Dear America,
"There is a mysterious evil,
which surely is not the work of God
but penetrates silently
into the folds of history...
at times it seems to take over
and on certain days its presence
seems even clearer than that of God's mercy."
Pope Francis, recently
-- and we begin again --
good day
this is blog one thousand and one --
but who's counting, right?
anywho, for one reason or another, this pope has annoyed me since day one; but no surprise there.
but this morning, as I read this, over and over....
It's like, seriously -- this is your wheel house, Francis.
Mysterious evil?
where's the mystery? Can't we just call a spade a spade?
This, not so mysterious evil, has a name (many, actually) -- Satan. Lucifer. Prince of Darkness. The Devil. Beast. And even...and one of my personal favorites, The Dickens. just to name six.
What Mystery? There is no mystery; for God so loved the world, HE allowed this "mysterious evil" to live among us in perfect disharmony, allowing for the quintessential battle of wills, if you will, to have its day. Good and evil -- living freely together, side by side, making way for mankind to live in free play, complete with plenty of free falling of our own undoing, while all the while, giving free will free reign to have its way with us.
The beauty of this, is that it gave mankind the freedom to grow in relationship with God on a daily basis, while giving the individual the freedom to make his or her own choices, whether morally, intellectually, physically, or what have you.
The world, as we know it, is not still; it is the conglomeration of all of its parts, in constant motion, constant flux, constant conflict, constant labor, all the live long day; even this thing called climate change isn't anything brand spanking new. it's been around and around and around. but what ever.
The beauty of this, is that it gave mankind the freedom to grow in relationship with God on a daily basis, while giving the individual the freedom to make his or her own choices, whether morally, intellectually, physically, or what have you.
The world, as we know it, is not still; it is the conglomeration of all of its parts, in constant motion, constant flux, constant conflict, constant labor, all the live long day; even this thing called climate change isn't anything brand spanking new. it's been around and around and around. but what ever.
Today's cultural unrest surrounding abortion is a perfect example of the quickening, the continuous reawakening, the re-birthing, of the incredible divide between us; as a number of states are beginning to address this unrest with astounding, even provocative, legislation. With many authorizing new legislation respective of the first heart beat, which comes to life as early as six weeks, the most recent move comes from the state of Alabama -- and makes abortion nearly entirely illegal.
Of course, the truth of the matter is, it is purely a gesture of political posturing; for at the end of the day, abortion is still legal and federally protected all the way to Planned Parenthood and back, from sea to shining sea...even in Alabama.
But let's be clear, shall we: America continues to evolve on this issue, generation after generation.
That is just a fact.
While this girl might also add: liberal women do not have the authority to speak for all Americans, no matter the state they are in, physical and otherwise.
Of course, the truth of the matter is, it is purely a gesture of political posturing; for at the end of the day, abortion is still legal and federally protected all the way to Planned Parenthood and back, from sea to shining sea...even in Alabama.
But let's be clear, shall we: America continues to evolve on this issue, generation after generation.
That is just a fact.
While this girl might also add: liberal women do not have the authority to speak for all Americans, no matter the state they are in, physical and otherwise.
What gets me still, is how we ever got this embedded into this thing called abortion in the first place.
Of course, we know how Planned Parenthood had its origins -- Margaret Sanger, it's creator, systematically set out to extinguish the less-than, and reshape society, being the racist that she was.
But now look at us; arguing over the claims that it's about a women's right to choose, to hold the power to do what she wants with her own body, when in fact, it seems more about shushing the opposition, the conservative voice entirely.
Conservatives gain labels of being ignorant, backward thinking, and basically, some kind of merry band of un-actualized, half-baked twits. All the while, liberals, who consider this new age of abortion-on-demand a sign of true progress, get to be the modern day, highly-evolved intellectuals on the side of advancement of women's rights, and perhaps the savior of the entire world -- if only in their own minds. Speaking ofAnne Hathaway which, read Kira Davis, here. (For more about Kira, go here.)
Good and evil at play.
Abortion is not settled science when it comes to morality; it's not even settled science when it comes to our culture... of its clear and present danger in our midst, the damage it represents within our communities and relationships, and most especially, the utter destruction of the African-American population.
What kind of advancement of colored people is it, when this miracle of modern medicine has desecrated the black community?
What kind of advancement is it, when we have reduced the unborn fetus to being less than human, just so the conversation can move away from the reality of abortion, for what it truly is -- glossing over the damages to women, to society, to the unborn life itself -- and arrive here, weaponizing abortion in reckless free abandon.
But no one wants to talk about the damages.
Candice Owens, a fiery and articulate conservative woman who happens to be African-American, clarified the numbers for us, as a guest on Fox News last Friday evening -- noting the sad truth, that African-American women, who presently comprise of only about 7% of the population, are responsible for nearly 40% of the abortions in this country; and it explains just how the Hispanic community has grown into being the largest minority in the country (aside from illegal population flooding over the border as we speak).
But no one wants to talk about the damages.
Showing in the state of Michigan, linked in the stats above, 60% of all abortions are to women over the age of 25! (Only 8% are under the age of twenty.) This is simply outrageous.
The other outrageous statistic -- 96% of the African-American women having abortions in Michigan are not married -- when you include the whole country, this number goes down to about 86%, but still, this is not good.
When looking at America, as a whole, about half of all abortions happen between the age of twenty and thirty; with less than 0.3% of all abortions nationwide, occurring under the age of fifteen (according to records from 2015).
The thing is, in this day, and in this age -- birth control is inexpensive and it's a far more responsible way of protecting the unborn. And yet, what we have grown to demand, in America, it would seem -- is to use abortion as birth control, and that is simply wrong every which way to Sunday and back.
Speaking from one girl to another of a different mother: just wondering, just where are the liberal women willing to effect real change, and be brave enough to step away from this abortion-on-demand mentality, and actually model a modicum of responsibility with our bodies? This goes a whole lot deeper than just caring for the unborn -- but actually caring for the health and welfare and sanctity of our own lives, our own bodies. With STD's in this country off the charts, with sexual relationships between men and women becoming so casual, disposable even, you would think one of these days, women on both sides of the aisle, would one day come together on this one, for the betterment of the whole.
Are we really that cool, as a culture, to let free love rule our world?
Good and evil at play.
It's all just a cryin' shame with what we have done with love and marriage and children. just a cryin' shame.
Back to Francis -- leader of the Catholic Church; there is no mystery, the mysterious evil in our midst is getting the upper hand all the way down to the baby toe, and if you sit real still, you can even hear the heartbeat of an entire culture in solid decline, beat by beat.
Are we an educated people? Are we?
Are we an enlightened people? really?
The answer is educating our girls to live a life that not only protects against the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy, it secures the resources and tools to safeguard their own welfare and prognosis of living a full and healthy life, whether in terms of being in sound relationship with her own spirit, to the boy next door, or to God Itself.
The answer is educating our boys to honor girls in every way; it's as simple as that.
This is how we the people protect people from the actions of other people, even when in the womb.
On a personal note -- this week has met me wrought with distraught; my mind as been all over the place; perhaps why it has taken me over of a week just to put something down on a page.
Oh, there is no mystery as to where it comes; it's as clear as the blue sky outside my window, never you mind about a few passing, glorious clouds.
Yup. The girl who believes in embracing all of life with no regrets, seems to have found one along the way; and it's nobody's fault but my own. It's just one of those things --
I guess, in the ramblings of today, about life itself -- this day in the life of an American girl is taking a sudden turn...winding down into a certain melancholy; perhaps its just a postpartum thing, surely to pass one day.
But woke this morning wishing I went to the funeral.
In tears with deep regret.
Instead, I did what was best for the whole family. As it made sense, come to think of it, at the time.
But somehow, in the light of this new day, It feels like I just took a bullet.
Much like the angst that came when the decision was made, after the back and forth, it just dawned on me, now that its over, that it will forever be me -- I will be the one to forever be remembered as the one who wasn't there. I will forever be the one... the sister who stayed behind, the auntie who didn't make the time, as the optics in the aftermath appear a whole lot different up close, in the rear view mirror, in the day after. [It's so true, things are closer than they appear.]
My presence was not there with good reason, goes the mantra inside my head.
And it's true. And I know it in my heart of hearts. But why come it feels so bad?
Whatever opportunity there may have been for starting over, for me, seems to have evaporated into thin air. Janet is gone -- never able to restore things there; and my brother, well, he doesn't speak to me. And the kids, my brother's kids, will forever memorialize the broken relationships through their mother's tears -- my word against hers has no place, no purpose, no validity whatsoever. And besides, it was neither time nor place to mend any of it.
The event became more about things seen and unseen. And I -- I was not seen.
So, if doing the math, it leaves me perpetually stuck until God knows when.
I'm just stuck.
I'm stuck, deep inside the crevasse of a decade or more, stuck between the crags of ridiculousness and senselessness, feeling no ability to crawl out of it to escape its wretched reality. I was not graced with a new view of the world just yet, now stuck in this melodramatic darkness of mine.
It's just something that I will carry with me now; reminding me of a great book to read, The Things They Carried.
And yet, I could feel the joy in my mother's voice as she told of the gatherings, moments that hold the power to effect change, restoring memories and relationship that might one day prove to be long-lasting and permanent. She was graced with the Holy Spirit of God, hearing that still small voice deep down -- moving mysteriously before her -- given her new life, new hope, and new beginnings a chance to have their day. She got to witness her boy in a new light... and he, the same. As exhausted as she was at the end the day, from her travels home, there was a sense of exuberance about her; so much goodness, so much goodness, spinning wildly madly deeply all around her.
The bonds of motherhood never sleep.
And in spite of the loss I am feeling just now, this chance for more, for her, makes me giddy with happiness. there is no other mother in the world who deserves it more.
But now look at us; arguing over the claims that it's about a women's right to choose, to hold the power to do what she wants with her own body, when in fact, it seems more about shushing the opposition, the conservative voice entirely.
Conservatives gain labels of being ignorant, backward thinking, and basically, some kind of merry band of un-actualized, half-baked twits. All the while, liberals, who consider this new age of abortion-on-demand a sign of true progress, get to be the modern day, highly-evolved intellectuals on the side of advancement of women's rights, and perhaps the savior of the entire world -- if only in their own minds. Speaking of
Good and evil at play.
Abortion is not settled science when it comes to morality; it's not even settled science when it comes to our culture... of its clear and present danger in our midst, the damage it represents within our communities and relationships, and most especially, the utter destruction of the African-American population.
What kind of advancement of colored people is it, when this miracle of modern medicine has desecrated the black community?
What kind of advancement is it, when we have reduced the unborn fetus to being less than human, just so the conversation can move away from the reality of abortion, for what it truly is -- glossing over the damages to women, to society, to the unborn life itself -- and arrive here, weaponizing abortion in reckless free abandon.
But no one wants to talk about the damages.
Candice Owens, a fiery and articulate conservative woman who happens to be African-American, clarified the numbers for us, as a guest on Fox News last Friday evening -- noting the sad truth, that African-American women, who presently comprise of only about 7% of the population, are responsible for nearly 40% of the abortions in this country; and it explains just how the Hispanic community has grown into being the largest minority in the country (aside from illegal population flooding over the border as we speak).
But no one wants to talk about the damages.
Showing in the state of Michigan, linked in the stats above, 60% of all abortions are to women over the age of 25! (Only 8% are under the age of twenty.) This is simply outrageous.
The other outrageous statistic -- 96% of the African-American women having abortions in Michigan are not married -- when you include the whole country, this number goes down to about 86%, but still, this is not good.
When looking at America, as a whole, about half of all abortions happen between the age of twenty and thirty; with less than 0.3% of all abortions nationwide, occurring under the age of fifteen (according to records from 2015).
The thing is, in this day, and in this age -- birth control is inexpensive and it's a far more responsible way of protecting the unborn. And yet, what we have grown to demand, in America, it would seem -- is to use abortion as birth control, and that is simply wrong every which way to Sunday and back.
Speaking from one girl to another of a different mother: just wondering, just where are the liberal women willing to effect real change, and be brave enough to step away from this abortion-on-demand mentality, and actually model a modicum of responsibility with our bodies? This goes a whole lot deeper than just caring for the unborn -- but actually caring for the health and welfare and sanctity of our own lives, our own bodies. With STD's in this country off the charts, with sexual relationships between men and women becoming so casual, disposable even, you would think one of these days, women on both sides of the aisle, would one day come together on this one, for the betterment of the whole.
Are we really that cool, as a culture, to let free love rule our world?
Good and evil at play.
It's all just a cryin' shame with what we have done with love and marriage and children. just a cryin' shame.
Back to Francis -- leader of the Catholic Church; there is no mystery, the mysterious evil in our midst is getting the upper hand all the way down to the baby toe, and if you sit real still, you can even hear the heartbeat of an entire culture in solid decline, beat by beat.
"I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life," the pope wrote in the letter. "In the same way, however, I can and must state that there is no sin that God's mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father. May every priest, therefore, be a guide, support and comfort to penitents on this journey of special reconciliation."Penned by the Pope, in a letter, during the Year of Jubilee, celebrated with a year of mercy; all in all, appearing more like the afterbirth of the sanctity of life meeting up with the new, highly evolved, age.
Are we an educated people? Are we?
Are we an enlightened people? really?
The answer is educating our girls to live a life that not only protects against the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy, it secures the resources and tools to safeguard their own welfare and prognosis of living a full and healthy life, whether in terms of being in sound relationship with her own spirit, to the boy next door, or to God Itself.
The answer is educating our boys to honor girls in every way; it's as simple as that.
This is how we the people protect people from the actions of other people, even when in the womb.
On a personal note -- this week has met me wrought with distraught; my mind as been all over the place; perhaps why it has taken me over of a week just to put something down on a page.
Oh, there is no mystery as to where it comes; it's as clear as the blue sky outside my window, never you mind about a few passing, glorious clouds.
Yup. The girl who believes in embracing all of life with no regrets, seems to have found one along the way; and it's nobody's fault but my own. It's just one of those things --
I guess, in the ramblings of today, about life itself -- this day in the life of an American girl is taking a sudden turn...winding down into a certain melancholy; perhaps its just a postpartum thing, surely to pass one day.
But woke this morning wishing I went to the funeral.
In tears with deep regret.
Instead, I did what was best for the whole family. As it made sense, come to think of it, at the time.
But somehow, in the light of this new day, It feels like I just took a bullet.
Much like the angst that came when the decision was made, after the back and forth, it just dawned on me, now that its over, that it will forever be me -- I will be the one to forever be remembered as the one who wasn't there. I will forever be the one... the sister who stayed behind, the auntie who didn't make the time, as the optics in the aftermath appear a whole lot different up close, in the rear view mirror, in the day after. [It's so true, things are closer than they appear.]
My presence was not there with good reason, goes the mantra inside my head.
And it's true. And I know it in my heart of hearts. But why come it feels so bad?
Whatever opportunity there may have been for starting over, for me, seems to have evaporated into thin air. Janet is gone -- never able to restore things there; and my brother, well, he doesn't speak to me. And the kids, my brother's kids, will forever memorialize the broken relationships through their mother's tears -- my word against hers has no place, no purpose, no validity whatsoever. And besides, it was neither time nor place to mend any of it.
The event became more about things seen and unseen. And I -- I was not seen.
So, if doing the math, it leaves me perpetually stuck until God knows when.
I'm just stuck.
I'm stuck, deep inside the crevasse of a decade or more, stuck between the crags of ridiculousness and senselessness, feeling no ability to crawl out of it to escape its wretched reality. I was not graced with a new view of the world just yet, now stuck in this melodramatic darkness of mine.
It's just something that I will carry with me now; reminding me of a great book to read, The Things They Carried.
And yet, I could feel the joy in my mother's voice as she told of the gatherings, moments that hold the power to effect change, restoring memories and relationship that might one day prove to be long-lasting and permanent. She was graced with the Holy Spirit of God, hearing that still small voice deep down -- moving mysteriously before her -- given her new life, new hope, and new beginnings a chance to have their day. She got to witness her boy in a new light... and he, the same. As exhausted as she was at the end the day, from her travels home, there was a sense of exuberance about her; so much goodness, so much goodness, spinning wildly madly deeply all around her.
The bonds of motherhood never sleep.
And in spite of the loss I am feeling just now, this chance for more, for her, makes me giddy with happiness. there is no other mother in the world who deserves it more.
I'm a big girl; all's well that ends.
Make it a Good Day, G
Make it a Good Day, G
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