I’m flying over the western United States from Houston to San Francisco, after having spent the workweek, um, working there. I was working at the headquarters of the big parent company that bought the little software company that I work for. I have to admit that I’m glad to be leaving Texas, though I’m not sure if my pleasure upon departure is more from wanting to finally get back to San Francisco than it is from a dislike of Houston. It’s probably a little of both, but I’m on my second 187ml bottle of very chilled Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, and my desire for self introspection has hit a low for the evening. Sorry, but you’ll just have to check back a a later date for that information. Really though, after I write this post, and not having to go back to Houston for the foreseeable future, this is actually going to be the one and only time that I actually think about it. [Please don’t chill your red wines.]
Terri Schiavo died yesterday, and I’m glad that she’s finally dead. Does that sound a bit cold, or overly harsh? I mean nothing malicious by it, I’m just glad that this might harken the end of the endless news coverage on the matter. I’m glad that her body caught up with her soul and mind which left her corporeal form many many moons ago. Frankly, I cannot believe the way that she was allowed to finally transpire. She may not have been at all present in her consciousness, but to even let a living corpse starve to death seems to me to be beyond the realm of anything at all compassionate. At the point in which the decision was finalized to remove her from the feeding tube, why not just euthanize her? I’m serious about that. It’s been said thousands of times in the news I’m sure [not being one to watch television news coverage, I can only guess] a dog or a cat in similar circumstances would certainly have been given a more dignified ending.
Winning the award for sensationalist, pandering, shit journalism, by way of my actually having been in front of a television last night, is CNN. I was running on the treadmill in the hotel fitness center last night (get yourself up off of the floor and get back in your seats, there are times when I’m actually compelled to exercise) and on one of the televisions was the Nancy ‘something’ program. She and her guests were discussing Terri Schiavo, of course, running though pictures of her in her youth, while she was aware of herself and her surroundings, cut in between their talking head commentary. The whole time, there was one of those annoying banner blurbs, reading “Pope also on feeding tube.” What was that for? What message were they trying to get across? Does anyone on a feeding tube now equal the same situation as Terri Schiavo? “Well, they pulled Terri’s tube, get that damn piece of plastic out of the Pope!” When did feeding tubes indicate equivalence with a woman who was in a persistent vegetative state? Unbelievable.
I’m constantly reminded why choosing not to watch television can be one of the healthiest decisions that you can make.