it never rains, but it pours....
Sep. 12th, 2004 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2eclipseit seems like life has ganged up on me in terms of new experiences. i feel like i am still reeling from nonclave and all of the fun, new people i met, the start of school, my disolving love life and now this:
today i went to church early with mom for the purpose of giving blood. i don't like giving blood, but i quite like being part of the %5 of the population that does it. i am O+, which adds to the pressure.
however, it was not wise for me to do this after a week on the stress and starvation diet (i AM eating, just not the way i usually would). it was even more foolish of me to FORGET one of the critical blood-giving rules. EAT FIRST! i skipped breakfast this morning. too tired to think.
and so as very-kind, very-gentle nurse julie was taking the needle out of my arm i promptly passed out. i could have sworn that i told her i was feeling light-headed when the blood pressure sleeve stopped squeezing my arm, but apparently i was too busy loosing conciousness. i felt funny, then saw black spots and then i was abruptly dreaming....until suddenly my legs were tense and there was freezing cold water all over my head and neck. on top of passing out, i had tried to get up and walk out. NOT the brightest idea for an unconcious person to have. but the fun didn't stop there!
i chilled out for a while in the chair and a while in the cantine before making my way to the service. somewhere during the first hymn i realized standing for long periods of time was not a good idea just yet. i promptly sat, then got progressively lighter-headed, nauseated and hot. i was hyper-ventelating with about three people fanning me with their programs when my mom went to go get the nurses to take me back to a cot where they could watch me, stuff me with soda and soak me with ice water again. i officially made a scene in the middle of church.
i have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, eating chinese-food and reading stuff that i really shouldn't be in light of how much homework i have left. friends i don't know how many of ya'll give blood, but i highly reccommend you EAT FIRST. hope someone will kick me in the head the next time i do anything that stupid.
had another hard talk with z yesterday. i hate having to rub his nose in the fact that i broke up with him. he is being such a gentleman and so very respectful. he seems to be learning so much about himself. end result is that he wants to be my friend and i have agreed. but with the understanding that it will take time.
each of us will leave the door open to the other when we can handle each other again. additionally, i will help him look at apartments and help him cozy one up once he gets one. it is so hard to be lonely. so hard to start over.
MAD LOVE to abby and eryq and andrew kern and jen and martin and all those who have been so INCREDIBLY supportive during this crappiness and melodrama. especially since i haven't even been to game. slack on the appearance duties.
i am still having some hard arguments in my head from my last human rights class. are human right something innately within us because we are human? or are they conferred by a political organization? my inclination is to say both. but then we are stuck with defining them. do we allow our legal entities to decide what people have rights to and what they don't? are the callous lines drawn between who gets healthcare and who doesn't right? or somehow necessary for the preservation of the institutions that hold up and enforce those human rights? or does an ethic of kindness and love demand from us that we take care of our own and stretch that concept over people we think do not belong and do not earn a productive place for themselves in society?
would anyone like to weigh in on this? i would be very interested to hear what ya'll have to say.
today i went to church early with mom for the purpose of giving blood. i don't like giving blood, but i quite like being part of the %5 of the population that does it. i am O+, which adds to the pressure.
however, it was not wise for me to do this after a week on the stress and starvation diet (i AM eating, just not the way i usually would). it was even more foolish of me to FORGET one of the critical blood-giving rules. EAT FIRST! i skipped breakfast this morning. too tired to think.
and so as very-kind, very-gentle nurse julie was taking the needle out of my arm i promptly passed out. i could have sworn that i told her i was feeling light-headed when the blood pressure sleeve stopped squeezing my arm, but apparently i was too busy loosing conciousness. i felt funny, then saw black spots and then i was abruptly dreaming....until suddenly my legs were tense and there was freezing cold water all over my head and neck. on top of passing out, i had tried to get up and walk out. NOT the brightest idea for an unconcious person to have. but the fun didn't stop there!
i chilled out for a while in the chair and a while in the cantine before making my way to the service. somewhere during the first hymn i realized standing for long periods of time was not a good idea just yet. i promptly sat, then got progressively lighter-headed, nauseated and hot. i was hyper-ventelating with about three people fanning me with their programs when my mom went to go get the nurses to take me back to a cot where they could watch me, stuff me with soda and soak me with ice water again. i officially made a scene in the middle of church.
i have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, eating chinese-food and reading stuff that i really shouldn't be in light of how much homework i have left. friends i don't know how many of ya'll give blood, but i highly reccommend you EAT FIRST. hope someone will kick me in the head the next time i do anything that stupid.
had another hard talk with z yesterday. i hate having to rub his nose in the fact that i broke up with him. he is being such a gentleman and so very respectful. he seems to be learning so much about himself. end result is that he wants to be my friend and i have agreed. but with the understanding that it will take time.
each of us will leave the door open to the other when we can handle each other again. additionally, i will help him look at apartments and help him cozy one up once he gets one. it is so hard to be lonely. so hard to start over.
MAD LOVE to abby and eryq and andrew kern and jen and martin and all those who have been so INCREDIBLY supportive during this crappiness and melodrama. especially since i haven't even been to game. slack on the appearance duties.
i am still having some hard arguments in my head from my last human rights class. are human right something innately within us because we are human? or are they conferred by a political organization? my inclination is to say both. but then we are stuck with defining them. do we allow our legal entities to decide what people have rights to and what they don't? are the callous lines drawn between who gets healthcare and who doesn't right? or somehow necessary for the preservation of the institutions that hold up and enforce those human rights? or does an ethic of kindness and love demand from us that we take care of our own and stretch that concept over people we think do not belong and do not earn a productive place for themselves in society?
would anyone like to weigh in on this? i would be very interested to hear what ya'll have to say.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
hugz
Date: 2004-09-12 03:24 pm (UTC)Sarah
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-12 03:50 pm (UTC):hugs:
~a
eep's thought
Date: 2004-09-12 07:49 pm (UTC)or are they conferred by a political organization?
no. i think rights are "conferred" once we realize that there are political applications/definitions to our actions. perhaps i'm too much of a jj rousseau fan, but i think its only when individuals band together into a group/society/civilization (which are really the same thing, just in different degrees) that we get to talking about "rights".
as for "human rights", we like to think we are more special than other creatures in this world.
2. do we allow our legal entities to decide what people have rights to and what they don't?
i don't think its a matter of allowing as the actual designation of functions once we create a society, supposing we start from the rawlsian scratch and put on a veil of ignorance. however, the cynic in me realizes that it is those in power that decide who have rights and who don't. the granting of rights to disenfranchised people is either a ploy to continue to screw the disenfranchised or to avoid a complete revolution. coming from a country that does this on a constant basis, excuse me for being a little cynical about governmental and bureaucratic institutions.
3. are the callous lines drawn between who gets healthcare and who doesn't right? or somehow necessary for the preservation of the institutions that hold up and enforce those human rights?
yes. there are lines drawn between the haves and the havenots. and it is for the presevation of the systems of institutions. institutions are about access. if you can control access, you have power. granted, access can be granted on a limited basis depending on how beneficial such access is considered.
i'm not saying altruism is dead. but it is sure hard to keep track off in the land of bureaucratic red tape.
4. does an ethic of kindness and love demand from us that we take care of our own and stretch that concept over people we think do not belong and do not earn a productive place for themselves in society?
well, how are we defining love? i think that gandhi and mother teresa, and other great humanitarians, would speak that care is about caring and not quantifying it into the worthy and the unworthy.
the use of "productive place in society" is just another term we have co-opted from capitalism and economics to justify the delineations/categories/definitions we have in place. we have to rationalize why our decisions are the correct ones. more importantly, we want to be able to attach the "just" label to them.
rebuttal?
y to the izzo, s to the izzay.
~eepie
Re: eep's thought
Date: 2004-09-17 01:21 pm (UTC)i will not rebutt, because i am not interested in a debate, but i will weigh in on where i am with this.
i think that there is a distinction between how human rights are treated in this country and how they SHOULD be treated. i believe that we need to ask both questions: what human rights are enforced? and what is the ideal situation in terms of human rights?
additionally, i believe that human rights are enforced and provided for by political bodies, but that if we look beyond that, there are basic human needs and that we should look out for one another when it comes to them.
i also think that there are practical problems with this that also need to be addressed.
and i agree with you about productive places in society 100%.
as to love...i guess i am thinking of the agape kind, but i am biased.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-12 10:38 pm (UTC)*HUG*
Oh human rights
Date: 2004-09-14 06:06 am (UTC)And in doing so abandon popular post modern thougt and be call ethnocentric :-D
Have fun, one day i'll let you read the paper i wrote for that class on forming a global ethic :-D