BE A LABEL LOOKER I will agree quite readily that reading labels is not the most interesting thing in the world to do, but it is a reading habit which can save lives.
Most of us have sufficient common sense not to leave deadly substances within easy reach of children of all ages. And, most of us can get careless at times and forget to replace something exactly where it should be rather than where someone unauthorized might wonder what it is; why it is where it should not be and be tempted to use it, or miss-use it. There is, quite often, no “second chance” offer to it, either.
Among us – and not scattered out as thin as to may think – we also have whole schools of individuals who fancy themselves to be experts capable of being qualified to determine when a substance is “poisonous” and when it is only “toxic.” Eschew anyone who seems to be such an authority. They will argue that substances can be “toxic” enough to make a person sick unto such a low level that they actually say they wish they were dead. Authentic “seasickness” can provide such a feeling of desolation, and that can be the same
general aura which permeates the person who “takes” something said to be “toxic”.
I have, as the years have gone by, suddenly come to know that certain substances which My parents and siblings assured me were “poisonous” are rally not that bad after all, but the terms was used to keep me from becoming involved with them at any early stage of inquisitive or nosy nature. So I grew up being v very cautious about poinsettias around the house during the Christmas season – one among those things listed in those days a being “poisonous”. I don't remember them every bearing a skull and cross ones emblem like the tiny bottle or iodine on the top shelf of the medicine chest in the bathroom or not. Now, we are being told they are “tonic” and a “final stage” evil as we had always b been told they were. Okay. Maybe I can enjoy a beautiful flower more knowing that it is just a sickener and not a killer... but that doesn't set too well with me just the same. Back in generations from which I came, and those folks who were my “family” never had a chance to see the tomato advanced and improved; max-ed in every way, or modified as we enjoy it today compared to the tiny,little cherry-types they had. They thought it to be nice as a flower along the woodland pathway but not a mainstay for building a B-L-T – as a leading fast food for fall times.
A.L.M. April 11, 2005 [c468wds]
