BREATHING
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Breathing is something we do, mostly
without thinking about it. Unless, perhaps, you are a Buddhist or someone
who has learned to breathe “mindfully.” It is sometimes suggested as a good
way to slow down or get past a stressful situation. In the gym we are taught
to breathe correctly as we do various strenuous exercises. We walk or jog
or work out on the treadmill in order to improve our cardio-vascular system
and expand our breathing capacity.
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We
know that breathing is important for life. Try, absolutely essential. Yet,
we hardly think about it.
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We spent several days visiting Jean's
brother, Dick, who is in the Critical Care Unit of St. John's Hospital in
Longview, Washington. He's still there and still not breathing on his own.
It’s pretty serious.
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I've been in hospitals often enough through
the years to see the machines in place to help people breathe. Oxygen is
one of the ever-present treatments available. It is always painful for me
to watch someone who has breathing problems. I can feel a reaction in my
chest, a residual memory from my life-threatening bouts with childhood asthma.
The body is not happy when it can’t breathe.
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We entered several times a day for brief
visits. Sometimes we were encouraged when Dick was breathing some on his
own. Then discouraged when he needed more help. His lungs have problems to
work out before he can breathe fully on his own. In the meantime he is in
a controlled sleeping condition. Maybe he hears us when we talk, maybe not.
One afternoon he responded to wife, Sharon, and daughter, Becky, with movement
of his head and a squeeze of the hand. That's it so far. His doctor and nurses
are cautiously encouraging, but to those of us who wait breath by breath,
it’s painfully difficult to see improvement.
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Dick used to smoke. No secret there.
He gave it up several times before finally giving it up. But damage was done.
It could have been cancer, but wasn't. He has emphysema, which is bad enough.
On top of that there is fibrosis of the lung. Both of these conditions are
bad news for breathing. Many live with those problems, but not comfortably.
They have to be careful about the air they breathe and how much exertion
they can handle. The heart takes a hit.
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I am home now, looking out over the
green fields to the rolling hills of the coast range. It’s crisp and clear
today. Clean. A week ago we had a temperature inversion that held smoky air
down. People weren't supposed to build wood burning fires or burn the limbs
from our recent wind storms. But they did. There were warnings to those with
breathing problems to stay indoors. It was like Los Angeles in days before
they had any smog control programs in place. There are places in the world
where good air is hard to come by. As China is becoming more and more industrialized
there are cities where one can hardly breathe. Air pollution is no joke.
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I am dismayed that our capitalistic system
allows profit for the few to trump the right of clean air for the many. Polluting
industries have politicians in their pockets, allowing breath stealing poisons
to pour out of smokestacks by the score. Texas, for one, wants to build dozens
more such plants and wants exemption from strict pollution controls to do
so. The CEO's of such companies should be required to sit for an hour in
a Critical Care Unit watching someone trying to get enough oxygen in his
lungs to breathe. The Phillip Morris people should be required to do the
same. People who say that humans don't contribute the problem are “blowing
smoke!”
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Of course we are greatly responsible
for many of our ailments. We spoke with three nurses on their break who said
that they thought many of their patients were there due to life style issues.
We don't do the things we know to do and can do to allow us to breathe.
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The Genesis creation story tells of
Adam becoming a living being when “…God formed man from the dust of the
earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” No breath, no
life. Although we don't think about it, we talk about it often, “I want
to catch my breath.” “I lost my breath.” “I need a breather.”
“He's winded.” Life is breathing. When we breathe we have life.
When breathing stops we are gone.
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Leafing through a book filled with songs
about the natural world I was surprised to find few that even mentioned air
or breathing. Earlier poets seemed to take it for granted. Hymn writers usually
use breath of God as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. In these more recent
decades more hymns appear that celebrate air and breathing. You would think
that something as important to life would have more attention. Can’t someone
write a song that offers some hallelujahs for air to breathe and lungs able
to receive it?
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I can tell you that a lot of us will
breathe easier when Dick is able to breathe for himself. Take a deep breath!
─ Art Morgan, February 19, 2007
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