Life is Risky: a conversation with my cat

Sometimes I save good things to blog about, and then life gets away from me and forget to blog them! But it's nice to have them for a rainy day--I probably have a years' worth of blog ideas in my computer. (If you got this post emailed to you, I apologize--I published it before polishing it up.)

This is a comment that came from an email thread between my mother's friends, after she sent a story about bean sprout contamination; but the comment is in re the last lines of the article:

Allen also tested 106 samples of bagged veggies and found 79 per cent of the herbs and 50 per cent of the spinach had similar bacterial contamination. Thoroughly cooking those products is the best way to kill the bacteria.

My mother's friend WR said this:

I sometimes buy salad greens, if the advice of nutritionists is correct, I should do so more often.  This report suggests that this is risky.  Somehow the idea of cooking all my salad greens seems unappealing.  I have never been under the impression that any of my fresh food intake is bacteriologically sterile but I do wash of the soil and slug droppings that I notice sometimes on my lettuce leaves.  Perhaps, if ingestion of only sterile food is the objective, the government should encourage food producers to sterilize all their products with lethal doses of radiation.

On the other hand, there is evidence that lack of exposure to a variety of bacteria during childhood is the reason that many adults in modern society, including me, have allergies.

Maybe the conclusion should be that eating is hazardous, like everything else in life, and the only safe alternative is to starve to death.

Lolz. Yes, living is hazardous to your health. You just can't get through life risk free, it is not possible. The more you try to see the risks so you can prepare for them or avoid them, the more risks you see around you--it's an endless spiral, and will add another hazard to your life: STRESS. In the meantime, you'll cut yourself off from a lot of life's pleasures. You have to weigh the risks inherent in most situations versus their pleasures or conveniences.

Like Evil Minion and her favorite little sparkle toy...

I move the side table to clean something--Minion immediately starts looking for something under the couch. Sure enough, she digs out her favorite toy, which always ends up under there cause it's small and light. When she hits it, it flies far.

- Now don't lose it under the couch again.

- MY SPARKLE TOY!! [Bats it around with uncontrolled joy.]

- It's gonna be under the couch within the hour isn't it?

- SPARKLE TOY I HAVE MISSED YOU!!

- [I take it and toss it down the hall.] Don't play with it near the couch!

She bats it around in excitement until she's next to the couch again.

- SPARKLE TOOOOOY! ZING!

- Do you want me to put your sparkle toy away so you don't lose it right away?

 

- That doesn't sound like much fun, Mahmmy.

- But once it's under the couch you can't play with it for another month or two.

- But until then I lose it, I have my SPARKLE TOY.

- I guess you would rather take the risk.

- Of course, La Mahmmy. I live on the edge! I live in the now! I want to enjoy my sparkle toy now while I'm young and have four paws and I'm alive! Alive! Now throw my toy again! SPARKLE TOY!!!

Also: While greens like spinach and kale taste nice when cooked, not so much with the iceberg and the romaine.