More Gratuitous Pictures

I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with this guy. Seriously, is he the cutest or what?

Currently Listening To

OK, so I've stopped waking up to songs, and I think it is because I am a bit overtired these days and haven't been sleeping enough. So, instead, I will do a "Currently Listening To . . ." until my inner stereo starts working again. Right now, it is the album Lushlife by Bowery Electric. Thanks, Rhapsody!



My mind is full of too many thoughts right now. First, summer has arrived with a hot, sweltering, humid day. It's still too early in the summer for me to be pissed off at days like this (the luxury of a cool, air-conditioned office contributes to that), but I'm sure by August I will be tired of it. But today, I stopped for a moment on the Washington Street bridge and just looked north across the river to the Sun-Times building, Boeing building, the western portion of Merchandise Mart, and the swarms of people walking from their various trains to their various offices, and I thought, how fortunate I am to live and work in this City, in this glorious summer. I thought of crossing that same bridge when it is 10 degrees outside in the middle of January, wrapped up and hunched over, dreaming of summer and wanting to just crawl back into bed until April. At that thought, I was even more thankful that it is a hot June day! (I won't say that summer is almost over -- just wait until the 4th of July and my doomsday talk will begin).

I am definitely not tooting my own horn here, but I'm training for a challenging half-ironman race in mid-July, and my friends Raquel and Kate and I met with our coach today, and once again we were scared s*%!less. She chided us for drinking, chided us for not going on back-to-back long bike rides and runs, and basically made me feel small. To me there is more to life than just training, but I guess I have the rest of the summer for that. That reminds me, I'm going to Maine in August! Yeah! Back to races and training -- the whole thing just makes me tired. : ( At least it'll be over in three weeks. Which of course means that summer is almost over. Just kidding! Still though, if I want a beer, I'm having a beer, dammit! What's with the exclamation points?!

I had more thoughts, such as, "Why do people take the elevator to go up just one floor, rather than taking the stairs, so as to interrupt my otherwise smooth commute to the 29th floor." But my annoyance at that has subsided. But seriously, people -- you can't take one flight of stairs!?!

I was going to start waxing about the Takings clause and eminent domain (hey Supreme Court, whaddya doing??), but I'll save that for later. Lucky you!

Life

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You," from Bad, by Michael Jackson.

Well this one is obvious enough, isn't it. I've been listening to Michael given the trial, and as odd as I feel about it, you cannot deny this man's obvious musical gift. I'm going to stop right there.

About two months ago, a news story overtook the airwaves, the web, and the cable news networks: the Terri Schiavo story. Anyone who has semi-regular contact with me knows that this tragic case and its accompanying, blatant hypocrisy and overt pandering to the Christian right absolutely inflamed me. Strange though, I had completely forgotten about it until today's minor story regarding her autopsy report (http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/assisted_suicide) (one day, I will learn how to intelligently post links beyond my cut-and-paste job). To make a long story shorter, the autopsy demonstrates that her brain had deteriorated to a massive and irreparable extent, and that, surprisingly, she was blind. To vindicate her husband, it also demonstrated that she was not the victim of any kind of physical abuse, an accusation that her parents long fostered in the media. So many aspects of this story and the country's response to it are wrong, but to me what stood out was the (seemingly genuine) passion with which many people embraced the cause that her "right to life" be defended to the extent that it did. I suppose I cannot dispute their passion, but it was so puzzling to me. How could anyone admit that they would prefer to remain in this state? Are they deluding themselves into thinking they would prefer this existence to death, regardless of (or rather, especially given) their beliefs of the afterlife? Finally, how could her parents not realize that she was blind? What selfish motive was behind their fight to keep her alive? It seems that anyone who has experienced a loved one's extended illness would choose for their loved one a peaceful death rather than a long-suffering life. I do not even want to comment on our congressional leaders' response to this tragedy, as I would like to remain semi-coherent and if I start ranting I will forget the point of this post (pandering to the Christian right; obvious groundwork to erode abortion laws and garner support to overrule Roe v. Wade; pathetic favoring of pretty, white woman's story while ignoring the thousands of poor minorities that are constantly overlooked by political leaders and the media; etc., etc., etc.)

I guess the point is, even despite obvious, scientific realities, only confirmed by the autopsy, Terri Schiavo's parents and the thousands who didn't even know her somehow believed that life in that state was preferable to death, and that there was a possibility that she could be cured. I don't know whether to pity such delusion, or to admire such ardent faith.

Hee!