State of The Pregnancy

So Marin’s talking to her sister Marisa about how frustrating – actually Marin’s word is “impossible” (she turned it off) – it is to listen to our president say ANYTHING trying to pass it off as the truth, let alone hear him give a big old State of the Union message.

(I was off leading a Chalice Circles (small group conversation) at UUFF, so I wasn’t there to intervene, which I usually do, saying we have to listen in order to understand, no matter the assault on human reason and integrity.)

The way she tells it, Marin went on at some length with Marisa on how it changes things when you’re carrying a child, and caring for yet another child. Reminds me of the poem by Wendell Berry which goes

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

You read stuff in the paper, and your insides contract. Your breath shortens. You get gripped. Angry. You close things out.

She mentioned the page of our Daily Snooze (News) Miner a while back which had four horror stories from the AP News Service about parents doing kids in, starving them, dropping them one by one off a bridge into an estuary. Marin was saying how it’s different to read or hear when you have a child you love, et cetera.

After she had hung up, Teo sidled over. Imagine big eyes, as he asks, “Mama, why were you talking about dropping kids off a bridge?”