Health Matters

b2bThese past weeks have been challenging in many ways. I learned that a student of mine has lupus and another woman has lung cancer. Fortunately, neither condition appears to be life-threatening. And each person has access to quality medical care. I wonder though, how often do we take our good health for granted? It is easy to do, given our pace of life. We run around from dawn until dusk and do not always appreciate our ability to push open a heavy door, see a pink or red tulip in the yard, or smell the scent of pine trees. Perhaps you take excellent care of your health. You eat a wide variety of organic foods, exercise and get enough sleep. Sadly, this does not appear to be enough. And that is what worries me. I am concerned about the amount of pollution which is everywhere and affecting all of us.

Pollution comes in many forms. Soot, for example, belches out of our cars, airplanes, boats, and trucks. Then there is noise pollution from heavy machinery and industrial processes. Next comes soil treated with poisonous fertilizers and heavy chemicals. The list goes on and on. What I am trying to say is that pollution, in all its states, affects us. It affects our physical body and our mental well-being. Just think about how great you feel when you are outside at the beach on a sunny day. Contrast that to how you feel when you walk across the street and are caught in a cloud of exhaust fumes from an old diesel truck that just drove by.

So many people are sick with all sorts of diseases. Pollution weakens our immune systems and damages our health. It also weakens immune systems and damages the health of animals. Do we normally hear about animals with lupus or lung cancer? No. But the truth is animals all over the world are getting sick too. Imagine a dolphin breathing the exhaust fumes from a motor boat. Imagine a bird which eats a piece of plastic thinking it is a piece of food. We can do better. We can do better for them and for us. Ride a bike instead of using the car, use a row-boat instead of a motor boat. And remember, reduce, re-use, and recycle.