This is a GREAT movie. I’ve seen it and I recommend it unreservedly. A tale of love. Of compassion. Of what one person can achieve. In select theatres March 4 and 5–sign up for updates and then go see it!
Am I really living?
It’s a question I’m asking myself since my friend and fellow blogger Faye sent me a link to this blog. I didn’t read too much but I gather a beautiful young woman who is also a mother has terminal cancer. This may not appear to be the best Happy New Year! link but I think it just could be.
She made me think about whether I am really, really living while I am alive. As I drove home tonight, was I thankful for the fact that I was able to drive? That I could listen to the news? That it wasn’t hard for me to drive, and that I got home safely? Simple questions, raised by her blog:
And now, now I’m learning what it is to die by degrees. Parts of my body failing, parts of my abilities vanishing, and what then? Yesterday, I kept thinking- I drove for the last time and didn’t realize it was the last time. I don’t remember the last time in the drivers seat or the music we played. I just realized I will likely never again drive. It’s this weird event that marks the fading of a life, and I have no feeling other than wonder over the fact that it’s over. That chapter. All the driving my body can no longer do will now be captured by my community, my loves, my people. And there will be other strengths that will languish, and my people will press into love and provide us the needed strength and support to manage that new edge.
Read to the end. It’s sad but not depressing. She puts her faith in Jesus. You might not do so, but there is something in her blog posts even for non-Christians. The question is how to press into living, how to make the most of each moment. It is hard to write about these things without sounding trite. But the questions are worth asking.
I am pro-life. So am I really living?
12 days of Christmas by a large family
Bah humbug!
I have learned about the effort of some this Christmas to withdraw charitable funds from those who would serve pregnant women in their hour of need. Every Christmas story has a Scrooge I suppose. I was watching A Christmas Carol recently and was reminded that the main point of A Christmas Carol is entirely lost in advertising. They never show his transformation to a generous, happy soul at the end of the movie.
For now, enjoy this clip from my favourite version (the only version, if you ask me) of A Christmas Carol:
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYHmQT_7a2c]
Pre-natal testing not totally accurate
Many women do abort on the basis of what they consider to be a bad prenatal diagnosis. I know of one. Please think of them when you read this article, because they are highly likely to already be conflicted over their decision, and this is a very hard thing to read:
A report from Beth Daley at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting explores the story of a Rhode Island woman named Stacie Chapman, who very nearly terminated a much-wanted pregnancy at three months after a prenatal blood test called MaterniT21 predicted that her baby probably had Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards Syndrome, a serious chromosomal disorder that can lead to severe birth defects. (The median lifespan for a baby with Edwards is 15 days, and many die long before that.)
Chapman called her husband sobbing when she heard the news, then scheduled an abortion for the following day. Her doctor urged her to wait, and a follow-up test showed that her baby didn’t in fact have Edwards; her son Lincoln Samuel just turned 1 and is perfectly healthy.
“Special” on Parliament Hill
Having wiped the tears of laughter from my cheek, let me now continue.
The group that planted the flags received “special” permission because all displays on Parliament Hill need “special” permission. In a very “special” process called “applying” that you and I can all do, because it’s Parliament Hill and we as Canadians own that “special,” “special” space and can “apply” to “use” “it.”
So. By way of example, if the Society of People With Heads Up Their Asses (SOPWHUTA) wanted to plant some flags on Parliament Hill, they’d need “special” permission, too.
And would anyone look into that?
No. Perhaps because that’s a club they are in.
PS Who, by the way, actually believes that the Prime Minister is personally involved with approvals for displays on Parliament Hill? Really.
PPS This non-story really got my goat. Because if there is one thing that is very, very, VERY true, particular with the current government, it’s that pro-lifers don’t get special treatment. Precisely because the government is so keen on drawing lines between themselves and pro-lifers, more often the treatment is a negative special treatment. So this story simply draws attention to the great abyss between what actually happens and what people think happens.
Culture, consent and Jian Ghomeshi
Abortion is not about abortion, it’s about relationships. That’s why I’m taking more time to research post-sexual revolution relationships and ethics. Together with the lovely Rebecca Walberg, we will write a book about this. Here’s an op-ed getting in on some of the Jian Ghomeshi discussion. 
Place your order today!
Perfect made to order babies. They won’t be ready for Christmas though. It costs a lot, but if you get what you want then it’s worth it, for example a girl, not a boy in this case. Or, the right eye colour:
The same goes for details less crucial than avoiding disease, as Steinberg is about to reintroduce a service that caused quite a stir when he first announced it back in 2009: the ability to select your baby’s eye color. “We put it on hold because there was such an outcry. Even the Vatican called [to protest],” he says. “But there is so much demand for it. We’ve got a waiting list of 70 to 80 people.”
P.S. This is sarcasm as I don’t really believe that ordering the gender, eye colour or babies in general is a good idea. In fact, I must confess to being against IVF in every circumstance, for heterosexual couples as for homosexual couples. These are thorny, tough questions–painful, emotional–especially in my demographic of great women who really want a family but are getting older in the context of fertility. So I shouldn’t tread here flippantly.
Two cultures, one demeaning attitude toward women
Johanne Brownrigg has this piece up at MercatorNet. Certainly challenges what we consider to be “female-friendly” in our culture (abortion) as contrasted with cultures where they practice barbarism of other varieties (female genital mutilation).
I do see some substantive differences between abortion and female genital mutilation. We have a pretty hefty percentage of women, not girls, who take themselves to the abortion clinic. They are not under anyone’s thumb but their own. I’m not sure female genital mutilation is practiced with an eye to being freeing. Neither am I convinced that most women get abortions with an eye to sexual autonomy. (A fringe might see the abortion decision that way, but most women getting abortions are not doing so to please the patriarchy.)
But still, the culture gives us leeway to think abortion is freeing, good and what’s more, culturally acceptable and necessary. And so it is with female genital mutilation too.
Questions for pro-choicers
Katha Pollitt in an article in which she sought input from pro-lifers. At the end she writes:
I wonder what answers pro-lifers would get if they asked similar questions of pro-choicers.”
The questions I’d have for pro-choicers would be (and from my experience, they are similarly reticent to compromise or dialogue):
Why are relationships a zero sum game to them?
Put differently, why can’t the mother and the child both thrive?
Are they resolutely confident that unwanted pregnancies always remain unwanted?
Are they resolutely confident that human life in the womb doesn’t have any cosmic significance?
If they had every assurance that the law would be kept out of it, would they campaign against abortion and increase support for women in all circumstances including pregnancy?
Since female biology includes the ability to get pregnant, why are they so down on that?
Can they see the point that pro-lifers make that access to abortion requires women to be like men?
Well those are some of my questions. I’d be glad to get non-snarky answers. Katha found that hard and to be sure, the snark goes both ways.
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