They're baaack! We pulled two ticks from little Benji the other day, and I found one crabbing up my leg in search of a place to snack.
I decided to write about the threatening little bloodsuckers as a reminder that even the tiniest among their lot can seriously harm so many of us without making their presence known.
These despised passengers we inadvertently collect from foliage as we brush past can inflict permanent disabilities.
The lasting effects they can inflict can be enormous. Jeanetta's youngest daughter, Kara, still deals today with the debilitating effects of a tick bite years ago.
There are numerous known diseases we contract from ticks, none of them pleasant. Those range from the well-known Lyme Disease to one that can prevent us from consuming meat and dairy.
Known as Alpha-gal syndrome, this one is a recently identified type of food allergy to red meat and other products made from mammals. According to the Mayo Clinic, "In the United States, the condition is most often caused by a Lone Star tick bite. The bite transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into the person's body. In some people, this triggers an immune system reaction that later produces mild to severe allergic reactions to red meat, such as beef, pork or lamb, or other mammal products."
Here's an ominous list of tick-transmitted diseases. So don't say ol' Mike didn't warn you.
Lyme Disease, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Powassan Virus Disease, Borrelia miyamotoi Disease, Borrelia mayonii Disease, Tularemia, Tick Paralysis and the familiar Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Brush with disaster
Gilda Skrmetti wrote the other day to tell of a GodNod she experienced years ago that has stuck with her ever since.
She was working at the time as a computer consultant for Arkla Gas when its data center was located in Shreveport, La.
Her typical workweek was four 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday, when she'd drive to Shreveport on Sunday evening via Interstate 30 to Texarkana, then take the scenic route through Lewisville to Hope, and I-30 back home to Little Rock on Friday mornings.
"On one return trip during a torrential downpour, I came around a curve to find a huge pine tree had fallen across my lane," she said. "I saw headlights coming toward me in the oncoming lane so I couldn't swerve left, and there was a dropoff on the right.
"I only had a split second, so I decided to pray and just keep going straight [through the tree]. I could hear the branches scraping along the passenger door and felt a crunch as I drove over the tree, but when I emerged on the other side the car was still running, so I thought it best to keep driving till I found a safe place to pull over.
"Well, it wasn't too long before I came to a gas station where I pulled in and told the attendant what had happened. He put my car on a lift and checked it thoroughly. There was no damage underneath and not a scratch anywhere. I attribute this GodNod to my guardian angel."
And who are any of us to tell Gilda she is mistaken?
Forgoing credibility
I'll never understand how any news enterprise that depends for its long-term survival on credibility would willingly choose to damage itself severely by alienating roughly half of its potential readership base because of political favoritism.
Unlike we who write opinions for a newspaper, those employed as reporters and editors with guidance from their publishers supposedly exist to gain the trust and good will of all their potential subscribers and readers through remaining objective rather than obliging 50 percent or fewer.
Sadly, a discerning reader (and likely the not-so-discerning) can easily spot slanted reporting within the first few paragraphs through word choices, story play and the reputation of the newspaper or TV station.
I've never seen such bias, partisan politics and inaccurate reporting in the same vein (clearly aimed at social engineering) infesting the news of the day. And what's worse, I see no end in sight.
If we knew
If we could know the number of minutes we each have remaining in this strange world, I believe most of us would make so many different choices about how we'd use what remains.
Would you hate or love others more? Give more or take more? Would you continue to emphasize the transient and hateful politics we've allowed to absorb our time and energy?
Would you continue to accumulate material things to comfort your physical wants? Would you forgive others? Would you adjust your priorities? Would you vow to never take another moment for granted? How about grudges: Would you continue to hold them?
So many among us take for granted the life we know at this moment as if it is a permanent state. The harsh truth is it so easily can be gone before tonight. In fact, I wonder how many reading will no longer be with us by week's end.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at [email protected].