So, I was contemplating my cookie dough last night. Part of my diet that started years ago was that I’d behave all week and reward myself with a quarter batch of chocolate chip cookie dough on Thursday nights.
As it got to be more of a regular thing, it grew, and I wound up freezing lumps of it. BUT that’s not the point.
The flour bag has a warning on it. A warning. On the flour bag. “Flour is raw, don’t eat without cooking.”
I feel that we’re sucking the life out of ourselves and our children. Now, before I get any lawsuits over this, I will state that yes, it IS possible to get sick or even die from eating raw cookie dough. In fact, 30 people a year die from cookie dough ingestion. In comparison, 41 people a year die from lightning strikes. So, it’s more likely you’ll die from lightning strike than cookie dough.
But, old people (of which I’m one of ‘em) remember the stuff we used to do that would make people pale in fright! Like, going out alone (with friends, of course) on Halloween begging for candy. Or riding your bike all day without any real worry about getting home at any particular time as long as you were home for dinner. Talking to strangers. And stuff like that.
But to me, more important things are at stake.
For instance, you can no longer tour most of Grand Coulee Dam, or Wells Dam, or a lot of other facilities. And yes, I understand that we might have some terrorist that might manage to sneak a bomb in and blow the dam place up. But, much like cookie dough, how much are we willing to lose to protect ourselves? How much enjoyment and pleasure are we willing to give up for a marginal increase in safety?
Bike riding. Now you practically have to put on a suit of armor to ride a bike. We have headguards, shin guards, leg guards, elbow guards and so on. Lemme tell you, nothing teaches like pain. You learn to be a lot more respectful of hitting the ground if you might skin up some precious skin.
How about car seats? Can we just find a way to get them back in the front seat again? We have miracle electronics – can’t we find a way to detect what size person (or car seat) is in the front seat and deactivate or change the characteristics of the bag? Having the parent constantly watch the back seat for the kid’s activity is a dangerous thing too, and missing out on conversation between parent and child about what’s going on out the front window is a sad thing.
I dunno.Maybe it’s just a function of being old, thinking there’s a better way to do things. But on the other hand, maybe we need to consider living just a little dangerously.
So, eat some cookie dough. It’s great!