Eugenics...what's the big deal anyways?

Last week, at the NCFCA National Tournament, I learned a lot.

I learned from two consecutive speakers in Persuasive that parents should have the liberty to raise their children as they see fit, providing that they do not harm the child in the process, and that homeschoolers are upset that the government is essentially legislating morality by forcing themselves into the role of the parent. As it turns out, in the realm of parenting the government is not well equipped to solve matters of personal liberty. Huh.

I also learned that eugenics is a big problem. Apparently, there are some wicked people out there who arbitrarily kill babies because they don't meet our arbitrary standards of perfection and beauty. I mean, I don't get it...we can sometimes kill children, or even adults who don't meet those same standards, but killing babies is suddenly this raging epidemic that is going to conquer all that is good and holy in society? What's the big deal with killing innocent people? It's not like their quality of life was going to be that great anyways if we let them live, and we wouldn't want to have to spend our hard earned money {aka, tax dollars, if you're Barack Obama} to support people who are bound to be screw ups anyways. Better to just end their life, because redemption is too expensive, and the right to life doesn't mean a lot if we aren't rich & attractive, anyways. Patrick Henry, ftw!

Speaking of Patrick Henry, it turns out that America has become evil again. This is something else I learned at the mercy of homeschoolers, last week. This may surprise you, but America has walked away from God, and is evidently ignoring the ongoing alter call. I'm so glad that I now know that a nation can actually fall away, and be saved again--there is hope for John Piper after all! I was a little confused as to why we were supposed to be praying for America (like the White House? the Washington Monument? I'm still not entirely sure I understand what "America" is other than a collection of some people, a few of which used to wear funny hats and grow corn with the Indians) until I found out that America was God's favorite place to hang out, excepting Israel. I'm glad I don't have to worry about the rest of the world, because honestly that was a bit of a drag.

It's amazing how much you can learn in a few very long days.

'A Million Miles in a Thousand Years'

I am sure this book is going to be fantastic. Donald Miller always is. But when I read the pre-released chapter {both the version that is in the new release of BLJ and the copy on his website}, I realized that I will be forced to reconsider everything again. Some particularly thoughful excerpts:

"If you ask me, the people who get the most out of life are the ones who don’t ask questions. I wish I was this kind of person. I was at Crème the other morning and heard a girl tell another girl about her previous night’s date and I kept wondering how she could go on about her date without knowing what love is for and what it means. I kept wondering how she could be excited about something when there was no philosophical map that would tell her where she was going and whether or not arriving there would give her a sense of closure and fulfillment. And there is a man who delivers library books to the library downstairs and the other day when he was carrying cartons of books into the library I wondered if he ever got tempted to drive the truck off the Sellwood bridge because he knew it was filled with a million ideas that contradicted each other. There are times when I think an act like that might be righteous. But I don’t know why."

---

Robert McKee put his coffee cup down and leaned onto the podium. He put his hand on his forehead and wiped his grey hair back. He said you have to go there, you know. You have to take your character to the place where they just can’t take it anymore. He looked at us with a tenderness we hadn’t seen in him before. You’ve been there, haven’t you? You’ve been out on the ledge. The marriage is over now, the dream is over now, nothing good can come from this. He got louder. Writing a story isn’t about making your peaceful fantasies come true. The whole point of the story is the character arc. You didn’t think joy could change a person, did you? Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over. But it’s conflict that changes a person. He was shouting now. You put your characters through hell. You put them through hell. That’s the only way we change.

I am going to think about this now, and come up with something witty and brilliant to say about it tomorrow.