The Way to Eden
Diet has played a really big role in getting us well. But controlling our environment has also played a really big role.
There is an episode of Star Trek called The Way to Eden. The Wikipedia description doesn't entirely match up with my recollection.
I remembered this movement as being very much about "Our lives don't work because our bodies don't work because of tech and excess urban development making us sick." It's possible I focused overly much on what may have been a lesser influence on that storyline because it resonates so much with me and is, in some sense, MY storyline.
More than a decade ago, I got evicted from an apartment and when relatives said "No, we can't take you in at this time." I decided I was NOT going to go find another apartment. I felt strongly my apartment was a large factor in why I was so sick.
So, long story short, I bought a tent and pitched it in a patch of woods. After three nights sleeping in a tent, I felt vastly better than I had in many years.
So I emailed my boss that I was quitting and would not be in to work that day and left town. Thus began nearly six years of homelessness.
A decade-plus later, I'm much, much healthier and my life is slowly returning to something vaguely resembling "a normal life."
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder. Had I accepted what doctors were telling me -- that the problem is entirely that my genes are defective -- I likely would have died a long time ago.
But I didn't. I proceeded to do what I could to alter my physical environment and begin lightening the load on my frail body.
I think we have a defective built environment and we can mitigate the terrible health problems so many people have in part by building a healthier built environment.
This includes promoting walkability and bikability in part to reduce air pollution.
So I wanted to be an urban planner, though that is unlikely to happen. Maybe I get to be the next Jane Jacobs not via writing a book but via blogging.
Or, you know, I die quietly on the street in the near future and never make a mark on this world. Whatevs.
But that is a large part of why I am interested in community development work: Because the right built environment helps me stay out of the damn ER and off all the drugs people want me to take.
I was especially interested in housing issues when I was still in college trying to get an education appropriate to my career goals. I think my life and health would be vastly better if the world could resolve the current shortage of basic, decent housing and I think I am far from the only one for whom this is true.
There is an episode of Star Trek called The Way to Eden. The Wikipedia description doesn't entirely match up with my recollection.
I remembered this movement as being very much about "Our lives don't work because our bodies don't work because of tech and excess urban development making us sick." It's possible I focused overly much on what may have been a lesser influence on that storyline because it resonates so much with me and is, in some sense, MY storyline.
More than a decade ago, I got evicted from an apartment and when relatives said "No, we can't take you in at this time." I decided I was NOT going to go find another apartment. I felt strongly my apartment was a large factor in why I was so sick.
So, long story short, I bought a tent and pitched it in a patch of woods. After three nights sleeping in a tent, I felt vastly better than I had in many years.
So I emailed my boss that I was quitting and would not be in to work that day and left town. Thus began nearly six years of homelessness.
A decade-plus later, I'm much, much healthier and my life is slowly returning to something vaguely resembling "a normal life."
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder. Had I accepted what doctors were telling me -- that the problem is entirely that my genes are defective -- I likely would have died a long time ago.
But I didn't. I proceeded to do what I could to alter my physical environment and begin lightening the load on my frail body.
Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a condition in which people in a building suffer from symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building in which they work or reside.Because of my experiences, I firmly believe that Sick Building Syndrome is much more common than is recognized and a much larger factor in the health problems of many people who are getting told by doctors they simply have a defective BODY.
I think we have a defective built environment and we can mitigate the terrible health problems so many people have in part by building a healthier built environment.
This includes promoting walkability and bikability in part to reduce air pollution.
So I wanted to be an urban planner, though that is unlikely to happen. Maybe I get to be the next Jane Jacobs not via writing a book but via blogging.
Or, you know, I die quietly on the street in the near future and never make a mark on this world. Whatevs.
But that is a large part of why I am interested in community development work: Because the right built environment helps me stay out of the damn ER and off all the drugs people want me to take.
I was especially interested in housing issues when I was still in college trying to get an education appropriate to my career goals. I think my life and health would be vastly better if the world could resolve the current shortage of basic, decent housing and I think I am far from the only one for whom this is true.
