Quiting breathing, or if you prefer Smoking

Why is it that all of our lives we are told to learn, and yet we never somehow manage to corner that market? Parents, teachers, relatives, and friends all tell us things born of experience,and yet until we suffer the consequences it refuses to sink in and "teach" us.

I think it is safe to say that in my own experience, learning can be painful. I absolutely remember a day in junior high where medical professionals came to class to show us what a human lung looked like when it got intimate with cigarettes. I swore it would not happen to me... that's what I get for swearing.

Luckily for me it was Emphysema that found me first as it could have been much worse.

Breathing is a very natural thing to all living beings. We take it for granted. We abuse the privilege. Take that privilege away, or alter it, and the world looks quite different very quickly.

Pick up a five pound sack of potatoes and walk to the checkout with it. If the trip is longer than ten or fifteen feet your lungs go into overdrive, feeding the heart and muscles the oxygen they must have to perform. If for any reason they are unable to perform this simple task, one we seldom realize they are doing, bad things happen.

Panic quickly follows a fun dose of asphyxia with the heart pounding out a feeble attempt to feed water to a community that needed air. Unpleasant? An inadequate word to describe such a thrilling event.

Imagine working under those conditions in a construction environment, knowing that sooner or later blacking out was a very likely event... being on a ladder was no longer an option. Now imagine telling your family you can longer support them. Are you having fun yet?

If I could give this world one thing it would be to live like this for one day. Tobacco would no longer be an industry, and the world would be a far better place.

Give yourself the gift of clean air. It is a free gift, and will cost you nothing, but in turn it will give you everything. This is NOT a gift that can be given to another. It doesn't work that way. It is a personal gift. One that keeps giving long after the wrapping is gone.

Television-- New Shows to me

I have found a couple of gems in this years line up.

The Lying Game is at the top of the list with ten episodes in its first season that left me upset that the season was interupted until January... damn the luck. The writers of this one renewed that hallowed tradition of the season ending cliffhanger, with a vengence. Well worth your time to check this show out with my full recommendation.

Once Upon A Time, though off to a warm start, over heated to a boil and has me waiting impatiently for the next episode to arrive. It puts a new twist to all the old favorite fairy tales, and will have you swearing retribution on villans to a whole new level... the queen is truly evil, but I have to think she may have been out done by another character that hasn't quite come into the light completely as yet.

Terra Nova, dinosaurs, need I say more? Well, as a matter of fact, I do... I am a life long fan of all things involving giant lizards so this show was right in my line of interest from the start. I am still on the fence with this one, but retaining high hopes.

Grimm has only begun, but I liked it from the first and only episode that I have seen. Internet TV is a wonderful thing, and allows me to catch shows as they become available.

The Secret Circle is another good one to catch if you can. Well written, and acted, it confirms my thoughts that the CW network has magic and knows how to use it.

I have some faves in the not so new line up that I will post on soon, but that is all well and good for another post.