I watch commercials, for example, about drugs' possible side effects. It's amusingly worrisome that the list of side effects are sometimes as long as the commercial itself. Makes you wonder how we live through it all, and it makes you wonder if the world is paying any attention.
I read this this morning on a tube of toothpaste: If more than used for brushing is accidently swallowed, get medical, help or contact a Poison Control Center right away. then do not swallow. To minimize swallowing use a pea-sized amount in children under 6. Yikes. I've done my share of swallowing over he years. I never knew it was a danger. Never.
I read this morning on the Internet: Pepsi Co., facing a lawsuit from a man who claims to have found a mouse in his Mountain Dew can, has an especially creative, if disgusting, defense. An Illinois man sued Pepsi in 2009 after he claimed he "spat out the soda to reveal a dead mouse," He claims he sent the mouse to Pepsi, which then "destroyed" the remains after he allowed them to test it, according to his complaint. Pepsi's lawyers found experts to testify, based on the state of the remains sent to them that, "the mouse would have dissolved in the soda had it been in the can from the time of its bottling until the day the plaintiff drank it," according to the Record. This seems like a winning-the-battle-while-surrendering-the-war kind of strategy that hinges on winning the argument that "our product is essentially a can of battery acid that will destroy pests of all kinds. Please feel free to use it on bugs and snakes and other assorted problems around the house."
Finally, I read this morning on a container of shaving cream: DIRECTIONS: Apply warm water to skin. Gentily rub over skin to lather and shave. Rinse off with cool water for the most comfortable shave. Shave immediately after showering or washing your face. Darn. I've been doing it wrong all these years. Who knew yhou were supposed to a) rinse off with cool water and b) shave immediately after showing or washing your face? I shave first. Does that mean I have to go back and start over in my late teens? And why is there no warning about swallowing? Oh, wait, there is a warning. It says Do not store at temperature above 120 degrees. No wonder those prospectors in southern Nevada wore those long beards.
The point of this, I believe I have one, is noticing what is around us is an imperative. Stop for a second if you live in the country and watch squirrels play. If you're in a city, stop for a moment and watch birds fly around wires. The key to both those sentences is STOP. Slow down. Take a second. Let the breeze take you away.
In words that I use as a benediction many times a year, the Bible says in the book of Numbers
25 the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
And give you peace. Now, the peace that God gives you might not save you from Mountain Dew or toothpaste swallowing, but it does surpass all understanding. It calms you. It restores you. It slows you. It allows you to rest from anxiety that stacks like sand in a pile.
Look around you not so that you can worry about the pea sized dab of toothpaste but so that you can notice what God has for you that you've never paid any attention to.
Starting now, look around at the beauty of Creation, and you will be made to feel peace. And so will the mice in the world.
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