Happy Happy Joy Joy April 8, 2005 ~ 3:10 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closed
Back to the Gates. In snow. Thank Goddess that’s behind us!
It’s cooled off here today, we’re down to 58 degrees, but the sun is shining again, there are flowers making their appearances everywhere, and it’s Friday, baby. What’s not to feel good about?
I went to a great show at the Apollo in Harlem last night with Jordana. It was a one-man show about the performer’s experiences leading to and after his kidney transplant. While I sat there, I thought about Seven, and Savannah, and really thought about my feelings regarding organ donation. I’ve always been a little weirded out by giving up any of my organs after I died. I know that there’s no logical reason for that feeling, and I’ve even said on this blog that after you die, your soul moves on, so why was I hesitant? As I sat there listening to Sekou’s story of how four of his friends stepped forward to donate one of their kidneys so that he could live, my mind wandered. Would I be able to give one of my kidneys to someone? That’s a pretty big damn sacrifice. Of course, we have two kidneys, I could live with just one. Especially if the person who needed the kidney was Rick, or one of the girls, or my mom. If I could see myself giving up a kidney for them while I was alive, why couldn’t I do the same for someone after I died? I wouldn’t be in pain, and the organs in my body alone could save eight people.
I picked up a donor card in the lobby, and noticed there was a section that said “Donate all organs except the following:” and then you could fill in the blank afterwards. I told my mom when I was younger that I didn’t want to donate my eyes, “because that would just be gross.” I had visions of someone seeing out of my eyes…my brown eyes in someone else’s face…kind of Reanimator-like. I later realized that they use the corneas for transplant, not the whole eye. Well, with my recurrent corneal erosion, I have a legit reason for not donating my eyes - nobody else needs to go through that shit because they got my bum cornea. So I’ll be keeping my eyes, thankyouverymuch, but anyone who needs an organ can have one of my other ones once I’m dead. And if you’re a very good friend, I might give you a kidney while I’m alive.
Damn, this post kind of wrote itself in a different direction than what I anticipated. Gotta put in something funny here. Okay, I have it. I rubbed the World Famous Stump at the Apollo last night, for luck, as the tradition goes. While I was rubbing it, I noticed the wall mural of famous black performers, including the Jackson Five. Hope that Stump gives me more luck than it gave Michael Jackson!
Quizzy Goodness April 8, 2005 ~ 2:40 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedI was going to post this yesterday, but Blogger was being a little bitch and wouldn’t let me. Stolen from Celti, Cooter, and Seamus, and probably other people as well…
What’s on your nightstand?
My alarm clock, a lamp, some pictures of Rick, and the boxed set of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia that I’ve had since I was 8. Oh, and a couple mini-statues of Ganesh. Because he watches over me. The interesting question would have been, “What’s in your nightstand,” but you didn’t ask that, now did you?
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
I don’t have a desire to be a book, especially if the person reading me is one of those people that licks their fingers to turn the page. I hate that! But if I were going to be in a book, I’d have to say The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Because how cool would it be to meet Aslan?
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Oh, yeah. More from a movie, but since there was also a book of Labyrinth, I have no guilt about saying The Goblin King, Jareth. But only if he looks like David Bowie did in the movie.
The last book you bought:
*Rustles through backpack to find the books purchased last night*
Um, two books. Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, and Boss Tweed by Kenneth D. Ackerman.
The last book you read:
Wicked by Gregory MacGuire. Finished it today at lunch.
Five books you would take to a deserted island…and why?
Damn, it’s hard to limit myself to five.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (because it has the best sentence in the English language - “The road to Hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs.”)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (ha! I get a whole bunch just by taking one big book!)
Forever by Pete Hamill
My Life by Bill Clinton (because maybe on a desert island I could actually sit down and read it - that book is not meant to be hauled around NYC, it’s just too damn heavy.)
Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
No one. If you’re bored, do it. If not, what the hell, right?
