When Did We Become So Delicate? 

    I know that medical knowledge is progressive and changes every day. We don’t bleed people anymore, doctors now wash their hands between operations, and medical people don’t give their patients drugs like laudanum. We may be using things just as detrimental to our health and just haven’t figured it out yet. 
   Along with these innovations comes a plethora of information about things that may be harmful to us. Like gluten, aluminum foil, plastic bottles, just to name a few. Most of these things are products we have been eating or using for years, and now all of a sudden are told they are best avoided. What happened to us? It seems that we are suddenly a lot more delicate than in the past. 
    My parents and certainly their parents would be astounded at all the suggested things to avoid. If Mom’s kitchen had been deprived of butter, whole unpasteurized milk, (the folks owned a dairy), cream, sugar, and just plain iodized salt, (not even gathered in some foreign country or body of water), Crisco shortening (fat), and then the pièce de résistance --- non-fluoridated, non-treated water that came out of an irrigation ditch, she wouldn’t have been able to feed us all those delicious meals. And the amazing part was the lack of sickness in the family.     And as for anything “low fat”, “reduced calorie”, or “organic”, they hadn’t even been invented yet because the health paranoia hadn’t set in yet. 
    If we ate that kind of stuff today we’d be sick all the time and demanding the attention of health practitioners of all disciplines. Like I asked at the beginning, “When did we become so delicate?”

Passing Lane -itis 

   Recently Lorraine and I drove from Redmond, Oregon, to Tacoma, Washington. From Redmond over the pass and until you are nearly down to Sandy, Oregon, the road is two lanes. One coming and one going. Lots of two lane roads are like that. 
    On this roughly 100-mile stretch of Highway 26, there are sections that climb in elevation, causing the truck traffic to slow down. To help alleviate this natural slowdown of traffic in these areas, the Oregon Department of Transportation has put in passing lanes. These lanes are much appreciated by all of us. 
    My problem with these passing lanes is not the lanes themselves but the people who use them. Or, I should say, some of the people who use them. My experience goes like this. I’m driving along at a reasonable speed. In front of me are several vehicles, and behind me there is more traffic. The speed limit is 55 miles per hour. (What else would it be, we’re in Oregon.) The car leading this string of travelers has a driver who for some reason is moving at a sedate 55 miles per hour. 
    Most everyone in that string of traffic is looking forward to the upcoming passing lane. When it arrives the leader of this pack, (remember our 55 MPH guy?) thinks that for some reason it’s become mandatory for him now to speed up to 70 miles per hour, which he does. Most of us following drivers pull over into the passing lane hoping to get around this consciousness leader, but some of the more faint-hearted, not feeling comfortable exceeding 70 miles per hour, hold their position for a while then slink back in line behind the leader. 
    Some of the following drivers who think they know what is to come, put their foot down and pass this guy if they can get around those who thought they wanted to pass, but find they don’t have the guts for it. Many of the following drivers, feeling that 70 miles per hour is excessive, keep their place in line and enjoy the new pace as set by the leader. 
    Soon the passing lane comes to an end and the leader settles back to his original 55 miles per hour. The people behind him, who still want to travel faster, are cursing themselves for not passing when they had the opportunity. The people who wanted to pass, but were unable to do so because of this huddlehunce’s actions are muttering threats that if carried out would probably involve some jail time.