Author: Rie

Special Topics in American Studies I, Sophia University

Publication permission was granted on 5 August 2025

*

This coming November, I will be having a baby. My life will be changed dramatically, and a baby will need to overcome lots of things. My baby and I have to work hard for a new life.  There must be different tasks that we need to go over, respectively, so I made two calendars for each: for my baby and myself.  

We focused on water because water connects me with the baby during pregnancy and after. I drink water, and it goes to my blood and reaches my baby through the placenta. A baby is protected by amniotic fluid before birth. Even after, I will feed a baby breast milk, and its main components are water and the nutrition that I take. On top of that, after several months, my child started eating weaning food, which is organic and free of chemicals. Additionally, a baby will develop new survival skills. The most typical example is sucking a nipple to drink milk. This sucking motion is the birth. Therefore, I adopt “Lee Sherman and the Toxic Louisiana Bayou”  for supporting anti-chemical water and foods, and “Living Like Weasels” for babies’ instinctive action for survival.  

According to Sherman, he argues that his body grew ill from his exposure to the chemicals (Hochschild para. 20). Chemicals deprived his health in several years after he was exposed to the chemicals in the river. He also explains local people couldn’t eat more than two meals with locally caught fish a month (Hochschild para.22). Moreover, swimming and water sports were banned due to contaminated water (Hochschild para. 23). From these statements, it is clear that water contamination affects our daily diet and health issues. A bird in this article fell after being exposed to chemicals. The chemicals were so toxic that a bird almost died. We should not think it is somebody else’s problem. Water is what we drink every day and use for cooking. People in Japan like to eat raw fish, so we need to pay close attention to water contamination. Otherwise, these toxins can accumulate in our body for years and turn out to be crucial diseases. Think about babies, kids, and aging people. They have a weak immune system compared to healthy adults. Hence, they will easily suffer from these chemicals. This is a serious problem that we cannot dismiss. However, we usually don’t notice the fact that chemicals are used on a lot of vegetables and other foods we buy at the grocery store to prevent spoilage loss. I am sure the government inspected the amount of chemicals, though. We still need to be responsible for our nourishment because if our bodies end up being impaired due to our diet,  the government won’t protect us. Health should be the first consideration rather than anything else. Another remarkable statement I made was about the human instinct to survive.

Nobody taught my baby how to suck a nipple and how to digest food. Babies have never done that, but they can do it after the birth. It is interesting that human beings have such an animal instinct. In the article, “Living Like Weasels,” Dillard notes that “a weasel bit the eagle as instinct taught him” (para. 2). He bit the eagle because his instinct judged he might be eaten, so he bit even though an eagle is supposed to be stronger than him. Fortunately, he won against the eagle and survived (Dillard para.2). This reminds me of a baby’s sucking motion after the birth, as if he had lessons on how to. Perhaps, we, the human race, have been repeating instinctive actions dozens of times. As we get older, we tend to forget about it. This taught me that we can place ourselves in natural feelings more often. The world we live in is way too busy and stressful because we have made it complicated. However, we can become wilder and more honest to our needs like newborn babies and weasels. Let us stop making our lives difficult, complicated, and stressful. Then we will find what is necessary in our lives. 

Throughout this activity, I was able to connect my learning with my daily life. I believe these are tips for better living. It may not sound easy for some people to pay attention to their health and rely on their instincts. Then, they should recall their babyhood and childhood. The world was not as bad as it is now. However, we can change it if we take action now. We can make our life simpler, so we should trust our true feelings and instincts. Our actions will make the future better. 

Works Cited: 

• Dillard, Annie. “Living Like Weasels.” Literature and the Environment, edited by Lorrain  Anderson, Scott Slovic, and John P.O Grady, 2nd ed., Pearson, 2013, pp.155-159. 

• Hochschild, Arlie. “Lee Sherman and the Toxic Louisiana Bayou.” Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, 2016.