Blue Skies

Beautiful, blue skies today in Southern California, just as it should be, just as it used to be before chemtrails. I guess even the spooks take Fourth of July off!

For those of you who don't yet know about chemtrails, well, all I can say is that you start to do a little research and if you have any curiosity at all, you'll go down the rabbit hole into the world of government spooky business. Chemtrails will lead to underground bases or secret prisons for political activists on U.S. soil or plans for thinning the population or controlling the masses during epidemics cooked up in government labs. It's a deep hole, so watch out!

I started noticing chemtrails about 25 years ago. This is long before they began to appear in online discussions. I remember pointing them out to my then-husband, and we've been separated and then divorced for almost a quarter century. I noted that they hung around much longer in the sky than jet trails, tended to disperse over a wide area, and crisscrossed, as if created by design by several aircraft.

One of the chief reasons why there isn't a general outcry about chemtrails is that people no longer gaze at the clouds. People are just too gosh darn busy to spend daydream time doing that. If they were taking stock of their surroundings, they would see that there is a clear difference between jet trails and chemtrails. There are all kinds of theories as to what chemtrails are composed of and what their purpose is, and it's much too much to get into here, but like the ridiculous explanations our government gave for 911, the government gives equally ridiculous answers about chemtrails. Basically, the official line is that they are really jet trails, that's all. Well, if that's the case, then they're a radically different kind of jet trail, so that begs the questions, "In what ways are they different? Why are they different? How did these differences come about? What is the chemical composition of these trails? Why do they hang around in the air when regular jet trails don't? Why do they disperse over large areas when regular jet trails don't?" This ridiculous response reminds me of government explanations for UFOs, saying they are merely weather balloons. Sure, weather balloons that change colors, change formation, zip across the sky, disappear and reappear in another part of the heavens. That's some weather balloon! Just like chemtrails are some jet trails!

The Role of Denial in Obesity

In yesterday's post, I related the story of an overweight former co-worker. Like an alcoholic before he hits bottom and goes to his first AA meeting, overweight people are so often in denial, not that they have a problem, but that the problem is of their own making. They blame their condition on genetics, lack of time to cook right, or, like this former co-worker, on the struggle she's waged all her life against weight, to no avail. And yet, it's a struggle for me to see the struggle, as any opportunity to indulge in a sweet is never passed up. There doesn't seem to be a struggle at all, just an easy saying "yes" to desserts.

I recall another insightful incident that occurred almost 30 years ago, long before obesity was a matter of public discourse. I was a philosophy student at the time, and an overweight classmate of mine was often telling me how she ate nothing but salads. I found this hard to believe, but I had nothing but her word to go by until the day she gave me a ride home from campus. I glanced in her back seat and saw that it was littered with hundreds of burger wrappers, french fry bags, and empty malted milk containers. Burger King appeared to be the fast-food joint of choice. Rarely does one see such a classic example of denial, someone literally tossing one's garbage behind oneself, out of sight, supposedly out of mind. I realized that the litter in the back seat was something she could not face, and so it might pile up until her husband cleaned it out or paid someone else to do it. But I knew, looking at it, that she would not be able to do it herself. This would bring her face to face with her self-deception, and that confrontation would rock her foundation, the story she had told the world and herself about herself.

Just like in AA, when the recovering alcoholic has to take personal responsibility for his actions, the problem of obesity requires that every overweight person admit that he or she is responsible for the excess pounds. It isn't society's fault or their parents' or their spouse's or their children's fault. It isn't because they were somehow born with a black mark on their foreheads that relegates them to a life of obesity. They have the power to change their lives. But first they must abandon denial and take a good, honest look at themselves. Without such an approach, there will be no lasting change.