Interesting article on winter gardens, stored here for reference.

Reading suggestions

I am taking reading suggestions for these next few months while out on maternity leave. I tend to favor nonfiction, but am going to try and keep things light for the summer, as I'll also be sleep-deprived and chasing two children. No books about POWs or the last 17 centuries of Afghanistan. I'll also take fiction suggestions, as long as they're really good. No Sookie Stackhouse or Twilight please...

Floor is opened for suggestions....

Stubborn Grace

I have been in a very pensive mood all week, trying to sit with exactly how I feel about Osama bin Laden's death. So much detail is still inconclusive about exactly how it all went down, who was where, who used whom as a human shield, whether he was captured then killed later, or whether he was killed more or less on sight. I'm leaving out those parts of the equation that are still murky.

There is no question that what he did/planned was horrible and despicable; were he to be tried as a criminal (which is what he was/is to me), he'd almost certainly fry. I don't support capital punishment - it's all part of being pro-life to me - but I can recognize that it would be a likely scenario for crimes of such magnitude.

What is the question for me is this: how does killing him eradicate evil in the world? Has evil ceased to exist? I believe Paul knew what he was talking about when he said that our battle is not against flesh and blood; were that the case, evil could be eradicated if all the evil people were killed. Well, the truth is that we are ALL evil, and you don't have to be a murderer to be evil. If you've lost your temper with your children, if you've ever lied to or about anyone, if you've ever lusted after a person you're not married to, if you've ever put anything in a place of more importance than you place God, then guess what? You have evil in your heart. I'll say it again. You (and I) are in the same category as Osama bin Laden. I know those are tough words to swallow; I'd like to think that there are a few things I've done better than him to put me a bit closer to God than he presumably was. But Scripture says that before a righteous Almighty God, even my good deeds are as filthy rags. Like used toilet paper; maybe that's a decent 21st-century comparison. (If not, one of my pastor or seminary student friends can correct me and provide me with one that works.) There is no way that killing him - whether by electric chair, or by some other extrajudicial means - will rid the world of evil.

The other thing I haven't been able to get out of my head is this: what potential testimony is gone because someone else decided to take Osama out now? Imagine what would have happened if the early Christian community had decided that they'd had enough of Saul breathing his 'murderous threats' against them and had sent a specialized kill team after him? The Bible is silent on exactly how many Christians he was either directly or indirectly responsible for killing, but it's pretty clear he was a mass murderer no less than Osama....and he went on to write half the New Testament. What an amazing testimony to the stubborn grace and mercy of our God!

What if, instead of killing Osama, he had been captured and detained? What if, during his detention, a group of committed Christians had reached out to him and visited him? Brought him packages? Written letters? Prayed for/with him? Told him they love him and God does too? I realize this flies in the face of human logic. The man was responsible for the death of thousands of innocents. It is natural to want the worst for him (which is, apparently, more or less what he got). But Christ did not come to earth to allow us to continue to be who and what we've always been. He came to demonstrate that, in the words of Corrie Ten Boom, there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. Could you imagine the impact in 5, 10, 20, or however many years, that Osama's book about his journey from terrorism to Jesus, would have on the world? It might not have happened....but it might have. Can you imagine?

There was grace for the Samaritan woman at the well, who'd been with five husbands. There was grace for the Roman centurion [read: representative of the empire]. There was eleventh-hour grace for the dying thief on the cross. And there was grace for a terrorist-named-Saul-turned-evangelist-named-Paul who later considered suffering for Jesus his crowning achievement.

Bin Laden is dead

Does this make the world a less evil place?
In this situation, who wins? Is it the cross?
Has justice really been served?
Does man's wrath bring about the righteousness of God?
And can we please ****ing bring the troops home now?

I'm not into partying in the streets singing the national anthem and "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead". There was a Christ that walked this earth that told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. I'm pretty sure 'Love your enemies' doesn't translate from Aramaic to English as 'kill them' or 'be happy when they die.'

Run!!!

I was pretty sure this news was coming soon, but I am glad to hear it officially announced today: Ron Paul is forming an exploratory committee for a 2012 presidential race.

I voted for Obama in '08, but he will likely not get my vote again, because I don't like how he has handled immigration (more crackdowns and broken families than under Bush) and the war in Afghanistan (pretty much the same crappy way Bush handled Iraq).

Ron Paul isn't the savior of the world, nor of the United States, but he is a lot smarter than anyone else currently in the running. He is also more consistent. He believes in free speech for everyone, not just people he agrees with. He promotes tolerance, nonviolence, and nonaggression, which is FAR more than any other Nobel Peace Prize Troop Surge Muslims Suck Beat the Bad Guys in Every Corner of the Globe Because America's Got the Answers candidate in either party. I have a hard time with his support of the purely free market, as it seems that in so many corners of the globe, that becomes a platform for people in power to abuse those lower on the totem pole. But at least he is consistent in his views - less government is better. So I don't 100% agree with him on everything; probably the only person I 100% agree with is myself. But if he ran and actually got nominated, I'd vote for him a heck of a lot sooner than for anyone else. (I just wish he'd run on a different party ticket than the Republican....it will pain me to no end to pull the lever for anyone with an R or a D beside their name!)

So....Run, Ron, Run!!

Good Friday

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day
And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

Ever since by faith I saw that stream, thy flowing wound's supply
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be 'til I die.

Thanks be to God.

Half the Sky, part 2: the links

Here are just a few links I checked out and found interesting/worthwhile. There are tons more, and I'm sure ALL the organizations they've linked to are great organizations; these just happened to be the ones I liked. http://www.kiva.org/ - pairs willing donors with individual women who want/need microloans to start businesses http://www.apneaap.org/ - fights sex trafficking in India http://www.amddprogram.org/ - Averting Maternal Death & Disability (geared more toward governmental and policy nerds) http://www.care.org/ - meets multiple humanitarian needs, and has increased its focus on women and girls recently http://www.ednahospital.org/ - a hospital in Somaliland (breakaway republic from Somalia) that provides maternity and gynecological care http://www.fistulafoundation.org/ - working to improve access to fistula repair in parts of the world where it's common, as well as working to solve its root causes http://www.healafrica.org/ - dedicated to helping women heal physically and emotionally from fistula as well as rape as a weapon of war http://www.ijm.org/ - International Justice Mission, a Christian faith-based organization that fights international sex trafficking http://www.newlightindia.org/ - organization from Kolkata (Calcutta), India, that assists prostitutes and their children with their nutrition, shelter, and healthcare needs (among other things) http://www.penniesforpeace.org/ - founded by Greg Mortenson as a fundraiser to buy education and school supplies for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan http://www.tostan.org/ - 'tostan' apparently means 'breakthrough' in Wolof; this organization has worked within African communities to end female genital cutting http://www.whiteribbonalliance.org/ - international organization whose goal is to make pregnancy, birth, and the neonatal period safe for women and babies worldwide Most of these are not 'faith-based' as such, but people of faith will likely still find them worthwhile.

Women hold up half the sky

This proverb attributed to the Chinese is the basis for the title of a book I've just finished reading, and it has totally rocked my world. It's in the sidebar menu of books I've read this year and I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend it. The subject matter is the ways in which women are exploited, abused, and discriminated against worldwide, and what ordinary people, including the victimized women themselves are doing about it. I wasn't aware that it was possible to be horrified AND inspired at the same time - until now. Subjects include - obstetric fistula, female genital cutting, disproportionate female illiteracy, disproportionate female poverty, spousal abuse, mass rape as a weapon of war, maternal mortality, forced prostitution, and honor killings. A lot of heavy, controversial topics - ones that need to be talked about way more than they actually are.

I am not sure why, but I've never been a feminist's feminist. I believe in the equality of the sexes and believe that discrimination in any form is wrong. But I've never been one out marching in the street against any particular cause, nor have I ever been particularly inspired to take up a specifically pro-women's cause - until recently. Whether it's random (which I doubt) or whether it's the knowledge that I'm carrying a girl right now, I don't know. But all of a sudden I feel very strongly that unless we as a human race value our girls just as much as we value our boys, we will not get very far in solving many enormous issues facing our world.

Most of us know about the now-fading Chinese practice of female infanticide (which, I found out a few years ago, was also widespread in India). I knew about female genital cutting from having read Warrior Marks by Alice Walker (a book I also highly recommend), and from working in my current field. But I did not know that lack of access to iodine can affect IQ by as much as 10-15 points in utero, and that girl fetuses are especially susceptible to this. And that it would cost a ridiculously low price to fix, all things considered - $19 million to iodize salt worldwide. Not very glamorous, but consider the impact it would have on learning capacity. Or the fact that providing girls with school uniforms - that helps them stay in school - reduces teen pregnancy and early marriage, as well as incidence of STIs. Or the fact that girls starve to death in disproportionate numbers where there is famine or drought. Boys and men get fed first, and women and girls second. Or the fact that girls in many developing nations miss school several days a month for their periods, just because they don't have access to reliable feminine hygiene products, nor the sanitation facilities to change them. How utterly ridiculous is that? How have I lived for so long taking for granted that I have never been in danger of starving to death, or being married off at 12, or missing a day of school because I don't have underwear or pads or a place to change them?

Not only did I come away horrified, I also came away inspired by what women (and men, this is not a man-hating book) are doing to change the status quo. I've written about how much Greg Mortenson inspires me, but now Edna Adan is one of my new heroes as well.

After you finish reading this book, you will want to do something to change the way things are. Fortunately, there is an appendix full of websites that for people who want to help change things - and there is a wide range of things people like you and me can do, from writing letters to politicians (which I am not a fan of, since I tend to dislike government BS anyway), to going abroad to volunteer at hospitals, to making microloans to women across the world to help them succeed at business. It's really cool. I'll make another post with the links that I found most inspiring.

Gestational diabetes

The topic has been of a bit of interest to me lately, being that I'm about 27 weeks along now, and had an abnormal O'Sullivan test yesterday. The cutoff for normal O'Sull results is 140 of below; naturally, with this pregnancy's propensity for drama, my O'Sull came back 141. It won me a ticket to a 3-hour long oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Having to drink the OGTT liquid alone made me very glad this is last pregnancy I plan on having. Ugh. I almost tossed my cookies. And, it was a PITA to have to come back every hour to get poked, but suppose it was for a good cause.

Normal values for the OGTT are: fasting <95mg/dl; 1 hour post drink <195; 2 hour <165; 3 hour < 145. My fasting was 65; 1 hour 183; 2 hour 179; 3 hour 62. So officially, I don't have gestational diabetes (GDM). But given my family history of type 2 diabetes, and given the fact that women in my family tend to birth big babies without the help of GDM, I am going to watch my diet on my own, and am going to investigate a glucometer/strips to keep a watch on my sugars. I'm also going to let my OBs know I'm doing this. A little proactivity never hurt anyone.

All that to explain why I'm posting this link so I can have access to it when I need it. Managing Gestational Diabetes put out by NICHD, has good info.