THE FERTILITY CALENDAR
PART UNO:
"...Things which grow quickly are often more easily destroyed than those which take a long time."
"...Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe."
"We live in a world where your genes can be mapped, where your cells can be copied, where your face can be altered. Heck, with surgery, you can go from being a man to being a woman. We have science to tell us of earth's creation; rocket probes explore the universe. The sun is no longer a mystery. And the moon---which people used to worship? We brought some of it home in a pouch, right?"
"No matter how small they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they can't explain, something that created it all at the end of the search.
And no matter how far they try to go the other way---to extend life, play around with genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty---at some point, LIFE IS OVER. And then what happens? When life comes to an end?
When you come to the end, THAT'S WHERE GOD BEGINS."
"It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody's out there."
"God does not want such killing to go on."
"Then why hasn't it stopped?"
"BECAUSE MAN DOES."
"My friends, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we are right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. Our words will always be sincere, our embraces will be tight. We will never wallow in the agony of 'I could have, I should have'. We can sleep in a storm.
And when it's time, OUR GOODBYES WILL BE COMPLETE."
"Happiness in a tablet. This is our world. Prozac. Paxil. Xanax. Billions are spent to advertise such drugs. And billions more are spent purchasing them. You don't even need a specific trauma; just 'general depression' or 'anxiety', as if sadness were as treatable as the common cold."
Much of what we called 'depression' was really dissatisfaction, a result of setting a bar impossibly high or expecting treasures that we weren't willing to work for.
But pills were not going to change the fundamental problem in the construction. WANTING WHAT YOU CAN'T HAVE. Looking for self-worth in the mirror, Layering work on top of work and still wondering why you weren't satisfied---before working some more."
"We can take nothing with us."
"I knew people could change. I also knew some people only changed locations."
"This is man's dilemma. We rail against it."
"Getting old?"
"Getting old, we can deal with. Being old is the problem."
-Have A Little Faith, by Mitch Albom