Funny what you remember, but I the first time I saw a pregnant woman to get curious about was on Commercial St on a Saturday afternoon approximately in front of Dryer's Shoe Store. I was probably 6 or 7, and had been stuck with my grandmother there for probably an hour or so while she visited with her sister, my Aunt Pearlie Smith, and my cousins. Aunt pearlie's oldest daughter, Jessie, was pregnant, probably with her first child, and she was wearing an old fashioned maternity dress, not a top, had a drawstring waist that you let out as you needed to and tied into a bow in front. I would have been about eye level with her tummy so all i had to do was stare and she was probably full term. i was fascinated! and as soon as we finally got away I asked my grandmother what was wrong with jessie's belly. it's strange I don't remember how the conversation went after that or how long it was until I realized what was "wrong" with it, but I remember vividly the day, even the color of the maternity dress. of course I didn't know HOW women got pregnant until much later, probably high school. Well alright it was before then but not MUCH before then!
“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age”.. (James Joyce) I’ve often been accused of being too passionate, of caring too much about certain things. But I believe that passion, also defined as fervor or zeal, is one of the essential core values of human life, along with the Apostle Paul’s Biblical list of the virtues of faith, hope and charity. Passionate people have strong opinions and usually articulate them very well. We are also perfectionists, and we don’t handle incompetence in the public arena very well, all of which tend to preclude us from being the most popular person in the room. I long ago accepted the fact that I won’t have the largest funeral in Lebanon, nor will my obituary make the front page. But not everyone seems to care that much about anything other than their own lives. T.S. Eliot once said, “It is obvious that we can no more explain pas...
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