For the gift of life. Yesterday I found myself at church an hour early. As I prayed the Stations of the Cross in the parish’s garden I became aware that being alive is more than enough. It was a time of knowing not only that all will be well, but that, in some way all Is well. It is heaven on earth for me, and I have not felt it so purely in about three years. If it is like the past this burst of happiness will last for days if not weeks. And I am so very thankful.
Sad Oil
Overheard outside church (which overlooks the Gulf of Mexico) this morning:
Woman gesturing toward the Gulf: But it is our Gulf!
Man: No, it is BP’s Gulf. British Petroleum’s.
The truth is that while this spill is unusually bad and rare it should not be entirely unexpected. When you choose to open an area to offshore drilling, you choose to accept the oil; the immediate jobs and the ability to thoughtlessly use energy, as worth the risks and potential costs of workers dying, crucial habitat being destroyed (along with the animals, of course) and jobs disappearing. Yes, some fishermen may be able to help clean up the spill, but who wants to go on vacation to an oil drenched beach covered with dead fish?
The woman was wrong. It is not “our Gulf” in the sense of belonging to those who live alongside the Gulf. It was long ago given away for the “greater good” of the country, and yes, for the immediate benefit of the Gulf Coast residents who profit from the oil industry.
As I watch the price being paid I cannot believe that it was worth the gain. But I say nothing because I am not really watching. I am once again going to the gas station to fill up my car and drive away. Goodbye Gulf.
Census Controversy
Why does the census differentiate between a “biological son or daughter” and an “adopted son or daughter?”
I thought the idea was that adoption gave your non-biological child the same legal status as your biological child.
Why is it that “parent-in-law” is an option, but instead of “child-in-law” it is “son in law or daughter in law?” Not that I’ve ever heard someone use the term “child-in-law” but who says “parent-in-law?”
And if your parents were from Taiwan are you expected to identify as “Chinese” or “Other Asian?”
Simplified and No Stress
I just realized that all that simplifying must have worked. In 38 hours I need to have the contents of our apartment packed into our car. I have not started yet and I am not worried about it.
Suddenly I suspect that I will be able to maintain my standards of acquiring only the basics. Maybe my ideals for the environment and giving to those in need aren’t strong enough to keep me on track, but there will always be laziness. And right now owning less is looking really, really good.
Peter Singer & Mother Teresa
It is difficult to get a liberal arts degree without encountering the thought of Peter Singer, a philosopher at Princeton. Singer is perhaps most widely known for his work on animal liberation, but in pro-life circles he is known as the man who believes that the unborn are just as human as the infant in your arms… and concludes that infanticide is sometimes acceptable.
As a pro-life-every-step-of-the-way vegetarian, I was almost always more confident in dealing with Singer than my meat-eating “animal loving” pro-choice classmates. But there was one argument of Singer’s that I had to accept: it is morally wrong to enjoy excess while allowing others to suffer and die from a lack of resources. Distance is no excuse. Others might insist that distance is everything, and that we help others based on proximity and community. But as a Catholic1, I must accept that we are required to help others because of the inherent value of human life.
The inherent value of human life does not change based on whether a friend’s child is drowning in a nearby pool (yes, I must jump in and save the child, even though it will ruin my fabulous new boots) or a child I have never met is starving halfway across the world (yes, I must forgo buying the boots in order to pay for food and medicine for the child).
Which brings me to Mother Teresa. Rachel reminded me of the popular anti-abortion quote from Mother Teresa:
It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
I knew that it was out of context to apply the quote to a situation of slightly increasing the chance of miscarriage for women in order to allow them to live with less physical pain, but I try to accept all opportunities to examine my life2.. So I considered what I have done with my body so far this year. I have eaten a lot of white flour. That is not good for growing a healthy baby, but pretty hard to feel guilty about since it was a financial necessity, and it is not likely that simply not eating would have been a better choice for preparing my body for pregnancy. The ramen was slightly less excusable given the unnecessary MSG, but it is hard to believe that such a small amount would actually have a significant impact given the fact that have-I-mentioned I am not actually pregnant?! Maybe it will sit around in my body for years and ruin everything… but that does not seem likely.
I thought some more and remembered the two times that we stopped at Taco Bell. I looked up the nutrient information for the vegetarian burrito which is my usual choice and still did not feel guilty for harming my body. But what of the money? It was slightly less than $5.00 so far this year, but totally unnecessary. I could have waited until we got home to eat some lentils and bread. And the money could have gone to provide food for someone who really needed it.
I do not in any way feel guilty for making choices with my body which may perhaps someday make me more likely to miscarry a child. I am guilty for failing to provide for real children who exist in this world right now. I do not feel guilty for taking painkillers which enable me to function normally, I am guilty of consuming more than I need rather than giving to others who are in desperate need.
I know that my standard is stricter than Singer’s and that he only insists on giving up gross luxuries. But I am pro-life and cannot believe that my comfort is worth more than another person’s survival.
I also know that I cannot hold myself to an impossibly strict standard or else I will break down and do nothing. It is okay to occasionally buy chocolate, garlic, or avocados even though they are not necessities. I also know that not everyone is called to give up their own material desires so that others may live better lives. But I am not convinced that it is okay for me to do only the minimum required by basic human morality.
These past few months have taught me how little I really need to spend to get by. And I hope to continue living with as little as possible so that we can give as much as is good. We will resume occasionally buying portobello mushrooms, but we do not need to ever return to having expensive dairy products as a regular part of our diet (and all dairy seems expensive to me unless you like pet goats). We will use the air conditioner in the hottest months of summer, but we do not need to have a large apartment or house to keep cool. We will fly or take road trips to see family, and even just to take vacations sometimes, but as we earn more we will give more rather than focusing on what we can acquire to make our lives better materially. I will buy more clothing in order to meet the basic societal expectations of others, but I will not buy things simply because it is fun or cute to have more.
I may never accomplish much, and I will never meet others’ standards for what it means to really be “pro-life” but I can at least meet my own standards of goodness. And for me that means valuing the life of the child in Zimbabwe as much as the child next door. I cannot imagine allowing the child next door to die of preventable disease so that I can eat young Thai coconuts and wear a new skirt. I understand that others will have their own standards, but this is where I fall under the influence of both Peter Singer with Mother Teresa. I hope that you’ll hold me to it.
1. My husband thinks that he can come up with a Thomist argument to counter Singer. I don’t think that he can, but if we continue to differ then we will just have to move to Mexico City. That way we will share the same view of our obligations. Nice, right?
2. While there is the significant reality that I may likely never be pregnant I still find it valuable to make choices as if pregnancy were likely at some point.
I am thankful 4/25/2010
For physical pain. As long as it isn’t too strong it wakes me up. And that is good, right? I guess that I am also thankful that it isn’t actually bad. I am not yet thankful for excruciating pain.
For cheap paper products. We may be destroying the environment, but my life is made much easier by everything from envelopes to toilet paper.
Carpet. Nice wood floors are nice, but concrete is improved by carpet.
Sex, Drugs, and Pain Control
Allison brought up a great point in a comment on my last post: when it comes to choices related to reproductive health, why not err on the side of caution?
The most obvious answer is that we should not settle for error if finding the correct answer is an option. But certainty is hard to find in this world, and I believe in the primacy of the well-formed conscience. So, when one is deciding for oneself, it is perfectly appropriate to subject oneself to a tough standard in order to be cautious.
There is, however, a world of difference between choosing to “be cautious” in one’s own life, and holding up the same standard as a universal obligation.
I believe that everyone should make a point of getting adequate vitamins and minerals (preferably from the perfect diet, of course) and that almost all sexually active women should take prenatal vitamins during their reproductive years. Half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and folic acid, for instance, is crucial before most women even know that they are pregnant. I am not concerned as much about folic acid for myself since I get a lot of folate in my diet, but as a vegetarian I do have to watch out for some other B vitamins (B12 in particular) and iron for my own health. Supplements are not as good as a perfect diet, and may be a complete waste for some women, but most people are lazy, and taking a multivitamin is the least they can do to prepare for a healthy pregnancy, even if they are not planning on pregnancy.
That seems pretty reasonable to me, but there is so much more that all women could do, if we really wanted to err on the side of caution. Somehow though, I cannot expect all women to have all amalgam fillings removed months prior to conception, stop wearing makeup, coloring their hair, using traditional cleaning products, maintain exactly the ideal weight as well as ideal cardio fitness, stop eating all refined flours and sugars, chemical additives, or non-organic meat or dairy, and insure that their husbands complete a full detox and vitamin regimen months before ever having sex. I might do all of those things myself, but it is not a reasonable universal expectation because it is not only likely unnecessary, it is also inconvenient.
And if I could not tell other women to stop eating fast food while pregnant because it is inconvenient, how much less could I tell another woman suffering from endometriosis that she may not take artificial hormones when she is in significant pain?
There is yet another problem with the desire to “err on the side of caution” when it comes to women’s1 reproductive health: sometimes being “cautious” may actually be harmful.
A pregnant woman who has the flu may decide that her baby is more important than her discomfort, so she refuses to take anything to ease her symptoms. She then goes for days with a fever and vomiting, exposing her baby to both the risks of fever and dehydration.
Or perhaps another healthy woman reasons that she should not exercise during pregnancy because doctors frequently instruct women not to exercise if they are at risk for miscarriage. Better extra safe than sorry, right? So the pregnant woman gains unnecessary weight, her obstetrician may freak out about fetal macrosomia and require a cesarean, and “erring on the side of caution” unnecessarily caused respiratory issues for the baby.
And what about the woman with severe pain from endometriosis? If we urge her to “err on the side of caution” and not take hormonal birth control, what is the most likely alternative? Often her doctor will suggest high doses of NSAIDs. If the woman has pain daily, she is likely to take painkiller every day. If her pain is only associated with menstruation, then she will be instructed to begin taking the NSAIDs prior to the point when her pain typically starts. In either case, she is more likely to become pregnant than a woman on the pill, and would be taking the medication prior to knowing that she was pregnant. With the pill there is only conjecture about miscarriage, and currently little fear about birth defects. With NSAIDs there are studies linking the drug to increased rate of miscarriage and birth defects. So it is possible that in urging women to “err on the side of caution” we may actually be urging them to try an alternative which is actually more likely to result in miscarriage or birth defect.
We must all weigh relative risks and research our options for ourselves. At the moment I cannot see how “erring on the side of caution” can be good universal advice when it comes to reproductive health.
1. And it is always women’s reproductive health that we’re concerned about, isn’t it? It does not matter if there is evidence that abnormal sperm morphology can cause miscarriage. No one is going to worry ask whether your 40+ overweight husband is causing miscarriage or suggest that he should not take his blood pressure medication because it is an abortifacient. So a woman may only take the pill for pain if a couple is willing to live with complete abstinence, but there is no problem with a couple having sex while the man continues to work at a place which exposes him to toxins which we know impact sperm quality which we know is correlated with repeated miscarriage?
Birth Control Pill an Abortifacient?
If you spend much time in pro-life circles you are likely to encounter statements that birth control pills cause abortions. These people are not talking about a woman waking up after a night of drunken stupidity and downing her roommate’s month worth of pills. They are asserting that hormonal contraceptives, as regularly prescribed and taken, have an abortifacient capacity.
The argument goes like this:
The pill works in three ways: it prevents ovulation, it thickens cervical fluid, and it thins the lining of the uterus which prevents implantation.
So, what happens if a woman take the pill, and it fails to prevent ovulation and thicken the cervical fluid? Conception may occur and since the embryo cannot implant, it dies.
Those who oppose abortion and accept this argument are understandably horrified. Couples often feel tremendous guilt for “unknowingly aborting their children” and women who genuinely need hormonal treatments for gynecological problems suffer greatly rather than turning to the pill since it is clearly evil.
I alternate between sadness and anger each time I see this happen because something is missing. Sure, if you test the thickness of the endometrium of a woman on hormonal contraceptives you will find that it is thin. But no one has ever told me how exactly this is different from the thinness of the uterine lining of every healthy woman each and every cycle prior to ovulation.
I have not been able to find any evidence that the uterine lining fails to thicken when breakthrough ovulation occurs. Women get pregnant while on the pill precisely because the uterine lining does not remain thin and “hostile to implantation” once ovulation has occurred. The hormones are all tied together, and I cannot find evidence that the pill is somehow able to change the way that ovulation works when it occurs, and the natural results of ovulation.
I am well aware that I may be missing something, but I have never seen this point addressed in all of the if-you’re-on-the-pill-you’re-killing-your-babies materials that I have read and watched. And I believe that this point is well worth addressing before filling people with guilt, shame, and fear. There are many wonderful reasons to avoid contraception, and we do not need to resort to fear tactics in trying to convince others to be open to life.
If you know that I am wrong, please comment with a common-sense English explanation, and link to a reliable jargon-filled scientific source.
(Sub)urban Foraging
I have been interested in urban foraging since I first read about the concept. Who would not want to walk around their neighborhood gathering fresh food, saving the environment, and having fun? Alas, the opportunity to move to Portland and pick wild berries did not present itself, so I waited.
Until one day I saw a weed. And my husband said “yum.” So we started picking wild green onions, or chives, or whatever you want to call them. I am hardly an expert at urban foraging, but here is what I have learned in the past month.
Be careful. Urban foraging should help you avoid pesticides and other nasty chemicals related to conventional farming. But there are still risks from cars, dumping, and even animals. Check for suspicious residue from oil or antifreeze, never taste before thoroughly washing, and always use common sense.
Be conscientious. After making certain that you have the right to forage in your preferred spot, you still have to take care of the land. Do not over-forage, destroy plants, or interfere with any animals- even if they are pesky pigeons!
Be fast. It is obvious that plants grow and fruit ripens quickly, but when it comes to urban foraging there is also the risk that what you see as a garden paradise may be seen as a mess to be cleaned up by city workers. The other day I saw some wild onions by the side of our street. The next day I returned to pick some, only to find that workers had just come by to trim the weeds!
What should have looked like this: looked like this:
Since I was there right after the city workers I was still able to gather some of the “pre-trimmed” green onions. They were a bit yellow from the sun, but worked perfectly in Spanish rice for lunch.
So far my (sub)urban foraging efforts have been limited to green onions and berries, but I hope that it will eventually be a regular part of my life. After all, urban foraging is good for the environment, good for your health, and good for the budget. What is not to like?
Do you have any tips for urban foraging?
I am thankful 4/18/2010
For sunshine. I know that I have listed this before, but I am still amazed at how happy good weather makes me.
For certainty, even when it is only certain that we are moving. At least I know to clean and pack!
For avocados. Especially cheap avocados. Yum.
For a very understanding husband who does not interpret “my hormones are really messed up” to mean “nothing I say is worthy of a thoughtful response.”