SAFE NATURAL CURES & LIVING

He and she had only been married for a few years when the Air Force sent him off to Shemya, Alaska, while she and their two children stayed home in California.  (Shemya is an island in the Bering Sea, about 200 miles off Russia, which has absolutely nothing but an Air Force base, foxes, and tons of snow.)

She was shaken awake on the morning of February 1, 1975.  Not by one of her kids, but by the room itself.  The bed was jumping up and down and actually rolling back and forth on the tiled floor, and the Venetian blinds were violently shaking against the window.  Being a native Californian, she knew that this was an earthquake.  A big one.  A very big one. 

When the shaking stopped, she jumped out of bed to check on the kids.  She met them in the hall outside her bedroom.  Just as she got to them, the shaking started again.  They held onto her, she held onto the stair railing, and they rode it out.  Earthquakes are scary, but they also give more of an adrenaline rush than the biggest roller coaster.  When the shaking was over, all three of them alternated between crying and laughing.

They dressed quickly and went outside to hear the reactions of her neighbors, many of whom she knew had never experienced an earthquake before.  But, none of them felt anything at all that morning.  Wow, they were sound sleepers.

There was little time before her parents were to arrive to celebrate her birthday, but she checked the news channels.  Nothing.

She told her parents all that happened and asked if they had felt the earthquake at all.  They did live two hours away, but the earthquake had been huge.  But, they had not felt it.  Well, people don’t always feel an earthquake when they are driving.

After her parents left, she ran to the television again.  There it was, she was not crazy.  The newsman was telling all about the earthquake.  It had been a magnitude 7.6 quake – wow, it really was huge —- off the island of Shemya! 

“A major earthquake injured several residents and caused severe damage on the Shemya Island. The Shemya Air Force Base runway sustained cracks. Crevasses having as much as 16.5 meters of vertical displacement were observed on Sheyma. Landslides occurred, water tanks twisted, and underground waterpipes broke.”

She had felt, heard and experienced “his” earthquake thousands of miles away. 

True story.

Animals or kids?  Animals or babies?  Animals or people? 

When a horse and many dogs are found residing inside a house, there is an outcry against their living conditions.  Animal control is called and acts very swiftly.  Besides the filth, the outrage is that a horse should be able to run free.  The sidenote in the news story is that there is a child in the home.  If a concerned neighbor had called to say that a child was living in filth, would child protective services have acted as swiftly?

Testing is done on rats in a laboratory.  It is found that a beneficial drug causes horrific birth defects.  Animal rights protesters are outraged.  Would it be better to have thousands of human babies be born this way?   Do they think that a good alternative would be to allow women to take all new drugs without any testing?   It is possible in a society that not only allows but encourages abortions, even partial birth abortions that are performed because the mother is depressed.  This would never be allowed in a vet’s office.  Why is letting the baby be born and go to a loving family not a better option? 

Our pets give us so much in their lifetimes.  When they get very old and are in constant pain, we humanely (note the root of the word) have them put them to sleep.  We cry but are happy to know that they are no longer suffering.  But, when Grandpa gets very old and is in constant pain, it is illegal to do anything to speed up his death.  Our strongest pain medication does little for this pain, and Grandpa begs to be allowed to die.  Some doctors even worry about giving certain pain medications to Grandpa at all because he could become addicted.

Animals or kids – animals often receive more concern.  Animals or babies – animals seem to be more important to some.  Animals or people – animals are definitely allowed a more humane death.  It is good to be caring of animals, but not at the expense of losing our humanity.

Young people have a different outlook, which is natural.  Our youth think that they will live forever.  After all, only old people die and they think that old is “forever” away.  On the other hand, they are apt to forget that a tattoo lasts forever and get one on a whim.

Bad things only happen to others, not to them.  This thinking is especially prevalent when it comes to drug overdoses or addiction, drunk driving, or sex.  Why is pregnancy such a surprising result after participating in the very act that creates babies?  They think that they can’t get an STD if they only have one partner – but the one partner may have already been with others.  Asking about that in advance, though, doesn’t show trust and love.

Youth might be no fun at all without the youthful outlook.  And, who knows, maybe few inventions would have ever come about without the blind perserverence of youth.  Wisdom usually comes only with age since the ears of the youth are like a radio that only gets a few stations:  music, gossip, protest movements of any sort, etc.  The “talk-radio” station of sage advice is all static to them and gets turned off.  But, their eyes are always working (television, video games, the internet).  Whether our youth admit it or not,  parents are seen.  So, the best way to teach our young people is by being good examples to follow.