My maternal grandmother passed away a little less than a year ago, my paternal grandmother is thriving and alive and will be ninety in September. My grandfathers passed during my younger years.

Being a history teacher is an oddity, I live in the lives of the past, considering the decisions, changes, impacts, meteors of that times. And I can promise most peoples lives have been the same for millenia – work, family, liquor, sex, food, children, god, cats and dogs as pets, art, adventure. The mission of our lives has changed little, each phase has seen its momentous inventions, its newest beauty, a sound never before heard, a love never before defined.

Today I heard on NPR that there is a 70% chance of a large magnitude earthquake striking nearby Tokyo, when – who knows, the levels of destruction though, very predictable. And I have been trying to get myself to Toyko, to feel love across the miles of land and greater miles of ocean that divide me from some of my dear family. And I thought for a moment, but I can’t go with such a looming threat, yet how can I then allow my loved ones to risk that threat on a daily basis.

And what is it then that we are preserving ourselves for, our constant concerns about organic vegetables, exercise, calorie intake,  weight,  smoking, drugs, a few too many glasses of wine. What are we following doctor orders for? To extend our lives, to live beyond, to stretch the life expectancy past that of our past.

My blood legacy survived:

The Great Depression

Pogroms in Lithunia, Russia and universal Anti-Semitism

The Nazi march through France and the Vichy government while fighting all the while for the French Resistance

World War One during which Europe lost an entire generation to mere ego and nationalism

nuclear threat

five different currencies of the franc

the sudden deaths of children, grandchildren, and estranged siblings to never be spoken to again

And what are my major concerns…

And I, through my history, know all to well the chemical equations of health. Today people read the Omnivores Dilemna, I understand the impact of hormones on meat production before I could ever spell omnivore. And so yes there is the need to feel like a functional, whole human being. And I spend much too much time exhausted. But my exhaustion occurs not from my foibles nor my extra glass of wine. My exhaustion occurs from others shirking their responsibility to be an Atlas of the world today. The role of Atlas was the topic of my last writing.

So make sure to get your 8 hours of sleep, balanced pyramid of food with an intermittent juice fast, accompanied with the hour in aerobic exercise and all the bottled water you can afford to buy – to rehydrate without the fluoride modern policy has added to our water so that our teeth don’t rot out. But yes avoid it, for the .23% chance that it may lead to cancer of the pinky toe. You know what really leads to cancer – the radiation from the bombing of Hiroshima and the approaching earthquakes to strike.