Last Friday while I was driving to work, I heard one of the local radio personalities say that it is only seven more weeks until the days start to get longer again. To me, that was a very nice thought. I do not mind winter. In fact, I rather enjoy it. Fresh snow is one of the most beautiful sights you can see. Cold does not particularly bother me. However, as I age, I find that the long hours of darkness during the winter months are difficult, depressing even. Thinking about short winter days reminds me of a time when I experienced even shorter ones.

A few years ago, we had the pleasure of being in Edinburgh for part of the New Year’s celebration. If you have never been there, you have missed a very beautiful city with lots of interesting things to see and do, and New Year’s is one of the things they do best. The festivities go on for days. One of the nights we were there, they had a torch light parade lead by pipers in full kilt which wound down the hill from the castle, through the heart of the city, and up another hill to a magnificent view and a roaring bonfire. There they burned a Viking ship in effigy. That part was a little disconcerting to us Minnesota folk.

One of the unique aspects of this parade was that it was not a stand there and watch parade. As it came by, the people along the route jumped in and became part of it. As we joined their ranks, someone handed my son a torch, and we happily proceded along with the crowd. It’s one of my nicest memories of my visit there.

Another great memory is our visit to Greyfriars Kirkyard where Greyfriars Bobby and his master, Old Jock are buried. I have always loved Bobby’s story and it was exciting for me to see the area where he lived. I even bought a small pewter image of Bobby which now sits on my mantle along with a replica of Edinburgh Castle.

What I did not like about Edinburgh in the winter was the number of hours of darkness. It is farther north than Minnesota, and it seemed to me that it was not fully light until after 9:00 and it began getting dark between 3:00 and 4:00. I can remember my son calling home from London while he was there and saying, “Mom, I can’t stand it here. It is always dark!” At the time, I thought he was just homesick, but after being in England and Scotland over the Christmas holidays, I have to agree that there is very little daylight in the winter. I would have a hard time with that, too.

I dream of returning to England and Scotland someday, but in the summer, when I imagine that the days are long. Meantime, I will hold dear the thought that in just seven weeks, I can look forward to lengthening days and until then, I still have more hours of daylight to enjoy than the Brits and the Scots!

Today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior.  They will light the light at Split Rock Lighthouse and sound the horn once for each man who died.  There will also be a memorial service.  I would like to be there for that remembrance someday.

Here’s a link to another blog I did that has a bit more information about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=Nance1&tab=weblogs&uid=6911656  For those of you not familiar with Lake Superior, it is a very large lake and is very important in shipping iron ore and other products to Europe.  There is an international seaport at Duluth.  The lake is subject to sudden severe storms and there have been many ships lost.  The Edmund Fitzgerald was the most recent.

Saturday night, I read a very well written blog speaking out against the legislation that proposes to end partial birth abortions in the United States. It took me 12 hours to decide how I wanted to respond to that blog.

I am a Roman Catholic and am philosophically and morally opposed to abortion at any stage. I believe, however, that abortion is a religious and moral issue and therefore should be addressed in churches and families, not in the law.

Many of the early settlers of what is now the United States came here to escape religious persecution. They founded a country based on separation of church and state to guarantee religious freedom for themselves and their descendants. Now it seems that there is a very strong movement in this country to take away that right and allow certain groups of people to tell our citizens how they must think and what they must believe. I find this to be frightening, even dangerous.

I do not believe that the issue here is really abortion. Rather, the issue is power. Promoting issues that raise strong emotions and bring about division among the citizenry is just a means to achieving that power. The abortion issue is an excellent battering ram for the power seekers because it divides on the basis of religion and also on the basis of sex. It is emotionally charged. All parties believe that they are right, but no group can be proven to be right because the issue involves matters of faith; belief in the soul and ideas about when the soul enters a fetus. Those concepts are not subject to objective proof. Use of such issues is very effective. Similar emotionally charged issues include taking the words “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance and the controversy over whether prayer should be allowed in the schools and at public meetings.

The issue in all the above cases is respect. The question is, in the United States, do we have the right to believe as we choose and to base our actions on that belief, do we accept and respect each person’s right to do that, or do we allow laws to be made which tell us how we must believe? That question is far more encompassing than any single issue.

The groups leading this movement are not a majority. That is why they have to use issues that divide. The more division they can cause, the more easily they can be elected to positions of power.

Unfortunately, many people are not very deep thinkers, so when someone throws them an emotionally charged issue, they react from the gut and not from the head. I think it is very important that we who are parents try to equip our children with the best possible thinking skills. It is also important to discuss moral values in our homes and equip our offspring with the tools they need to make their own choices. They need to learn to respect the rights of others to make choices also. That is the only way issues such as this one can ever be resolved. It cannot be done with laws.

I can remember being in college before 1970 and hearing a presentation on the need for legal abortion. At that time, I was horrified because I was at a Catholic Women’s college and to me it seemed that the school was hosting an attack on my religion, the very religion they were supposed to support! I had a hard time dealing with that. I have come to realize that that was not the case, however. No one has to have an abortion just because it is legal. Respecting differences in religious philosophy does not weaken religion. Instead, it strengthens it. I used to tell my kids that being moral is nothing to be proud of if you have no other choice. If you believe differently than I do, it does not diminish me or threaten me. It is when you do not respect me that that happens.

So, do we in the United States respect each other and the right of each person to choose for himself/herself, not about one issue, but about all religious and moral issues? That’s the issue and the question.

Ode to a Would-Be Poet
(Or – a Wood-Be Poet) (Thanks twoberry!)

This poem was made by a fool, you see,
And only God can make a tree!

Dinner Dilemma

I’ll boil him a dog
In a hollowed out log,
And serve it with roaches
Not thoroughly poached
And see if that whets his palate better
If nae, I’ll haul out the dread fetter!

Dedicated to Three_Headed_Sarahs and LordPineapple, who are apparently looking for some good cat recipes, and to Wee_Duncan_Douglas just because.

Disclaimer: No cats, living or otherwise, were harmed in the preparation of this blog.