Life is made of impressive experiences, not all pleasant. But one of the things I have learned throughout 38 years of being on this planet is that it's you, as an individual, who has to be responsible for filtering what life gives you and fight for your happiness. This points towards a lot of facets in life, but simply put could simply mean that for those who love reading a good book, they should find that really nice tree far from all, washed by a warm sun-shower, surrounded by solid grass that accommodates body and dreams. For those who love writing, they should find that solace soul asylum in the comfort of a coffee-shop surrounded by people carrying stories and with these experiences, facts, that all mixed together provide the dew for a nice tale. For people like myself, who love reading and writing and science, as if the physical body needed that for sustaining itself, a blog is the right atmosphere and vehicle where I process my natural addiction.
I'm a knowledge fiend, not a geek. I don't consider myself unfashionable. I don't see myself as socially inept. Nevertheless, contrarily to the current trend in our modern society I don't see the need for fashion as important as the need for education, be it in myself or in others. As to what regards making and maintaining friends, I am very much a person who loves the possibility of trusting people. But for me a friendship is not a position, a status, it's an entity that needs caring, feeding, respecting, cherishing, and a portfolio of trust and shared experiences. If that is not present, it's not a friendship at all but a mere social 'obligation'.
When I started this blog I started it for myself. I was going through rough times career-wise, and needed to feel relevant to some aspect and degree. I needed to be involved, I needed to participate and contribute. It's not easy to be left out when you have so much energy within you, the will to make a change, the drive to construct but there is no scenario available for you to start building that rapport. Those were tough times, indeed. Where I needed to find my stage to let the wave of contribution flow freely, and regain myself as a capable professional, individual, human being.
I looked around in the world to be seen and touched and I realised there was ever little space for a science blogger to write in his own mother tongue. English is still the drive through in terms of global communication. How would I perform in a language that is not mine? Like everything else you're an alien to, there is only one way out... the way in! So I gave it a go. I started writing about current topics that concerned Toxicology, my long lasting passion, whilst relating to more domestic issues that could be easily interpreted. That was SEVEN years ago. I have no idea what change I made to people's lives but I surely hope I have been making my humble contribution... for this is the secret that needs to be extracted from your bones as a delicacy - the privilege of contributing. This is what values the human being in our very fragile and short physical experience in this planet.
Some governments totally forget that what in fact values and makes their citizens worth is the options created for these to offer their unique individual attributes. If one has no chance of contributing, one has no platform to express the qualities that do not replicate and assemble from being to being. Believe me you are all unique. You are all capable of things that can only be achieved if you untangle the shackles of reduction others impose you with their esteem-killing criticism.
Seven years ago I started this Toxicology blog because I wanted to feel more a toxicologist I was by then. With the different degrees I obtained, the work experience, the life experience, fathering two beautiful children and being married to my very first real love, I here remain a servant of my own self-imposed dream. The only thing I will ever fear is mediocrity. By mediocrity read unfulfilled potential that needs nurturing for the greater good. Fear and inhibitions imposed by others upon your consciousness will never free the great human being that you keep inside. All you have to do is take a stand and believe. Have a slice of this passion cake, it's on me, The Toxicologist Today.
Read freely, Write freely, Think freely.
Ivan Lafayette
(The Toxicologist Today)
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