Blood Test Part 2 and Elliptical Machine Zen

2/10/2010 11:20PM CST:

Picture of cul-de-sac in front of our townhouse. One day after snowfall. Note: This photo does not disprove Global Warming - it's just what we call "Winter."

Second blood test results today show that we are indeed quite pregnant, and continuing to progress. In talking to Jessie, it sounds like it probably didn't take a test to confirm that - she's definitely feeling pregnant. Her hunch is twins. My hunch is that it's ok for her to be wrong this time.

For the first time, I am truly enjoying the hour of cardio time at the gym. I am beginning to appreciate that this is perhaps the only time during my day that I am not functioning or producing. It is the only time I am not focused on the present, but instead reflecting on everything in my life. It is likely the only time I spend thinking about my own life, its direction, and its capacity.

It is unfortunate that during this reflection I was bombarded by the TV screen on the elliptical machine. Headlines about Republicans claiming that recent record snowstorms along the east coast were clear proof that Global Warming is leftist nonsense. What an egotistical and self-involved point of view... The notion that the lifetime of a Republican Senator, let alone a five-day weather event, is more than a passing moment in the lifespan of the planet is absurd. The idea that an east coast snow storm, or Hurricane Katrina for that matter, are enough to prove or disprove Global Warming are irrelevant. Long-term climate and atmospheric data has done a sufficient job of moving Global Warming from convincing theory to proven fact. Sensationalized (though often quite unfortunate) weather events are but seconds when compared to the scope of climate change.

For the first time, while watching a moronic Senator bask in the media circus his appalling ignorance created, I could begin to understand concern for a future beyond my life. Today, I could relate to the idea of the "better world for the sake of our children, and our children's children." I find the fate of our planet to be frightening, and our progress in correcting our own destruction has been slow. Our children, and the following generation, will need to be swifter than we've been.

So, looking back one day: Today, something that was always irrelevant sentiment to me became important. For the first time... On a Wednesday night, while sweating for an hour on an elliptical machine, I was concerned for the fate of generations to come.