Sentimental thing.

Today I introduced my therapist to Portal. She'd never heard of it, so I spent some time describing the idea of the mechanics and the basic premise. It came up in the context of me doing things, and how that's improving my general mood. There's still the job hunt going on, true, and I've also found other things for my time. The story set I'm working on isn't something I'll see through to publication, but it's long, and I want to finish it, and until it's over it'll occupy my mind and excite me, which is a really nice thing to have at this point.

When she asked about the apartment, I talked about how in the mornings, right after I get out of bed, I'll open up the curtains to let the morning light in and how that wakes me up better than just hitting the alarm. Which led to us talking about alarm clocks for a while, and some of the more absurd ones.

For most of the session, though, we talked about the Occupy Wall Street movement and the meditations on Yom Kippur, and what it means to be aware. So that involved the discussion of how to garner involvement and power to bring about a paradigm shift for long-term changes to the overall system, how one should move forward with their life to be a better person, and also the question of free well. I told her how the answer to 'why does evil exist with free will' is really simple: without free will, there's no choice to be had, leaving actions meaningless. So if one posits God gave humans free will in order for them to make the right choices, one has to accept some humans will make the wrong choices.

As for what it means to be aware, it's the state of paying attention to the world around oneself, generally the physical world one interacts with via the body and the senses. Being able to see the world I live in is an important thing for me, and I try to stay attentive to whether or not I'm aware, or if I'm fatigued and need something new to reinvigorate me.

I told her that yes, I'm in a good spot, but that can easily change in two weeks. In the meantime, I'm trying to enjoy where I am the best I can.

Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Originally posted by gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.