As I see it, environmentalists serve two main functions in our society. One is to point out the ways we are killing the planet and its species (especially mankind), and the other is to make us feel like barricading ourselves inside our houses to avoid the insidious compounds and organisms lurking outside, just waiting to pounce upon and render us DEAD!Yes, everything from carcinogens in our food, air, and water, to Super Germs immune to the agents with which we fight them. And, of course, even when we conjure up “safer” stuff to use against these pint-sized assassins, it seems to add it’s own layer of negative environmental consequence, thus reducing our effective arsenal to perhaps a Louisville Slugger.
The environmentalist’s message is clear: Watch what you eat, what you drink, what you breathe, what you touch, where you go, who you go there with, and finally…… watch for things you aren’t even smart enough to realize need watching.
Everything considered, there is much wisdom in taking what environmentalists say, seriously. After all, mankind has always been quite careless with the health of the planet and it’s creatures. But one cannot stop the process of living, and huddle in a corner too frightened to participate in everyday activities that make us who we are. We cannot turn concern for our well-being, into phobias that render us paralyzed or minimally functional, at best.
When I was a kid I don’t remember ever hearing the term, “environmental safety.” And because I was part of that prehistoric culture, we worried not that the world was out to get us. We just did what seemed like a good idea at the time, and did it often with great enthusiasm.
For example, when I went to the dentist, he had a neat way to keep me occupied while he prepared the amalgam with which he was going to repair my tooth. Since the compound included mercury, he’d walk over to a small dispenser and squirt out a penny-sized puddle of the silver liquid on a piece of gauze. Then for the next few minutes I’d shatter it into tiny balls using my finger, and watch as they mysteriously merged back into one shiny glob… just like magic. It was definitely the highlight of my visits. And the bonus was, he let me take it home ! …… along with the mercury in my new filling.
This experience at the dentist spawned another pastime. Every chance my friends and I had to get our hands on an old thermometer, we’d take and break the tube so we could extract that amorphous red liquid we loved so much. You could say we were almost mercury junkies, who “pushed” its role as a plaything to every kid in the neighborhood who would listen.
I had another interesting pastimes, as well. On the way home from school, for example, my buddies and I would stop by the local shoe store for entertainment. Near the front door was the latest in shoe-sizing technology. It was an x-ray machine in which you put your feet to see how they fit in your shoes. Yes, you could actually wiggle your toes and see your foot bones move! And, whether it was because he was a benevolent man or just a savvy businessman taking advantage of free advertising, the proprietor never threw us out no matter how often we stopped by. And believe me, that was a lot. By the time I was a teenager, my feet should have glowed in the dark!
My unsafe practices continued as I got older. I can remember working at my Uncle’s hardware store and cutting many yards of asbestos cloth for customers. At that time asbestos was an indispensable fabric used to wrap around furnace pipes and anything else that needed protection from great heat. And for we hot-rodders who wanted to extend the life of our car’s glasspack mufflers, (and who wouldn‘t?), we’d wrap it around to cover the rust holes, then wire it on. Yes, asbestos was every guy’s fabric of choice, and as we put it to good use we never once thought to hold our breath.
I guess my childhood was filled with many more activities that would be frowned upon today by those who would keep us safe. For example, I swiped olives out of open barrels at the Italian Store, and ate them unwashed even though they had been shared by flies and other critters. And I drank water from our rusty hose bib, and ate dandelion salad picked in the yard where the dogs always did their “business.”
I put on my skates and caught rides on the bumpers of moving cars until they spotted us and we had to let go. And I played with the piles of lint that built up outside the exhaust pipe in the alley behind the local dry cleaners, all the time breathing in and enjoying the fumes of potent cleaning chemicals as they exited the building through that same pipe.
And early on Saturday mornings I’d get on my bike and ride a mile to the park to go fishing, or to the golf course to find balls or mess around in the woods near each hole. Sometimes I wouldn’t get home until dusk, a mere ten year old boy away from home for over eight hours with no supervision and no cell phone. I mean, just imagine that. How could such a thing have occurred without injury, harm, or worse?
Perhaps, the old saying, “Ignorance is bliss,” strongly applies to this post. I mean, with regard to environmental issues, we really didn’t know too much way back then. And, if somebody did, they certainly weren’t hitting us over the head each day with urgent warnings or threats of our demise. So, I guess the only question left to ponder is this: Considering how many practical and environmental safety violations I unknowingly committed for so many years … how the hell did I make it this far?
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