My life changed yesterday when a friend gave me an ecopy of "Natural Causes" by Barbara Ehrenreich. I have heard of her "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" but I hadn't been aware of her many other books that sound very attractive. This book is sub-titled "An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer". I think the phrase "killing ourselves to live longer" is wonderful.
I enjoy highlighting passages that stand out and the Kindle makes it quick and easy to post the highlight as a Tweet on Twitter. I have only read 11% of the book but I have already Tweeted these passages:
You do not have to get sick and die (at least not for a while), because problems can be detected "early" when they are readily treatable. Better to catch a tumor when it's the size of an olive than that of a cantaloupe.
The author's point is that the words in bold above sound reasonable but the actual experience of "catching" the tumor can develop complications, infections and involve errors that lower the quality of life, a life that is diminishing.
Being old enough to die is an achievement, not a defeat, and the freedom it brings is worth celebrating.
feminist writer Ellen Frankfort replied cuttingly that yes, of course, anything that enters the vagina should first be boiled for at least ten minutes.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer (pp. 1, 13,22). Grand Central Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I am not sure whether it boosts the book and its cover to copy and paste here the excellent image used for the book or not. The image shows the usual hooded figure of the skeleton Death, this time running on a treadmill, no doubt to extend his life. You can see the cover art on the Amazon page for the book.
