Elizabeth A. Havey's Blog, page 3

The Human Urge to Have an Enemy (updated)

 

Old clichés certainly stick around: woman have it good; men take care of them; women are the weaker sex. But sometimes: women are the enemy.

I don’t believe any of those clichés, though sometimes, as a female, I wonder how I made it this far. Made it safely, my body and my mind intact. I say this, because of my position as a female in this world, because of all the struggles females have had to endure, and still do, physical and mental struggles. Truly, I have been fortunate. I have caring women in my life and men: my husband, brothers, son, sons-in-law, friends, fellow workers…And I definitely do not for one second believe women to be the weaker sex. It’s absolutely not true on any level. It’s a lie to subjugate women.

My mother raised me and my two brothers; she was as strong as anyone I have ever known. The weaker sex thing is a mystique, some myth that society has tried to sell us. It includes the roles we’ve been forced to take. I imagine that many men, even some in power in this country, now realize that our nation would be far better off if Hillary Clinton had won. (Maybe not the top billionaires, the ones adding another yacht to their treasures; those focusing on how to make more money, not how to help the citizens of the United States live and function.)

Consider, that almost from the beginning (and I write almost because I wasn’t there), men have physically subjugated woman. Some would argue it is part of biology, anatomy—though through evolution or just plain choice and decision-making, there are woman who are physically more prepared for battle today than many men. (There’s Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs.)

And even though Elizabeth I of England, Catherine the Great of Russia, Cleopatra and Margaret Thatcher, to name a few, had great power—the fight is still on. TFG would have had to suffer some terrible disease or a major heart attack to escape facing that a WOMAN beat him in the 2016 election. So, he cheated. Then four years later, when a man beat him, he went berserk, creating lies, creating a cadre that believes his lies, creating enemies.

Some will sardonically say, But everyone lies. Yes, there is that. It’s how many people roll. In order for their blood to flow, their desires to move them through life, they must have an enemy, imaginary or real, someone they need to fight to get ahead or simply maneuver around. And often—it’s a woman. The physicality thing, the power thing—it’s still there.

I’d prefer that honesty and intelligence be a major consideration when selecting a so-called winner, OR the president of our country. 

HISTORY NEVER DIES 

Once, my husband was watching some historical series about Greeks and Romans. Okay, I stopped to watch, but sadly, at an inopportune time. A phalanx of Roman soldiers were marching along a dusty road. You can picture it—the battle attire, the olive trees, the sand wafting up. And some woman with a basket has wandered out of the trees to use the road, to make her way home. 

Immediately, the leader of the legion stops his troops, gets down from his horse and accosts the woman. Right there on the sandy road, her basket rolls away, she is on the ground and he is raping her while all his troops wait, watch. She is nothing, after all. She’s just some woman. She’s a vessel. When this evilness is accomplished, the leader adjusts himself, gets back on his horse and the troops move on. Just television? No. History.

When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford heard that Brett Kavanaugh had been nominated for a position on the Supreme Court, memories overcame her. Maybe she had not been raped like the woman along the dusty road, but only because Ford was able to fight back, and then happenstance saved her—the two men fell off the bed. Ford escaped.

Make no mistake—Dr. Ford was attacked, laughed at, vilified. Her body which encased all that she was—her loves, her thoughts, memories and accomplishments—none of that was considered when Kavanaugh and his so-called friend attacked her. She was only a body, a victim. She was the Greek woman along the road. If she or the Greek woman were impregnated—who knows and who cares. Not the attacker. After all, he’s the stronger sex.

MODERN POWER—PICK AN ENEMY

It’s always been the case—to win, you have to beat someone. In: sports, contests, politics, auditions. Even getting into college—you have to beat out someone else, hope that they are less smart, less prepared or whose background might work against them—people of color, people who are not economically blessed and not in the very distant past—women.

How horrible for a man to lose to a woman! Not so horrible anymore. Happens all the time. Women are frontrunners, women are winners…unless the fix is in.

We all watched Brett Kavanaugh with his face twisted up in anger, his body leaning on the desk as if he wanted to hurl it at someone or slug Ford, try to destroy her all over again. If Dr. Ford was angry about Kavanaugh attempting to rape her, he was incensed that she even had a right to sit there and accuse him. HOW DARE SHE!

She dared. SHE HAD A RIGHT TO DO SO. Progress.

The woman on the Greek road had no rights. Even in ancient Rome where a republic existed and men could vote, women could not vote or hold public office. They were excluded from speaking out on the Senate floor. The only time a woman could speak out in Roman life was as a victim, a martyr or a protector of her family.

FEELING UNCOMFORTABLE?

When women assert themselves, like Dr. Ford, Billie Jean King, Anais Nin, Gloria Steinem, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indianapolis who cared for a raped and pregnant child…they make some people feel uncomfortable. That’s the point. That’s good. They are stepping outside familiar norms. They are stating that their equality exists on every level. They don’t want men to be their enemies. They do want men to acknowledge them as equals. BECAUSE WOMEN HAVE BEEN EQUAL FROM THE BEGINNING.

Think of all the words you have read, the videos that you have seen throughout your long or short life that subtly asserts that this female/male struggle is normal. And people get comfortable with normal.

with men beating their wives, domestic abuse;with a presidential candidate bragging about assaulting women;with ignoring the presence of the casting couch;with saying “That’s just the way it is” when Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment and a newsman later commented about Hill: “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty;” Case closed, though he later said what he wrote was a lie.

AS THINGS IMPROVE

Social media has helped women to come forward and tell their stories. #MeToo; #WhyILeft; #YouKnowMe—all have allowed women to come forward, the fear of physical retribution lessening because of safety in numbers. As Dr. Ford told the Washington Post when discussing her hesitation to speak out: “Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter?”

Kamala Harris, then Senator from California, wrote about Ford: “Her courage, in the face of those who wished to silence her, galvanized Americans, and her unfathomable sacrifice, out of a sense of civic duty, shined a spotlight on the way we treat survivors of sexual violence.”

And how did Ford respond after being in the spotlight: “Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty.”

Now that’s not looking for an enemy. That’s an attempt to tell the truth, a truth that matters to many of us going forward.

Thanks to Lyz Lenz SHOUTING INTO THE VOID  Time, Sept. 30th

ART: Thanks to Women’s Empowerment

 

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Healthcare for Females, the Rocky Road Ahead

What We Are Becoming Desperate For: Loving and Considerate Healthcare for Every Pregnant Women

“Some women who have miscarried and are at risk of future losses say they are considering moving from states that ban abortion or they are rethinking life plans,” wrote Pam Belluck in her recent article in the New York Times, Miscarriage Care Gets Complicated. 

HER JOURNEY TO HAVE A CHILD

Texas resident Amanda, had already had one miscarriage. She stated that after that experience, “she awoke from anesthesia to find a card signed by the nurses and a little pink and blue bracelet with a butterly charm, a gift from the hospital to express compassion for her loss. “It was so sweet, because it was such a hard thing to go through.”

Eight months later and joyfully pregnant, Amanda began to experience a second miscarriage. She went to the same hospital, Baylor, Scott and White Medical Center, her pain making it difficult to walk. She was also passing blood clots. She requested the same procedure as before, a D&C, dilation and curettage, but the hospital said NO. In September of 2021, the hospital now had to follow a Texas law banning almost all abortions after six weeks. (Note: a D&C is a procedure that has also been used for some abortions.)

Amanda said the hospital didn’t mention the abortion law, but sent her hone with instructions to return, only if she was bleeding so excessively that her blood filled a diaper more than once an hour. My response: that is NOT healthcare. Was there someone with this woman to drive her; she could pass out driving herself or if she were on public transportation, she could bleed out and die in the street.

Hospital records that Amanda shared with the New York Times noted that her embryo had no cardiac activity during that visit and on an ultrasound–a week earlier. (This was a  miscarriage in more ways than one.) “The patient reported having a lot of pain, and appeared stressed,” the record said. The record also noted: “This appears to be a miscarriage in process” but the hospital went ahead, sent her home, advised a follow-up in seven days.

THAT IS NOT HEALTHCARE. THAT IS FEAR OF SOME NEW LAW CARE.

At home, Amanda bled for 48 hours, big clots, terrible pain, often sitting in her bathtub. The hospital response was: “our multidisciplinary team of clinicians works …to determine the appropriate treatment plan on an individual basis, the health and safety of our patients is our top priority.”

SADLY, no it is not. You are trying a work-around because of Texas law. John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life said he considers this a very serious situation. NO KIDDING. And he blamed Amanda’s suffering on a breakdown in communication of the law, but certainly NOT THE LAW ITSELF. Then he blamed the patient’s suffering on medical associations, saying they were not providing CLEAR GUIDANCE. So push the blame onto someone else. What young woman has time to read up info from medical associations in the chance that she gets pregnant, goes to a hospital and has to FIGHT FOR HER LIFE and the LIFE OF HER EMBRYO. 

MY OPINION

Fear and the uncertain political climate is changing healthcare in Texas. Pharmacies deny or delay filling prescriptions for medications to complete a miscarriage. Delays in expelling tissue from a pregnancy that is no longer viable can lead to hemorrhaging, infections, and sometimes life-threatening sepsis, say the scientists who know: obstetricians.

More and more women who have miscarried will be at risk for future losses. Those who can afford to, say they are considering moving from states like Texas that ban abortions, so that they can get pregnant and deliver their infant in a safe environment. Amanda stated: “We are not going to try and conceive anymore. We don’t feel like it’s safe in Texas to continue to try.”

Because there just isn’t CLEAR GUIDANCE.

Texas and other states are trying to re-create the practice of medicine when they know NOTHING about the practice of medicine, the female anatomy, medical care for newly pregnant women, women having break-through bleeding, miscarrying, women in pain. And they don’t give a damn! When the abortion argument appears, there is never a focus on the pregnant woman, her life, the health of her body, the support of spouse or family, her bank account. And most of these antiabortion believers are not going to be there for the woman if and when she finally delivers.

Thanks to the New York Times…Miscarriage care gets complicated…

PS I had one miscarriage between my two daughters and my son. I was not far along. I had cramping and bleeding. I had the care of my physician, the love of my family (my sister-in-law sent me flowers.) What Amanda is going through and others like her will definitely reduce the number of healthy babies being born in this country–another result of laws created by men who know nothing about healthcare for women. (Not bothering to even mention THE HANDMAIDEN.)

PPS Many of you already know, I worked in an inner city hospital in Chicago, on the Maternity Unit. That gives me some cache. 

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Lessons….by Ian McEwan, A Review

I have admired Ian McEwan’s work for years. As his oeuvre continues to grow, I have read many of his novels: The Cement Garden, The Child in Time, Atonement and On Chesil Beach.

I was also delighted with the rendering to film of both his Atonement and Chesil Beach. McEwan’s ability to create a story line, yet allow the reader to wander away for periods of back story, worked for me in both of those novels.

But not with this newest one, LESSONS. It’s a lengthy story, McEwan often seeming to be “all over the place.” Reviewers are praising the book for its ability to cover large swaths of history. It made me question whether McEwan had taken copious notes while reading about life in East and West Berlin before the wall came down, or having experienced in his own life the pull between one’s choice and another, all of that leaving pain and wonder, but most of all regret.

It is entitled LESSONS, the work being haunted by the main character, Roland Baines, and his continuing obsession with his predatory piano teacher. Her work is more sex than music, and sex in many forms. And this all started when the boy is only eleven, the experience floating in and out of the story, as if those moments in young Roland’s life have cut into his adult choices, and in some ways made him incapable of shaking them off. “Initial sexual adventures control the rest of one’s life.”

And in truth, there must be lessons there. Roland is unable to break from the physical longing she arouses in him, despite her abrupt changes when she berates him mentally and sometimes physically. (The fellow needed a good shrink then and forever.) McEwan seems to be emphasizing once again the deep and unseen effects that sex has on a child’s movement into adulthood. (Atonement) But certainly the man can write, knows much about European history, and the scourge and yet joy of personal relationships. He also slips in those angry or disappointed gods in modern form: Hitler, Nasser, Khrushchev, Kennedy, Gorbachev. Maybe in some ways they shaped McEwan’s life, but also failed to provide his MC Roland with insight into international affairs.

Publishing director, Michal Shavit, who acquired the novel, best describes it: “A universal story of love, acceptance and sacrifice, longing, desire and of harm in childhood and its long-term impact. Set against the most amazing backdrop of world defining events, this is the story of an extraordinary century and an ordinary man grappling with all that it is to be human.”  Amen.

 

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The Game Show: Politics of the GOP

It’s not happening in every state. But sadly, the states that it is happening in are run by Republicans. Many of their leaders have college and advanced degrees. Some of them are actually lawyers. But that doesn’t matter. We are now living in the era of “Do what you can to dumb things down.” And when people in power attempt to do that, freedom goes away. Ideas and words become targeted. Theories are challenged. Basically, THE THINGS YOU WERE TAUGHT in high school, are now, in some states, forbidden.

THE GAME IS REAL NOW

Remember when Game Shows were popular and people won money for having the right answer? Big time Money. Now, at every turn, the game is to s crew up the logic we used to have. It’s going on every day–people huddling at desks or in board rooms, trying to screw the general public into believing lies. There was a time when this was accepted as politics, you know, kinda innocent, kind of accepted because, wink wink, we knew the game and how to play it.

No longer. It’s much scarier now. The outright telling of lies. The bold  staring into a camera and lying to the American people–that’s what happened in Germany before World War Two. It’s actually called authoritarianism. It gives only a few the power to lead the rest of us. So in this post, I’m looking at you, Florida. This from the latest news: 

In what at times appeared more like a tent revival than an agency rule hearing, state health officials on Friday received public input on a proposal that would deny Medicaid coverage for treatments such as puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy for transgender people.

Anthony Verdugo, founder and executive director of the Christian Family Coalition, called gender-affirming treatments “crimes against humanity.”  “Groomers are using their authority as adults to pressure children and ruining their lives,” he said. “Let kids be kids.”  But critics of the proposal warned that it could have deadly effects on transgender Floridians, and it is based on politics rather than policy.

A Florida Department of Education review of 132 math books has led to the banning of more than 40% of them due to what the state calls “prohibited topics” including critical race theory and social-emotional learning. 

WHAT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING? 

AND WOW, what scary stuff are these crazies finding in math books? Last month, Florida’s Education Department accused publishers of trying to “indoctrinate” the state’s students through proposed math textbooks, alleging that they were sneaking in material, forbidden by the state, about social-emotional learning, Common Core standards or “critical race theory.”

The book banning in Florida is happening. Laws passed this year by the state legislature aimed at banning reading material in schools in a blanket attempt to whitewash American history, marginalize LGBTQ students. They know the best way to do that is to deprive students of books that focus on the realities of the life they are living. Prohibiting knowledge of our differences, that we no longer have right to our own choices, is now part of Florida’s curriculum. As a former teacher who enjoyed it when a student shared freely of his “different” take on life–now students are forbidden to do that. Their lives are literally white-washed. 

The Florida Department of Education has banned books that former English teachers like me might assign. They are banned because the majority of these books touch on race: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibrahim Kendi; The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; they are about sexuality: Forever by Judy Blume; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley); oh and let us not even mention sexual orientation or gender identity: Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. 

Whether you taught decades ago or are teaching now, the entire point of high school English classes, is YES, help the student write a decent five paragraph essay, take them to the library so they know how to do research and yes, write a research paper. But more importantly: help them THINK. Awaken students to the world, to story, to joy and suffering, the challenges of life.

Teaching high school English–ASK ME– should not be a white bread class that avoids topics like race, prejudice, history, disease, even suffering and death; it’s the beauty and reality of words, all used to inspire empathy, understanding, & how to live. States like Florida (and there will be more) are stomping on all of that as you read this. 

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History We Should Know: The, Don’t Tell Me What To Do Movement

 

Many believe, and I also do, that the anti-vaccine movement can be traced to 1998.

Fact: that a group of doctors and scientists held a news conference in London. That they were to discuss what was soon to appear in the Lancet Medical Journal: a proposed link between the MMR vaccine for children, the first dose commonly given during a child’s second year of life, and regressive autism, a mysterious condition that also presented around the same time, and whose prevalence seemed to be spreading.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield wrote: “I cannot support the continued use of the three vaccines given together. My concerns are that one more case of this (autism) is too many.”

Wakefield’s words created a firestorm. His doubts about the relatively new childhood vaccine (the combination MMR had only been introduced in Britain in 1988) started a wave of fear of vaccines that continues to this day.

SO WHAT HAPPENED? 

Then and now, what was lost on the non-medical public, were important facts:  how scientifically weak the study was in the original Lancet publication. The study was small, only 12 subjects. The study had no comparison group. The subjects were not selected randomly. Wakefield’s paper should only have been used to make more scientists do stronger and better organized studies. But instead, 60 Minutes treated “Wakefield as one side in an ongoing scientific debate about MMR vaccine safety, when in reality there wasn’t much debate at all among scientists.” And though he got lots of publicity, Wakefield’s theory soon began to unravel. 

His co-authors issued a retraction. Medical records indicated that some of the children he used as subjects had developmental problems before they received the vaccine. Thus, in Great Britain, Wakefield was stripped of his medical license, and the  Lancet retracted Wakefield’s paper, describing it as “probably the worst paper” ever published in the journal’s history.

BUT THEN…

Wakefield created a film: “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe” which made its way to the public, though people like Robert De Niro denounced its science. And while other researches around the world failed to find a link between vaccines and autism, Wakefield refused to abandon his theory. He loved the spotlight, and began to travel the world, insisting that vaccines caused autism.

OTHER CONSEQUENCES…

Seven years after the notorious Lancet paper, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the beloved and assassinated RFK, decided he totally agreed with Wakefield. He wrote an article, arguing that thimerosal, the mercury-laden preservative used in some vaccines, was damaging children’s brains and could be contributing to what some were calling, “the autism epidemic.” Kennedy attacked the CDC for secrecy, even though as time went on, there were once again holes in his argument. And then when Kennedy got his numbers wrong, Salon, his publisher, removed the article.

Not to be deterred, Kennedy shifted his focus from blaming mercury, to blaming the aluminum present in some vaccine adjuvants, though again, studies have failed to show any link between small amounts in vaccines and a subsequent disorder.

Now Kennedy claims that vaccine mandates are a form of totalitarian oppression. The New York Times article from which I took much of my research, quotes him: “We have witnessed over the past 20 months, a coup d’etat against democracy and the demolition, the controlled demolition, of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.” WOW!

My reaction: when men become desperate to hold on to their followers, they stretch the argument to such a breaking point, that all logic and sensible wording disappears. Kennedy now sounds like a crazy person.

DAMAGE DONE: THE RESULTS 

In 2014, a case of measles at Disneyland in Orange County, California spread. 147 people across the U.S. contracted a virus that should be gone from our country. Of those who became ill, many children in California, at least 45%, were unvaccinated, due to a popular doctor in Orange Country who would provide parents with signed paperwork, allowing them to avoid vaccination required in California for entrance to Kindergarten. And another reason—celebrity Jenny McCarthy, who has always claimed that her son developed autism after receiving his childhood vaccines, didn’t stay silent, using her notoriety to convince other parents to not vaccinate their children. Also, regarding the Disneyland outbreak, 43% of the victims had an unknown vaccination status, meaning they could have been unvaccinated as well.

Then in 2015, Richard Pan, a pediatrician and California state senator, played a major role in forming and writing SB277—a bill that supported vaccination for children in California’s public schools. But when the law was being debated, lawmakers began getting death threats. And though Jerry Brown, then California’s governor, did sign the bill into law, things got worse.

1.There were major measles outbreaks in Washington State, New York, California, and other states—1,282 cases.

2. The outbreaks were nearly enough to make the virus endemic again—meaning: that after its eradication from the United States 19 years earlier, measles ALMOST became re-established in this country.

3. Certain doctors in California were “selling vaccine exemptions” and making money doing so.

4. After SB277 was signed, “a woman threw a menstrual cup filled with what appeared to be blood on the legislators, while yelling: “that’s for the dead babies!”

Dr. Pan responded, saying that in the entire history of the California Legislature—during which there were many difficult issues debated from slavery to abortion to gun rights, no one had ever thrown anything at the legislators. “So far, the only ones to do that are the antivaxxers,” Dr. Pan said.

FINAL THOUGHTS 

But as my readers know, this has only been the beginning of ordinary folks taking it upon themselves to let anger and violence guide them.

Robert Kennedy has gone so far as to call it “turnkey totalitarianism. They are putting into place all these technological mechanism for control that we’ve never seen before.” He then referenced Anne Frank, saying that even then she could hide in an attic.  Reaction came immediately. Kennedy had gone too far, his wife saying in Twitter, that the Anne Frank reference was “reprehensible and insensitive.”

CONCLUSION: After all the chaos in California over vaccination, Eric Ball, another pediatrician from Orange Country, CA, says that trying to give children vaccines remains a battle.

“We’re completely on the defensive. Now we just want to hold on to what we have. I worry about what’s going to happen in the next several years and that we’ll start seeing more kids with measles and whooping cough.”

Thanks for reading, and thanks for the New York Times May 29, 2022

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My Opinion: I Address This Issue from a Medical Background

Yesterday was one of the saddest days I can remember. Because I now know I cannot trust my government to care for my daughters and my granddaughter. I cannot trust the SCOTUS. It’s not just about abortion, it’s about treating women as lesser citizens. It’s about putting their mental and physical health in jeopardy, if they are raped, or have an ectopic pregnancy. It’s about being anti-science and acting like this decision was invoked by some spiritual need. We are HUMAN beings. Not angels. When we need medical care, We Need It!! And some old men on the court, and some rich young woman, have no right to stomp on that need.

CONTRACEPTION

Many members of the radical right don’t even approve of contraception!! Instead, all women are to be saints, bear large numbers of children, and simply give give give; they might not have a life of their own; their health might be damaged; they might die young or turn to alcohol and drugs to get through the days. That’s just too bad. They have wombs and thus they are to make babies. 

But there have been women for centuries who realized that NO–that’s not my calling, and they wrote poetry and novels, practiced the arts of finding herbs and plants to heal the body, used their creative powers to leave behind art, literature and science. And for some, they even became part of the government that ruled their kingdoms, their countries. Bravo, Women. And Bravo Herbalists, Midwives, Crones and Witches. Call them what you will, they were working to help and protect women. They were concerned about menstruation, pain, rape and always pregnancy: those that went right and those that led to a woman’s death. 

SO, ABOUT PROTECTION

Many members of the radical right don’t approve or more correctly don’t understand what PLAN B is. Pharmacists on the radical right have refused to fill scripts for Plan B when a patient presents and needs help. PLAN B IS NOT an abortifactant. It does not stop a pregnancy that has already begun. It stops a pregnancy from beginning. It is a very large dose of hormones like the birth control pill. (Levonorgestrel morning-after pills, like Plan B, are arguably the most well-known emergency contraceptives. Other options include the Ella pill and the copper intrauterine device, more widely known as an IUD.)

But radical ideas often don’t allow wiggle room; no questions are asked. Ignorance is bliss. I once encountered a pharmacist who believed that PLAN B was an abortifactant. Do your homework, Buddy, before you go embarrassing a stressed out woman at the counter and refusing to fill her script. Or change jobs. You shouldn’t be working in the healthcare field if you don’t want to deliver care.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) is the site to go to for information about women’s health, birth control, pregnancy and abortion. https://www.acog.org/advocacy/facts-are-important/abortion-is-healthcare

Doctors from ACOG’s Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women, have spoken to the critical need for all women of reproductive age to have unimpeded access to emergency contraception, an essential treatment method for protecting and safeguarding their reproductive health. It’s been estimated that greater access to Emergency Contraception (EC) could cut unintended pregnancy and abortion rates in half. Statistics show that nearly half (49%) of the more than 6 million pregnancies that occur each year are unplanned. Family planning is an important issue and EC is an excellent contraceptive option for millions of women who want to prevent an unintended pregnancy.

Emergency contraception, also called the morning-after pill, is a higher dosage of the same hormones found in ordinary birth control pills. It is highly effective in reducing a woman’s chance of pregnancy after a contraceptive failure or unprotected sex. This can include rape. If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, EC prevents up to 89% of pregnancies; it is most effective if taken within 24 hours.

According to ACOG, over half (53%) of the women who have unplanned pregnancies are using some method of contraception. “Accidents happen. (a condom breaks, you forgot your diaphragm). No form of contraception offers women 100% protection,” noted Dr. Michael T. Mennuti. “By getting women to ask about emergency contraception and by ob-gyns giving them an advance prescription for it, we hope to make EC a forethought, not an afterthought. We want women to be prepared-well before a contraceptive failure or unprotected sex occurs. Afterward may be too late.”

The Top 5 Questions Asked About Emergency Contraception

There are the two types of pills: Ulipristal pills. These require a prescription. … Some research suggests that morning–after pills may be less effective if you are overweight or obese. … Yes, it’s safe to use morning–after pills (both progestin-only pills and ulipristal pills) multiple times in one menstrual cycle.

Want to be prepared, or to offer information to someone you know–go here to the Planned Parenthood site for information about the morning after pill. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/morning-after-pill-emergency-contraception/which-kind-emergency-contraception-should-i-use

“The scientific evidence and medical consensus supporting non-prescription sales of emergency contraception is unparalleled in FDA history,” says Dr. Dickerson reiterating ACOG’s support for making EC (Emergency Contraception)  available directly to women over the counter. “The FDA’s failure to act amounts to a quintessential shell game, in which women are the losers. Not granting national OTC status to Plan B® goes against their mission of promoting public health and welfare. EC’s safety and efficacy are backed by decades of research and are not debatable,” she added. “As champions of women’s health, ACOG endorses non-prescription sales of emergency contraception.”

Studies also show that women are more likely to use EC if it is readily available. It is estimated that making EC widely available OTC (over the counter) has the potential to prevent at least half of unintended pregnancies in the US (or about 3 million pregnancies annually) and reduce the number of abortions in the US by 50%.

For more information, go here: https://www.acog.org/advocacy/facts-are-important/abortion-is-healthcare

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When Novels Speak to Your Decorating

This is an older post, but worth sharing again.My friend Joan knows me too well. After visiting my home, she sent me a gift, a coffee table book by Lisa Borgnes Giramonti entitled, NOVEL INTERIORS. It’s a gorgeous book with captions from well-loved novels and photos of interiors and exteriors that illustrate the feeling, the mood of the literature–for decorating is art, writing is art and they combine. Excited about this book, I took some of the literary excerpts from it and illustrated them for this post.

Other photos are part of a collection that I have created over the years, tearing from my favorite magazines the rooms and gardens that I love. I hope you enjoy the combination of words and pictures. Maybe they will inspire you as they do me.

“Don’t let us make it tidy,” said Mary anxiously. “It wouldn’t be a secret garden if it was tidy.” Frances Hodgson Burnett, THE SECRET GARDEN

A lovely secret garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The people whom she had hitherto known just put what they had or could get into their homes, old things, and new things, side by side with each other.” Flora Thompson, LARK RISE TO CANDELFORD

Color, shapes, comfort, sunshine all side by side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“She has the idea that one night in your house would give her pleasure and do her good…Being one of those imaginative girls, the presence of all our books and furniture soothes her.” E.M. Forster, HOWARDS END

I could sink into that chair and never leave, book in hand.

“Jo hurried to this quiet place, and curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures like a regular bookworm.” Louisa May Alcott, LITTLE WOMEN

A cozy corner, sunshine and books!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If people do but know how to set about it, every comfort may be as well enjoyed in a cottage as in the most spacious dwelling.” Jane Austen. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

Simplicity but with warmth and color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Nothing matched anything else. Everything was of an exotic brilliance that took away the breath. ‘Not the room of a lady,’ thought Miss Pettigrew.” Winifred Watson, MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY

Bold, bright and wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It struck me that the seasons sometimes gain by being brought into the house, just as they gain by being brought into painting, and into poetry.” Willa Cather, THE PROFESSOR’S HOUSE

Nature in art and from the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Picking up the cushions…that Mary had desposed so carefully, she threw them back on to the chairs and the couches. That made all the difference; the room came alive at once.” Katherine Mansfield, “BLISS”

A gorgeous collection of pillows and cushions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I’m glad you appreciate my sofa,”replied Mme. Verdurin, “and I warn you that if you expect ever to see another like it you may as well abandon the idea at once.” Marcel Proust, SWANN’S WAY

I would think the Mademoiselle would love this sofa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from Better Homes and Gardens, Meredith Books, Mary Engelbreit Home Companion and Anthropologie. HAPPY DECORATING, HAPPY READING.

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UNDOING TIME Timegathering Series By Rachel Dacus

The science and whimsy of time travel (can be) infinite, complex, and lovely, but I love time travel stories because the quest of traversing Time can explore how possibilities and probabilities shape the person we are in the Present, the person we become in the Future. Fate is more fluid than it would like us to believe. Kristian Macaron

In her TIME GATHERING SERIES, Rachel Dacus fully utilizes and enhances what Macaron has described above. In UNDOING TIME, Dacus takes readers on adventures that traverse time, while also creating a present story line that binds the reader to her characters: Olivia Pomeroy, a San Francisco native, who after a romantic breakup, has traveled to Florence, Italy to spend time with her cousin, May Gold.

THE SET-UP

But when Olivia and May reconnect, the cousins realize they both have been gifted with the ability to time travel—though in their varied experience, there is some discussion about what term to use. Surrounded by May’s friends, who also possess the gift, they discuss this issue, finding their goals are worthy, similar.

“Well yeah! I mean, I have this secret talent, and then I find out other people do this thing,”

“What do you call your time hops?” May asked.

“I call it undoing time. Just an hour or a day ahead. To be sure things go well, and then if not, I can change the plan. It’s practical.” (Liv said.)

(As readers, we can certainly see the benefit of being able to look into the future, make some changes that might improve our future possibilities. That’s why this is fiction! But interesting and fun fiction.) 

“Undoing time. I like that,” May responds. And then Liv asks, “Why do you timegather? What’s rescuing history?”

“We jump back to make sure events go the way they’re supposed to…”

Thus through this ongoing conversation, the novel sets up character goals, that both the reader and the MC Liv must be asking: “Why does history need your help?”

The answer to this question allows Dacus to imbue her characters with worthy goals that flow throughout the novel: “There are people who want to change history and humanity. But if they succeed, we’ll be in a different world.” 

ESCAPE, BUT WITH A MESSAGE…

Reading this novel, one travels to different worlds, Dacus finding and developing a fantastic insight in this fiction she is creating: write novels that provide the reader with well-researched history (in this one we jump from the California Gold Rush to the San Francisco earthquake to meeting the naturalist John Muir–only to name a few) but also include romantic tension and the fear that a time-traveler has when finding herself in a life or death situation.

Dacus knows her history, challenges her characters with experiencing traumas, yet allows them to use their “undoing” powers to change things, save lives. Because the novel presents problems that must be solved, here are a few paragraphs to highlight the writer’s skills, make you want to read more. 

They landed on Nob Hill, near where the Flood Mansion still stood. All the mansions surrounding it were in small pieces. Liv looked west, where Pacific Heights would one day sprout new mansions and the Pomeroy home would be located. She saw the city all around them burning, smoke rising from many areas,  valley and hills, alight, fires still not out. …”Just imagine how it will look in our time,” Tom said. “New buildings will rise from these ashes. San Francisco will rebuild. It’s what we do. Who we are. And that’s why we’re here.”

MORE ABOUT RACHEL

Thanks for reading…Rachel Dacus is the author of four novels and four poetry collections. Her topics are love, relationships, history and art. Her stories often contain a twist on the supernatural. Other books by Rachel in this series: The Renaissance Club, Time Gatherer and she is currently writing: Jane Austen, Time Traveler, due out this year. 

 

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“Write For Your Life” by Anna Quindlen

Writers of every media (newspapers, magazines, books), all struggle to get words on the page. Sometimes writing and publishing is quick and easy, but often writers are blocked, or they query, only to get numerous rejections. Still, you own those words, they are gifts–in a diary, a letter, a stream-of-conscious page.

But the best part of being a writer, the part we all must do to insure we have something to say is: WE MUST READ. Because to create, we need experiences, thoughts, ideas, the opinions of other thinkers; we need to expose ourselves to a variety of ideas, let them simmer, and then write down our own.

READING/WRITING

Wherever I’ve lived, Chicago, Des Moines, California–I have within days, found the nearest library, signed up for a library card, making numerous trips to sign out books for reading joy. I also buy books, people gift me with books, but then, whenever we move, I have to go through my shelves, donating scores of titles. If I still had every book I have ever owned, they would fill an entire room, or more. In this house, there are books in every room, even the kitchen–okay, cook books!

WHAT I READ...

On my personal list would be: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, Charlotte Bronte, Louisa Mae Alcott…also, Joan Didion, Anne Tyler, Anna Quindlen–just for a start.

The last three wrote both fiction and nonfiction. Quindlen’s latest publication, WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE, is so needed in a time when so much word creation is done for us. Sometimes it’s difficult to create an email, because the computer wants to splice in ready-made phrases. That’s not creative, Quindlen insisting that our words must come from the heart, the soul. She starts by quoting another amazing female writer, Flannery O’Connor: “I have to write to discover what I am doing.”   I LOVE THAT. But let’s think about that. 

I feel that way, when the world is crowding out birdsong and the sound of silence. When our society is weeping from death and illness. My immediate reaction has always been to write (from girlhood and into the future). The results: really bad poetry, entries in numerous diaries; (on a more positive note) letters to Buckingham Palace (I probably wrote six, always got an answer). Then in high school and college, I took Creative Writing. Did my teachers love what I wrote? Sometimes…, but that didn’t and doesn’t stop me. I am a writer and always will be. But I digress. Back to Anna Quindlen: Write For Your Life

A DIARY FOR ETERNITY

At the beginning of her book, Quindlen focusses on a teenage girl who needed to write to discover what she was doing, and to discover how she could live, survive. She wrote in her diary as if writing to a friend. She called the friend, Kitty–do you now know the name of that diarist? Yes, Anne Frank. But if you have never read the actual diary, I urge you to do so.

WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE: THE FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY

Erin Gruwell had read Anne Frank’s diary, and as a newbie English teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, she began to see that Anne’s diary could be a model for the “hard case” students who now sat before her in English class. When Erin intercepted a racist drawing in that class, she told her students that the Nazis had done similar things to turn the country of Germany against all Jewish citizens–but her students had never even heard of the Holocaust. But Erin’s students were so enthralled by her honest and gritty presentations, how she let her students talk and write about their lives–the deaths, robberies and frequent shootings they experience in their neighborhoods, that the school (after many petitions) allowed the group to stay with Erin for the rest of their high school years. That class became THE FREEDOM WRITERS, and as they approached graduation, they published THE FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY, which made it to the NYT bestseller list.

Now you are remembering–the film of the same title. The actress who played Erin, Hillary Swank. If not, check it out. 

WRITING PROMPTS 

I truly believe that writing has always been a LIFE-LINE for humans. And though we all know the names of famous writers, we don’t have to be them–we just have to express our feelings, our sorrows, angers and joys, like those kids in THE FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY. You GET IT OUT…anger and sorrow, joy and confusion. Quindlan has lived that, knows after the untimely death of her mother, that writing sorrow and hurt on the page can free you. She quotes another famous writer of fiction, Alice Munro: (this quote would definitely apply to me)

I can’t play bridge. I don’t play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn’t seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.  

But note, this is an author of  numerous short stories, whose work has been acclaimed since she created her first short story collection. BRAVO, Alice!!

Quindlen also quotes one of my favorite theologians, Paul Tillich:  Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man’s (woman’s) being alone. It has created the word ‘loneliness’ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the world ‘solitude’ to express the glory of being alone.

Quindlen quotes Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

And this, Zora Neale Hurston: There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.

And yes, Langston Hughes: In all my life, I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.

Final Thought: this is a lovely, penetrating little book. Know someone who has a talent and isn’t using it? Someone who is suffering and writing bottled up emotions would help? This little book is a gift. Anna Quindlan will always be, a gift.  

P.S. She spoke at a Democratic Women’s Group when I lived in Des Moines. Yes, Quindlan wrote fiction, but she was also a columnist for NEWSWEEK and damn good at it. I stood in line after her talk, shook her hand, hoping some of her magic would transfer to me. I think what did was my realization, that no matter what I do or don’t publish, I AM A WRITER. 

 

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You Still Writing that Novel?

Writers come in many forms. Sometimes we start writing in grade school, sometimes we don’t realize we are writers until much later. I wrote my first STORY in fourth grade. I wrote poems in high school–doesn’t everyone write poetry in high school? In college, it was ideas, but I did not excel at grounding those ideas. By senior year, after taking Creative Writing, graduating with honors, I was still told by my history teacher, Margaret Thornton, (when they get to you, you never forget their names) that I couldn’t write! Maybe that was a good thing, as  I’ll show you became my goal.  I kept writing. 

CAREERS: TEACHING

My first career was teaching–high school English. I loved it. Yes, I had students who would complain, nod off, no matter what I did to engage them. But they were teenagers and my class was required. Using my own love of literature, I learned how to draw them in, sharing novels and plays, teaching them about writing, always hoping my love of reading would fire them up. 

MOTHERING 

This was the best career ever and I was good at it. Yes, I would write short stories when my children napped, but what really mattered was how they would grow and prosper, how they would create engaging lives that fulfilled their goals. I am so proud of all of three of them.

NURSING

This career was a leap, the history easy to state: I just became consumed with wanting to understand the workings, complexity and beauty of human anatomy. Way too late to enter medical school, I became a registered nurse, choosing Maternity: Labor and Delivery, as my discipline. It was the perfect choice, providing me inspiration and the background for my first novel. 

WRITING: Have You Been Published Yet?

While working as an RN, my focus allowed me to write and publish researched articles in Nursing Journals. Before that, I had published short stories in literary and little magazines. And I had piled up a list of rejections.

When we moved from Chicago to Des Moines, Iowa, I did copy editing for the Meredith Corporation (magazines and soft cover books) and later worked at the Polk Country Health Department.

But whenever I had time, I wrote: three novels, selections from each one, and other short stories combined in A MOTHER’S TIME CAPSULE, published by a small press, that very soon after, closed down.

Thus the disappointments that many writers encounter, and thus the plaque at the head of this post! And yes I have tried and I have been rejected by New York agents and small presses. But the take-away: I won’t stop. 

Writing is my passion, and the internet helps us writers encourage and connect with one another. We all can attest to the having been asked the questions above. We all realize that the internet has been a bonus, connecting us and bringing us together, because writing is endless, sometimes a struggle, but always a passion.

I am a member of the online Women’s Fiction Writers Association, many writers published and unpublished. We support one another, cheer each other on, share ideas, podcasts, lectures. I am also a member of Writer Unboxed, an online writers group, many who are published and some, like me, who are still working toward that goal. Writing is our passion. Daily a post appears, we read and comment, and now I am a contributor a great honor. I also belong to The Women of Midlife, blogging group of wonderful writers and friends. WE SHARE, WE BOND, IT’S WRITING!

FINAL THOUGHTS

To explain what it means to sit at the computer for hours and hours, creating characters, imagining how they look, their joys and sorrows—allowing them to fail and achieve, to live and die, to create their lives, imagining how they would speak (dialogue), how they would win and fail is challenging and yet, ultimately wonderful.

I believe that all humans love to create. You decorate, garden, raise children, teach, save lives on the street and in hospitals, design cities, buildings, discover new bacteria, biological forms, help the hungry and disadvantaged…every bit of this is being creative. And having children, raising children is the most creative passion of all. We are all creative beings in one way or another. Do you keep that one green plant alive? Feed that bird that comes to your yard every spring? Work in a food pantry? Weep when children are killed? 

Finally, thanks for opening your email or clicking on Twitter or Facebook when you see my posts. Ideas fill our brains every day. I’m just one of those crazy people who have to write those ideas down, and often, share then with you. Thanks for reading, Beth

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