No Fooling

It’s sadly amusing to think about what my plans for today, April 1st, 2012, were. I was going to make vanilla pudding and eat it out of a mayo jar in public. I was going to sneak into the library before opening and hide all the rubber bands and pens. I was going to hack my brother’s facebook account and change his relationship status.

Now I’m avoiding going to sleep because I don’t want to think about tomorrow.

I don’t want to think about wake up early and packing the bright pink outfit I’m wearing for the funeral because pink was my Aunt’s favorite color and we’re all wearing it to honor her.

I don’t want to think about the long silent car ride to my Grandparents.

I don’t want to think about standing in line and meeting all the people who’s lives my Aunt touched with her beauty and go-get-em attitude.

I don’t want to thing about sitting there and listening to my sisters play Amazing Grace while I try to remember that my Aunt is in a better place. I know that she is in a better place, and I know that even though that’s a good thing, that I’ll be regretting never getting to tell her how much I admired her and never getting to say good bye.

I don’t want to have to be reminded all day of how really fragile life is, that you can be healthy and young one day and gone the next.

I don’t want to watch my big strong Uncle cry.

I don’t want to watch tears running down my little sister’s face and not be able to ask her questions.

I don’t want to cry myself.

But all this is going to happen on a day when I had been planing on grossing people out by fake eating mayo. Tomorrow won’t be any type of joke. There won’t be any fooling around, although in the back of all of our minds I think we’re still hoping a little bit that someone will jump out and say “Hey no worries! She’s not really gone forever! April Fools!”

But that’s not going to happen, and that’s the cruelest joke of all.

The Hunger Games

I liked The Hunger Games movie. Like LOVED IT. Judge me all you want, but that's the truth. I've always loved the books, and did love them before they were popular and I really wanted to love the movie, and I was not disipointed. The characters were either as I imagined them, or close enough, the plot was very close to the book and the production value was AM-AZ-ING. You know what one of my favorite parts of The Hunger Games movie was? Katniss’s arena outfit. No, I’m not really the camo pants type, and I’m not huge into windbreaker jackets. But that’s just my point, nothing about her outfit was what you’d call “fashionable” or even “attractive” in fact, it wasn’t all that flattering on Jennifer Lawrence. Shockingly enough even she can’t look particularly good in a drawstring shapeless piece of plastic and baggy camos. And you know what? I LOVE THAT.

I’m sick of every single adventure or action moving requiring the lead female to strip down to a low tank top for most of the movie. I have to ask… WHY?!? That isn’t at all realistic, believe me, I’ve gone on hikes through the woods, the last thing you want to be swinging around is your own bare arms, has no one ever heard of POISON IVY?!? Apparently these characters would rather look “sexy” than actually wear sufficient clothing during their adventure.

Not Katniss Everdeen.

I realized after viewing the film that at no point during the actual Games did I ever become distracted by, or even really notice, Katniss’s clothing. Which is exactly what I believe Katniss (as a character) would have wanted. She’s all about practicality, she never wanted attention drawn to herself, and if it took wearing a plastic bag and pants the color of dead moss, she’d do it.

In a movie with a female protagonist this is a rarity. Yes, Katniss is beautiful, and somehow she gets two great guys to fall in love with her, despite her having the people skills of a turtle. But she never flaunts anything, she’d rather hide in the woods any day then show off her face, or her chest, or her anything. Because that’s not what Katniss is about. Exploiting Katniss’s body was never a point of the film or the books, and I love and support that.

I'll admit that the vast popularity of the books and movie is a little annoying to me. Most of time popularity is an automatic sign to me that I must dislike whatever it is, but with The Hunger Games I'm wondering if this popularity isn't all that bad, if maybe, just this once, it's teaching good things.

All I know is I’d rather let my daughter be a fan of a book and movie series that shows the consequences of violence with a strong female protagonist who wears a wind breaker, than a movie where a sullen teenage girl wearing a low-cut shirt falls in love with two shirtless guys.

Peep-O-Rama!

The library sponsors a "Peep-O-Rama" contest every spring. My fellow Librarians and I enjoy a healthily fierce competition every year to see who wins the Staff contest. My entry this year is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes".

221 B Baker Street.

Mr. Peeplock Holmes himself, complete with pipe, magnifying glass and deerstalker.

Dr. John Peepson, always willing to aid a hand and be fascinated by Holmes' massive intellect and brilliant deductions.

The Sitting Room where all the brilliant crime solving is done. Accessorized with dangerous chemical experiments, maps of London and of course the infamous photo of "The Peep"

Why Pro-Life?

I posted this link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9113394/Killing-babies-no-different-from-abortion-experts-say.html on my other blog and how horrified I was by it. I received several comments that I responded to in the following manner:

Q: Why be pro-life? I mean, do you know what hyperemesis gravidarum, pre-eclampsia, and ectopic pregnancies are? Do you know how physically hellish pregnancy can be for a woman? Do you know all of the different ways that pregnancy can cause mental and emotional distress to a woman? Do you know how emotionally scarring it can be to give a child up for adoption? Or do you just not care about any of that, which proves that your views on this issue are incredibly hateful?

A: I’ve never been pregnant, but actually I know very well what a pre-eclampsia pregnancy is like, I have firsthand experience in fact. Let me introduce you to my mother, she’s given birth to nine children in nine pregnancies, three of which were pre-eclampsia, one of which was me: thus the first hand experience. So no, I’ve never been pregnant, or given birth but I have been very closely involved with my mother’s pregnancies and the births of my sibling, and I know how painful they can be. Yes, pregnancy is hellish, that I know from experience.

But you know what else I’ve been experienced? Waking up every morning the past 6 years to a pair of big blue eyes and curly blonde hair bouncing wildly as my little sister begs me to play with her. I’ve cried with joy when a couple who’s been married 10 years and were unable to have children brought home their adopted son from the hospital. I’ve had split-my-side laughing hilarious conversation with my twin cousins who were born with cerebral palsy and are some of the sweetest kindest people I know.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to give your child away, but at least your child would be ALIVE somewhere, you might feel guilty that you weren’t able to give them the life you wanted for them, but at least you gave them one. I’m pretty sure that guilt would be a lot easier to bear than the guilt of never giving them life at all.

I remember the feeling of emptiness I felt after my family lost a baby to miscarriage; it was like someone had punched me in the gut and then followed up with a series of jabs to my ribs until I couldn’t breathe. The thought of the life that never was still makes my heart ache. Why anyone would purposely bring that on themselves is beyond my realm of understanding.

The subject of abortion is a very emotional one for me because of the simple fact that I love children. As a children’s librarian at a public library I see children from all walks of life, from families that can and cannot afford them and low income and high and I can honestly say I love them all, there is nothing more beautiful to me than the potential in a young child and I firmly believe no matter what the circumstances any child has the opportunity to change the world, and will, because no life is a waste. When I read articles like the one posted earlier I feel sick, and I can do nothing but mourn, I sincerely mourn these children who were not thought as much a “person” as I am to be dignified with the right to a life. I do not hate the people who get abortions; but I do grieve the choice they made. I cry for their child even if they do not because that child deserves the dignity of someone to mourn for them and I am willing to take that burden on.

Q: That fetus could also grow up to be the next Hitler. Seriously, that rationale is so old and makes no sense. Also, no babies are involved in an abortion. Their fetuses. And if you insist on using that rhetoric, what if that woman who had been forced to undergo a pregnancy she didn't want instead of allowing her to obtain an abortion, could have made something out of her life during that time that made her the next Nobel Peace winner? That "what if" stuff is a juvenile way of arguing a point.

A: So you’re insinuating that a pregnant woman couldn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize? My 45 year old mother homeschooled 8 children, ran a business, and traveled across the United States and internationally multiple times while pregnant with my youngest sister. Let me tell you, the woman deserves some type of prize.

One thing the article proves that if we justify abortions of supposed “not babies” it’s the same as justifying the killing of a newborn. Do you consider a newborn a baby if a “fetus” isn’t one?

If so, this begs the question, when is a child no longer a newborn? At what age is this going to become illegal? When they start school? When they start a job and begin contributing to society? Before you go accusing me of slippery slope I beg you to consider where this could lead. If babies are not considered “people” what about mentally disabled people who’s intelligence level is barely above that of a baby? And if we’re including mental disabilities, what about other ones? Why not expand it to the deaf, dumb, blind and those who are unable to walk? What if they prove that people with blonde hair really are less intelligent? Does that classify them as “not people”? Why don’t we kill them off too?

Oddly enough that’s pretty much the exact thing the Nazi were doing, only at that point blondes were considered better because they coincidentally were all blonde. Not only did they kill millions of Jews they also gassed the elderly and disabled. In justifying the murders of unborn children by discounting the concept of the potential that is never given the chance to show it’s self you are in fact representing an idea Hitler himself believed.

When I say “what if” I’m asking you to consider what all the phrase “obtain an abortion” means. It means purposely deciding there isn’t going to ever be an answer to the “what ifs”. Ever. Have you ever held a newborn baby and seen the massive intelligence in their eyes? It is a beautiful feeling and one the most wonderful parts of this life.