I haven’t been very posty of late, and dunno why that is, other than the fact I’m just plum worn out and HURTING. This arthritis is flaring up on me again, so I’m going to take the celebrex twice a day for a bit (like I’m supposed to) and see if that helps. I did see the ortho this week, and got the good news that I don’t need surgery! woohoo!
My daughter is officially finished with college, and has a job now. She was cute - called me last night, really likes her job - but reaaaaally has marriage/baby on her mind. All her friends on facebook are getting married, having babies, blah blah. She called her friend (who has gotten married, had a baby, and gotten a divorced already) and said “Tell me why I don’t want to get married and have a baby yet.” “Um, last week I had to sell my DVD collection to buy diapers for the baby.” That did it. LOL.
This paycheck friday will be the first paycheck in over five years that I won’t have to give any of it to my daughter. And yeah I’m kinda happy about that, but also kinda sad. Don’t feel needed so much anymore. Empty nest is finally kicking in now, I reckon.
I guess I’m progressing in my spiritual development. It’s funny - I have old friends checking up on me with that, and when I tell them I’m going to start RCIA classes in August - they’re really surprised. They thought I was born Catholic! Maybe I’ve always given off a Catholic vibe, or maybe my mother had me secretly baptised when I was a baby. I wouldn’t put it past her - she was always one to hedge her bets.
Right now, though, I’m just concentrating on “moving back into the fold” - there’s so much I missed over the years, so much I haven’t learned, or learned and forgotten. So I’m watching a lot of EWTN.
One thing I don’t like so much about the Catholic Church, is how they like to tell other people who to vote for, and what political issues Catholics should be against. If you want me to believe in something - convince me of why I should, convince me of why I shouldn’t vote for this person. Don’t just tell me.
Take the whole abortion thing.
There’s big hoopla today over this article: Human Health and Resources Moves to Define Contraceptives as Abortion. It’s really taken far out of context - it’s really about allowing health care providers to use their own conscious as their guide as to whether or not they help provide these services. But there is a whole right-to-life stance that even birth control pills are abortificants. They state that the egg is still fertilized, but the pill thins the lining so much that it cannot embed. This is basically untrue; birth control pills trick the body into believing that it’s already pregnant, so no egg is ever released. Without an egg being released, there is no way it can be fertilized. Only VERY rarely, is an egg released.
So that argument really can’t hold water. However, there are other good reasons why hormonal birth control can be detrimental to a woman, and even to her marriage, such as this:
“Precise as the MHC-detection system is, it can be confounded. One thing that throws us off the scent is the birth-control pill. Women who are on the Pill–which chemically simulates pregnancy–tend to choose wrong in the T-shirt test. When they discontinue the daily hormone dose, the protective smell mechanism kicks back in. “A colleague of mine wonders if the Pill may contribute to divorce,” says Wysocki. “Women pick a husband when they’re on birth control, then quit to have a baby and realize they’ve made a mistake.” ~ The Science of Romance - Why We Love, Time
~but not because it’s an abortificant.
Just one more thing I’ll have to muddle through, on my way down my path, I suppose.
i’ve missed you posts!
sorry to hear about the arthritis. i’m prob. suffering from empty nest syndrome, but i got a *fix* today. back to school shopping with my goddaughter and once-ward. burned a nice hole in my wallet.
it’s interesting about the pill. that “hostile endometrium” element is there by design. i personally haven’t found any studies re. the question of how often the pill prevents ovulation… so hard to say how that 98% anti-pregnancy effectiveness rate is actually achieved. the 2% or so failure rate indicates ovulation is definitely occurring sometimes. seems a little curious to me that the medicine designers feel a need to include that third mechanism.
i’m not keen on the pill as elective medicine for medical reasons. they pull me up short before i even get to morality. i’m diabetic and do my own insulin… it has led me firmly to believe that you shouldn’t try to operate your body manually if you don’t have to. also have a teensy problem with needing major industrial infrastructure (factories, roads, and trucks) to have sex.
but here is one for you: my above goddaughter is smack in the middle of the physical upheaval of adolescence and has a testosterone/estrogen imbalance. the treatment for this is hormone therapy, i.e. the BC patch. well, the catholic hospital can’t dispense that. it recommended she go to PLANNED PARENTHOOD. you know the place, it’s the one catholics stand outside of, protesting.
boy that made me angry. grr. the other thing i don’t believe in doing, if you don’t have to, is going to a catholic hospital. haha. it’s stuff like this that makes me very anti-regulation.
on the other hand, i feel having a general background *pro-life orientation* transforms your life. things happen entirely differently. if nothing else, embracing life is easier on the nerves than trying to protect yourself from all the possible ills it can bring.
re. the voting pressure: the church is a global institution. this voting pressure, however, i find uniquely american. i also rather feel american catholics have been hoodwinked into it - co-opted during the neo-conservative power play when they were slap-dashing a base together.
anyways, have you heard of the condom full of holes that they use in catholic hospitals when they need a sperm sample? cath. hospitals are a regular riot laugh.
then again, maybe that too is only in america.
yeah, you hear a lot about people complaining about hormones in the meat we eat - but we never really stop to consider, what we’re putting in our own bodies.
I never could tolerate the pill well, even the triphasal, so I never was on it very long. Time and place for everything, I suppose.