Subjective Morality

President Bush announced his plan to veto the Senate's latest stem cell research bill, contending that it is immoral for the American tax payers to fund the destruction of human life. Oh the irony. All I can figure is that he's holding out for one of those little petri dishes to grow him a brain.

Travel Advisory

We all have a list of characteristics, skills, passions or adjectives that help us define "who we are." I have long identified myself as something of a nomad, sort of an adventurer, and if not that, at the very least a person who travels a lot. But lately, and by lately I mean the last 10 years, I think my claims have lost some of their validity. I haven't left the continent since 1997. I've been to Canada and Mexico a couple of times, but in each instance I only made it just across the border to places like Toronto and Encenada. Sure, I fly back and forth around this country way more than your average American, but I haven't really gone anywhere in a while. I was thinking about that this morning when I heard from one of my oldest friends, who is, of course, a fellow missionary kid. Not only is she embarking on a grand three week adventure to Thailand, one of many places I'm longing to see, but she's taking her 10 month old son along for the ride. It occurred to me as I considered Janie and Sam preparing for the 36 hour journey, that if I had someone to pop in on, I wouldn't be in this predicament. So really, if any of the people that I spend my travel dollars and vacation days to visit each year, would move someplace further afield my passport would get way more action. There have been little teasers, people saying they're headed to the Netherlands or Italy for a semester or year, but nothing ever comes of it, so I never make the trip. The flip side of this, of course, is what would happen if, say my parents told me they were headed back to Africa, or Catie and Jon decided to start their import/export business based out of Liberia? They'd be painfully far away. I remember that sort of distance and not fondly. Maybe I ought to rethink that part of my persona or describe it as a past tense attribute. "I once was a girl who went places."