Sept. 17, 2006 ~ Forbidden fruit
Have had time to think since yesterday's entry, in which I pondered why people don't take better care of themselves, knowing the consequences. And the answer is obvious... we're all human, and we are all faced with temptations. If something gives us pleasure, it's HARD to say no. If doctors tell us bad things will happen to us if we indulge, so we should never, ever indulge (in whatever our guilty pleasure happens to be), that makes it just that much harder to avoid the temptation. For me it does, anyway.
I have a nasty case of acid reflux and it is made worse by most of the foods I love. People with this problem have different levels of tolerance for various foods. What causes trouble for one may not for another. I love chocolate, and spicy food, and tomato everything. Spaghetti sauces, salsa, you name it. I used to drink diet soft drinks. I have learned that I absolutely cannot drink soft drinks of any type, in any quantity. It isn't worth the consequences. Chocolate causes problems, too, so I eat it much less than in the past. But it is really, really tough to give up tomato products, raw onions and peppers. Instead I cut way back, but I would probably be better off to avoid them completely. So I do understand the giving in to temptation.
Life is dangerous. We all take risks. For some, it's smoking. For others it's drinking, or riding motorcycles, or playing certain sports, or indulging in off-limits foods. Or whatever. We all make choices, deciding that given all the facts, the pleasure of our chosen behavior is worth the risk.
When I worked in a hospital I used to get so frustrated, taking care of people who drank themselves to death. People whose livers were destroyed, who were told that to continue to drink would mean death, and sure enough, they drank. And died. But not before suffering. It was hardest to watch their families suffering along with them, unable to help them or "fix" them. I saw that first-hand in my own family, having a father who died of cirrhosis.
Anyway. Yesterday I was so troubled by the pain my friend was enduring, and the suffering of her husband, and could not help but ask the universe, "WHY?!" But it was pretty much a rhetorical question. Even as I asked the question I knew the answer.
Because we're human.
And there's nothing quite like forbidden fruit.
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