Today's rambling: The opinion more people will probably agree with
Written on January 18, 2002 at 7:20 p.m.
while feeling a bit

It occurred to me the other night, as I was watching the news, that doctors and scientists are coming up with more and more bad health effects of everyday things that we do. Some of them are quite pathetic. Like, did you know that by brushing your teeth first thing in the morning, you're releasing bacteria that could possibly cause heart disease (or something else that's bad for the heart, hehe)? Or that riding those roller coasters with the big hills can do serious damage to your head?

We as a society are slowly starting to live longer, healthier lives, and could someday quite possibly live well into our hundreds. But at what cost? Are we to be expected to live in plastic bubbles, unable to even brush our teeth in the morning?? Gee, gingivitis and tooth decay, or heart problems...neither option sounds very appealing. Guess they'd better find a new way to clean teeth in the morning.

The point of life is not to see how long you can live. Of course no one wants to die, which is why scientists are constantly trying to find cures for new diseases. But what's the point of being on this planet if not to enjoy life? If I drop dead tomorrow from a heart attack due to brushing my teeth in the morning, or my head implodes from too much of those roller coaster G-forces, I'd like to know that my last moments were spent doing something worthwhile, not spent agonizing over whether maybe I should just skip the brushing or go on the carousel instead (I'm waiting for someone to tell us that carousels can cause serious damage to, say, the liver).

I, frankly, am sick of these experts telling me not to do things like eat broccoli sprouts while hanging upside-down from the handlebars of a bicycle (I hope they've never tried to tell us that, by the way). Are we supposed to become mindless, unadventurous couch potatoes who watch every single thing we do and analyze whether or not it could be potentially dangerous? There's only so far one should go when watching their health. After a certain point, it starts to be obsessive.

So I say, ride that scary roller coaster. Brush your teeth the moment you get up. Eat broccoli sprouts while hanging upside-down from the handlebars of your bicycle. It's not a matter of just being alive; it's a matter of LIVING!