The map on my phone shows a red line on the Golden Gate Bridge that is slowly creeping toward my exit, just north of it. My heartbeat quickens. I must take that exit in a couple of hours to pick up my kid from school. The local news site tells me that there are protests on the bridge from a worldwide group of activists intending to create an economic blockade in protest of what’s happening in Gaza. What small problems I have.
My mind immediately goes to the digestive system, as it always does when I think about traffic. I think about an old client who for years wouldn’t go to the bathroom until the weekend, when she stopped pumping herself full of Ritalin. I think about how people are getting colon cancer earlier. I think about my client starting a cleanse tomorrow, and the joy of feeling that it’s possible to change things.
Then my mind pictures fatty acids blocking the insulin receptors on cells. When insulin gets blocked by the economic blockades of us eating the wrong foods at the wrong times, cells can’t take in glucose. I wonder what kind of goods won’t be transported to where they are intended to go on those highways today.
The thought of not being able to pick up my kid makes my heartbeat quicken. I’ve been kissing that boy a few extra times in his sleep at night lately. It’s crazy what humans do when we look at others as others, and not as a part of us.
People have been so obsessed with the microbiome in the last few years. They say there are good bugs and bad bugs. If you do something harsh to wipe out the bad bugs, then you wipe out the good ones too, so you have to be more strategic in your bad-bug annihilation tactics, like creating an environment more favorable to what makes the good bugs good. This is why antibacterial soaps are no longer fashionable. Who knew that the strength of a cleansing agent could teach something about military strategy?
I think about all the high cholesterol people have. And the high HgA1c, CRP, glucose, bilirubin, etc. etc. And all the poor little thyroids that have taken a beating through the years - not just in the US, but I’ve also seen beaten down thyroids in Australia, New Zealand, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Portugal, Canada, Taiwan, and probably some other places I’m forgetting. We have more in common than we think. At least our thyroids do.
The highway clears well before I have to pick up my son.
That night, I hear that a friend was stuck in her car on the Golden Gate Bridge for four hours during the economic blockade - until someone came to help people drive backwards off the bridge. Why won’t the media show me a video or image of the person helping people back up?
My son goes to sleep. I kiss him 20 times.
I remember that Rumi said that “good and bad are mixed”. I contemplate throwing my antibacterial cleaner in the recycling bin, but keep it just in case.
Much love,
Heather
P.S. People are doing cleanses now. Contact me if you suspect you need one this Spring.