Thursday, November 06, 2008
A DAY OF CONTRASTS
I woke up yesterday morning at 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. After tossing and turning for a while, I got up and switched on the TV for election results, only to be greeted by the scene of Obama and family delivering an acceptance speech--the scene captured at LifeSiteNews.
I tend to tune into non-verbal messages, and the non-verbals here screamed. Given that clothing has been making political statements ever since someone discovered the power tie, let's take a look at the statements made visually.
Abortion was a hot topic during the election, particularly to Catholics. Look at the first family-elect's color choice. Red and black. Red is the primary color for the non-verbal conveyance of immorality. Black is the color choice of death. So what do we have? A woman in a black and red dress which looks like an old-fashioned brick oven heated red hot. An oven with a baby inside? Well, the placement of the red does suggest womb, and the red splash on top highlights breasts. If that doesn't convey illicit passion and burning baby to you, you need to look again.
Next we have two children dressed in black and red. The older girl in red is approaching sexual maturity. Upon seeing that red dress, I immediately recalled her father's statement read somewhere that "If my daughter makes a mistake, I wouldn't want her to be punished with a baby." The younger girl, closer to the age of a baby, is dressed in the color of death--as in death-wish?, I couldn't help but wonder. Topping off the image is the man who was the most pro-abortion senator according to some, waving in glee that his message has taken control. At 1:30 in the morning this image made me shudder and guaranteed that I would get no more sleep.
I spent the day cleaning up dead flowers in the garden, hoping that physical activity would insure I wouldn't have another sleepless night, and getting my mind off this screaming image of the presidency. It mostly worked. This morning the image merely whimpers in resignation over what has been lost.
There was another reason I needed to change gears. Yesterday my kidlet successfully defended her doctoral dissertation in the afternoon. I needed to be ready to celebrate, and I was by the time 6 p.m. rolled around and the champaign (sp?) was uncorked. We've all waited a long long time to call her "Doctor" and we did it often and with great delight. The road to the Phd is a long and winding one, with many pitfalls along the way. Only a person with great determination and stamina can reach the end. There were many occasions for throwing in the towel, but somehow she managed to get through them.
This is the kid who, at age 4, couldn't memorize "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," and at age 5 chose to gallop in kindergarten instead of skipping, because she loved horses, though her kindergarten teacher didn't want one in the classroom. This is the kid who, in first grade, answered all of the problems on the math test with 0 so she could be first on the magic carpet. This is the kid who was falling farther and farther behind in third grade, until I decided she would have to repeat the grade if she wasn't going to fail the game of life. My request that she do so put her automatically into the LD program where a miracle occurred. She discovered how to learn, and then there was no stopping her.
This was the high school Sophomore who announced one night at dinner, "Chemistry is my passion." She is still passionate about it and will be putting that passion to work in research at the Cleveland Clinic starting in December. Last night was one of life's grandest celebrations.
