Environmental Nut?

Some people with MCS, when requesting accommodation of their special needs at work, find themselves ostracized. People grumble about not being able to wear perfume or cologne, or not using that spring scented soap. For myself, I’ve just tried to avoid the chemicals and get along. I hated the thought that others must change their habits because of me.

But as MCS becomes more and more a part of our lives, as we put more and more chemicals into daily use without a thought, I am changing my views. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have thought so but now I realize the environmentalists in California have it right. The species they are protecting are like the canaries they used to lower into mines to test for gas. If they died, it wasn’t safe for humans. Wildlife is dying all around us folks. We have to become aware of what is happening and take a stand. Even if it means stepping out of the rut we are in and taking the blinders off. We are using up all our natural resources, killing species every bit as important as we are. Now we, the survivors of MCS, are the canaries.

And so, I have to find my comfort zone in talking about our environment, personal and global, and then go beyond it. I have to speak up before my children (like me) cannot breathe when they go outside, before my grandchild has to wear smog masks to go to school. I can no longer allow myself to be content with simply talking to those whom I will be in personal contact with, about my needs. It’s not only about my needs. It’s about yours, our children’s, our grandchildren’s. The panda’s and the butterflies and the baby seals. It’s about life.

I have heard it said that one whisper, combined with other whispers, will become a roar of discontent. So, (I’m whispering, can you hear me?) the simple fact is there are thousands of us, and becoming more every day. I am sick of all the politics and sick of not being able to go somewhere in public without being attacked by someone else’s cologne or hairspray. Let’s step out of our comfort zone together. Can you hear it? It’s a thousand whispers and it is getting louder.

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