Last year, I wrote about my annual visit to Marshfield, where I lived among hostile neighbors from 1999-2001. That particular visit, like the others before it, was a painful one, and I left with the hope that this year’s would be different.
I’m happy to report that progess has, indeed, been made.
Who’s Your Daddy
The title of this, the Fox “reality” show about an adoptee’s reunion with her natural father, is absolutely stupid and insulting, yes.
But I look with savage amusement at the type of people who are protesting this show – organizations like The Gladney Center, the adoption agency that founded and largely underwrites the National Council for Adoption (NCFA), the primary organization that lobbies against giving adult adoptees access to their records (http://www.txcare.org/atforum/gladneywknd.html).
Year End
Peter has posted a year-end wrapup on tikkabik.com. It’s a good idea, so here goes mine:
Open Records
Among the events to be grateful for this year is the decision by the NH legislature to give adult adoptees the opportunity to see their original birth certificates, starting January 1, 2005.
This makes NH only the seventh state to open records, a legal right granted to citizens of the UK some 30 years ago.
Slivers of Silver Lining
Time online reports that a “number” of foreign tourists were killed by the tsunami earlier this week in Phuket, Thailand.
Phuket Beach is, of course, a notorious center of child prostitution. Thus, one cannot help but speculate that the world is better off without some of these “foreign tourists”, a tiny bit of good news in what is otherwise an unimaginable tragedy.
Meanwhile, in the Pitchavaram and Muthupet region on the Indian coastline, it was proven that mangrove trees can mitigate the damage from the tsunamis. Conservation of mangroves has been a public/private sector initiative in India for the past 14 years, and precisely for this reason: to act as a buffer between the sea and coastal communities.
Could Have Been Worse
That’s what one of my co-workers said about the snowstorm that dumped 18 inches on parts of the Cape this past Sunday night.
He’s right, we could have had a tsunami that would have wiped out all of the Outer Cape and just about everything else within a mile of the coast.
Christmas Past
Another Christmas under our belts, with a 4-6 inch snowstorm predicted for tonight into tomorrow morning.
Pre-New Year’s Thoughts, Part I
I’ve been sorting through old paperwork – not my favorite chore – and ran across an essay by Susan Polis Schutz on “People Who Achieve Their Dreams”.
The original is a tad sanctimonious (“They never have excuses for not doing something”) and more than a tad unrealistic (“They never consider the idea of failing”).
Even so, there are enough really good thoughts here that I’m copying a good portion of Ms. Schutz’s original, with some thoughts (in italics) of my own.
Well, ALL RIGHT!
I generally don’t look forward to Christmastime, but this year, things have been pretty good.
The grands and I have been to two nice, walk-around displays of Christmas lights, and, amazingly for a woman “of a certain age”, this has turned into a party weekend with business associates and friends.
Amazing Grace
Interesting, isn’t it, how your perspective can change based on a single incident.
Romantics want to believe in love at first sight, for example.
Social/political behaviorists say that a mugging can turn a Liberal into a Conservative.
This past week, I had a perspective-altering experience that may or may not be permanent. It wasn’t as major as falling in love or being attacked in a dark alley, but for me, it was significant.