TOXIC!

I like read­ing the Haz­ardous Mate­ri­als warn­ings on trucks. They are posted using small signs on the backs and sides of the vehi­cle. The signs are not ter­ri­bly obvi­ous, and some­times they are pretty generic. Look closely! On any given day you are passed by poten­tially lethal bombs. Do you ever read the writ­ing on the sides of rail­cars? When you do, you will find your­self not park­ing so close to the tracks. Some­times I won­der what would hap­pen if a gaso­line truck ran into an oxy­gen truck. If I ever saw it hap­pen, I would prob­a­bly not live to tell about it. (Rocket fuel is also trans­ported by truck.)
The really creepy stuff has to do with the med­i­cine bot­tles in our cab­i­nets, and our food addi­tives, and our drink sweet­en­ers. Get a mag­ni­fy­ing glass and read the small print. Bet­ter yet, do some research on what you take by look­ing the items up on the Inter­net. With your med­ica­tions, you will have to decide if the poten­tial side effects are worse than the dis­ease. Over the counter med­ica­tions are worth your research time too. The warn­ing labels on alco­hol and tobacco prod­ucts are pretty obvi­ous. I often won­der what would hap­pen to the sales of cer­tain com­mon items if they too had to have warn­ing labels. Cheese — CAN CLOG ARTERIES IN CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS — (bet that sign is never posted on the dairy case). Here is a lesser warn­ing: Ice Cream! Though Good For Your Mood — Can Be Haz­ardous To Your Waist­line And Even­tu­ally Dam­age Your Social Life!
Tox­i­c­ity in sub­stances can be detected and dealt with if we just pay atten­tion. What catches us off guard are toxic con­ver­sa­tions. Some­one needs to invent a mech­a­nism that sounds an alarm when we get into poi­so­nous con­ver­sa­tions. Movies have rat­ings, but the news does not. There needs to be a crawler across the bot­tom of the screen dur­ing news pre­sen­ta­tions that warn of things like: Toxic Tones Of Voice…Beware of Ver­bal Dis­tor­tions and Lies on this Program…Inappropriate for Sen­si­tive Souls and Hon­est Hearts…etc.
If we had to eat our own words, the bit­ter­ness would be vol­un­tar­ily reduced — and quickly. If we had to digest what we think and how we judge oth­ers, there would be a run on stom­ach med­i­cines (at least until we changed our atti­tudes and philoso­phies). It is the toxic level of spir­i­tual atmos­pheres that is most tol­er­ated –yet far more dam­ag­ing in the long run. For all of the atten­tion paid to our rela­tion­ships to con­sum­able sub­stances, it is amaz­ing how we have missed the greater poi­sons — those that dam­age the soul. If we ran from toxic con­ver­sa­tions like we would run from a burn­ing rail­car we would be bet­ter off.
By the way, before this con­cept catches on nation­ally, it would be good to buy stock in run­ning shoes.