One if by land, two if by sea...

(Longfellow)

My grandmother instilled Longfellow's poem into my mother, who instilled it into us younger ones. I'm referring to Paul Revere's Ride, which you can find the full text on E-server, a non-profit collective of students and faculty at Iowa State University.

I was always disappointed as an adult to discover how few knew the significance of this day in our nation's history. "You know? The 18th of April?" "Paul Revere?" Blank stares. I'd even quote a few lines...

But now I have a true blue friend, Babelbabe, whose BIRTHDAY is on April 18, and now I'll always have someone to quote the poem with.

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Today at Women's Bible Study, we prayed for our nation. That the next two years would bring a change, so that our next leader is not just a knee jerk reaction to what so many see as a "lame duck presidency." Today, driving to WBS, I saw my first "Hillary Clinton 2008" bumper sticker.

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The other week, when we went on our "National Library Worker's Field Trip" (we visited two other libraries to see how they ran their tech services departments) I saw this book: How the Pro-Choice Movement saved America. Since I have friends on both sides of the issue and I don't like talking about politics (did you read "I meme"?) I thought it wouldn't be bad to at least be informed of one side of the story. I am pro-life. But I am pro-choice in that I don't see how it could be a law that you can't get an abortion. I read too many books in high school about girls who got back alley abortions, and who could forget the scenes from "Dirty Dancing"? I am always glad when people choose to have the baby--when Rachel on "Friends" decided to keep Emma, when Darcy in Something Blue decided to keep her baby (which later turned out to be boy twins!) I will be handing out baby bottles after church this week at Bellefield, baby bottles that people will fill with loose change and then bring back. This change will be used to support the Oakland Crisis Pregnancy Center, a place that helps women decide what to do with an unplanned pregnancy. They just got an ultra-sound machine. More women who are able to see an ultra-sound of their unborn child decide to take the birth to full term.

Now, the last thing I want to do is prosethelize to you, my dear readers. I hope that I am just giving information with my opinions but not hitting you over the head. I think one of the greatest things about this nation, about life in general, is that we have choices. I think we always have a choice, whether it is to say hello to a stranger, or to take time to read a book, or to enjoy a tulip. Sometimes we have harder choices, which bill to pay today, which laundry to wash first, which job to take. But in this country, for the most part, we have a choice. Women can do so much! I am so grateful to live in a time when women can choose to work some days and be at home other days--I think we've gone beyond what the feminists in the 70s wanted--unisex bathrooms and the ERA. I am grateful for the choices my friends have made--to be my friend. I am ever grateful when they choose to let me make my choices. And it makes me want to make choices that would honor and respect them.

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I just finished re-reading Something Blue. I was sobbing towards the end. It is a book about Darcy, whose fiance has dumped her for her best friend, leaving her pregnant with the child that she concieved while cheating on her fiance. Darcy, among other things, moves to London, reacquainting herself to a childhood friend, Ethan. It is a beautiful story, with a beautiful tissue-worthy ending and if I didn't have DVDs and books clamoring to be catalogued, I'd go on and on and on. But alas, my work calls out to me...