INTERESTING TIMES

I'm a 49 year old childless woman. I might have been fertile at one time but I am not anymore. I look at people with children and think they must have a lot of guts, to have babies in a world like ours. And then there's the chaos of childrearing, the diapers left by the side of the road, the screaming brats in the grocery store, the traffic jams taking each child to their designated lessons and teams and events. There haven't been a lot of experiences that have made me regret not having children. A few moments of lingering and merging, but not enough to carry it through.

Even childless I want to give something to new generations, because it seems so sad to send young people out into the world without direction or inspiration. Where parents fail, family or community sometimes steps in. I see the baseball teams training in the park and the kids there are learning something useful. Coordination. Teamwork. I see a strong young woman on the tennis court who is obviously an ace, but who is toying with her two competitors, and idly watching me who is watching her. Will she have children? Perhaps not. Today I heard the daughter of a coworker say that she won't have children. Why not? Will she regret not having children? What will be her creative work in this world, if not baby making?

In many cultures a woman is of little or no use if she does not serve to birth and raise a brood of offspring for a man. Put the food on the table. Clean. What is a woman if she does none of this?

*new tag: legacy

*designates something to know for the test
( notes )

Way back in 1973 the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act was passed, requiring that the ingredients in products be listed so we'd know what we're buying. Fragrances were specifically exempted from the law, because perfume makers would never let anyone know what was in their scents. Since then, under market pressures, companies have begun to use this loophole to put all manner of toxic materials into products. Any scented personal care product you purchase may contain hormonally active substances that could damage a developing fetus or reduce your fertility, trigger allergies, or be toxic in undiscovered ways. Many of these chemicals have not been tested at all. So use "fragrance" at your own risk, and please don't go perfuming yourself around pregnant women. Unless...you use pure essential oils from beneficial plants.
( notes on the EWG study and other findings )

The Vatican reports worldwide adherent percentages at:
19.2% Muslim
17.4% Catholic
33% all flavors of Christian

In the US we are supposedly 76.5% Christian.
( randomness about isms )