BEWARE: CONTENTS TOXIC
We put warnings on everything else these days, cigarettes, plastic bags, electrical equipment, medications, etc.
I'm sure if I'd had one slapped on my forehead in the last few years, it would've spared a lot of people I care about a whole lot of headaches.
One of the most profound books I read when I was in college actually turned out to be part of a class I didn't end up taking. It was John Hersey's Hiroshima, which chronicled the lives of six survivors of the first nuclear detonation used on human beings. Had I stayed in my East Asian Studies class, I would've learned more about it in greater detail, but due to a clerical error, I was told after I signed up that I didn't need it to graduate. But since Hiroshima is a very small book, before I sold it back to the bookstore, I decided to read it.
It took about an hour and I actually still have it.
The reason I mention it is that for the survivors Hersey spoke with, they didn't realize the full extent of what had been unleashed upon them when it happened. Yes, there was absolute physical destruction throughout the city from the blast, but in terms of the radiation exposure, some did not see the first signs for days afterward. And while some effects were temporary, others were much more permanent.
The bitch about toxic people is that they can be nearly impossible to differentiate from non-toxic ones, because there are so many varying levels of toxicity. Some people can be somewhat subtle about it while others, let's not kid ourselves, are just out-and-out radioactive and leave fallout-style devastation in their wake.
Because you're dealing with emotional toxicity, though, the signs are much harder to spot. If it were as simple as identifying a zombie or a leper, then I'm sure it would be easier to flock to healthier people.
Some of the people I've cared about most in this life have proven to be the most toxic to me. Not only did they feed me their own toxicity, but I expanded my own the longer I was exposed to them, and in turn I irradiated a lot of truly good people. It can be a vicious cycle and it leaves those who don't want to get drawn into it no choice but to evacuate as fast as they can and not come back.
I sure as hell don't blame them for doing so. Had I been aware enough at the time to truly see what was going on, I would've hauled ass with them. Instead, I stood at the proverbial Ground Zero and absorbed every isotope I could take in.
As much as I wish it made me into something cool like the Incredible Hulk, it didn't.
It made me a self-destructive, masochistic jerk.
Hopefully, the half-life for getting that out of my system once and for all won't be long.
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