Mish-Mash

Mish:

So after months (years) of seemingly purposefully avoiding blogger-land I turned around and... haven't posted.

If you are reading these words, I. am. grateful!

There is a new member of our extended family---a baby girl named Adalyn who is precious as precious can be. She was born to my nephew and his wife last Thursday (about a month early), their first child. Sometimes it takes a little gift like Adalyn from the universe to help us all remember what's most important in life: family and those who love us. Like, *always* love us in the way that only grows and gives life that truer shade of happy. The kind of love that shows us that our lives do mean something. They matter. They have value.

Another nephew is expecting his first, too, very soon. Another gift.

Tom and I keep trucking on. We are still house hunting. I couldn't have married a more perfect partner.

Weight continues to come off; I have shed almost 40 pounds now.

To celebrate, I got my hair cut. It's funny losing weight *and* getting a new "do." It seems most folks feel safe complimenting me on my hair... since I am pretty sure it's obvious I have lost a few sizes. Stop reading right here if you want only the good stuff...

Mash:

I think if SCOTUS rules the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, my head might just about explode. I am tired of people (present company excluded :) not actually *reading* our laws. The ACA makes it illegal to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions; no life time caps on benefits; and lower costs to patients (and for us all). Here's a link for anyone who would like to read the bill that passed and that the president signed. After all, Thomas Jefferson once wrote that: "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." And since we know that conservatives value access to good education just about as much as they do [insert category of "non-white/non-wealthy/non-straight/ non-Christian" people here] it is our duty as Americans to read what our national representatives are writing and passing as our laws. It is our duty to *educate* ourselves instead of listening to what someone else tells us to think.

It brings into sharp focus the need that our newest addition to our family, little Adalyn, will have for the rest of her life. She will need good health insurance. And her parents are going need the peace of mind of good health insurance since she was born with Down's Syndrome. Why should *they* have to worry about coverage for her if some paper-pusher at Blue Cross, or Anthem, or Cigna decides that Adalyn's health risks outweigh the benefits of her living a healthy life? That's the role of this legislation, folks. It's to protect families and all of us from the growing commodification of everything in our culture by corporations...who now have unfettered "1st Amendment" rights thanks to the very same SCOTUS who might decide that insurance companies know better than doctors how best to care for patients.

I am more and more convinced that American's for Prosperity and the Heritage Foundation have successfully turned reason into public enemy number one... and I hope most of us thinking folks will realize that the only way we make it moving forward is actually to move *forward*... not right, or left. But onward. Upward. In every direction... like the universe.