ProWomanProLife

This started out as a post about why I love Sundays. And mostly, it shall continue as one. However, in my Sunday morning puttering, I’ve been reminded that today is the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision in the United States of America. The Canadian anniversary of Morgentaler comes on January 28.

So. How to combine what was a happy Sunday morning with reminder of these decidedly unhappy events? I think I shall do it in the following way: by continuing with my Ten Reasons to Love Sundays, thereby declaring one obvious thing: Bad things are a part of life, but that doesn’t mean we give up the good. Does not celebrating the small stuff help us to find that right combination of grace and courage to fight the bad?

TEN REASONS TO LOVE SUNDAYS

Breakfast, no rush.

Random reading. A little Statecraft (Margaret Thatcher), a couple of pages of How then shall we live? (Chuck Colson) combined with Facebook status updates.

Cleaning my winter boots (with polish).

Skipping church. A decidedly non-rebellious form of rebellion. (If I had gone to church, I would have included going to church as a reason to love Sundays. I am pro-church, but whimsical, for those of you concerned about my spiritual frame of mind.)

Getting ready for next weekend (forward thinking!).

Second breakfast, likewise, no rush.

The fine art of puttering. Here, sorry to show off, I excel.

Making additional tasty salad dressing for vast quantities of leftover salad from party the night before. You’ll want to keep this recipe on hand. Never before has a mere salad solicited so much praise. Why the leftovers then? Because I made enough for 1000 men, marching strong, that’s why. (As everyone knows, strong men marching want nothing more than a Napa Cabbage Salad afterwards.)

Reminding myself of what my guitar sounds like. Must. Learn. F.

Thinking about skiing. Considering skiing. And eventually, though not quite yet, skiing.

(File under “Nothing in particular.”)

Just in case you needed another reason to forego breast implants, serious health risks are being reported for PIP implants.

All women with faulty breast implants should have them removed given the ‘uncertainty and lack of knowledge’ about the extent of the problems, a leading surgeon warned today.

Tim Goodacre, a member of the Government-commissioned panel investigating the scandal, said the latest estimate of rupture rates was “very much higher” than he would consider acceptable.

About 50,000 British women are thought to have received the silicone implants made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) filled with gel meant for mattresses.

All of these make sense. I think I struggle particularly with numbers 3 and 7 (overthinking/comparison and forgiveness). But thankfully, as per #10, I can dedicate myself to improving!

This creeped me out and made me laugh at the same time. I have no idea why OB wants to apologize to me, but there ya go, I fell for the gimmick and put in my name. This one’s for women, although a man putting in his name would be pretty funny too.

What am I talking about? Click here.

Pro-life, pro-choice, pro-crazy… Sometimes you need to get away from it all. One of my life principles is to watch Blue Crush as often as possible. Yes, alongside other films like Nacho Libre, I make time for what is truly important.

So. Today, I link to this amazing accomplishment of Hawaiian surfer Garret McNamara–who recently beat a world record by surfing the largest wave in the world! Pretty wild. I watch it and can’t believe he wasn’t crushed by the sheer force of the water–but there at the end, out he comes, still standing. There’s an allegory in there somewhere, for someone. Enjoy.

If Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation could be personified into a cartoon character, it would have to be Ursula from the Little Mermaid. They basically deliver the same message and ask for the same payment. Have a look and see whether you don’t agree.

Back in January, I wrote a post about PlanB posters at my place of work. It’s about time I updated that post. After initially contacting the marketing director, I was informed there was an ad company that rented those locked poster spaces from us. The ad company was contacted and asked to change the posters because they weren’t cohesive with the facility’s “family oriented” identity (their words, not mine). The posters were changed by the ad company owner about a week after but then were changed back to PlanB posters again at the end of month (when the posters are usually changed) by the regular delivery person who does this job. Once again, management contacted the ad company and requested the posters be changed. They were, and no PlanB posters are currently in the building and should not be in the future.

The moral? This whole endeavor took a lot of time and effort on the part of management, there were phone calls and follow-ups. I’m the only person that had questioned the posters in a building with about sixty employees. I’m incredibly grateful to my co-workers for their support but also recognize that this is perhaps not an isolated event. I don’t work in a vacuum, it’s just a gym. So don’t be afraid to bring these things up, who knows what kind of change you might effect.

Thanks to my friend Mr. T (he knows who he is) for drawing my attention to this funny but slightly off-colour Super Bowl ad. Guys, whatever you do, don’t do that. You’re welcome!

_____________________

Andrea adds: Funny. And who says men and women are the same? I’m not clear what the ad is for, though. “We’ll write your Valentine’s messages for you?” That strikes me as (another) way to lose points with your wife/girlfriend. (“You couldn’t think of anything nice to say all on your own?”)

…I dedicate this post to Bell Canada. Watching this is better than therapy. Enjoy.

_____________________

Update: Had to watch again. Why? Because today I got mail from Bell Canada. They’d like it very much if I’d return to be their customer again. As I told them on the phone when they called me about this same matter, I already am a customer. Then I asked them not to contact me again. Guess they didn’t jot down those parts–either about me being a customer or not contacting me again. Therapy. This clip is therapy.