an apology, some ethics and a lot of ice cream.

I am alive! I am well! Nothing is wrong...except for the fact that I simply lost my marbles yesterday and forgot to blog!! Please accept my most sincere apologies! Trust me, I was miserable, too--all day I felt naked and like the whole world was kinda tilted at a strange angle!! It was simply dreadful.....

Another wonderful day in paradise today (outside of the whole no-clothes-catty-corner-world thing)! Did some reading at the library this afternoon and then settled in for the loooong Thursday-night class. We did have a rather in-depth (and, to me, fascinating) discussion about genetic testing since we've been reading about the Human Genome Project, the basics of genetics, etc. The discussion stemmed from a NYT article we read about a test that would tell mothers whether or not their fetus had down syndrome in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. Should we have that knowledge? What should we do with it?

kat + gargantuan sundae

We have a wide range of backgrounds in our class (except for the 2 males, 23 females aspect) so it was interesting to hear everyone's perspectives. Arguments included: are we playing God by using this test + choosing whether or not to allow a fetus to come to term; apart from religion, is it just "creepy" to have that much control; what constitutes a "valuable life" and are there some defects which are more desirable; is it more "humane" to abort a DS fetus if a mother knew she wouldn't have the resources/money/emotional capacity to properly raise a special-needs child. An older woman in our class, with three children of her own, argued that you simply couldn't know what was and wasn't "right" until you were in that situation and the doctor was telling you your family's future. She also pointed out that this test, and others like it, have a high false-positive rate...so it'd be hard to know if an aborted fetus would have had the DS at all. There were other individuals who mentioned their religions and faith, saying that if they were in a situation of knowing their child had DS (or other defects/diseases), abortion would be the furthest choice from their mind because it'd be unacceptable by their family's standards. It was also interesting to see that most women in our class were not necessarily against the idea of abortion, but did battle greatly with, for lack of a better word, "discriminating" against a child that particularly had down syndrome.

roomie + a fripple

I kept my mouth shut the entire time. Of course, I did do the occasional eye-roll or agreement nod, but for the most part I kept my thoughts to myself. I've had this conversation several times with Mommy before so it wasn't a new or necessarily challenging concept to me, but I faced the same issue tonight as I always do when she and I chat: I wasn't able to divorce my "religious" beliefs from the conversation. Even when I tried--that is, not letting my reasoning be "Because of Jesus!"--I couldn't forge my mind far enough away from the Scripture in which it is so entrenched (which was still definitely comforting!). It was tough because I didn't want to be "that Christian girl" who tried to share her opinions but just made people hate her faith more. I've seen it happen and it's not pretty and it doesn't help our cause. But I also didn't want to be the girl who was ashamed or fearful of being judged herself. I'd don't think I'm either.

This whole long dragged out post is to pose a question: what happens when I have to grow up and discuss touchy subjects like these in a business environment? I'm not interested in knowing your beliefs on genetic testing, abortion, etc. but rather to hear your thoughts on living with faith in a scientific world. I'm not in Kansas anymore, so I'm no longer in the majority (which is fine by me)...but how do you function in the business world without a) being politically incorrect and/or b) putting your faith-mind to the side momentarily to use your intellectual-reasoning-mind instead?! It seems to me that I will always "choose" my faith-mind because it takes over most of my brain anyway so it's nearly impossible to ignore--but how do you "politely" convey those thoughts to people who may (passionately) disagree without running the risk of misconception of the faith, yourself and your intent?!

Ahhhh that is my prayer tonight.

....and then Jocelyn, Kat (another young lady from class) and I went to a place called Friendly's, ate the biggest ice cream sundaes I've ever seen and watched an old Sandra Bullock flick. My brain and stomach are exhausted--what a night!!

say cheese,
katy

PS--Twenty bucks to the first person that accurately names how many times I used "the friendly quotation marks" in this post....  :)