I drove to Grammie's house this morning a little earlier than usual. She had carpet cleaners coming and wanted me to stand in as her bodyguard since her trusty watchdog passed away last week (15 year old Yorkie, 8" tall. Terrifying if you're scared of bad breath) and since I am obviously bodyguard material. The woman is 92 and has way more sass than I do. And she has a cane. All I could do to defend myself at this point is put someone in time-out.
All of this to say I was in the car early enough to catch Morning Edition on NPR, instead of the usual dreaded Diane Rehm show, whose voice I can only stomach for a minute or two before I start grinding my teeth and banging my head against the window. How that lady got her job I will never know.
Today they were reporting on two national health issues - an outbreak of whooping cough in Washington state, and a drastic increase of allergy cases in children born within the last 5 years. The first they explained is from people not getting vaccinated, and then they went on to say that getting vaccinated doesn't prevent you from contracting the disease, nor does the booster shot that they're strongly recommending everyone rush out to get. The cure? Antibiotics. Five day's worth. Although that doesn't help the symptoms or cure you, necessarily, they explained. Next up, the allergy epidemic. Cause? The verdict is still out, but the expert they interviewed said it is due to our "sanitation-crazed" lifestyle. Too much time spent indoors, too much washing with anti-bacterial soaps, and yes, too many antibiotics. He mentioned how the Amish people have virtually no cases of allergies, and said it's because their kids play outside around animals and they drink raw milk...promptly followed by a warning to never drink nor serve your children raw milk due to the bacteria contained therein.
The segment finished and I sat there thinking, WHAT THE?
Is this the best we've got, people? Our doctors and researchers are starting to sound like our politicians. Scared to commit to one answer. Unable to find solutions. Endless finger-pointing. Arguing circles around each other while getting NO WHERE. Meanwhile we, the obedient robots, unquestioningly follow the vanishing whims of their latest "findings".
I was listening to The Shins while painting Stella's room the other day and heard this line:
Since then it's been a book you read in reverse, so you understand less as the pages turn.
Disturbingly applicable.
Needless to say we are continuing to tediously plan the details of our future Walden-esque life. Adding: one milk cow.