Cultural Outlook

All is quiet on the home front. Yesterday I could tell I was trying to get sick so I stayed away from candy. However, since we went to the Chili Cook-off at church, it was hard to stay away from the food. There were prizes for chili, chowder, pie and bread. Paul took some turkey chowder that turned out quite good and I took cheddar chowder to which I added too much salt and pepper and forgot to add the ham, shoo-fly pie, apple pie and pumpkin yeast bread. I got honorable mention for chowder and Joseph won the funniest costume--he was the cutest T-rex around.

Anyway, I had some chili that was good and some seafood chowder that was really good. then some pie. I started feeling icky before bed so I went by 10 in spite of the fact that I wanted to study for sociology and A&P. Once in bed, I was too warm with covers, too cold without, and had to get up five or six times to use the bathroom. Now I'm drinking a cup of Wild 'Bout Berries tea and enjoying the quiet since all the humans have gone to church. I plan on a shower, maybe knitting, maybe reading and writing a bit.

I am finding this year since beginning the midwife course and taking classes, that culture comes up a lot. Especially in the midwife course and sociology. Add to this one of Alisha's speeches she did for one of her classes about the racism she has experienced in Idaho and I've had a very thought provoking couple of months.

Racism and prejudice obviously exist. Anyone who thinks otherwise muss be stupid or blind. Or both.

For sociology, we have been assigned a paper about a film. Even though it's not the sort of movie I watch (mainly because of it's rating), I chose American History X because of the ten we were given to choose from, it seemed to be the nearest my past, and current, interests.

How any group of people can think that they are better than another based on skin color, where they live, what church they belong to, or whatever else, is beyond me. Do we not all bleed red?

In addition to pondering the whole cultural issue, I have spent considerable time wondering how I came to have the views I do. Is it because I was born with an open mind or because my parents fostered that in me? Is it because one of my cousins is part African American? Is it because I was born on Martin Luther King, Jr's, birthday and wanted to learn more about him? I do not know.

I do know that by the time I was old enough, I was not afraid to marry a Mexican. In spite of the fact that the marriage did not last, it certainly helped to broaden my life experience and certainly played a part in who I am today.

Idiots come in all shapes, sizes and skin colors; they come from every imaginable background. My grandpa worked for years in the lumber mill in the town I grew up in. By the time I was born, it had undergone some cultural changes but when my grandparents moved there, it was still predominately Catholic Italian. Although Papa was raised Catholic, Grandma was not, and neither of them was Italian. Papa is the kind of person who can get along with anyone. Even if he can't stand you, you are not likely to ever know. One thing that used to irritate him is when the northern Italians would be giving the southern Italians a bad time. It seems that those of northern descent thought they were better because they had lighter skin than those of southern descent. One day, having heard enough, Papa said, "The only difference in your skin color is who raped your grandmother."

Is this where my attitude comes from? It seems likely.

Thinking

As I was sitting in church this past Sunday, I was thinking that I hadn't written regularly in a journal for quite some time. Before we left Idaho? After? I am not sure.

In my midwife course, we have been encouraged to write about out journey to becoming a midwife. I have been thinking about this a lot lately.

Recently, I was looking back to pinpoint just where/when it was I decided that becoming a midwife is what I wanted/needed to do. It was definitely in Idaho because in New Mexico I had not reached that point. It was then, I believe, the seed was planted.

Sherri was an awesome midwife. A couple of Sunday's ago, I took one of my journals to church to show the kids in my class one of the ways we can help ourselves remember things. As I read some of the entries, I ran across my first meeting with Sherri. At first, I thought she was an odd duck but the longer we spoke, the more I grew to like her.

Because of Sherri and her library, I learned much about midwifery, birth, and a little about myself. That was a beginning, but not of my desire to become a midwife.

Not planning on having any more babies but always wanting to be prepared, once we were in Idaho, I looked midwives up in the Yellow Pages and found Barb Rawlings and Womancare Midwifery. I don't remember if I found Denise Midstokke in the phone book but any time we drove south of Sandpoint, we'd see her sign: Pend Oreille Midwifery. Also, and this is key, I went to the library to see what books they had on midwives and/or midwifery. There were some on nurse-midwives but that wasn't what I was interested in. I was interested in a book called Sisters on a Journey. It is a compilation of short biographies of midwives in the US. One was Ina Mae Gaskin. Sherri had at least two copies of her book, Spiritual Midwifery, which I declined to read because I thought, "Yeah, right. What can a bunch of hippies know about spirituality?" (Which is an indicator of how little I knew about it.) While reading about Ina Mae, something hit me, I'm not sure what, and I just had to read her book. I requested a copy because there wasn't one at the library and it was something akin to torture waiting. Once it arrived, I devoured it and years later when I won the trip to Portland, I bought my own copy at Powell's.

Even then, I'm not sure it had entered my thoughts to become a midwife.

Before Seth was born, Barb and Denise were both visited. I liked both of them but someone else liked Denise more so that is who we chose. I think we got some basic information on each such as short bio-blurbs, and I learned that Barb had graduated from Seattle Midwifery School. So had Sherri. I looked SMS up on the internet and requested information. At this point, even though I didn't know it, I was on my journey.

In spite of the fact that we were only eight hours away from Seattle, I knew the chances of my going were pretty minimal because I had no money and no support from home. Now, SMS has been absorbed into Bastyr University so finances would not be a concern. However, having moved across the country, distance would be.

The Beginning

Many beginnings begin at the beginning. This beginning begins in the middle. Someone asked me if I was going to blog and, quite honestly, I hadn't thought about it. Needless to say, I did after that. However, I had no idea where to start.

Then, this morning, I googled "blogging" and "blogger.com" was at the top of the list. I took a brief dip, decided that it looked pretty easy and now here I am.

This is the story of my journey to midwifery.