A random thought of the day.

Yesterday it was “long freestyle” night at my swim club. This means what you think it means. We swim front crawl, for a long time. I asked the coach to give me pointers on my stroke to make it less boring. He correctly identified that my right arm “crosses over” too much; and I don’t stretch out as much on the right hand side. Therefore, my stroke there is not terribly fluid.

My left hand side is fine.

This is because about two years ago, probably on another long freestyle night, I got a sharp, shooting pain in my left shoulder. Couldn’t keep swimming. My coach told me at the time it’s because of a crossover, which causes some muscles to work that shouldn’t have to. The only way to keep the pain at bay was to swim correctly. Which I now do, but only on the left.

No pain on the right hand side meant I never corrected the right hand side. It is a lot harder to correct without the pain, because I just have to think about it, and it feels unnatural to me.

There’s a lesson in there, somewhere.

Deep thoughts from the deep end, with Andrea.

I remember studying the words of this song in high school. Seemed to me we were learning that it’s about the end of civilization. It’s cooler when Leonard Cohen sings about that, as contrasted with a radical religious right winger ranting. (Wow, that’s a lot of “r”s.)

Fave line:

Looks like freedom but it feels like death
It’s something in between, I guess
It’s closing time

Enjoy.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-0lV5qs1Qw]

I kind of hesitate to link to this, for a bunch of reasons. But I decided I would because I’ve been thinking about the sexual revolution a lot lately and this fits right in.

You have two extremes in discussion of sexual ethics. On one end you have what I’ll call the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic: No sex before marriage, sex is only meaningful within marriage and sex is, in its nature, procreative. Even if it isn’t always, it’s understood that this a reasonable outcome. On the other side you have those who advocate sex is a purely physical thing, that there ought not be broader connections drawn in, that sex is always fine, provided it is consensual. And it ought not be procreative, until and unless you decide it should be.

Those are the basic distinctions on the edges. There are all manner of people who file in between these two extreme positions, but understanding the fringe helps to understand the world we are living in, which has moved away from the Judeo-Christian vision.

Truly, you can be pro-life. That’s an acceptable position even in Canada, even today. But you cannot be in favour of the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic. There is nothing so wildly unpopular.

At the same time, there is nothing so wildly unfulfilling as the other extreme for increasing numbers of people.

This discussion was spurred on by watching the video below.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7oeSAOZwdk#t=134]

Newman Centre, Toronto. June 21st, 7 pm. Daniel Gilman and Jonathan Van Maren talk about “Rescuing our campuses from rape culture, porn and abortion.”

More info at the following Facebook link–but mark your calendar because this is an event worth going to!

Sometimes I have the image of all of us drowning–myself included–in a deluge of bad information, hyper sexualized images, magazines with unrealistic and stupid expectations of women (which today, are largely created by women, so sad).

So events like this are the life preserver… This is not about being religious or conservative or traditional or any of that. This is about all of us thriving–more than surviving–where we have been taught falsehoods about love, sex and relationship. It is time to come out from under.

I share all her questions about why Quebec just legalized euthanasia.

But I am still musing about her final statement, which is this:

I predict history will see each society’s decision about euthanasia as its turning-point values decision of the 21st century.

Indeed, it’s a turning point. But there have been many. And is not legalizing killing of elderly and infirm on their choice a logical outcome of a society that has had legalized killing of babies for decades?

Question might be why this didn’t come sooner.

Come on. This is pretty great. Sister Cristina is a nun/finalist on the Italian version of The Voice. You can follow her on Twitter. Of course.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySc16v1elDs]

Remember, dear friends, that the only people in jail on the abortion issue today are pro-life women. We have all these abortion activists fearmongering that pro-lifers want to send women to jail. But today in Canada, it is two pro-life women who are doing time.

Remember Mary Wagner and Linda Gibbons and what they are doing, for all of us, following the call of their conscience.

Mary just responded to a letter I sent her and included a good quote:

The pursuit of [human perfection] scientifically defined and technically advanced, not only threatens to make us more intolerant of imperfection. It also threatens to sell short the true possibilities of human flourishing, which are to be found in love and friendship, work and play, art and science, song and worship… We triumph over nature’s unpredictabilities only to subject ourselves, tragically, to the still greater unpredictability of our capricious wills and our fickle opinions.” –Leon Kass

Quebec passed Bill 52 yesterday, which legalizes assisted suicide. The worst part is that they’ve made killing part of “healthcare.” While safeguards don’t generally work as we’ve seen from international experience, this bill didn’t bother with any as a starting point. I suppose this means we won’t see a slippery slope, because we’re starting at the bottom.

There’s room for the federal government to do something, because our criminal code still declares killing folks to be, er, what’s the word I’m looking for, wrong.

When an abortion clinic in Toronto advertises it:

Patients who are over 19 weeks up to 23 weeks will need to come for 3 consecutive days. The 1st and 2nd days are for laminaria insertions, and the procedure will be done on the 3rd day. The procedure is done with conscious sedation (I.V. and local freezing). The procedure takes approximately 15 – 20 minutes. Recovery time any where from half an hour to an hour.

If you are undecided about whether to keep your baby, this website sends you to a site, Pregnancy Options, to help with the decision. There, they help women understand that every faith, including Pope John Paul II on behalf of Catholicism, sanctions abortion as a valid, if difficult, choice.

My question is why they aren’t called out for this. Lying to women while claiming to help them equals not cool.

Five predictions about the future of reproduction. Just so we are abundantly clear, I believe all of these developments represent a decline in our world, not “progress.”

(h/t)