The Sunday Collage- The Big Picture
It's been a busy week and I haven't posted much. I apologize.
I noticed something very odd earlier this week and I've been thinking about it for several days. It is the inability of people, often, to make decisions or choices while considering the larger picture. Understanding the consequences.
Seeing the big picture and adjusting your decisions accordingly- is important. Sadly, our society, permanently fixated on immediate gratification, no longer sees the big picture. All that matters is some superficial fix that will work immediately. If there is a larger picture solution that is better, it is often discarded in favor of a solution that offers immediate relief. That is the world we live in. Long term, this propensity that we have for immediate gratification, often offers us long term negative consequences.
So what I would like to do here is to frame my subject. The subject is abortion. What I am not interested in writing about is fear based religious bullshit, political rhetoric of the left or the right, what is right or wrong as defined by some group of Supreme Court monkeys who settled the issue in their minds long before the arguments were submitted. Instead I am focused on the larger picture. What happens to those involved and what could be. The consequences or the bigger picture.
I have seen estimates that say 60 million abortions have been carried out since the landmark decision of Roe v Wade in 1973. I only state that number to give you a sense of the scope of this issue. Here is a link that offers some corroboration but it is only current through '06. The link has Christian affiliations but for my purposes- I am only interested in the numbers. Not dogma. http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/u-s-abortion-statistics-by-year-1973-current-1042
I know a young gal who is pregnant. She wants to get an abortion. She has no education, no real means of support, there are issues related to who the father is, she has a drug problem that is currently in remission. At the ripe old age of 21, society has already placed her on the discard pile. Her peers and advisers have chimed in. They want her to get an abortion. The issue has already been decided. You have no business trying to raise a child.
What they are really conveying to her is that she is a loser incapable of raising a child. That she will go back out into the drug world and neglect her children (she has one other) and they will become society's ward and headache. Society thinks they have the right to intervene in her decision making process now that government takes our tax money and gives it to her. That we think, gives us the right to tell her what to do. I call that the Octomom conundrum. That is the same argument, incidentally, that people use when telling us how to live our lives. And of course, that is the micro view. The view offering immediate gratification. The abortion will satisfy everyone. Our pregnant gal can be relieved of her child rearing responsibilities and society can breath a sigh of relief that they will not be caring for another ward of the state. Her peers and advisers will think they have offered the right advice given the current situation. Surely this is what common sense would have us do. Of course they will all agree. Unfortunately, the big picture screams mission failure. You've simply dealt with the symptoms of a young woman spiritually broken on the inside. You haven't done a damn thing to help her. She will be free to have as many babies, and as many drugs as she wants- once this situation is dealt with. She will live with some amount of shame, guilt, and remorse for her lifetime. Because truly helping her, taking that risk of failure, is an arduous process. It takes time, education, and a lot of work. An abortion, or the immediate sense of gratification that the problem is dealt with, will only take an hour. Immediate solutions. Then everything can be back to normal. Our society wants the micro view and the quick fix. That's easier.
Really. Just ask the drug companies. A pill to save us from everything.
Instead, we have lost 60 million lives. I don't know how many additional artists, engineers, doctors, or criminals that would have meant. I do know that it has left a scarred female segment of society behind. Rarely do I hear men shouldering any emotional burden here. Oddly enough, the Supreme Court was all male in 1973.
You see those 60 million abortions were carried out on 60 million women. I have yet to hear one of those women (and I have heard a number of them) talk about having an abortion in proud or glowing terms. Instead I hear hushed tones, feelings of guilt and remorse, a deep sense of sadness. How can that be? Wasn't the problem dealt with? Didn't the Supreme Court say it was ok? So why the hushed tones?
Because intuitively and spiritually, abortion just doesn't feel right to us. I don't think that has a damn thing to do with religion or the Supreme Court. I believe that.
The other problem is that our society is so busy punishing everyone- that we have lost credibility with that segment of people that need our support the most. You can't help people by calling them stupid while claiming intellectual superiority over them. "The beatings will continue until morale improves."
Why would a young lady, subjected to scorn and ridicule her whole life, respond well to someone implying that she is a loser and a lost cause? Why indeed? In all likelihood, asking her to seek an abortion is akin to putting an exclamation point behind your opinion of her. She is likely to fulfill the prophecy.
The statement, "mind your own business" often facilitates our decisions. Particularly when we don't like what our perceived antagonist has to say.
I am still mulling all of this over. Just because you get a glimpse of the big picture doesn't mean you have found a solution or better yet, a way to deliver it. I hope that one day we come up with something better than we have now. Something spiritually correct. Something that embraces a larger, more long term view of the society we wish to become.
I noticed something very odd earlier this week and I've been thinking about it for several days. It is the inability of people, often, to make decisions or choices while considering the larger picture. Understanding the consequences.
Seeing the big picture and adjusting your decisions accordingly- is important. Sadly, our society, permanently fixated on immediate gratification, no longer sees the big picture. All that matters is some superficial fix that will work immediately. If there is a larger picture solution that is better, it is often discarded in favor of a solution that offers immediate relief. That is the world we live in. Long term, this propensity that we have for immediate gratification, often offers us long term negative consequences.
So what I would like to do here is to frame my subject. The subject is abortion. What I am not interested in writing about is fear based religious bullshit, political rhetoric of the left or the right, what is right or wrong as defined by some group of Supreme Court monkeys who settled the issue in their minds long before the arguments were submitted. Instead I am focused on the larger picture. What happens to those involved and what could be. The consequences or the bigger picture.
I have seen estimates that say 60 million abortions have been carried out since the landmark decision of Roe v Wade in 1973. I only state that number to give you a sense of the scope of this issue. Here is a link that offers some corroboration but it is only current through '06. The link has Christian affiliations but for my purposes- I am only interested in the numbers. Not dogma. http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/u-s-abortion-statistics-by-year-1973-current-1042
I know a young gal who is pregnant. She wants to get an abortion. She has no education, no real means of support, there are issues related to who the father is, she has a drug problem that is currently in remission. At the ripe old age of 21, society has already placed her on the discard pile. Her peers and advisers have chimed in. They want her to get an abortion. The issue has already been decided. You have no business trying to raise a child.
What they are really conveying to her is that she is a loser incapable of raising a child. That she will go back out into the drug world and neglect her children (she has one other) and they will become society's ward and headache. Society thinks they have the right to intervene in her decision making process now that government takes our tax money and gives it to her. That we think, gives us the right to tell her what to do. I call that the Octomom conundrum. That is the same argument, incidentally, that people use when telling us how to live our lives. And of course, that is the micro view. The view offering immediate gratification. The abortion will satisfy everyone. Our pregnant gal can be relieved of her child rearing responsibilities and society can breath a sigh of relief that they will not be caring for another ward of the state. Her peers and advisers will think they have offered the right advice given the current situation. Surely this is what common sense would have us do. Of course they will all agree. Unfortunately, the big picture screams mission failure. You've simply dealt with the symptoms of a young woman spiritually broken on the inside. You haven't done a damn thing to help her. She will be free to have as many babies, and as many drugs as she wants- once this situation is dealt with. She will live with some amount of shame, guilt, and remorse for her lifetime. Because truly helping her, taking that risk of failure, is an arduous process. It takes time, education, and a lot of work. An abortion, or the immediate sense of gratification that the problem is dealt with, will only take an hour. Immediate solutions. Then everything can be back to normal. Our society wants the micro view and the quick fix. That's easier.
Really. Just ask the drug companies. A pill to save us from everything.
Instead, we have lost 60 million lives. I don't know how many additional artists, engineers, doctors, or criminals that would have meant. I do know that it has left a scarred female segment of society behind. Rarely do I hear men shouldering any emotional burden here. Oddly enough, the Supreme Court was all male in 1973.
You see those 60 million abortions were carried out on 60 million women. I have yet to hear one of those women (and I have heard a number of them) talk about having an abortion in proud or glowing terms. Instead I hear hushed tones, feelings of guilt and remorse, a deep sense of sadness. How can that be? Wasn't the problem dealt with? Didn't the Supreme Court say it was ok? So why the hushed tones?
Because intuitively and spiritually, abortion just doesn't feel right to us. I don't think that has a damn thing to do with religion or the Supreme Court. I believe that.
The other problem is that our society is so busy punishing everyone- that we have lost credibility with that segment of people that need our support the most. You can't help people by calling them stupid while claiming intellectual superiority over them. "The beatings will continue until morale improves."
Why would a young lady, subjected to scorn and ridicule her whole life, respond well to someone implying that she is a loser and a lost cause? Why indeed? In all likelihood, asking her to seek an abortion is akin to putting an exclamation point behind your opinion of her. She is likely to fulfill the prophecy.
The statement, "mind your own business" often facilitates our decisions. Particularly when we don't like what our perceived antagonist has to say.
I am still mulling all of this over. Just because you get a glimpse of the big picture doesn't mean you have found a solution or better yet, a way to deliver it. I hope that one day we come up with something better than we have now. Something spiritually correct. Something that embraces a larger, more long term view of the society we wish to become.
Comments
Our government made it easy for them to cut and run. Immediate solution. Problem solved. For now.