Just nothing

I don’t have much interesting to say tonight, but typing is relaxing for me, so here I go.

Can’t believe the devastation in China after the earthquake. I just read that it lasted over 3 minutes! That must have been horrifying. And for schools to collapse and trap so many students inside…just very sad. I told my husband that the world was definitely ending soon (I’m paranoid and anxious and always looking for something to worry about) and he said that there’s nothing new happening but that there are just more people affected because there are more people in the way of the devastation. That made sense, so I’m not freaking out just yet.

Am watching American Idol. I am totally routing for David Cook. David Archelleta is so annoying. I dreamt that he was stalking me a while back, so I could never vote for him. He haunts my dreams!

I made contact with a guy I’ve known since middle school but who I haven’t seen or talked to for 20 years, and that made my day. Always wondered what happened to him, and after my sister reconnected with his older brother, we were able to connect with each other. He used to grab my boobs during reading class in 8th grade. Wonder if he remembers that. Today he would probably be suspended or even arrested (especially after some little boy, maybe 6 years old, recently was punished way too harshly for spanking a little girl on the butt at school). But I know that this boy from my class was just experimenting, and I certainly hold nothing against him. I was more annoyed that he was interrupting me during class.

Anyway, like I said, I didn’t really have much to say tonight but just felt like typing.

No real thought before having kids

Rumor has it that humans are the “intelligent” species, but if we’re so intelligent, why on Earth are people still popping out child after child. Does no one think ahead that adding people to this world right now is hugely selfish. And to have 18 kids is just ridiculous! Americans are a huge drain on the Earth. One American hungrily uses more resources than 1,000 people in a third world nation. So adding 18 humans to this earth is like adding 18,000 people in a third world nation. People use resources, resources add to the strain on the Earth as it is, adding to global warming.

I admit that I am childfree and proud of it. I chose not to add children to a world that I think is full of greed and hatred. I chose not to add a person to a world where money makes it go around. I thought ahead about WHY I would have a baby. I’ve heard that statement, “The first child is for me, and the second child is for the first child.” How about not having children just “for you.” Humans should be intelligent enough to see that adding more people, at least more than just replacing yourself, is selfish and, a lot of times, careless. How many children are brought into the world unplanned for and unwanted? I have a sister who selflessly takes in foster children whose parents aren’t able to care for them. There is a huge need for foster parents. But it makes no sense to me how people can take on parenthood with so little care about what they can give their children and what world they’re bringing the children into.

But back to having 18 children. Well, maybe I don’t have much to say because I’m speechless. Years and years ago, when childhood disease and death happened more often, and children worked in the fields and helped their families in one way or another, I could see the reason to have numerous children. But today there is no need to have so many children. It is not getting you closer to God. It is not at all considerate to the world around you. Stop draining the world’s resources and start taking birth control!

If schools give sex education classes these days, they should make it clear to girls and boys that NOT having children is an option. When I was growing up, I always thought I would have two children: a boy and a girl. I thought that because it’s just what seemed to be “the way of the world.” But as I got older, I realized I had a choice, but it was a choice that some people looked down upon. I can’t imagine why anyone would look down upon someone choosing to be childfree, because by being childfree, I am not adding to the world’s burden of carrying capacity. I am not inconsiderate in any way to the world or my neighbors or anyone. In fact, I’m being overly considerate, giving up my childbearing so that maybe there will be a little left for others.

In fact, I’m really not a fan of all of the new technology to create babies in labs. I feel like either you can have them or you can’t. There are so many unwanted kids out there who could use homes, and if you can’t get pregnant, then pitch in and help them out if you so need to have children in your lives. IVF technology produces a lot more multiple births than would occur naturally, so again, people are adding more children than the world needs.

I know that parents who are wanting babies or who have had children will think I’m crazy. They’ll say I simply don’t understand what it’s like to be a mother. And you’re right…I don’t. But I chose ahead of time NOT to find out, and I’m fine with that. I don’t see mother’s with children and think, “Oh, I wish I had one of those.” I’m sure there’s an amazing bond that mom’s have with their kids. I’m sure there’s a lot of fulfillment. But to me, creating a person to get fulfillment is the most selfish thing of all.

If there were a way to have a law against too much procreation, I’d consider backing it. But, of course, I don’t want Big Brother making decisions for us. I want people to be responsible for themselves, their community, and the world. You don’t need to birth a village. Just replace yourself and be done with it, or forego parenthood and give the money you don’t spend on a child toward saving the world any way you can.

The end of the world?

Okay, so a while back I heard something about either the Aztec’s or the Inca’s (I think the Aztec’s) saying that the world would end on 12/12/12. I’m guessing they didn’t say a date, per say, but probably described the day by the alignment of the Earth with stars and the sun, etc., seeing as they didn’t live following the Gregorian calendar. (Do we? Is that the right term?)

Well, I’ve always been a fatalist. I remember when I was around 12 hearing that all of the planets were going to line up and maybe their gravity, in sum, would make them all smash together. I barely breathed that day and was so relieved to make it through. But this 12/12/12 is getting to me, partly because everything just seems really screwed up these days.

We have global warming. And I’m sorry…my using energy-saving light bulbs (which, by the way, are so full of mercury that you need a hazmat team to help you dispose of a broken one…is THAT better for the environment) is going to save the Earth. I know a lot of folks are trying, and I try to do my part, but unless we’re all willing to take a few thousand steps back and give up our cars, our power plants, our manufacturing, etc., we’re not going to make a dent. It’s like giving aspirin to someone with a full-fledged infection. Maybe it’s going to help with the pain, but it’s not going to save the person…IT’S TOO LATE!!

Because of global warning, we are having really crazy weather. I am lucky…in the Northeast, things haven’t changed that much. We don’t tend to get tornadoes or hurricanes, and we were spared any really bad blizzards this past winter. But every day I am hearing about a slew of tornadoes going through the Midwest (I would NEVER live there…I am terrified of tornadoes!). I read that on average at this time of year, maybe 200 would have touched down, but a couple of weeks ago, over 500 had touched down and that was before the latest bunch that killed a number of people.

There are earthquakes in places that don’t usually experience them, both in the MIdwest and in Utah. What’s up with Utah?? Their aftershocks are getting stronger instead of weaker. And scientists discovered some weird earthquake off the coast of Oregon recently, a type they’d never “heard” before (apparently they were using some listening device).

After a tidal wave killed over 100,000 in Thailand in 2006, another 100,000 are assumed dead in Myanmar (where the heck IS that? Was that Burma?) We in the United States have no idea how large a tragedy that is because we are bombarded with news when only a few people die (the bridge collapse in Minneapolis), or even a few thousand (9/11). But 100,000???? I don’t even know how we would all respond to something like that.

Okay, so they’re talking about the honey bees disappearing. Without bees, there will be a real shortage of food. Add that on top of tragedies like Myanmar and the Chinese epidemic that is killing children, and everything else, and I’m thinking that if the world doesn’t end in 12/12/12, I’ll be ready to get off.

More than anything, I can’t stand the news of how human carelessness (basically never thinking about the consequences of all of our actions on the world around us) has harmed the animal world. Polar bears are starving because of the ice melt, beautiful Amazonian frogs are disappearing because of chemicals leaching through their skin (okay, I am not completely sure why they’re dying out, but this sounded like a possible cause), other animals are nearly extinct because humans have either killed them outright or have destroyed their habitat. What is WRONG with people and why are they so determined to ruin the earth??

Sometimes I just think that I need a vacation from all the news. If I didn’t know about all of these tragedies, all of the animal deaths, the earthquakes, etc., I would be far more relaxed. But it’s nearly impossible to escape it all. Information overload is everywhere, and I just want to turn it off.

Hope the world doesn’t end while I’m not paying attention!