August 9, 2010
I attended Bret Michaels concert at the Clearfield, PA county fair on Friday night. 
It was a celebration of life. He thanked fans for their prayers and support for him during the past year. He literally seemed to breathe in the positive energy and well wishes of the fans at the concert. Which communicated something about health…. http://gantdaily.com/2010/08/07/bret-michaels-rocks-at-the-clearfield-county-fair/
As covered in the news and entertainment media, Bret had some life-threatening health events this year. He appeared on the show, ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ and, in fact, won… but during the season, he revealed his nearly lifelong efforts to manage diabetes. And he talked about the emotions he felt while waiting for news about whether his daughter had the disease.
I don’t know Bret or his daughter. But I do know that one of the reasons we don’t talk about health in our families is that we feel a sense of blame for the ‘bad’ things that got passed on to us through our genetic pool and a sense of responsibility about passing them along to our own biological children.
Try this: for every so called bad thing, make a list of the good things that were passed on to us and that we may pass on to others. When having those family health history conversations, balance the good with the not so good news.
It might be, for example, that Bret’s positive and affirming way of looking at life has a genetic component and that he will or has already passed on such resilience to his children. I suspect that at the very least, that attitude goes a long way toward helping him to manage life with a chronic condition like diabetes…
