Thursday, February 02, 2006

Lousy dirt rat

I mean, groundhog.

As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning and went scrambling back into the ground. Six more weeks of winter, bleh.

The truth is that I have no room to complain - Winter has been unbelievably mild in my part of Ohio this year. We have even had a couple of days with temperatures in the mid-60s. The prospect of six more weeks of windbreaker weather is really not that hard to endure!

It's my classes that are going to be thoroughly nasty. Everything seems to be coming due next week; and the deadline for my General Assigment story for The Post, which is on the university library's 13th century illuminated Bible, is also fast approaching. My "Reporting Contemporary Issues" class is developing into a time-consuming, stomach-knot-enducing nightmare, but it seems to be gestating pretty slowly. Perhaps re-enforcements will arrive before the beast fully emerges from its cocoon.

Signs of stirring are already evident, however, as I have been assigned a story on the percentage of US women working part-time, as described in the 2000 census. This is going to entail my interacting at length with a Women's Studies professor, I just know it.

Can't you hear it now? "Picaaaaaw, women with new babies take time off work or switch to part-time because of the oppressive patriarchy, picaaaaaaw, then they have a hard time getting back into the workforce, behhhhhh, come let us worship the Pill! The all-mighty and gracious Pill will, through the introduction of foul and unnatural chemcials into our bodies, deliver us from that terrible social evil, The Family! In fact, sometimes prolonged use of the all-powerful Pill results in permanent infertility! What a wonderful potential side-effect!"

I am sorry this post is so negative. Even the title proclaims, "Bad Attitude Follows." And here one of my goals was to reduce complaining and increase gratitude to God! Let's start again:

Thank you, O Lord, for blessing me, for helping me, for comforting me, and most of all, for keeping me in the hallow of your hand the whole day through.

2 comments:

  1. You know, no offense or anything, but I am very troubled by a tendancy I see in nuns, priests, and other members of the Church hierarchy who have no use for their reproductive rights to crow on about how people should conduct their own affairs sexually. In my mind, permanent virgins (either physical or spiritual) have very little to add to any discussion which is intrinsicly related to human sexuality and issues such as family life. Does that mean you have to be sexually active to have an opinion on contraception and abortion? Of course not. But it does certainly severely restrict one's frame of reference. My two cents.

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  2. Well, I'm not sure if that was supposed to be specifically directed against me or not ;) But I would point out that I am not a nun yet, nor am I absolutely positively without-a-doubt, lock-stock-and-barrel sure of my vocation.

    I also take issue with your idea that "permanent virgins have very little to add to any discussion which is intrinsicly related to human sexuality and issues such as family life."

    Being a part of a family is an essential part of being human. One does not have to be having sex to physically be someone's daughter, someone's son, someone's sister or brother. The last time I checked, those were all roles in the sphere of "family life." And one can be "mother" and "father," "sister" and "brother" purely on the spiritual or emotional level, as any adoptive parent could tell you.

    I would also point out that when one takes religious vows, one keeps every bit of one's "human sexuality," one is not magically stripped of it. Celibates often have more profound and wiser things to say about sexuality, simply because they have given more serious thought to the subject than most people, for whom "human sexuality" is equivalent to and goes no deeper than "getting laid" and enjoying the accompanying pleasures.

    Now, if you are going to pull the :::cue ominous music::: wicked religious elites! card, I can just point you to some folks whose lay status would statisfy the most rabid anti-clericalist, but who agree with everything those awful, severly restricted "eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of God" say:

    John and Sheila Kippley (Couple to Couple League)

    Christina King

    FOCUS

    Jason and Crystalina Evert

    Anyway, I hope this next part doesn't come off bratty, but I think it makes my point -

    I am assuming you are not a Catholic, so - "I am very troubled by a tendancy I see in atheists, Protestants and other non-Catholics who have no use for the Church to crow on about how backwards she is in her teaching on sexuality. In my mind, obstinate non-Catholics have very little to add to the Church's internal theological discussion. Does that mean you have to be a Catholic to have an opinion on the Church's teaching? Of course not. But it does certainly severly restrict one's frame of reference."

    Now doesn't that sound slighly ridiculous? ;)

    Seriously, I don't mean to give you a hard time. But I don't like the whole your-opinion-means-less-because-of-who-you-are line, which I have seen used more and more frequently: "You're a man! You don't get to have an opinion on childbirth!" (Tell that to all the male obstetricians.) One's arguments should be evaluated on their worth. Period.

    I'm also sorry for the novel length screed. I may actually put this on a seperate post. :)

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