Which One Would You Pay More For?​

— body language by Weddie Thiên  —

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Oh, there's one little question I'd like you to weigh,

And it's simple, it's plain, and it won't take all day:

Would you rather pay now to build health that will hold,

Or pay later to fix it when you’re sick and you feel old?

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"Oh, the FIRST one!" you cry, and you say it so sure,

"I'm a builder of health! My conscience is pure!"

Yet your calendar knows, and your wallet knows too,

That you’re swallowing a story that’s lying to you.

For those numbers don't flatter, those numbers don't lie,

And those numbers explain why you’re just getting by.

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So which one do you pay for? The building or the fix?

Your body that you tend, or the sickbed's costly tricks?

Paying smaller fees now, or paying more for your mend,

But you'll pay, oh you'll pay, either way, my dear friend.

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Of the money we spend on our bodies and bones,

On the clinics, the pills, the machines and their tones,

It’s ninety-nine to one, and maybe even much more,

Just to mop up those messes instead of closing those doors.

It's the doctors, the hospitals, drugs by the pound,

And surgery that comes when your ship’s run aground.

Yes, doctors can be great when you fall over that ledge,

Yet a much better deal: just stay away from that edge.

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Now remedial means, "Something's broken! Let's mend!"

Preventative means, "Let it never descend."

One is fire trucks howling and hoses that spray,

One is checking the wiring to keep those fires far away.

And you're lovely at howling! You're a champion there!

But the wiring sits waiting and you don’t give a care.

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Here's a fact that is heavy, I'll say it out loud:

Eight in ten of the deaths in the U.S.A. crowd,

Come from heart disease, cancer, those two and no more,

And they're largely preventable! Knock on that door!

With the food on your fork! With the beans and the grains!

With nutrition you skipped in the sun and the rain!

Eight in ten! That’s eighty percent! Do the math if you please,

Then go peek in your refrigerator, for it's holding your keys.

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So which one do you pay for? The building or the fix?

Your body that you tend, or the sickbed's costly tricks?

Paying smaller fees now, or paying more for your mend,

But you'll pay, oh you'll pay, either way, my dear friend.

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Now it isn't that you're wicked, or lazy, or dumb,

It's that crisis has a trumpet and prevention is a drum,

And the trumpet is a blast that shakes the pictures off your wall,

While the drum is playing softly in the back of the hall.

But the drum is what saves you. The drum keeps the beat.

The drum is in your grocery cart. The drum is what you eat.

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So pay early, pay gently, pay small and pay slow,

Pay in walks around blocks where the neighbors all go,

Pay in vegetables, sleep, in the water you sip,

Pay in dinners you cook, not in pills that you flip.

It's a bargain! It's cheap! It's the discount of years!

You can buy your whole future for pennies, not tears.

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For you'll pay, yes you'll pay, that is never in doubt,

It's the WHEN and the WHAT that this song is about.

You can pay for the garden, or pay to fight weeds,

Pay a dime for prevention, or a fortune for needs.

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So which one do you pay for? The building or the fix?

Your body that you tend, or the sickbed's costly tricks?

Paying smaller fees now, or paying more for your mend,

But you'll pay, oh you'll pay, either way, my dear friend.