Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Death of Ted Kennedy

The death of Ted Kennedy made me stop and take a deep breath. His passing made me stop and think. Not because of his Kennedy name. Not because of his liberal stands. Not because of his longevity in the Senate. It was because of the cause of death - glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) IV. GBM has been around my family for quite some time. My sister, father and father-in-law all passed away because of it. So when Ted died, I stopped and looked around. The issue of GBM always is in the background, only coming to the present mind when it hits the news as it did today.


Hereditary? Environmental causes? Should I worry for myself and my children? Who really knows?


But sitting back and taking a deep breath and thinking about my own mortality makes me realize that GBM is one of the "causes" of my search for toxic-free (as toxic free as possible) living arrangements. It is what is in the back of my mind when I grow my garden without chemicals, herbicides or pesticides. It is in the background when I choose green products to clean the house. The possibility that GBM and other diseases/cancers are caused by environmental factors is one of the driving forces in my decisions.


Selfish? Sure, but that is just one of the many reasons I choose to have a greener life. But today it is the foremost reason because GBM has come out of my memory files to remind me of the past.

2 comments:

rob said...

my father died of the same thing. he was in the dry cleaning trade most of his fifty seven years. I have never been able to find a link between the two nor have I found any other records of dry cleaners dying of GBM... but... if you know anything about dry cleaning, you know it's vile with disgusting chemicals and well... in the last five years I have come to think as you do.

Pax said...

So much around us, from poisons sprayed on crops to cell phones, all are suspects in my mind. They are so universal it seems that it is nearly impossible to avoid some exposure. But we have to try our best by buying organic, growing our own, avoiding situations/places that are steeped in the "bad stuff."

It is clear that these tumors are on the rise.