Why I Love Cemeteries

Parks are becoming more in use, so they are beginning to fill with car exhaust, grilling smoke, etc.  People will probably start bringing bug spray, and in another month, there will be spraying of thistles, etc.

Praise God there are at least two cemeteries around here where they don’t seem to do anything but mow.  Cemeteries are my best chance of escape right now.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) has its own seasons:

Smoke and Propane Season (fall and winter)

Chemical Season (spring and summer)—herbicides, pesticides, lawn treatments,               painting, roofing, sealing, staining decks, re-tarring roads, etc. etc.

Obviously depending on circumstances and area, these overlap.  But the main point is, just as people are stopping the use of propane (putting great amounts of hydrocarbons into the neighborhood air), they start up the use of lawn chemicals.

I am NOT angry with our neighbors or with “society.”  Before I got sick, we used to use propane, smoke (campfires), pesticides, herbicides, paint, etc. etc. etc. with hardly even a thought!  We had never heard of MCS until at least 2 years after I started getting it.

I feel like there are some companies out there with some people who DO know what’s going on—that chemicals can hurt people, even severely—and they do nothing or even lie about it.

Yet, many people can use chemicals with no noticeable damage to themselves at all.  Is it fair to take away chemicals that other people like to use?  (Will the chemical eventually hurt them?  It could, but it is very hard to say about each individual person.  Some people seem to deal with chemicals THEIR ENTIRE LIVES with little or no problem at all.)

Some chemicals seem like they are just plain needed.  (For instance, no matter how sick I get, I doubt we will give up our car for a horse & buggy!  Although our middle daughter & I wouldn’t mind.  🙂 )

We have one neighbor who said they would let us know at least a day in advance before their lawn/pesticide guy comes each time.  (The advance notice helps significantly yet the spraying still carries significant risks for me, even if we go camping for a couple nights.)

Many have tried to come up with ways to start MCS communities.  Many barriers come up:  money (of course), differences in what people with MCS can and can’t tolerate, and worst of all—people so emotionally scarred by MCS that they simply cannot function well with others.

(I am absolutely positive that without God I would be SEVERELY emotionally scarred by MCS.)

That said, the best solution MCS people have been able to find is renovating or building for MCS in relatively remote areas.

In the meantime, I’m safest in cemeteries.  It’s an odd feeling to say that, to be sure….  (Makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time.)

Please pray for me.  I know you “regulars” of mine already are.  Today I am having trouble breathing and neurological symptoms in our house.  (Yesterday I had even worse breathing problems riding through town to get to the cemetery.)  The outside air here at the rental is full of exhaust and other chemicals, so opening windows only makes it worse.  But Steve had to go to Rapid City today, so there is not a single thing I can do about my breathing right now except pray and share my request with others.

Christa Upton       Black Hills Picture Books       PO Box 293    Custer, SD 57730