are we still doing this?

I just got yet another feel-good, warmfuzzy chain email. Some sappy story about helping the needy. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping the needy, being God to others, smiling when someone needs a smile. That part is great. When I have to keep scrolling to make a wish and pass it on to 22 people for my wish to come true the next day, that's where I get cynical. We just had this lovely story about how God works through people, then in the same pretty font it says if you don't pass it on you have no friends and thus basically are a bad person. I'm sorry, I don't recall God ever promising magic tricks and the granting of wishes for doing a good deed, much less passing on an email that probably has half a grain of truth to it. If some of us spent as much time and care actually doing nice things for people rather than forwarding chain emails, the world might half resemble the stories in those emails.
In James (2:15-16 NASB) it says, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"
Maybe inserting Scripture is a bit much. Or maybe, rather than cluttering people's inboxes with conditional words of cheer and good news, we could go out and actually do some of these things, which is much more profitable for all of us. At least, if you have a really good story to share, don't end it with making a wish and requiring it be passed on or 'you aren't really my friend'.

what's wrong with the world

I was just watching "What Would You Do?" that is an ABC program, and this particular episode was about seeing something happen and not doing anything about it, using a hidden camera and actors to watch how people react (or don't) to something happening. First they use this well dressed attractive younger female actor, who pretends to collapse while walking down the street in Newark (NJ). They said she never waited more than about 6 seconds for someone to stop and help and call 911. Then they decided to see what would happen if they picked a less attractive, homeless man. This time, it took much longer for him to get help: 3 minutes. Then they added a beer can. This time, they counted 88 people walking by before a woman with a cane (who they tell us is sometimes homeless herself) stops and asks passersby to call an ambulance for the man. She keeps at it until finally a woman does stop, and somewhat reluctantly it seems, makes the call. Then, when the cameras come out and start interviewing people, the woman with the cane just quietly walks off while other people stand around to talk to the cameras.
I was touched by this (enough to blog about it!) and disturbed. I was especially affected as the woman with the cane stands there, keeping an eye on the man (who was an actor, but she didn't know that) and never stopping to ask for help for him, b/c she did not have the means to give it herself, no phone, etc. Then she gives him a name, Billy, and keeps up with him after she gets the one woman's attention, and some other people finally stop to help. The pain in the woman's face as she asks people to help the man and gets ignored was painful for me to watch.
This show made me wonder how much it would affect other viewers, and also made me wonder about the world. Why is it that we have to be like this? Most people just do not expend that much energy on caring for and about other people, not in a deep way, and it hurts me to know that, but also that I am limited on what I can do. I also understand and experience the fears associated with this, and how that fear can keep one from doing what one knows is right. However, I guess if people can see this, and take it to heart, and if we can see that the world is not totally lost, that there are still people in it who care, maybe we can have courage to care too.

Did you know...

...we still have dinosaurs? Or maybe I'm reading that wrong. I guess so. My oatmeal asks "Does the term 'dinosaur' apply to all animals living from 230 million to 65 million years ago?" and answers, "No. In fact, some of the animlas living then, like cock roaches, sharks, and crocodiles are alive today." No, my oatmeal was not talking to me, this is written on the package. The other package tells me dinosaur teeth tell us whether the dinosaur ate meat, plants, or both. That I learned in school. I would like to point out, though, that this oatmeal told me this stuff back when I was a kid, which was like 12-15 years ago (which makes me feel really old, but anyway). I feel like the oatmeal had more trivia though, these always say the same thing, and have parts of other trivia on the sides that are cut off, but they all look like that, so I wonder who gets the rest of it. I also must say that I'm not surprised cockroaches knew the dinosaurs...some of them are probably the same roaches! That's also why they'll survive the Apocalypse (see a few posts previous). I just thought you might like to know. What did you learn from YOUR breakfast?

six plus eight equals insanity...

I had not really noticed the whole story about this woman from California named Nadya Suleman who recently had octuplets until tonight when I saw the story on the news on NBC's Dateline. I thought it was just another one of those stories about the woman wanted kids, and accidentally ended up with a few extra due to IVF. No. This one leads me to blog, and that does not happen often. I found the latest article from Yahoo! News after seeing the story on Dateline, so here's what I have to say. In fact, I'm just going to copy the article in here and insert my commentary.


LOS ANGELES – The Southern California mother of octuplets who already had six other children says she's done having babies. -Well, that's a relief. Good idea.
In an NBC "Dateline" interview aired Tuesday night, 33-year-old Nadya Suleman says the octuplets were a sign from God that she should stop having children. -sign from God? forget signs, most sane people would've stopped before six. and this eight was not really an accident in the first place, either.
Suleman also says she dreams of going back to her old life, before she had the octuplets on Jan. 26 and endured a firestorm of criticism and media frenzy. -sorry, maybe she should have thought about that before she put so many embryos in her body at one time.
Divorced and unemployed, Suleman told anchor Ann Curry that she still intends to go back to school and finish her master's degree. -I'm so glad she has solid plans for caring for all these 'creations' of hers. Children are NOT pets, NOT toys, NOT some fun experiment! They are PEOPLE!
Suleman says she'll support her children with student loans until she can find a job as a counselor after graduating in a year or two. -She wants to BE a counselor? I think she NEEDS one! What form of sanity justifies what she has done? How can she be capable of guiding others when she seems incapable of making decisions that will affect someone besides herself?

Another article says Suleman used IVF from the same clinic for all fourteen of her children. There is also an investigation about what they call a "violation of the standard of care" which involves the number of embryos normally implanted in a woman her age, and I am no physician and do not understand all the things here, but in some ways this legal slight is less important to me than what Suleman has done. I wonder if she ever stopped to consider the true possibilities. Did she consider her other children? The Dateline show I saw interviewed her other children, and all of the ones old enough to speak voiced concerns about having enough room in the house, about not wanting that many babies, how it would be crowded and noisy, and not to mention they suddenly must share half the time they already would get from their mother with all the new siblings. Then there's the fact that one of the children is already autistic, and because the octuplets were born so early (as happens with this many babies) there is a good chance at least one will have cerebral palsy, maybe more. I wonder if Suleman has ever seen a child with cerebral palsy? How can you know that risk, the many risks of this, and still decide to try it just so you don't waste some extra embryos? How can you imagine that being a single mother with fourteen children and no job is a good situation or scenario to raise those children in? Being a single mother with no job is a difficult situation to raise one child, much less fourteen. Did she ever stop to think about the ramifications for those children's physical and emotional needs? Food, insurance, all the things they'll need going to school and growing up? Did she forget they are people, that they need love, nurture, encouragement, so they can grow to be positive influences in the world? Did she consider how they might feel if she did this? Who was she thinking about when she said sure lets not waste embryos, throw 'em all in! Then she says she wants to be a counselor. I cannot fathom that. Far be it from me to judge, I do not know this woman and where she is from, but it looks like a selfish move to me, looks like maybe she could only think that she could find love from children because if they were hers they would have to love her, which is something that happens a lot in teenage pregnancies, or maybe she just wanted to be sensational.

I guess I really don't know what is going on here, but I am disturbed by the story and how the mother seems to consider it some fun game, presents herself to the media as not taking this seriously or having not taken this seriously, not considered the ramifications of her actions, and I believe we have the right to do harm to ourselves and make stupid decisions, but when we fail to consider the grave impacts we make on others with our stupidity and lack of thinking, when we forget to consider that even children are people too, there I think we have made a serious mistake.

surviving the Apocalypse

Have you seen Wall-e? I think it's a cute movie, and I love how he has a pet roach and feeds it Twinkies, in what is effectively a ruined Earth. So, after discussing my old marshmallows with my roommate, I have decided I should make a list of things that would survive the Apocalypse. If you aren't on the list, you probably won't make it, and thus stocking up on these things would be a rather moot point, but one never knows, and as they say, luck favors the prepared. Here goes:
Twinkies (I would imagine it might be possible, if one ate enough Twinkies, to survive the apocalypse by absorbing all those preservatives. if you didn't get sick first)
Marshmallows. They don't mold, they simply get less fluffy. I am beginning to wonder if one wouldn't be able to build a dwelling out of marshmallows, because they don't even melt well anymore once they get old, and they might even be a nice insulator...
Spam. That's all I've got on that one. It's spam.
Corn tortillas. I didn't know this before, but corn tortillas are a sort of miracle food. I don't know, maybe they have as many preservatives as a Twinkie (at least the ones from HEB), but we have some from who knows when, and they are still good as ever. They seem to never actually get bad. Who knew?
Roaches. Gross, I really can't stand them, but they are also notoriously difficult to kill, no matter how many times you kill them.
Ok, well I'm sufficiently distracted and can't come up with any more, feel free to comment with some if you think of anything else.

politics

In case you missed it, we just had a presidential election. Apparently that isn't as obvious as I would have thought, because my roommate, who works at the local radio station, got a phone call asking who our new governor was, and upon explaining this was not a gubernatorial race, he asked what he had voted for.
Yesterday, while I was at work, (I had been waiting for this kind of thing all day, and was surprised it took til after noon) I had a customer ask me what I thought of the election. I never really know what to say about these kinds of issues, so I said it was interesting, and either way it was going to be a change, and she said 'oh it'll be a change alright.' Then she said she wondered if Michelle Obama was going to redecorate. I was a little taken aback, and almost laughed. Of all things, to be concerned if the White House was going to be redecorated?? I have been intrigued by reading people's facebook statuses and otherwise hearing random comments from people, some enthralled with this outcome and others ready to pack up and leave the country. Some of my favorite has been the end of the world predictors. We have a presidential election every 4 years, and it has yet to precipitate the end of the world. I will grant that some leaders have taken over countries and bad things have happened, but I don't know that we are in that bad a situation. Maybe if we could all just take a little step back and not rush to the end of the world, it would really not be quite so bad as all that. Although I guess if we really are headed to the end of the world, well, bring it.

Today's OTHER Holidays

Today is traditionally Halloween in this part of the world, but it is also Reformation Day and Día de los Muertos. I wore red today for Reformation Day, and mentioned both holidays to a few people, mostly to odd/skeptical looks. Most people seem to be content with the dressing up and partying for Halloween. I am glad for the other two options of the day, however, because I long ago lost much interest in holidays because they didn't seem to have lot of meaning, and I like these two options because they do. I appreciate celebrating the souls of those who have gone before us, and I appreciate remembering the day that Luther began his challenge of the church. Both are, to me, more like what holidays should be, commemorating something important in our lives and histories. May we celebrate our lives as we remember those who are no longer living in this world with us, and may we embrace our theology and church as we work to make the world a better place and live in God's grace and mercy. Amen.