WHO Has the Flu?

I recall April 31, 2012, and I feel a wave of relief that the evacuation is finally over.
Little did I know when I went out that morning that exposure to the elements was to be the least of my worries that trip. Fitting myself and my full suitcases under my umbrella put was a bit of a strain, but I didn't mind, for I was looking forward to a scenic train ride from Colorado to the East Coast to visit my friend, Emma Colinson, who worked at the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
After I got settled in my seat, I went to the dining car and bought a pork sandwich and a chocolate milk. I didn't feel well afterward, so I closed my eyes for a catnap.

Outbreak
Contamination
Virus
Evacuation
Bacteria
Ebola
Food Poisoning
Foot and Mouth (FMD)
H5N1
Avian
Salmonella
Small Pox
Plague
Human to human
Human to Animal
Influenza
Drug Administration (FDA)
Public Health
Toxic
Agro Terror
Tuberculosis (TB)
Agriculture
Listeria
Symptoms
Mutation
Resistant
Antiviral
Pandemic
Infection
Water/air borne
Sick
Swine
Quarantine
H1N1
Vaccine
Tamiflu
Norvo Virus
Epidemic
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
E. Coli

http://epic.org/foia/epic-v-dhs-media-monitoring/Analyst-Desktop-Binder-REDACTED.pdf

Side Effects

Warning: Constantly getting animal books from the library and showing your children nature videos can result in comments like this from five-year-old daughters:

"If I didn't have any hair, a mate would not be attracted to me."

Plumage, bangs, it's all for a good cause...eventually....don't grow up too fast, dear.

Plants

I live in Colorado, and we have crazy weather here as well as high altitude and low rainfall this year. Last year I had a horrible yard and garden, but this year I'm not pregnant and I am ambitious to make some of the yard productive.

Yesterday, we planted grapes. Three grape varieties - Concord, Edelweiss, and Himrod grapes. By faithful watering this year, I hope to harvest yummy grapes for years to come. 

Besides sunflowers and marigolds for attractiveness and bug concerns, we're going to plant pumpkin, squash, basil, and some other vegetables. Unless tomorrow is bad weather for it, I'll let the children plant their seeds in their individual garden beds tomorrow afternoon. 

Here's hoping our gardening efforts pay off this year. There is nothing like growing one's one garden in problematic soil and Colorado weather to make one appreciate modern agriculture and the trucks that bring its products to nearby supermarkets. A locavore in Colorado would have a hard time.

Evolution

No, not that kind. I'm not going to get into natural selection or anything like that. I want to talk about evolution of one's views.

My mother had a terrible marriage. As a child and teenager, I was convinced (because she said so) that everything that went wrong in her marriage was my father's fault. As the years went by and I began to see my parents with more experienced eyes, I realized that there were occasionally some extenuating circumstances and that my father wasn't the sole person at fault for everything that happened. I doubt I'm the only child of divorced parents to have eventually come to that realization.

As a teenager, I often heard from my mother that women were naturally better than men. I protested, but she insisted that it was so. Then my mother, who began practicing family law in her 60s (she spent many years fighting in court with my dad, so it was a natural choice of legal field), changed her mind. She says that in working with broken families, she saw just as many "bad" women as "bad" men and is now sorry for all those years she badmouthed men.

I worked one summer in Germany for a woman whose father had begun to exercise faith and practice his Catholic religion in his old age. She seemed rather disdainful of his elderly religiosity. I wonder, though, if she will follow in his footsteps when she grows older herself.

Part of going through life is learning new facts and experiencing new emotions and feelings, at least for anyone who pays attention. A result of this learning is sometimes a change of stance on bigger issues such as religiosity and convictions about specific political issues. It's normal and healthy to occasionally change one's mind when there is a good reason for it.

In a book club group a while back, we were discussing how Mitt Romney has been negatively labelled as a "flip-flopper" for changing his views. I can understand disagreeing with his current views, but to dismiss him outright as a dishonest person for changing a few convictions worries me. Do we really want a president who will never change his mind about something? Who doesn't let newly-discovered facts alter his opinions? I don't think most Americans want that. (Not that I'm promoting Romney--he's just an example here.)

How do I prepare my children to adjust opinions when appropriate without weakening their dedication to eternal principles like faith, hope, and charity? Something to mull over for a while. I'm guessing the answer has a lot to do with humility and never being complacent about one's knowledge level thus far in life.