Tilli's Lessons

In 1962, Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, raised an awareness to the catastrophic outcomes of the new use of chemicals and, more than fifty years later, the inventory of chemicals for human use grows, as does the consequence.

     We have long believed cancer is linked to carcinogens, hormonal issues to endocrine disrupters, diabetes to simple sugars. We know processed food is unhealthy, all drugs have side effects, and pesticides and herbicides kill insects, plants, and soil.  Are we invincible, defiant, or just plain selfish when we willingly use and expose ourselves to the vast number of ever increasing substances known to destroy living creatures, thus ourselves and our home. What is causing the never ending trend of our incoherence to toxicology as the availability and use of dangerous substances expands. Humans simply cannot quit peeing in the pool.

Cognitive reenforcement of human want and feel good defines attitudes and disrupts reasoning: So and So does it or says it is so, I can buy it, so therefore I too, can just do. Humans tend to affirm and choose the practices satisfying and justifying their desires. No one ever sets out in pursuit of an addiction, but we have become addicts of many things, thanks to the modern irrationality of the human brain.

     Money, power, and food addictions are more prevalent and doing far more damage to society than recreational drugs. Drug addictions tend to follow the excesses or limits of the other two, giving the newest age of humans newer challenges.

Aside from a now one in two risk of getting cancer, there are hundreds of liver and kidney diseases, numerous autoimmune or thyroid dysfunctions, and dozens of neurologic disorders, some reaching epidemic status, and nobody is aking why. With over 20,000 noninfectious diseases plaguing the human body, and since the days of Silent Spring, industry is still treating symptoms with the same intentions to maintain what began with the industrial revolution: the economic revenue stream flowing from human addictions to money, power, and food. 

     We do not accept dying animals and birds, fish as flotsam, and nine legged frogs, but we have learned to accept human disease as part of normal living. And, nonetheless the band wagon fills when it comes to selling remedial, not preventive ideas: fortification, supplements, glycemic index, gluten free, keto and carnivore, organic....

     In my younger days, noninfectious disease was quite rare, obesity an anomaly. By the time Ms. Carson spoke out, few talked, fewer listened, and industrial and medicinal chemicals continued to flourish. Today, humans accept and expect disease, still only talking or listening about it when it applies to themselves or loved ones. And, when the disease is genderfied or mentalized, no one wants to talk or listen at all, only argue.

     Do you know why taking a drink of water, how you are cooking your food and cleaning yourself and your home, and using medications or air fresheners can trigger autoimmune and hormonal responses contributing to disease? Do you know how and why plants foods feed, detoxify, destroy, or aid in the elimination of toxic substances to prevent human disease? You are not alone if you don't, and a time for all of us to know. 

     Begin by following the author's ideas about chemicals in Food for Thought: do not use them, do not buy them, and certainly do not eat them, for they are destroying the world's ecosystem and the human organism.

     Some do use their minds to move toward and beyond the ancient survival measures our brains throw our way, but when we buy into industrial pleasures of want, supplanting all rationality, and at the risk of disease or death, we could easily say many humans have lost their minds searching for peace of mind. 

                                                                                                                                                          -Tilli

Read more about toxicology in book one, Cat Searching for an Open Window, page 35, of The Human Nature of NEED and FEED.

Autumn - 2024

Educational Lessons - The Pied Piper

Half a century ago, many children were graduating high school with diplomas of illiteracy. Today, nearly one fifth of high school graduates are still unable to read or write. The two basic elements of modern learning fail in the capacity of an age old system.

     Modernity brought about renew and redo. Whether in our homes, products, or devices, humans constantly remodel: move out the old and in the new-save education. The national school system is structured on old ideas in new buildings, administrators attuned to butts in seats for budgets, not education, becoming atmospheres of violence and racism, while teaching children to waste food and water, exceed a sustainable footprint, and embrace a world of ease and falsity with AI, developing universal mindsets of misinformation.

     As forks are not the cause of obesity, guns are not the cause of the hatred and despair. Some children feel locked down in the prisons of what we call school. To many schools function without morality, breed apathy toward learning, promote sexuality, and erode self esteem. And, when a child becomes a liability to the structure, they are drugged and given an acronym as a label, often making majorities the abnormal. 

     Today’s generations face issues unheard of or unimagined in my time. Yet, I still carry the effects of the education system so long ago. Schools situate children in classrooms without cohesiveness and playgrounds of adversity trying to fit in: have and have nots, racial and gender biases, and bullying. It is time to pay the piper and rescue our children.

     As long as we send our children into this model of academics, not knowledge, the future of a human society will struggle with incompetence, for what is presently in store for the young is beyond the human capacities of endurance and the present education system.

     Educated parents, grandparents, friends, and family are the teachers, experiencing life in the world we live-the education. Today, we have the technology to have nearly every question asked-answered in our homes. Let’s seek alternatives to get those butts out of seats and moving toward real learning-making personal choices, expounding on new ideas-exercising the the body and the brain to fit the individual. A change is long overdue.

                                                                                                                                                          -Tilli

For further discussion on education, see page 499, chapter 14, book 1, part 2, in The Human Nature of NEED and FEED.