Hi friends and family,
Here’s a story that shows how dad, when set free from the objectivity required of journalists, enjoyed giving his opinion (The editor of the Lapeer County Press gave dad free license to say what he wished in his column). He’s very gentle about it. Not forcing his opinion on anyone. But, dad didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts. You can agree or not with what dad says in this story but everyone has to agree that the last lines in this story are timeless and true.
[Comments are more than welcome! At the end of each post is a button for this purpose. Go ahead . . . Start a conversation if you wish.]
Thanks for reading,
David T
“Life Begins Early”
By Don Tschirhart
Excerpted from the unpublished book “It’s a Wonderful World: A Retired Reporter Looks At Life“
Life Begins Early
Quiet. Relax. Slow down. Think. Let your muscles feel like jelly. Ease your mind.
At one time each of us was the instant connection between a swimming sperm and an egg. Think deeply about that first second in your lifetime.
What a marvelous moment! Here, inside your momma’s body a living thing — you — could be seen only by a strong microscope.
Yet at that moment your life embarked on all things physical that would grow — boy or girl, arms, legs, head, brain, heart, skin and all the delicate organs.
And for the next nine months these things expanded and were expelled from your momma to lie in a blanket crying, waiting to be hugged, kissed, fed and loved by tearful parents.
To many of us we are God’s child loaned to a mom and dad and the world with the mission to help cure the ills of mankind. The fact that we try, that we make our own good mark is enough. No one can go wrong by trying.
It’s fascinating to think about this first instant in your life, isn’t it? One moment you’re nothing; the next you’re something. That’s why life is so wonderful.
Despite life’s awesomeness, some people want to end it themselves.
A few years ago a poll showed 25 percent of America’s brightest teenagers considered suicide.
Wow! One quarter of our kids who think they have had enough of life — breathing, feeling, loving, seeing, emotional ups and downs. They want to terminate what that instant connection of egg and sperm started.
These weren’t dumb kids either. The poll, sponsored by Who’s Who Among American High School Students, covered more than 3,000 high achieving students ranging in age from 16 to 18.
And to top that off, 49 percent of those polled knew someone their age who tried to commit suicide.
Statistics also indicate that suicide among the general populace is one of the major causes of death in the U.S.
How depressed, how problem tormented a person must be to even think the only way out of a situation is ending life. That one-second spark, that last-ditch decision and you end up in oblivion that has no end.
Take it from me. I’ve been near death twice. I was resigned to the inevitable. My only disappointment was that I no longer would experience this wonderful world and my family. But I wasn’t afraid to pass through life’s last portal.
Is the large number of suicide-prone people a natural result of the way some think: live today; tomorrow you’re dead? Is there nothing after death?
In too many cases adults have an amoral feeling toward life they pass on to children by example, an unspoken look on their face, an overheard conversation or demand for too high expectations — school grades, for instance.
A reporter asked the infamous assisted-suicide guru Jack Kevorkian before Dr. Death was sent to prison for murder what he thought happens when you die.
Jack didn’t hesitate: “You rot!”
You rot? No thought of a future life? We’re all dressed up with no place to go?
I’m sorry. I can’t subscribe to that. If the world thought that way, there would be anarchy, no system of government, no rules of conduct.
I asked my pregnant friend, Krystal Kaltz Johns, a County Press staff reporter, if she would be happy when her “little critter” was born and would begin life outside the womb.
Her answer: “He’s wiggling a lot and I’m getting big in front. I only have three months left, and while I’m excited to meet him, I love being pregnant. I’m not in a rush to have it ‘over with.’”
Krystal’s positive attitude, I guess, is why I find aborting an infant’s life — like suicide — is such a wrong idea.
I promise not to preach about abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the subject and nothing I say will change that decision.
As a man of faith, though, I believe God, who is all-just, has opened the gates of paradise to aborted infants just as he did the Holy Innocents who were slain by Herod’s troops when searching for the new-born King shortly after the birth of Jesus.
The aborted infants will be with someone who wants them and will love them.
Think about the beautiful words sung by Louis Armstrong:
“I hear babies cry. I watch them grow. They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know.
“And I think to myself, ‘What a wonderful world.’”
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