"talk To The Hand"

[Lauren M]

Let me start off by saying that I am a HUGE fan of Lynne Truss, author of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," a great and really funny book about grammar. So when I saw her next book, "Talk to the Hand," in the Library, I decided to give it a read. FYI: this book is not about grammar, but rather manners (or lack of) in our society - the subtitle is "The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door."

The book is, as I expected, quite humorous, but imagine my shock when I read...

"By contrast, I now can't abide many, many things, and am actually always on the look-out for more things to find completely unacceptable. Whenever I hear of someone being 'gluten intolerant' or 'lactose intolerant', for example, I feel I've been missing out. I want to be gluten intolerant too. I mean, how much longer do we have to put up with that gluten crap?"

She has a point, what is the deal with that gluten crap??

And I think that's the first time I've heard someone say she is jealous of me b/c I can't eat gluten!

Just thought I'd share

- Lauren

[eKatherine]

It doesn't sound to me like she's feeling jealous at all. It sounds like she thinks gluten and lactose intolerance/sensitivity is a load of nonsense, and we're only doing it to annoy her and raise the general rudeness level in the world.

Maybe it reads differently in context.

[penguin]

Look at the reviews on Amazon, there you'll see a bunch of really pissed celiacs.

[jerseyangel]

There was a discussion about this book on the board--

Open Original Shared Link

[glutenexpat]

I think we all need to sit back and think about what we are doing before we fly off the handle with knee jerk reactions to anything having to deal with Gluten, Celiacs Disease, and possible injustices or attacks on us. Before reacting think about how you will come across. Do we really want to piss off the general public and make them the enemy, or de we want to educate them in a positive manner so that they will want to be more accepting and understanding?

I doubt anyone would say to a diabetic that their intolerance to sugar is bothersome to the general public. They would not mention that the special "treatment" a diabetic needs/recieves somehow puts them off. Q:Why is that? A: because many have a general understanding of how damaging sugar is to a diabetic's body. Diebetes is known for the serious disease that it is, but I am sure that it has not always been that way. It is our job to bring Celiac Disease out of the darkness and into the light, but we need to do it in a way that we are not attacking those who do not understand. Be careful not to offend individuals who though ignorant of celiac disease, may attack our way of having to live, or inconvience them, and instead educate them. Tell them about the possible fatal effects of gluten to someone with celiac disease. Tell them how sick ingesting gluten can make us, not to mention how disruptive to normal everyday life it can be. Make them aware that this not a fad diet, but a mandatory Medical neccessity and that you are not being intenionally difficult. (I know there are those that are giving us a bad name by trying to turn the gluten-free diet into fad diet, or who are choosing to be gluten-free because they want the special treatment, why they would want to do this I have no idea, insanity maybe.) I think if we go out of our way to educate the ingnornant/unknowning population that gluten can be just as damaging to someone with Celiac disesae as sugar can be to someone with Diabetes, then we will do more good for our cause and earn more support and understanding then if we fly off the handle bad mouthing those who really just do not understand. If we do the ground work now, then our children and our children's children will not have to face the ugliness that we do, and they will be just as accepted as diebetics are today.

Just some food for thought.