This week my imagination has been busy alternating between thoughts about abortion, snow, and being more productive. Other thoughts have been able to survive, even thrive for an hour or two to be replaced and forgotten. Abortion as a real world reality dominated my thoughts, caused me to rethink how I view the world. All other thoughts this week except those at the grocery store which were on a search and avoid corn starch syrup were filtered by an awareness of the impact of abortion.
I have always believed abortion to be wrong. In many ways it always seemed like a doomsday literary device, the crisis is temporarily averted but the danger remains, the anxiety, the angst, the depression remains.
Attending the March for Life on Monday was beautiful, inspiring. My mind was not prepared for all of the people present on the Mall or marching to the Supreme Court.
My day began with a beautiful Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, then a journey on the Orange Line to the Mall. How amazing it was seeing all the young people walking near Federal Center South West! How wonderful it was watching them huddle together, listening to instructions, listening to prayers.
I had no idea what the Mall would look like. It was a cold January afternoon. I was dressed in several layers. I was carrying a big, black camera bag. My initial thoughts were centered on lens and camera angles and cold fingers and other things that photographers worry about whenever they pull out their cameras. There was a moment when I imagined that I was either F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway or Howard Hawks or Frank Capra.
There was something all crazy and upside down about our culture, like a thirties screwball comedy without the happy ending or a sense of moral redemption or even a sense of cultural morals or ethics. Thoughts like these often flash into my imagination on days when I am being unnaturally quiet and anonymous.
Abortion remains the quiet anonymous aberration, the post sexual revolution paradox of the convergence of convenience, consequence, and responsibility. Abortion remains an instant polarizing conundrum. Everyone has a point of view, everyone is ready to argue this topic. Few people are ready to listen to what their opponents are really saying.
A fundamental shift in our culture will be needed to combat or stop abortion. All people must be educated on how to make good choices, how to avoid hormones and peer pressure, how to do the right thing. Our society provides mixed messages regarding sexuality. We are routinely told sex is good, encouraged to have sex. Each day our sexual openness provides new risks and dangers for us all. Sex has become just another consumer good, another commodity. There is nothing beautiful or sacred or mysterious about sex. For many sex is like a large order of french fries or a latte. Our culture encourages and allows us to use sex for instant gratification.
Hopefully with time our society will again value goodness, holiness, and kindness and encourage all its citizens to respect themselves, to have patience, to remember God and his laws. Our society likes to talk about Plato, Socrates, Einstein, Darwin. We like to talk about natural laws.
There is nothing natural about abortion. It is truly barbaric. It does not simply kill unborn babies. Abortion attacks the spirit of all those living, breathing, and praying. Abortion is an attack on our way of life, on our dreams, on our future.
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