'Everyone Is Special.' -- Mister Rogers
[First published June 25, 2018]
I used to be the community relations manager for a chemical plant. Part of my job was meeting people, talking about our operations, and listening to concerns. "I can smell it, so I know that's why I feel bad all the time."
Too often, the monologue went like this: I have breast cancer. My husband died of lung cancer. Our son has asthma. I know of at least six people on my street who have had cancer. I'm ready to sue y'all. Son, go out to the car and bring me my cigarettes."
No one can say if our emissions were the cause of cancer or asthma or the common cold. One out of four people will get cancer no matter where they spend their lives. We worked on reducing emissions and odors constantly, but we were dealing with odoriferous chemicals that evaporate easily. It's like the gasoline smell when you fill up your car. It's like baking bread and keeping all that wonderful odor out of the house. Some molecules escape and get sucked up our nostrils.
Staying Sober, by Terence Gorski and Merlene Miller, call addictive disease bio-psycho-social. You can guess what they mean by that term. They write, "Like victims of...these other diseases (cancer, asthma, diabetes, allergies), alcoholics have physical conditions that have caused them to be susceptible to developing the disease.... Some people are born with a body more susceptible to addiction than other people."
I have heard speakers at A.A. meetings say they are certain they became alcoholics as soon as they took their first drink. For me, I started drinking at 18 and drank in moderation until I was in my 50s, when I no longer could stop after the first drink.
So go ahead. Drink the water in Mexico. Expose children to second-hand smoke. Soak your liver in alcohol. Maybe you will get sick. Maybe you will die young. And maybe there will be no effect.
You are the one who chooses whether to try Russian roulette.
I used to be the community relations manager for a chemical plant. Part of my job was meeting people, talking about our operations, and listening to concerns. "I can smell it, so I know that's why I feel bad all the time."
Too often, the monologue went like this: I have breast cancer. My husband died of lung cancer. Our son has asthma. I know of at least six people on my street who have had cancer. I'm ready to sue y'all. Son, go out to the car and bring me my cigarettes."
No one can say if our emissions were the cause of cancer or asthma or the common cold. One out of four people will get cancer no matter where they spend their lives. We worked on reducing emissions and odors constantly, but we were dealing with odoriferous chemicals that evaporate easily. It's like the gasoline smell when you fill up your car. It's like baking bread and keeping all that wonderful odor out of the house. Some molecules escape and get sucked up our nostrils.
Staying Sober, by Terence Gorski and Merlene Miller, call addictive disease bio-psycho-social. You can guess what they mean by that term. They write, "Like victims of...these other diseases (cancer, asthma, diabetes, allergies), alcoholics have physical conditions that have caused them to be susceptible to developing the disease.... Some people are born with a body more susceptible to addiction than other people."I have heard speakers at A.A. meetings say they are certain they became alcoholics as soon as they took their first drink. For me, I started drinking at 18 and drank in moderation until I was in my 50s, when I no longer could stop after the first drink.
So go ahead. Drink the water in Mexico. Expose children to second-hand smoke. Soak your liver in alcohol. Maybe you will get sick. Maybe you will die young. And maybe there will be no effect.
You are the one who chooses whether to try Russian roulette.
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