Abortion - Page 1
Posted: November 27, 2008
Last Updated: December 2009
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Please do me the favor of holding judgment or opinion until you’ve finished reading this document. Read the entire document in one sitting. If you can’t or won’t do that, than don’t bother reading it at all. These are MY thoughts on the subject; they come from my head, heart and conversations/arguments on the subject. I am not passing a judgment on you or what you think.
To really explain my views I’ll have to take you back in time a bit, for some background information and an explanation of how I arrived at my decision.
Section I
Somewhere in the early-mid ’70, when I was about 13 or 14 years old, I remember walking around the house. It was summer time and I was looking for something to do and bored in a typical ‘kid kind of way’. I was walking down the hallway on the first floor of our house and as I passed by the formal living room I noticed my father emptying the bookcases, dusting off the books and cleaning the shelves. The room was ‘L’ shaped with 10’ ceilings and two fireplaces, one of which was surrounded by built in book cases that had leaded glass doors.
I turned the corner and started to head upstairs when I figured what the heck it’ll only take a couple minutes and I don’t have anything to do anyways, I’ll stop and help. I walked over and started unloading the last set of shelves and as I expected it took my Father by surprise. He asked what I was doing to which I replied “ah, I didn’t have anything going on and I saw you in here working so I just thought I’d give you a hand.” He nodded and said “ok”.
I guess I should also tell you that I was born old. My family says I was born an old man and others I have worked with tell me I must have an old soul…
We were working in relative silence, not for any underlying reason, it was just the way we were. The men in my family always seemed to look at the ability to work without extraneous conversation as a sign of harmony and the ability to work as a team, each knowing what the other is doing and each knowing his job. For example; my brother and I swapped a 400 CI V-8 and C-6 auto transmission in a Ford LTD in a day and I don’t think we said more than 20-30 words the entire time. We look at it with pride that we could work so well together and think alike without constantly having to speak. It was almost like the ability to read each other's mind (but we weren’t).
Ok, back to the subject at hand, while cleaning the glass door of the last cabinet Dad turned to me and out of the blue said “So, what is your opinion about abortion?” This stopped me cold and I just stood there for a moment wondering if I really heard what he just said. You have to understand that I was brought up in an upper middle-class household, my Father was the son of a Methodist preacher and our house was a bit on the formal side in many ways. We didn’t talk about things like abortion, divorce or scandal at all of if we did it was with a lowered voice.
After I came out of my daze, I hemmed and hawed a bit and stammered in a long drawn out way “Ah. I donno, I guess it’s a woman’s body, so I guess she should have a right to decide.” Dad, briefly turned to me nodded with a ‘hum’ and kept working without stopping. Even as I said it I was not sure and it did not feel like a fair and honest or complete answer.
I continued to work for a few minutes then I stopped and said “I know I gave you an answer just now but I’m not sure that I am entirely comfortable with it. It does quite not sit well with me.” I took a moment and continued “I hear a good argument one way and then the other and I guess I’m really sitting on the fence about it. I’m not sure.” Dad stopped working for a moment looked at me and said “I’m disappointed in you.” This also took me by surprise. He continued saying “I brought you up better than that” Now I am thinking did I give him the wrong answer, the right answer and then retract it or what? But before I could say anything more he explained “I brought you up to be able make up your own mind. You have the capacity”. He then told me that I should take the arguments that I have heard, consider both sides and make a decision. One way or the other, he didn’t care which and he did not need to, or even want to, hear my decision. He just wanted to know that I made one.
So, for a while after that conversation I pondered just how to make a decision. I was still faced with, what for me was a difficult problem. I was old for my age but really still young, very math-science oriented and a little on the athletic side, I had a deep rooted religious belief although I did not exhibit or display it and even though I was the last of 6 children I was a bit of a-loaner in comparison.
Keep in mind that I was 13-14 years old at this time.
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