“New concerns tonight regarding the toys you buy your children”…”Are YOU at risk for colon cancer?”….”Just how soon can we expect another terrorist attack?”….”Locals are in fear tonight that the east side rapist will strike again”…..”Are you safe on the subway?”…”New dangers on state highways”….”Are our cell phones giving us brain tumors?”
If you’re like me you’ve been asked some, if not all of these questions on a daily basis for some time. And been given myriad reasons to be afraid….be VERY afraid.
I’m at the age now where I am painfully aware of the many hazards that await me. Lurking like predators around every corner, threatening my very existence. As a young woman living in NYC I have even more reason to be on guard. And further still as a woman approaching the high risk age for various female cancers I have good cause to be quite alarmed. And I am…I AM.
I NEVER walk down a dark street by myself, and I ALWAYS have my keys between my knuckles, like I was taught, pointed out to gauge someone’s eyes out if they should decide to mug me. I ALWAYS use my ear piece when on my cell phone….(the dangling ear bud, NOT the blue tooth!) and rarely hold it up to my ear for fear of getting a grapefruit sized tumor in my temple. I ALWAYS visit the gyno, I NEVER eat red meat, I ALWAYS wash my hands after I’ve been on the subway, which btw, I NEVER ride past 8pm alone.
Vitamins?…check! Exercise?….check! Organic, distilled, non-toxic??? Check, check, CHECK!!!
I’m purified, sanitized, and terrorized.
What I don’t understand is how people survived before? Without safeguarding and protecting themselves against everything? When I was 12, my mom’s friend Trudie dropped a Dorito on the ground. She picked it up and before popping it into her mouth she said “Cass, you have to eat a pound of dirt before you die.” She ate it and totally lived.
I imagine a lot of people don’t wash their hands after they’ve touched the escalator..or sipped from the water fountain in Central park. My Mom used to walk along the tracks in Passaic NJ…(trust me, you wouldn’t do this) by herself everyday after school, and she’s alive and kicking.
Every day people get cancer, but every day people DON’T get it too…right? I’m sure there are people who eat asparatame and drink tap water that will live far beyond some people who would never. And I’m certain that there are people who live their whole lives in NYC without ever getting mugged. I even drove by this young girl once jogging along the water front at 3 am by herself….she seemed totally cool with it. Ok….she’s an idiot.
But here I sit, watching CNN and being urged to keep an eye out for “home grown terrorist cells”
Maybe I shouldn’t watch the news so much. Ya know, they say it’s not good for you.
{ 9 comments }
Hey Cassidy:-)
Nice blog. The news tends to focus on negitives stories and not enough postive. The media needs doesn’t tend to focus on the things that we need to truly be worried about. Like the social security going bankrupt and not being able to collect when we’re elibible to. Moreover, alot americans carry so much debt and don’t save for retirment they’re gonna be screwed when they can no longer can work.
Have fun traveling and look forward to your next blog.
Carrie
“I’m purified, sanitized, and terrorized.”
Yup, that pretty much sums up existence in today’s modern world. I read the NY Post every day at lunch (OK OK I admit I like the nutty headlines and gossip pages) and sometimes I just want to scream at how these doctors can’t make up their minds as to whether something is good or bad for you. They’re driving us nuts in an effort to get publications on their resumes. Stop the madness!!!
Anyhoo, keep talking. I like it.
Cass,
What a refreshing style you have! Thanks for that, I truly enjoyed it.
How true… the media tells us we should be afraid of TOO much crap. I grew up in the 60s/70s… should be dead by now. Let’s see… I smoked reefer and other things, drove without a seatbelt, rode a bicycle all over without a helmet, ran with scissors, punched any dog that attacked me, played outside when it was 115+ degrees and didn’t get heat stroke, etc. etc. Nowadays they want us to be afraid of farting in the dark. But if we spend our lives being afraid of what MIGHT kill us, we could miss the thing that could ACTUALLY do us in, eh? So keep on living, Cass. Your precautions are warranted, but just quit watching TV news.
Your voice, and the band, awed me from the very first note I heard. Thank you all for the music, and I look forward to buying the new CD. Come to Portland, OR more often!
Patrick
)
I agree. I’m germaphobic when it comes to being in public. I always have hand sanitizer on me, it’s like my mastercard. As a young woman myself, there is always that uneasy feeling when your out by yourself. Your constantly looking over your shoulder, and can never be too cautious. But on the other hand we can’t live in a bubble. Where’s the fun in that?
My grandparents survived so much and never had hand sanitizer or tons of foreign diseases. So, the question remains, where did all these crazy germs and chemicals come from? I mean, I feel like if I eat something that’s not organic, I’m giving myself cancer. Did they ever feel like that? Probably not.
I think about how simple life was back it their time. Why now is it so crazy and chaotic? What brought it all about, and will we ever get back to that simplicity of living in our lifetimes? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see. Watching the news isn’t going to tell us!
We are living in a culture of fear. Ever since September 11, 2001, the United States of America has decided that the world is a too scary a place, and we are going to hide from it.
The first thing you can do is realize, there are three big killers in this country. Heart Disease, Smoking, and Automobile Crashes. The numbers say that you are going to die in one of these ways. Everything else is puny.
You can stop smoking. That eliminates one of the big ones.
You can exercise. That minimizes the second.
You can drive as little as possible, and as defensively as possible when you do.
Three positive things to help you over come the things you have to legitimately to fear.
Hey Cassidy,
Glad to see you’ve joined the blogging world.
Funny…I used to wait for the two times or so a year when you’d come down to Atlanta or Athens so I could enjoy ya’lls music…then in San Diego..and now in NY. When are you coming back to NY so I can enjoy the music at it’s best, in NY?
In regards to the blog…remember that something’s gonna get you eventually. Think about it..when it comes to diet, you can’t avoid it…if you don’t eat red meat you avoid colon cancer but open yourself up to stomach cancer. Use anti-oxidants like pomegranate juice and licopene, but mess up the amounts and you do more harm than good. And something you are doing now or have been for ages will turn out to be cancerous tomorrow when you read the paper or turn on the tv…like microwave popcorn. Too late.
Here’s my last thing…as a doc I must say that avoiding so many things actually weakens the body in the long run. The human body is an awesome system, but depends on you coming into contact with things not good for you so it can learn to protect itself. Regular contact with allergens, eating dirt as a baby, and exposure to the general environment helps the body better defend itself when it counts. Otherwise, allergies increase, autoimmune diseases begin to become more frequent, and we eventually want to live in a bubble to prevent infections we can no longer fight. Ben Franklin said it best, “Moderation in all things.”
Anyways, sorry to be a bore. Figured I’d dump my 2 cents in. Hope to see you around some time, and keep up the writing.
ps – most hand sanitizers sold to the public don’t work, and actually act like a magnet for bacteria and viruses.
Hey Cass…
People need to build up immunities to certain things… I feel as though if you “baby” your body too much with organic, unprocessed, uncooked and whatever else then your body will freak out the MINUTE it has something it shouldnt have. I’m not saying that eating crappy foods is the way to go, but I don’t think being overly cautious is great either.
The media in a way has to make everything look bad. How exciting would the news be if you tuned in and heard “things are great with the world today… no new diseases… no bad weather… no nothing going on anywhere, tune in tomorrow for more”
Rock on cass
Laura
Living in fear of dying is not really living, and if you worry too much, you worry yourself (and those around you) to death. Fear doesn’t lurk behind all corners, but it does behind a few.
Recommendation read “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin De Becker. It is a great book that separates fear and worry. And I agree with everyone else, stop watching it news. It is trying to scare you into watching it. Relax and enjoy the life you are living.
It was a thrill of a lifetime when you came to dinner with Liz all the way to Long Island when I won the auction last year but if you don’t eat red meat and me about to have heart surgery who picked OUTBACK! I would have traveled to NYC and sat down at a outdoor cafe and had a salad and a double scotch. Still it was a thrill of a lifetime better than the NY Rangers winning the Stanley Cup. See you on Halloween. I’ll be in a shark outfit with a heart moniter attached.
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