The Question on Life

Let's look at it from a legal standpoint.

Is the unborn a person with a right to life?

This question asked on a public forum full of unbelievers and believers alike. Here was my answer to the question.

Life means something to me. The fact is...there is no more amazing thing than the development of a baby in a womans body. I am a Christian and I do believe that life comes from God. He knew this baby would be created. He knows his or her name, his or her purpose and has a plan for that little life. I am amazed that in just a couple of days 8 cells go to 100 - at 6 weeks - about the time a woman is finding out that she is indeed pregnant ths little baby has the beginnings of eyes and ears...it is intentional and fast moving.

That is my emotional basis...and I stand by it wholeheartedly.

Does this child have a right to life? Absolutely - it was created, whether by mistake or intent does not make a difference. I think the question most pertinent here is whether you believe it is a baby when it is conceived or not. And here is where it bogs down every time.

And perception is what makes this so frustrating. A woman in her early 20's aborts a baby because she is not at a good place and hates to have her young figure stretched out of shape and carry a child to term when she has no intention of keeping it. This same girl gets married at the age of 28 and gets pregnant and miscarries a week sooner than she aborted her previous pregnancy. She is devastated because she lost her baby. Did she consider it a baby when she aborted it the first time? Probably not...she didn't want to because it made it easier for her to clean up the consequences to an action she took. So what made it a baby the second time she conceived? The fact that she was prepared and at a place where she could care for it and love it?

That doesn't wash with me. It was a baby the moment it was conceived...it was well on it's way to life with her or someone else who desperately wanted a child and it got snuffed because it was inconvenient. That is selfish and irresponsible. We love to have our fun but don't want to carry the responsibility of the consequences of our actions. It is easier to call the baby a fetus...because it allows us to emotionally seperate ourself from what we do not want to bare.

Okay....I know - the previous is not legal reasoning...The following is my best effort.

The child was conceived and is well on it's way to the promise of life. 100% of the childs genetic makeup was determined at conception...It is a distinct organism...the beginnings of a child from the moment it is conceived. When a woman chooses to have sex she understands that there is a possibility - no matter how small, that she can become pregnant. Her and her partners actions created a child. This child deserves to be given the chance to live.

The same argument used to support abortion - "it is a woman's body and it is her choice to rid herself of that child if she wants " can be used to support making it illegal. " The woman who chooses to have an illegal abortion has made a choice, it is her body and she knew the possible consequences of her actions." An argument is inevitably made that the life of women was not being considered before abortions were legal. Sunday night back alley abortions were turning into masses of Monday morning emergency room visits. This is greatly overstated.

"In 1940, the National Center for Health Statistics confirmed just 1,313 deaths from illegal abortions, most of them from infection. As antibiotics became available and surgical techniques improved generally, abortion-related deaths fell sharply: 159 deaths in 1966, forty-one in 1972, the year before Roe." This was prior to abortion being legalized. All things considered....murdering 1.3 million babies per year (current number) vs. less than 50 women in 1972 dying from having illegal abortions and probably much less than that if abortion were never legalized...well - there is just no comparison. These women who made choices to abort their babies and more than likely knew their chances were at best risky for a problem occuring but decided it was worth the risk not to have to carry that child to term. While all along they know full well that sex sometimes does cause babies and yet they do not have to deal with the consequences? There are very few of us that lucky when we do something we know has a chance of a bad outcome.

I had a Grandaddy - He was at the end of his life and he had alzheimers. He did not know me...he did not really know anyone. My Mom quit her job and took care of him. My only reaction from him was anger and toward the end not even that. Now...he no longer had any understanding of his situation. The entire family - though we loved him was pretty miserable toward the end of his life and we could see he was miserable as well. And yet we would not kill him. His life though hard and full of misery toward the end was still valuable. Ending his life would be wrong. It would be murder.

Women - who are liberated and who can do what they want with their bodies cannot carry a baby to term? They can have sex when they want but do not have to deal with the consequences of their choices? They can murder a child because it is inconvenient? Of course it is their body. But the fact is - they are carrying a baby, and had part in making it. They knew what they were doing and the chances of what could happen. And yet - they can murder that child. It seems twisted to me that a child at the very beginning of its life hasn't got the protection he or she needs to be able to make it out of the mother's womb.

My Grandaddy...not aware...no hope of life before him....do not murder. A baby - not aware - hope of a wonderful life before him...murder it if it is not convenient. The geography of being in the a Mother unwilling to accept the consequences of her actions being the apparent problem here. It is a waste. And it is heartbreaking that others can't see that...

There is help for women who become pregnant and are not in the right circumstances to raise the child on their own. There is a place they can go to get counseling, support and help. And there are plenty of places for those babies they carry to find homes. Abortion is not the answer to their seeming problem. It is the beginning of many more.

People Watching

I love to watch people. When we go to a restaurant, my husband and boys all try to face whatever TV is in the room so they can watch whatever baseball or football game that happens to be on. Me, as long as I have some folks around I am good. Can watch people and try to figure them out all day. Love it. Well...it bit me in the butt one day...literally.

I USE to run. I would go to the YMCA after work - at 5:00 in the afternoon. There were business types all around me...all the dinks and yups you could stand. Everywhere. I would come in and find my treadmill. It was the one that was facing the mirror. Gave me a good view of all of the people. I would watch the older and the younger come in...who was flirting, who was intent on their workout, those who looked like they would rather be anywhere else. I was pretty good at running and doing that. But...on this fateful day, something would go wrong.

As I jogged that great rhythm and watched the other folks around the gym something went terribly wrong. My foot managed to hit the side of the treadmill. My rhythm was thrown...somehow I stumbled uncontrollably falling to my knees....remember....the treadmill was still going. As my knees hit the treadmill the backward movement threw my body forward and as my body hit I somehow managed to flip to my back and was catapulted off the back of the treadmill to the carpet right onto my tail and then back. "That is what those stupid things you are suppose to put around your wrist are for" kept going through my head....until I saw all the faces over me. As I stared up at the ceiling, suddenly there were at least five people standing over me asking if I was okay. In my usual smooth and silky way I jumped up, feeling the blood rush to my face and murmured an embarrassed "I am okay- thank you" and pretty much walked as fast as I could from the room. I had only minor tread burns on my knees and mostly was pained in my pride.

What came to me later was - how often do I take my eyes off of what my focus should be? I take my eye off the ball and somehow manage to misstep and fall. My focus is pleasing my Lord and Savior. I place my eyes on the people around me instead...I have a horizontal view verses the vertical view and I stumble, falling hard and having to gather my wits and broken pride, humble myself before my Lord and Savior once again. I have to ask forgiveness and start all over again. Trying to remember next time to keep my eyes off of the people and on God. I am a much more successful person when I do this.

Needless to say, I never went back to the YMCA. I moved my membership and when I ran on the treadmill I did my best to focus on what I was doing...didn't want THAT to happen again! Of course something like it would...I am after all me.

Glimpses of Me

Have you ever seen yourself in a picture and not realized it was you? I saw myself in a photo at Christmas one year...somehow my head had been cut off...and I just looked and looked and kept trying to figure out who it was - until I recognized the overalls and the shirt...then it hit me. That is me...how in the world did I get to looking like that? Funny in a way, scary in another...but mostly sad! Time and age has slipped up on me. My issue is that I am an older person who has younger children. I kind of feel twixt and between two worlds. At my age...my mother had teenagers. I on the other hand am chasing three young children. So as a whole I don't feel old. My body is changing...the pillow wrinkles take longer to fall out these days and my metabolism has skidded to a halt just about...but I do not see myself as I really am. I am always shocked when I see myself in pictures.

But what has really started disturbing me lately is the fact that I am seeing glimpses of myself inadvertantly in conversations. I am talking to people and I am hearing and noticing things I have never really noticed before. I have become flaky. Have I always been this way? Am I just noticing it now? Or is this something that middle age has brought to me? It is a bit disturbing. I talk TOO much and about assinine things. I am pretty sure this has always been...I just never noticed it until recently as I watch people's eyes glaze over while I am talking to them. I have adopted a filler word - and it drives me nuts because it comes out against my will....for example: "The boys have orientation Tuesday and then we will probably go to the pool for a while after that......(long pause) anyway..." Anyway...what is that? I use it ALL the time. I hate it.

These things...well...embarrassed about. Really wish I could change the extreme flake I have become and the constant babble that flows from my mouth. Thinking out loud so to speak. Other people do not need to hear my thoughts on bandaids and chin hair. Quite honestly...I am appalled when I somehow manage to step outside of myself and I hear the blah blah blah coming out.

I guess the main question I have is...is this because I am older and paying more attention to what I am saying and how I am being? Am I (once again) too self involved? How much of it do I try to correct? Or do I try to correct it at all? I am how God made me...should I try to learn to be comfortable with that? Or....should I realign my purpose with God's purpose. Should I control that mouth and those thoughts and become intentional about what I say...what I do...and how much time I am taking to do it? I go back and forth honestly. I want to be "that person" but can I honestly be "that person"? God help me know. Help me change what is not glorifying to you and bag the rest...

I really hope that some day as I am talking to someone the glimpse I get is more attractive...or maybe...just maybe I will be so unselfinvolved that I will not even see myself at all...I will be seeking to serve and uplift someone else to the point that I am not the issue at all...hm.