If you feel any of the following symptoms, call your doctor, 911 or visit a hospital emergency room immediately: Stomach cramps; indigestion; head pain (does banging our head count?); stuffy nose (how are we supposed to know?); muscle pain; pain in arms or legs (???); temporary redness of face or neck (what if the teenager is just embarrassed?); cough (ahem, does throat clearing count?).

The side effects above are typically read first by the narrator.  They are then followed by the more severe, but rarer potential side effects:   Blockage or closing off of blood vessels in retina of eye (dammit, I can’t see anymore); blurred vision (so much for driving); hearing loss (what the heck did you just say); high blood pressure; heart attack; blood pressure drop upon standing (oopsie, bonked my head on that one); trouble breathing; short-term memory loss (could prove helpful when coming up with excuses to parents); ringing in the ears (one more reason he doesn’t hear what his parents say); and finally, the always listed drowsiness, dizziness, diarrhea and potential death.

So, ultimately, death by Affluensica is a possibility.  If the teenager didn’t take it, he could still die.  What’s the benefit?

Ads for drugs that list multiple, almost endless, side effects really make you wonder if taking it is worth the consequences.  Balancing improvement for conditions like anxiety, high cholesterol, eczema or some other killer disease from taking medicine against the horrendous side effects can put you into a zone of denial.

“Heck, who cares about heart disease?  I’m gonna die anyway.”

“What’s the big deal about high blood pressure?  Everyone over the age of 50 has it anyway.  You only live once.”

There is no simple answer to guide you.  But remember, the drug companies want to turn a profit, so factor that in.

With Time Magazine having just selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year, it’s intriguing to think about choosing someone a bit differently.  For better or worse, you can become Time’s poster person. 

That means you could fall into a Hitler or Idi Amin category – humans who have done horrible things.  Or, you could be a Ghandi or Steve Jobs – someone who has affected millions of people in a way that improved their lives.

If you looked at the list this year, it included people like Miley Cyrus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Edward Snowden, the American fugitive who leaked thousands of classified documents to the press.  Time makes their choice based on the “impact” the person has on the world and news in the past year.  That word can mean many things.

Last year around this time, our family took an interesting poll, asking everyone the question:  “If you got the chance to punch someone in the face with no repercussions, who would it be and why?”  The answers came quickly and were fascinating, because almost everyone has some hot button issue that gets them raging.

This year, we turned that question on its head.  Instead, we asked everyone to name someone who has positively impacted you the most in the past year (personally or in the world at large). 

There were seven of us sitting around when we asked the question, and only two could answer quickly and definitively:  Our older daughter Reilly and our son Kirby.  They both chose someone personal.

Reilly selected a college friend – someone who has overcome significant obstacles to get where she is today.  Kirby chose one of his high school teachers who is also one of his coaches.

I suppose the fact that they had names come up quickly shouldn’t be surprising because they are at a stage of life where positive models affect you more deeply.  If I was 18 or 22 again, I think my answer would have come more quickly.

Still, most of us found it strange that we struggled to name someone who shined.  Perhaps we are jaded.  Perhaps it is just something that builds over the years, and we are less willing to throw the “s/he’s great” label on someone when we know there are demons somewhere.  I’m not sure.

Regardless, there was a lot of indecision around the table.  Take a few minutes and think deeply about this and see if someone immediately comes to mind.

PAUSE.

I selected my wife Debbie.  She does amazing things every day to keep our family organized, prepared and on top of things, and we don’t salute her nearly often enough for the goodness she imparts.  Here’s to her.

The first thing that swirled around my head though was how hard it is to create a long-lasting positive impact.  On a world scale, it’s mind-boggling how difficult it is.  When you go through this type of exercise, you start thinking of names, then discarding them.

Is there a diplomat who’s spearheaded a peace treaty?  Has a scientist invented something that cuts our need for fossil fuels?  Is there a business leader whose company created thousands of jobs to transform a depressed area into a thriving hub?  It’s hard to immediately capture names for any of these.

On a personal level, once you go beyond family members, your choices come down to friends, neighbors, coworkers or someone you associate with at your place of worship or socially.  You enjoy these relationships but typically don’t think of them as transformative.

Hence, the difficulty in coming up with the positive person of the year.  Spend some time and come up with your choice.  Then let that person know, and explain why you gave him or her the award.  Maybe next year it will come back your way.

“The Way We Were” was a movie and song encompassing memories of the past.  I don’t remember exact words or anything about the film, except that it evoked the way things used to be.

At some point, we all think back to the past -- fondly, angrily or otherwise.  We see events through a prism that shapes who we are today. 

That includes food, weight and exercise.  There are fads almost daily telling us how to manage our weight, decrease it, keep it at our “ideal.”   There is no magic bullet.  At a certain stage of life, keeping our weight the “way it was” 20 years ago becomes harder and harder.

As I recuperate from recent toe surgery, I am struck by this.  Because I am in a foot boot and on crutches, my aerobic exercise has been almost totally eliminated.  I continue to stretch and do other exercises with my arms, along with a weight lifting regime.

All that combined is not enough to keep me where I was three weeks ago.  Where does that put me?   To just stay at my already too heavy weight of three weeks ago, my food intake has to decrease and become more lean.

It’s at times like this that you recognize you have to become a food Nazi to keep your weight where it was or get back to a level you were in 1998.  Even if I could exercise aerobically now, there are time and energy limits to how much I can burn off on the treadmill, jogging, riding a bike, jumping rope or swimming.

Once you’ve maxed that out, any improvement must come from the other end – what you put into your mouth.  This creates an attitude of having to watch everything in your diet.  And, quite frankly, that is no fun.  So we rebel.

If you have ever attempted a major diet modification, you know how difficult it is to sustain it over the long run.  Typically it is easy to get started.  You set goals and there is a positive rush when you meet them.  This creates motivation.  That force must continue to drive you for weeks, months, even a couple of years.

 You can put distance between you and your cravings, but they come back.  If you are a bread and butter person, you’ll find yourself salivating when you go out to eat and the basket of steaming bread is placed in front of you.

If you are a steak lover, becoming a vegan or going to fish and chicken can give you the nutrients you require, make you healthier and keep your weight in check.  Will it eliminate your desire for a nice juicy steak on Saturday night?  Possibly, but not likely.  You’ll still want one.

So we keep fighting and fighting, slowly regaining weight we had lost.  If you watch the people who stay slim year after year, you’ll see that they eat like birds.  They pick at things.  They take small bites.  They peck at food rather than swallowing gargantuan portions.

That is a huge key to the success of keeping your weight the way it was years ago –portion control.  Nibble at something.  Chew slowly. 

Hobbling around these past few weeks, I’ve cut back on my breakfasts and lunches, sticking to my previous regular dinner routine (more or less).  I’ve probably lost a few pounds even though exercise has been reduced.

Can I sustain this for months?  How much more hungry will I start getting once I begin exercising more heavily.  Who knows?

What I do know is that I will continue to crave sweets.  I will fight the battle to stay away from chocolate, French fries and desserts.  Any food including sugar or fat will continue to taste good.  “Chirp, chirp, where’s the bird seed?”

“Armpit cushions” is a strange phrase.  Not so strange though if you’ve been struggling along on crutches for a week.  If you are cursed with having to use crutches for an extended period of time, as I have this past week, you understand how the inventor of armpit cushions might be able to give the medical establishment one more product for patients.  And this one would prove useful.

When you have surgery, you don’t think much about how you are going to get around.  In my case, I knew I’d be on crutches or need one of those scooters where one leg is up and you use the other to shove yourself around  parking lots, your kitchen or the hallways at work.

One of my toes was taken out of commission for several weeks, to repair multiple things gone wrong over the years.  Screws were inserted, along with a pin, the toe was sewn up, and then it was time to figure out how to get around with a boot on and an inability to put pressure on the foot.

I’d never really thought about how comfortable crutches are, something you probably haven’t thought about either, unless you’ve had the opportunity to need them.  When I came out of surgery, they were waiting.

A day later, it was clear they could use some improvement.  So here’s some feedback for the manufacturers or some entrepreneur out there who wants to start a medical device company or plain wants to try something new.

Two things stand out about the basic crutches we were given by the hospital.  The wedge that goes under your armpit is not soft enough to provide decent cushioning.  It also isn’t quite long enough to cover the entire expanse of an adult male armpit, so you’re constantly trying to get it just right so your weight is balanced properly and one edge or another isn’t digging into a sore spot.

When you think about this, neither requires a complicated fix.  Manufacturers can make the cushioning with a slightly higher level quality.  They can extend the length of the part you put up under the armpit by an inch or two to accommodate all us overweight Americans.  Job done.  They can go whistling on their way.

It’s hard to say whether the hospitals or manufacturers have never asked for feedback, patients have never given the feedback or no one has ever had this problem before.  If the rubbed-raw rash on my sides where the crutches cause friction is any indication, I can’t imagine millions of other people haven’t had this problem.  Since there have to be millions of people who use crutches at some point in the course of the year, this is a large market and someone should be paying attention to it.

The son of a friend of ours has had the same problem recently, and my unscientific polling of others’ use of crutches reveals an overwhelming amount of evidence pointing to this as a concern.  Padding the cushion and extending the length are a solution.

Another one, and this is more for the style conscious entrepreneur to consider, is to invent wraps that fit over your shirt, sliding on easily, with material that allows them to seal under your armpit and provide the added padding you seek.  The advantage this product provides is you could create a fashion statement for people on crutches.

Find some attractive models, create some sleek designs in multiple colors that you can wear to work and a whole new product line is possible.  All it takes is a little marketing savvy and you can have all us crutch-laden individuals eating out of your palm.

Let’s hope someone takes on this challenge.  After that person makes a million bucks, goes on Shark Tank and gets Mark Cuban to invest in him, he can figure out how to add some padding to the hand cushions on crutches, too.  That would be nice.