That’s so easy… (don’t forget your kleenex)
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErrzjGCi3gY]
Archives for December 2008
March of the penguin
Since Ottawa transit went on strike I’ve been walking to work. And home. And everywhere else. I am now ready to thank them for the extra turkey I will have over Christmas. All this walking in minus 1000 has to be good for something.
And it begins…
2008 is drawing to a close and the “Best of” lists are trickling in. I came upon the Canadian Press’ 5 best photos of year. Right up this photographer’s alley. My pick would have to be this baby beluga whale as it exits its mother’s birth canal. (I wonder if anyone argued that it was only a baby whale once it had fully emerged from its mother. Nah! That’s ridiculous!)
Meaningful life–simply because
This story in today’s Citizen.
Rob Warner is grateful for his son’s life of 323 days, 17 years ago. He describes how Liam Michael Warner was born with Trisomy 13 and not expected to live two months.
The doctor told him:
Treat him with the same respect and love you would a normal child. There was no need for him to ask us to love our son, but I’m glad he did. It said something about the man. And we listened well.
Warner says he is thankful for that doctor, for friends who supported him, for his wife of “reliable grace and strength.”
He concludes by saying this:
Liam Michael Warner would have been 17 on Dec. 13.
He had a right to be here.
Indeed.
Short lives, long lives, disabled lives–all meaningful lives. I’m grateful for stories like this one–where the human spirit rises over tough circumstances and responds with grace, dignity and strength.
Er…
I’m all for supporting a culture of life, but this is just too much. It gets points for originality, though.
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Andrea adds: Those clever pro-abortion types, making all kinds of funny, satirical toys around the theme of abortion. Because everyone wants to be reminded that we sanitize killing and repackage it as “reproductive choice” this Christmas. Buy one today! Just another way to make money, I suppose, and funnel it back into Planned Parenthood. Though I find this ridiculous, I’ll agree with the reader who commented that it actually proves the pro-life point. I’d been sent the “fetal cookie cutters” before, and the yuck factor is so great with those that you start to wonder, really wonder, about the person who would create such a thing.
Just for fun
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW34kHnpo1g]
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Tanya adds: Love this, and it’s from the most pointless Christmas special ever. Perhaps if they hadn’t based the half-hour special around the California Raisins — not exactly what I call timeless — it would be playing alongside Rudolph, Frosty, and the Grinch today.
Viva Polska
This blog post asks whether abortion should be illegal in Poland (it is currently). It starts out using the euphemisms of reproductive rights, but ends with a more thoughtful line of questioning:
I was going to ask – “Do women in fact have ‘the right’ to exercise such control over their own bodies when it comes to the question of terminating pregnancies?” but decided not to thinking the answer might simply depend on one’s religious tendencies. But then I wondered if perhaps there might be other points of view?
Why yes, there are other points of view! Thanks for asking. Welcome to ProWomanProLife.
Anyhoo, the author points to an article from the UK about how for Polish women apparently England is a popular abortion destination.
This highlights two things for me:
One: If Polish women are travelling to the UK and not travelling to the Czech Republic or Russia, two neighbouring countries where abortion is very much legal and available then they really aren’t desperate.
Two: Polish women are some of the most discerning, stylish, smart, fashionable, savvy women I know. Ie. not oppressed. This speaks to one of my themes–abortion has nothing to do with women’s rights.
This All Things Polish blog, turns out to be very funny, in particular to me, since I have some Polish heritage. Check out Ciocia Halina (Auntie Halina) “your problem is my joy”–which really, really speaks to the, er, shall we say interested and invested nature of Polish families, parents too. Then this post made me laugh: Ten Things to Remember when you Have a Polish Girlfriend. (Note No. 9–she’s smarter than you!)
A terrific read
I just finished Nick Hornby’s Slam, a “teen fiction” novel in which a teenage boy gets his girlfriend pregnant. I’m a big fan – I even like the movie they made out of High Fidelity, even though it is not (or ought not to be) properly “teen” fiction. Lots of swear words and other vulgar things – like in this scene, here.
Anyway. None of that in Slam. Just a touching story very nicely written. At some point, the girlfriend, Alicia, has “the” conversation with her mother about whether she should keep the baby. It doesn’t last very long:
So you don’t know what you think yet, do you? You can’t possibly know whether you want to keep it or not.”
“Oh, I know that,” said Alicia. “I’m not killing my baby.”
“You’re not killing a baby. You’re –”
“I’ve been reading about it on the Internet. It’s a baby.”
Alicia’s mum sighed.
“I wondered where you’d been getting this stuff from,” she said. “Listen, the people who post things on the Internet about abortions, they’re all evangelical Christians, and –”
“Doesn’t matter what they are, does it? Facts are facts,” said Alicia.
As I said, a terrific read. Not preachy at all. Just, you know, real.
See it. Feel it. Believe it. Own it.
The post title is a quote from an old Saturday Night Live sketch. (I believe spoken by a very passionate and earnest hairdresser, quickly, with a pout a la Blue Steel from Zoolander. My sister and I have been imitating these things for so many years, I don’t even know where they came from anymore.)
Anyhoo. What I want is for people to “See it. Feel it. Believe it. Own it” on this–the hollowness of a culture that thinks “choice” is a value in and of itself.
So a little exercise for you. It’s “Holiday Season”–the winter solstice is coming soon–and there are a lot of holiday songs/movies being played everywhere. These oftentimes mention “values”–Joy, Peace, Hope, Faith. Even life.
Everytime a carol/movie mentions “life” as something to be celebrated, I find myself noting that very few songs, poems, sonnets celebrate “choice”.
So a little exercise: try substituting the word “choice” for every mention of the word “life” or “joy” or “love” or “faith”–and you begin to see how “choice” is not actually all that meaningful or celebrated.
“It’s a Wonderful Choice” with Jimmy Stewart. “Choice Actually” with Hugh Grant. “Choice to the world, the lord is come,”–sing it with me.
Yes, this is a little strange, but let’s face it. I run a pro-life group/blog. By every cultural standard–not normal. What were you expecting?
Best new blog
ProWomanProLife won the Best New Blog category at the Canadian Blog awards.
Thank you to all those who voted. Being pro-life in this day and age is certainly not done for the accolades but I’m pleased, I’ll admit, that we won, and by so much. Recognition for this cause is hard to come by, and hey, I’ll take it wherever I can get it.
I also thank this team—Sheryl, Teresa, Raji, Rebecca, Tanya, Patricia, Véronique, and especially Brigitte, who designed the site, and keeps us up and running. This result is not news, per se: I have known since we began, and certainly without any kind of competition, that you are all the very best kind of women.
We raise our glasses (coast to coast) to the cause–to dismantling superficial anachronistic notions that abortion is a “right” and that it somehow serves women well. Cheers!
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