Tuesday, July 27, 2010

At least a bunch of Nazi's didn't just shoot my dad in the stomach


You'd think that after becoming a parent all other major steps in life would seem insignificant. I mean, parenthood changes your whole life and turns your point of view upside down - you've created a new life which you are solely responsible for, taken on a huge financial burden, been given the chance to experience the most incredible feelings of love and happiness possible, and have become officially old and uncool - all in one fell swoop.

Which is why I've been really taken aback about what an emotionally intense experience buying a house has been. Sure, I've watched HGTV and seen people cry and talk about how emotional it is to buy a house. But honestly, I just thought they were freaky weirdo losers. And while I still think that most of those people are freaky weirdo losers, I now realize that buying a house is more than cool bathrooms, backyards for BBQs (good patio furniture store name??) and back splashes. Its tied to all of the most basic things that make up people's emotional landscape - safety, security, family, finances, friends and identity. Also, because its a major time commitment to one place, especially in this financial environment, it means making a commitment to the place that will become the backdrop of your passage into middle age, and your decline into someone even more uncool than you're parental status has already rendered you. Its also the place that will shape your child and become the memories that will help to define "home" for the rest of their lives. And its the one place on the planet that you can claim for yourself and do with as you please (as long as it falls within the bylaws of your HOA). And of course, like most things in today's world, you have so many choices on where to live, so many forks in the road. Yet with all of the choice available today most of us are not much wiser about which path is the right one to choose.

All of this keeps making me think of that scene in Indiana Jones (I think it was The Last Crusade) where Indy has to take a leap of faith by stepping off of that cliff to get to the cave where the Grail is hidden. In the movie, the awesome 1989 special effects show you that there is actually a stone bridge connecting the two cliffs. Fingers crossed that that stone bridge is out there for us too.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Super planners of the future, or just really annoying yuppies?


I really don't know what I think about this article. Part of me is really creeped out by this whole idea. I just don't like the idea of producing all of these embryos, with the foreknowledge that a bunch will be thrown away, or that ice crystals could destroy them. I'm also kind of creeped out by the whole idea of some third party in a lab coat being involved in the intimate process of making a family.

Another part of me, however, is amazed that human beings have been able to use science to control so many aspects of their lives, down to the details of human reproduction. And it is pretty impressive that this couple is so proactive, financially responsible and sure of themselves and what they want, to do this kind of planning. I mean, this is some serious cutting edge planning. And I have to applaud them for that, even if the author did use the term "out of the box".

But then another part of me (I know, its getting hard to keep track of all of these parts) thinks that these people are annoying. I don't know what it is exactly that annoys me about them. Something about the fact that they just seem so unwillingly to engage in the messiness of life, in which you sometimes have to make compromises and where you and your partner make a baby that doesn't always fit perfectly into your life but who you love anyway. Also, I'm kind of confused about why they can't currently afford kids if they can afford all of this IVF stuff, and can afford to live in Georgetown. And if being parents is something that they want to do with their lives, why are they going threw so much effort to put it off for so long? And in addition to all of that, don' t these people just look kind of annoying?

Also, what happens if these people get divorced? Or if one of them dies? Or what if they change their minds and decide not to have kids? Or what if one of them changes their minds? Does the woman have more of a right to the embryo because it takes her uterus to make the embryo into a baby? Or what if they go bankrupt and can't afford to make the payments to keep the embryos frozen or to implant them, but they still want to use them to have a baby someday?
What do you guys think about these people?
Super planners of the future? Really annoying yuppies? Upscale Jerry Springer guests?

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