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Thinking About Life

Dec 03, 2013
by Caroline Miller
"A Hidden Cause of Chronic Illness", Alexis Jetter, children and chonic disease
2 Comments

A neighbor with a brochure came to my door yesterday. She’s new to the area and we’d said a few words this summer when she and her husband moved into the corner house on my block. When I opened my screen door, she smiled but said little, choosing to press her printed material into my hand and then turn away.

 I didn’t have to ask what she’d given me. I knew by its size and shape, it was religious material. Inside was a message urging me to think about God as I approached the end of life.

 I know my neighbor meant well, but her assumption that I’d given little thought to my death struck me as an impertinence. Anyone who’s read my blog knows I think a good deal about death and life. Most recently, I’ve been thinking about children. I wonder why we give them so much lip service while spending the bulk of our government money bailing out banks or building bombs.

 The other day, for example, I ran across some interesting information about chronic illness. (“A Hidden Cause of Chronic Illness,” by Alexis Jetter, More, November 2013, pgs.84-91) I learned that violence of any kind is a major contributor to some diseases. Children are particularly vulnerable. Stress hormones play havoc in the brain, especially in the first 1,000 days of an infant’s life. The memory of a traumatic event may fade away, but the brain never forgets. Stress hormones that flood into the body, particularly at an early age, damage the immune system and pave the way for future impairments like migraines, sleep deprivation, diabetes and cancer, to name a few.

 As I grow old, I’m convinced the world needs to spend more money on the young, starting with the mother, giving her the assistance she needs to give birth safely and teaching her how to be a good parent. Hillary Clinton got it right. To raise a child takes a village — a village where food is plentiful, where medical assistance in plentiful, where counseling is plentiful and where safe neighborhoods are the norm. In the United States, I’d like us to worry less about terrorist abroad and think more about the wrongs we create when our children are neglected. I say our children, because that’s what they are and we pay a price when we forget it.

 I wish we’d spend more time thinking about beginnings. If we did, the ends might turn out better.

 After reading my neighbor’s brochure, I threw it away. I don’t have time to worry about death. I’m worried about life.

child crying

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of www.photoee.com)

 

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2 Comments
  1. Annie Delyth Stratton December 4, 2013 at 12:59 pm Reply
    Caroline, this is a powerful piece of writing. Others have written about this issue, but you put it together with several others in a unique way that cuts through to the core sharply and cleanly. I hope you can get it printed in some papers, or weeklies, or monthly mags. Maybe try getting it on public radio as a read essay. It deserves to be widely heard, and we need for it to be..
    • Caroline Miller December 4, 2013 at 4:11 pm Reply
      How kind your are to write, Annie, and how right you are about the message being often said. The question is, when is our society going to listen? Thank you for dropping by. At least I caught one sensitive ear. That makes the writing worthwhile.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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