FORUM
Love and ' 9
Nigel Alston
Motivational
Moments
if
"Those who love deeply
never grow old; the) may die of
?old age. hut they die young."
- A. VV' Pinero
Valentine's Day is about
chocolates, flowers and Hall
mark cards, it's a day of
romance for those who don't
forget that special. gift, make
reservations for dinner or tell
that special person how much
they are loved. *
I forgot to sbnd my wife
flowers once - many, many
years ago - and her girlfriend
called to inform me she was
expecting them and was a little
disappointed. I made a mad
dash to the florist to have flow
ers sent to her. As you can imag
ine: ordering flowers on Valen
tine's Day reduces the options
of w hat to choose from.
As long as it was red and
white, it was all right with me. 1
settled for what I could get:
white carnations, with fed
1
hearts and a red ribbon lied
around ihe arrangement. The
card was signed "I Love You." I
believed her when she said I
didn't have to buy her anything.
I know better now.
Valentines day is also about
love, love stories and relation
ships - like this story that con
tains it all. about a special rela
tionship shared by a couple
married for more than 50 years.
It is a love story. I was moved
enough after reading it to start
the habit this couple practiced
over a lifetime with my wife.
It lasted for about otic week.
As the story goes, the couple
played their own special game
from the time they met each
other. The goal of their game
was to write the word "shmily"
in a surprise place for the other
to find. They took turns leaving
"shmily" around the houy. and
as soon as one of them discov
ered it. it was that person's turn
to hide it once more. It was their
special way of show ing affec
tion for each other.
I believe they had fun and
based on the story, they were
very creative, dragging "shmi
ly" with their fingers through^
the sugar and Hour containers to
await whoever was preparing
the next nieal; smearing it in the
dew on the windows overlook
ing the patio and in the steam
left on the minor after a hot
shower, where it would reappear
hath after bath.
And w hat about this for out
of-the-box thinking. At one
point, the wife unrolled an
entire roll of toilet paper to
leave "shmily" on the very last
sheet. Now that's love.
There was no end to the
places "shmily" would pop up
either. Little notes with "shmi
ly" scribbled hurriedly were
found on dashboards and car
seats, or taped to steering
wheels. The notes were stuffed
inside shoes and left under pil
lows. "Shmily" was written in
the dust upon the mantel and
traced in the ashes of the fire
place.
They had love down pat.
Love that was pure, enduring
and a w ay of life for them. Their
relationship was based on a
devotion and passionate affec
tion that not everyone is'lucky
enough to experience. They
held hands every chance they
could. They stole kisses as they
bumped into each other in their
tiny kitchen.
' One day the love affair
ended and "shmily" was
scraw led in yellow on the pink
ribbons Cn the funeral bouquet
The w ife had died of breast can
cer. Playing their little game
demonstrated what they meant
to each other, to the very end.
Valentine's Day is more than
flowers, chocolates, and cards.
It's about love - the type of love
that two people shared with
each other for more than 50
years, hiding the word "shmily "
for the other to find and loving
every minute of it.
I still hold hands with my
wife. I kiss her in the morning
and the last thing at night. She is
my best friend. I hope I don't
forget anything this Valentine's
Day. Maybe I'll resume that
practice of w riting "shmily" and
hidings) somew here to be pleas
antly discovered.
S-h-m-i-l-y; "See How
Much I Love You."
\igel Alston is a radio talk
show host, columnist and moti
vational speaker. Visit his Web
site at www.motivationalmo
ments.com. '*
It's a life, stupid
Armstrong
Williams
Guest
Columnist
I recently placed my hand
on my sister's pregnant belly.
It swelled with life. There was
a jolt in her stomach. This
rumbling brought me joy
The root cause of said rum
bling?
It seemed to me that there
was a real, live human being
kicking around inside of her.
Potential life. I plainly rea
soned. could not muster such a
powerful wallop.
Others would disagree.
They would argue that it
was merely a cluster of cells
bumping and thumping inside
of my sister. You see. certain
others-of the Democrat, pro
choice. cult of science vari
ety-stand firm on
tne theory that
life comes into
existence when a
baby exits the
womb. Before
that moment, the
baby is merely a
matter of "seeds,"
"raw material,"
etc.
Euphemisms
make it easier for
them to justify
dissecting unborn
babies in the
name of medical
research.
And of course,
that's precisely
what scientists are
doing when they
poke and slice at
embryos to
extract stem cells.
Sadly, it seems
that babies do not
receive the benefit
of human rights
until they leave
that warm womb
and commit to a
cold, dangerous
existence in
America.
With cool
pragmatism, the
scientific community explains
that killing dumb, senseless,
unaware babies is a good thing
because it can unlock the
secrets to curing chronic and
genetically transmitted dis
eases. And. after all. w ho are a
few babies to stand in the way
of the greater public good (not
to mention man's manifest
march toward scientific
enlightenment)? It's a matter
of simple cost/benefit.
There is precedence to this
line of reasoning. Nazi doc
tors. for example, froze prison
ers to death in order to learn
how to treat hypothermia. Dur
ing the Tuskegee experiments,
the U.S. government willingly
infected black men with
syphilis, so as to study the
effects of the disease. Sadly,
there are countless examples
of how societies have ti Ji
turned to hell when scientific
pragmatism is allowed to take
precedence over the basic
sanctity of life.
Nowadays, stem-cell scien
tists aren't nearly so jingoistic
as their Nazi forebears. They
do not consciously invoke
ideas of a master race. Instead,
they use phrases such as "cell
clusters" or "scientific materi
al" or "seeds" for their human
experiments. They insist that
they're merely poking and
prodding and extracting from a
few discarded embryos-the
distinction being that because
embryos aren't sentient
beings, they don't constitute
human life and therefore it's
OK to slice them apart.
Does this mean it is OK to
conduct medical experiments
on the severely retarded? A
baby one day out of the
womb? An aged person with
Alzheimer's?
For obvious reasons, the
doctors sidestep such ques
tions.
But no amount of
euphemisms can massage the
fact that embryos have a
unique genetic code. That
means they are something far
.greater than a random collec
tion of cells. They are life!
And the destruction of such
life - even if non-sentient,
even if within the antiseptic
confines of a lab - is equiva
lent to murder. Somewhere in '
the swing from point A to
point B, a large segment of
American society has lost
touch with the essential fact
that life is to be celebrated and
cherished.
Somehow they have
become comfortable with the
idea of subjecting human life
to cool, scientific pragmatism.
That is to say. they've man
aged to overlook that basic
respect for life that keeps us
huddled together as a civilized
society.
wwn-.armstrongitilliams.com
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