Tag Archives: asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos: (n) an insulator which has been implicated for causing certain cancers.dictionary with letter A

It has taken me many years to balance my life by realizing that there are two questions which have to be answered in the pursuit of success. I will not mislead you by saying that I am always comfortable in balancing the pair, but I do know that to be truly successful and leave behind a worthy legacy, I have to please both Mother Nature and Father God.

Mother Nature wants me to find out what works.

That’s really it. Mother Nature is not terribly concerned about other things, just about whether I honor history, I accept what’s provided and I submit to common sense. The question is:

“Does it work?”

Now, some people stop there. This would be the folks that came up with asbestos.

They found a material which was very effective at insulating against heat and at preventing objects from catching on fire. When it was discovered, I am sure there was a shout of victory from those who felt they had taken on the universe and won the battle.

But they failed to ask the second question–the one that Father God expects us to consider before proceeding on:

“Does it hurt people?”

There are many things that seem to work, but they hurt people.

My dear friend, war often seems like a good idea until we start running out of body bags.

Some business practices which trim the budget by cutting the work force have the smell of fiscal propriety, but later on down the road when the commerce picks up a bit and the economy improves, the companies who followed the path look short-sighted and dastardly.

If the people who manufactured asbestos had taken the time to consider its effect on the human lungs, they wouldn’t have created the mess–in this case, mesothelioma.

Would we have been delayed a trifle in our progress? Perhaps.

But I have more faith in the ingenious abilities of our inventors than I do in the accountants making sure to stay cheap–and sometimes deadly.

It takes two questions:

  • Does it work?
  • Will it hurt people?

Until we have a world that understands this concept, we will continue to sacrifice humanity in the name of progress.

 

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Thank you for enjoying Words from Dic(tionary) —  J.R. Practix

Abed

by J. R. Practixdictionary with letter A

Abed:  adv. in bed

Every once in a while I give it the good ole’ college try. Usually it happens when I’ve had a particularly busy day. I ease myself under the covers, making a promise to the surrounding furniture in the room that I have no intention of emerging from this sleep chamber for several days, if not weeks.

It doesn’t make any difference. I always wake up the next morning around six o’clock and have a growing sense of worthlessness from hugging my pillow instead of pursuing the day. It’s not that I am especially energetic or have a massive work ethic. It’s just that I’ve never been an excellent “lie-abed.”

Candidly, it was possibly one of my greatest difficulties in being a parent to adolescents. It was always beyond my comprehension how folks in their teens, who possessed such immense nervous energy just hours before, twitching, leaping about or shaking their leg like a flea-ridden dog as they watched television, could become comatose and unable revive the next morning– passing over the glory of breakfast and early morning television, not to mention the rising of the sun, to finally trip down the stairs at the noon hour, barely able to audibly inquire what might be available to eat.

I don’t often share this with people because there’s a certain self-righteousness about getting up early in the morning that I find distasteful. I don’t do it because I want to go out and talk with the birds like St. Francis of Assisi. Nor is there seed to plant in the back forty with my Amish brothers and sisters.

It’s just me.

There are only two things to do in bed, and once you complete one and the other’s not available, well … it makes me fidgety.

So, to all people who ARE lie-abeds, I tell you that I am not judgmental whatsoever. Actually, I come just short of admiration for your ability to doze back off instead of staring at the ceiling, wondering about the asbestos content in the tiles.

No, you will not often find me abed. But you’ll probably outlive me, too.

Isn’t it funny that we humans are so intent on getting our sack time that we refer to death as “the eternal sleep?”