Raccoon Diarrhea

Somebody who lives on or near this road has diarrhea. I could feel the sting just looking at the scat of.... What? A raccoon?  I found 2 tiny "cowpies" on our driveway, about ten feet apart. Somebody had to go and go badly. And then again. You know how that feels.

Food goes in our mouths; our bodies compost it; and the remains exit through the bottom of the torso.

The food that goes in my mouth is not me. The waste that comes out the bottom end is not me. How about that composting process? Is that me? The stuff i chew? The masticated mess that the stomach digests? Is that me? The slurry that enters the small intestine. Is that me?

When do the vitamins and minerals become "me"?

The body is constantly changing. Water in. Pee out. Is it ever me?

The Stunting Effects of Alcohol

I'm forcing some paperwhites. The bulbs are sitting in a bowl filled with rocks and water. The surprising instructions for these bulbs say that when the green shoot is 1 to 2 inches tall, pour off the water and replace it with a solution of 5% alcohol. You can use isopropyl alcohol or hard liquor. Wine and beer have too many sugars.

The result is that the leaves are half as tall as usual, while the flowers are the same size.

This is what alcohol does to us as well: it stunts our personal growth. We may feel more lively and fun with some alcohol in our system, but in fact, we are stunting our real liveliness; we are stunting our life. While we look the same to everyone around us, and even to ourselves, alcohol is slowly, invisibly killing our innards.

For my alcoholic mother, it was her liver and the nerves in her feet. For some, it's diabetes. For others, it's high blood pressure, fibrillation, or other heart disease. For others, it's pancreatitis and diarrhea.

Drinking more than 1 or 2 glasses of wine a day is death on the installment plan.

1st drink--The woman takes a drink.
2nd drink--The drink takes a drink.
3rd drink--The drink takes the woman.

May you bloom as beautifully as your paperwhites.