I have always been allergic to roses.  Then lilies.  Then perfume.  When it got to the point that I was coughing 24/7, I went for help.  I have COPD with Bronchial Asthma.  I never smoked, but I was born with asthma and my father smoked.  The coughing was not only keeping me from sleeping, but it was painful.  It was like being hit by a Hindu bed of nails in the front of my chest and then, a second later, being hit in the back.  I can’t go anywhere if a person with perfume is there.  Church, airplanes, buses, the Opera, ballgames, pretty much everywhere.  Grocery shopping is an adventure.  An N95 mask helps slightly but not completely.  A bad exposure will have me coughing for days.  It is more accurate to say fragrance, because there is fragrance in almost all personal products.   You might say that your fragrance is offensive to me.   At least to my lungs.

So how did I handle this?  Did I insist that everyone everywhere stop using perfume?  Do I picket perfume manufacturers or stores selling perfume?  No.  This is my problem.  Everyone else loves perfume.  Why should my problem affect how they live?   My choice is to protect myself as best I can from exposure.  Although I do have to say this: only an animal leaves its scent behind.  And some people really overdo the fragrance so that everyone is offended.  My theory, they can’t smell it anymore.

Taking this principle to the next level, so many people are offended by the smallest things.   A statement that is not “politically correct,” tattoos, a dress, a hairstyle, a TV show.  Many of them are offended by major things, such as the cross, or churches, or manger scenes, or the Ten Commandments, or someone’s strongly held conviction.  I offer them the same solution.  Live and let live.  Turn the channel.  Look the other way.  Be whatever you want and let others be whatever they want.  Protect yourself from the exposure, but don’t expect everyone in the world to change just to suit you.  The end game of being offended by others is demonstrated by ISIS.  We offend them so they chop our heads off.  Surely we can at least try to get along with those who offend us.  Or we can just avoid them.  It’s just not that hard to do.   BTW, when I get to Heaven, I’ll be able to smell the roses!