INHALATION

It could be that we inhale far more than what we need to breathe. In 1999, I spent two weeks in Manila trying to land a job in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). I rode around town in “Jeepneys” – these undersized transporters that looked like the offspring of a city bus and psychedelic taxi. The ride was anything but comfortable and I was the 6’5″ object of many stares. I got asked a lot of questions by the locals because they love hoop in the Philippines and they knew exactly why a tall black guy was spending time in their city.

At the end of a day’s errands in metropolitan Manila, you realize pretty quickly that you’ve breathed more than oxygen. Emissions restrictions aren’t the same in the south Pacific as they are here in EcoCali. I blew my nose and found it full of ash and what appeared to be soot. The ride in the Jeepney had yielded more than a cultural crash course. I had inhaled more exhaust and chemicals in one afternoon than I had probably in all my years of Los Angeles gridlock. But this public service announcement has more to do with the day-to-day, metaphorical breathing we do.

I’ve been praying lately to see what seeds I plant, what things I inhale that set the stage for failure. Perhaps this is the start of a week where you pay close attention to what you ingest while doing the activities that can’t be avoided. Breathing is not negotiable but what accompanies the oxygen can be.