Irony

I've been stuck with a cold for the past few days with nothing much to do but watch old Danger Man segments and browse the National Geographic. The May issue contains a long feature on toxins, fascinating enough, but somewhat buried in the text is a passing comment that struck me most of all.

It seems to me that just about everyone over the age of thirty is concerned with the aging process. Not how to do it gracefully, of course, but how to inhibit -- or even reverse it. Health articles and products abound with claims of how to "cure" the "disease" of aging.

But then the Geographic, in the midst of describing the vast world of poisons, points out that oxygen is the ultimate toxin. Yes, oxygen. The plain fact is that the biochemical price of breathing is aging. Oxidation. And, as we know, rust never sleeps.