on the tram. where i think.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
a match made in heaven.. with a blotch stained on earth i'm starting this book by lois wingerson called unnatural selection. its on genetics.. on its promises, power and pains. yeah.. the arty people like james wouldnt bother reading this. anyway, what bothers me the most is the pains of it all. and not to mention that i've only read the first 9 pages..
there's this disease called the tay-sachs disease. its mostly found in jewish communities. because of a slight genetic variation, just one of a thousands of brain chemicals is missing in children with the tay-sachs disease. the outcome is catastrophe. fatty subtances grow in the brains of these children and balloons. pressing and crushing all the brain nerves. then the brain stops transmitiing signals and stops funtioning... eventually killing the child.
can you imagine.. an endearing infant of a few months turning into a staring, drooling, immobile child with blind eyes and an overlarge head. reaching the sixth birthday is already a miracle. sigh.. sometimes i wonder.. who deserves more pity? a child who is swept away in an instant by a tsunami.. or one who dies a slow painful ailing death.
and because this is a hereditary disease.. at least one of the parent must have a normal gene structure. so every jewish child has to take a blood test and keep a confidential six-digit id. and then when a couple falls in love and plan to get married, their parents dial and call a number to check their child's id over the phone. if both are positive for the tay-sachs.. then the automated voice says is match in unacceptable. and so to keep it confidential.. the parents give some other reason why they cant be together. and if both the samples are unaffected by the gene.. the match would be confirmed acceptable.. and the marriage ceremony proceeds.
sad isnt it? you meet someone and it feels like a match made in heaven. he is everything she wants. she is everything he needs. you fight through tough times together. everything feels so right. but then.. there just one small little thing that puts everything thing into ONE LITTLE FULL STOP
(.)
seriously.. being the people of God that we are.. life stops on something more than just a full stop. we fight on. we pray on.
haha... wonderful.. i'm late for the competition now. (!!!)
t