New Travel Destination List

here!

;)

how neat!

Atheists Against Abortions

Two posts ago I referenced a blog in which a couple decided to have an abortion because their baby was diagnosed with a particularly rough form of cystic fibrosis.

I've thought about that story often. 

I wondered what an atheist response might be. And so I googled it. Apparently there is a collection of "pro-life humanists"who argue, 


Would we kill a two year-old whose father suddenly abandons his unemployed mother, in order to ease the mother’s budget or prevent the child from growing up in poverty?    Would we dismember a young preschooler if there were indications she might grow up in an abusive home?    If the preborn are indeed human beings,  we have a social duty to find compassionate ways to support women, that do not require the death of one in order to solve the problems of the other.

Life is hard-- avoiding conflict does not make it less so. 

Why it's worth it

Why the change of heart-- of direction-- of sciences? 

Because of stories like this:

My most worthwhile moment came on a patient assist call, one that's common among the elderly. Arriving at the apartment, we tried the door, but it was bolted shut. We heard the faint cries of a man inside. With no choice, we pried open the door and followed his voice. He was lying on the floor in his office, surrounded by pictures of his wife, who had died a few years earlier. He explained that every night before bed, he would go to his office and kiss her good night. That night, he had fallen and could not get up. After helping him, we provided a temporary fix to his door and gathered our gear to leave.

I hesitated for a moment in the foyer, out of sight. As I waited, I heard him say, "Good night, sweetie. Good night, honey. I love you." Then he kissed her good night.

Stealing Anne Lamott's words...

[a therapist said] "When an animal has escaped from an attack in the wilds, when, for instance, a wildebeest outruns a lion, afterwards that animal will shake for a while--not in terror, not trembling like we do when we're traumatized, but physically shake hard, to shake it off, to shake off the fight-or-flight chemicals and condition. That is how they begin again, get back to the fullness of their animal selves, in the present, in their bodies, which is life for them, and for us."

I said, "But I'm such a scaredy cat. Not a caribou or a wildebeest." She said I WAS, though, a gazelle with dreadlocks. "But how do I shake it off? How does a human?"

She said, "Shake with laughter. Walk as fast as you can. Dance and shake around the living room to the Rolling Stones. Cry if you need to--cry as hard as you can. Eat with gusto, like Julia Child. Drink a LOT of water. Shake it off in prayer, by crying out from the heart, not your poor old mind. Ride your bike as fast as a kid; like you used to; like the wind. Shake it off, honey." 

On life and death...

and abortions. 

I don't have a definite opinion on abortions. I know they're often kept secret like miscarriages and both are grieved in silence. This article made me feel uncomfortable and sad. I don't agree with the author's choice, but I can easily empathize with her. 

I thought one commenter summed it up best, 

"I'm 33 and have CF.  I'm an attorney, married, and living an incredibly full life.  The world is better for witnessing those who live with and overcome challenges, or respond and accept those who need help.  There is no way any prenatal care team could predict life outcomes by mutation alone.  Period.  Life can be hard and challenging.  It is not made fuller by avoiding potential hardship."

While I can't claim to know as much about CF as the author, I do have a new perspective from the genetics class I'm currently taking-- and from my A&P professor, who told us about the exciting new work being done that involves inserting a virus into the lungs of a person affected with CF. The virus is able to re-code an affected individual's DNA so that the cells don't produce the mucus they are supposed to. With technology like this, how can the author be certain of a child's early death?

Life can be hard and challenging.  It is not made fuller by avoiding potential hardship.

None of us know the days or hours or minutes we have left. Maybe Annie would have died early. Maybe she would have lived to ninety-nine. Maybe she would have been killed in a car crash on the weekend of her fourteenth birthday. 

Her parents mourned her loss either way. 

Overcoming addiction

I've found the best way to get a song out of my head is to listen to it.

The best way to "diet" is to eat a small portion of what you're craving.

What is the best way to stop thinking about someone?


ahhh... I thought I was over all this nonsense.

Mistake #1: I will never stop being ridiculous!

C does not = PA

she's talking to me.

This gave me chills