Beauty & The Beast

I have been avoiding this page – maybe avoiding is too harsh – there were campaigns, an election, significant collective growth, the holydays, family gatherings, business responsibilities and opportunities…and then…more madness than should be allowed. The blog running through my head for the New Year has been usurped by what I am compelled to write now.

Collectively, we have been dealing with insanity and madness since our incarnation it seems – so many wars…so many lies…and the weird thing is, we keep falling for the same lies and lines for an eternity – are we really that naive?

I know something about personal insanity; my cousin Steve created a slogan for our extended family – “The Shahin’s don’t suffer from insanity, we revel in it.” It makes us smile a smile and chuckle a chuckle that reminds us from whence we came and also the amazing human spirit that allows us to grow, morph, and evolve from challenging conditions.

My husband always told our children that it’s pressure that turns coal into the diamond. Aren’t we diamonds yet? The pressure sure feels strong enough; but then, I remember being in labor for our first, feeling “pain” and telling my RN mother-in-law that I was having contractions. She looked at me knowingly smiling and said “next contraction come see me “- when I did, she felt my womb and affirmed “yes dear this is a contraction…but they are going to get much stronger” that’s when I realized that my experience was going to be much more profound than I imagined. And indeed, it was.

That’s where we are with the current collective stressors; we thought we had enough pressure with these wars in Afghanistan, Iraq… now the over the top situation of occupied Palestine – the pressure is more profound than we imagined ~ Question is, can we use it to propel us to evolve?? That’s what significant situations do – they impel us to change, take a leap or we stagnate…

WAIT, isn’t this a blog about Non-Toxic Beauty? What does WAR have to do with this… For one, WAR is Toxic on so many levels but here we will look at its environmental health impacts which return to us in human health issues.

The legacy of contamination that War leaves after the cease-fires or Peace is accomplished, continues to wreak health havoc on “losers” but also on “winners” as well for decades or longer!

Often “environmental hot spots” (industrial sites, oil refineries, power plants, chemical plants etc.) are military targets, which intensify the toxic burden. Add to this oil & chemical spill impacts.

Wars have always been about domination and expansion no matter what the rhetoric or who the created enemy is; the Victors stole more resources, be they human, animal, water or land. Today’s Victors also receive the hidden casualties of their wars: contaminated water, forests, soil and air, cluster bombs, impacts of depleted uranium all harm human health; what spoils of war is this?

The thing is about these toxins and environmental/health impacts is they no know geographic or political boundaries. Remember Chernobyl? The banned pesticide DDT found in penguins in Antarctica and plastic permeating our oceans.

War doesn’t make any sense, even if there are deep-rooted differences; the impacts are just too great and grave. We know that hate hurts the hater not the hated…war hurts everything everywhere. Nature demands cooperation to work correctly and when we ignore those demands we pay.

The only ones who benefit from war are weapons manufacturers, but even this is short sighted because they are not immune to their own poison. Allowing others to manipulate our politics and ethics to the point where we succumb to occupation, oppression and war means collective suicide.

Through research, we are realizing that our beauty is a reflection of our underlying health! If our water, air, soil etc is unhealthy how can we be healthy? and therefore beautiful?

All the already existing toxic impacts we need to deal with are exasperated adding war into the mix.

After reading this you may feel overwhelmed and just give up on natural products all together but, as Frances Moore Lappe, one of my favorite authors says about the times we live in “It’s far too late & far too horrible to be hopeless”.

Yes we can live together honoring our similarities & differences! We really don’t have a choice~

There is much hopeful work happening all over the world and here are 10 amazing links for your information, inspiration, involvement

Daily Good http://www.dailygood.org/
Karma Tube http://www.karmatube.org/
Shalom/Salaam http://shalom-salaam.net/forum/
United Plant Savers http://unitedplantsavers.org/
Oceana http://www.oceana.org/
Organic Consumers Association http://www.organicconsumers.org/
Care2 http://www.care2.com
Environmental Justice Climate Coalition http://ejcc.org
Redefining Progress http://www.rprogress.org/index.htm
PowerShift http://powershift09.org/about

One Planet, One People, One Love – Christine