Bathing Soup and Sun Scream

Something magical happens when “grandma” appears in your name.  Actually, in my case, the name is “Nana”.  To some, nana conjures up images of an old lady sitting in a rocking chair reading books and singing to a content toddler in her lap.  Not this Nana!  This Nana is very busy indeed.  There are the few times when a good book and a comfy rocking chair serve their purpose for a few seconds.  But when three-year-old Devyn is in the house, we’re more likely to be rocking and rolling than rocking and dozing.

Magically, Nana’s knee finds a way to keep up the pace.  My energy level gets a boost out of nowhere and I can Nay Nay and Whip my way into a frenzy dancing to Janis Joplin on the old record player.  There is no slide too tall nor fort too low for Nana.  The super-human strength even holds up when Devyn suddenly has to ride on Nana’s shoulders during the longest hike into the pasture to find the elusive crowing rooster. 

What is it about being a Nana that brings out this “magical” vigor?  I think it is a mixture of bathing soup and sun scream.  Every time Devyn and I are together we laugh.  We laugh our way through Miss Devyn’s Whip and Nay Nay dance lessons.  We laugh as we sail over rough seas in our homemade couch yacht.  We laugh at bubble bath beards and edible cow pies (Devyn’s favorite imaginary snack).  There is nothing too crazy for Nana and Devyn: between finding the hippopotamus hiding in the closet to dragging the giraffe out from under the bed, we laugh our way through the day. 

When I was a kid, I used to spend summers at the Jersey Shore in Atlantic City with my grandmother.  We’d spend hours on the beach making elaborate drip castles - just me and grandma.  It seemed that time stood still during those hours that we let the sand drip off our fingers creating beautiful castles for imaginary princes and princesses.   Sometimes we talked, sometimes we just dripped our castle - no words necessary. 

There are days I wish that I could gather up those grains of sand and turn them into seconds.  If I did, I bet I would have enough seconds to fill up another lifetime with my grandma.  She didn’t watch the clock worrying that we were frittering away our time.  Even though she had arthritic fingers, she never once told me that we needed to stop building drip castles.  She knew the secret of grandma strength - laugh, dream, imagine and love.

Today, I was getting Devyn ready for a day at the beach with Nana.  As we were gathering up our pails and shovels for our drip castles, Devyn reminded me that she needed to get her bathing soup on and that I need to pack the sun scream.  I laughed.

Fractured

Perhaps the most convincing evidence of the moral decay of our country is the abhorrent practice of selling baby body parts by Planned Parenthood. The recent videos released by The Center for Medical Progress spotlight the callousness by which Planned Parenthood's representatives describe the procurement and distribution processes as though they are describing collecting and retailing auto parts.  

As a nation, we have a moral obligation to awaken from our self-induced stupor, shake off the inertia, and do something to stop this atrocity. We are becoming a nation enslaved by the radical few espousing all things disparate to Judeo-Christian values.  

Americans can only look so far into our history to find one of the radical few. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is a perfect example of a fervent radical who pushed her beliefs on our society. She radically restructured the conscience of this nation while the majority of the citizenry slumbered.  

Margaret Sanger enthusiastically embraced eugenics. She referred to blacks as "human weeds" and "reckless breeders" and espoused racial purification. In her writings, she frequently stated that she wanted to "protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit." She was diabolical in her pursuit of eradicating "bad stocks" (poor, minorities, physically and mentally challenged). Today she is hailed as a great women's rights advocate.  

I wonder how advocating for human rights has warped into the grotesque practice of harvesting and selling baby body parts? We hear time and time again from supporters of Planned Parenthood how the rights of the mother are paramount to the rights of the unborn child. They choose to overlook overwhelming evidence of Planned Parenthood's illegal practices. Meanwhile, most Americans who do not support these appalling practices remain silent.

So, how did it happen? How did a great nation that believes in God, liberty, and the inalienable rights of citizens of all ages become a nation dominated by the radical few? I'll tell you how - divide and conquer. Margaret Sanger knew this. She knew she could never convince our great nation to engage in eugenics, so she split us into groups of men and women. Then, she appealed to women and made birth control an issue of "rights." She convinced women (predominantly minority women) that it was their "right" to end their child's life. Absurd, isn't it?  

Enemies of America fully understand the divide and conquer strategy. They know that a fractured society will collapse. That is what is happening to our country. We are fracturing into a million pieces - and selling the pieces of our babies! What is wrong with us?

If we don't wake up and stand up for what America has always been - a great free nation founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs - then what will we become?   

The Constitution of the United States starts with the phrase, "We the People" - not "We the fractured." When Benjamin Franklin was leaving the constitutional convention, he was asked by a woman what the outcome of our Constitution would be. He replied, "A republic, madam. If you can keep it."  

Can we?