-Isms: Views on life in rural America

While I was reading Abby Ellin's New York Times piece, "I Was Powerless Over Diet Coke," I caught a glimpse of my life from nearly 20 years ago.

Ellin outlines how she chugged three or four cans a day, for nearly 40 years, until she reached a point when nothing felt right. CT scans and ultrasounds led to a colonoscopy, which all came back clear.

Still, Ellin had this nagging feeling her daily addiction to Diet Coke was making her ill.

For years, my daily routine started with a glass of water, followed by one or two glasses of brewed tea and then, I'd down six or seven Diet Cokes. A few years l...