FBB Chapter 7- Shelby Gallant

In this chapter of Full Body Burden, I think we finally get the sense of why Kristen Iversen wrote this memoir. As we discussed in class this week, I think Iversen wrote this simply because she wanted to write. Iversen puts it perfectly when she says "I want to write about the two things that have frightened me the most in life," I say. "Rocky Flats, and Dad's alcoholism....It's turned out that the most important story to tell is quite literally in my own backyard. (283). This has been my favorite chapter so far because I felt like I could relate to some things. The one line that I felt I really connected to was "Life feels like a treadmill" (Iversen 276). I think that what she meant by this is that no matter how much you think you're moving ahead, sometimes you don't get anywhere. You exert all this energy on something and expect to get somewhere but in reality you're just exhausted and not making progress. My last thought on this chapter is just how much Rocky Flats has affected peoples' health. The first issue we see in chapter 7 is Tamara's health. After her continuous visits to the doctor we finally get insight on her health. "They find a tumor in Tamara's brain the size of a large lemon" (Iversen 284). However, nothing quite sums up the  growing health issue like the last line of the chapter. "There's no way to prove it, of course. It's all invisible, unseen, and unverifiable. This to me is so powerful in that most people know why everyone is getting so sick but yet cannot do anything about it.