Pregnancy B.S.

I just saw this post in the Motherlode blog of The New York Times about the link between maternal use of antidepressants during pregnancy and an increased (as in 0.6 percent) rate of autism in their offspring. I had a horrible flashback to when I was pregnant and felt like every day I would hear about some study that convincingly argued that something I was consuming would detrimentally harm my unborn baby. Moreover, I felt like every time I went to the doctor, I was given some new horror to worry about. "It's probably nothing, but your baby may be born with three heads. We'll check you again in two weeks! Have a nice day!" I've already discussed the tremendous bedside manner of the student nurse at Emory who could not locate my uterus. But when you're pregnant you're not just worried about your own medical stuff, you have to worry that whatever the doctor is telling you will impact your baby, who you haven't even met, and for all you know he'll hold a grudge.

War, Sports, and Childbirth

On occasion I catch snippets of sporting events while walking past the television en route to the laundry room or doing some similar domestic task. It seems like whenever I do tune in, I'll end up doing an eye roll because of the insane overuse of military terms by players and commentators when talking about the actions on the field. Trust me, tune into the Superbowl and you won't have long to wait before you hear someone talking about one team "battling back" or referring to players as "warriors."  Back during the playoffs, Robert Griffin III, the Redskins quarterback continued to play on an obviously injured knee against the Seattle Seahawks. Redskins coach, Mike Shanahan received a lot of criticism for the decision to allow Griffin to play. Griffin tweeted in defense of his coach, "Many may question, criticize & think they have all the right answers. But few have been in the line of fire in battle." 

Aspirational, but sadly unlikely.