Jilly, the main character in Judit Rajhathy's Free to Fly: a journey toward wellness (2003), sums up how I felt after reading the book: "We've got to do something. I feel like we're living on another planet and that right now we're in some kind of time warp - a flicker of sanity in a very screwed-up universe." Jilly whispers this to her husband during a visit to a "school that was renovated with environmental safety in mind." - scent-free, great ventilation system, skylights, broad-spectrum lighting throughout, healthy cafeteria menu and much more.
The book starts off with a poem titled The Canary by Kathleen Helene Enders and ends with:
I, the canary,
was finally
Free to Fly......
followed by this piece from Silent Spring by Rachel Carson:
Then a strange blight crept over the area
and everything began to change.
Some evil spell had settled on the community:
mysterious maladies swept
the flocks of chickens;
the cattle and sheep sickened and died.
Everywhere was a shadow of death.
The farmers spoke of much illness
among their families.
In the town the doctors had become more and
more puzzled by new kinds of sickness
appearing among their patients.
No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced
the rebirth of new life in this stricken world.
The people had done it themselves.
Free to Fly is the only book on environmental illness and food and chemical sensitivities that I've actually read cover-to-cover. It was recommended to me by a wonderful friend and I would in turn recommend it as an excellent starting point to everyone else.
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