Saturday Laughs

Organ Donation Conflict

A women wrote in to the opinion section of the newspaper that I read and talked about organ donation. She mentioned that lots of parents are excited and nervous this time of year for their kids going back to school. But she knows some parents who are only sending one child to school this year instead of two because their daughter was not able to receive a donated heart and so she died.

I feel a lot of sympathy and pain for these parents, especially since I've lost a child myself and am missing sending that child to preschool soon. But my conflict is that someone would have to die for that poor little girl to get a heart. Someone else would be grieving their loved one for the girl to live, and I would feel sad for that family too.

It's a big catch-22 for me. People are understandably concerned that they are waiting for an organ donation, but at the same time, each donated organ comes at the unspeakable price of a life. 

I am enrolled as an organ donor, and I know people really need organ donations, but at the same time I want to keep all my organs for a long time, I want to live. Each organ donor death helps someone else live. One family is devastated at the loss while the other rejoices in new life with much thanksgiving. An circle of life pattern.

It reminds me of a cute chick-flick that also brings up an interesting thought- Return to Me. David Duchovny and Minnie Driver make a cute love story, but at the expense of his first wife. His first wife's heart returns to him in a new woman. He was able to find a new love, but at the same time, he lost his first love. It's romantic yet heartbreaking.

With full support for organ donation, I also understand there's a lot of conflicting emotion wrapped up in each donation. As all life lessons teach, there's a need to be sensitive on both sides of the issue.

Choices, Choices, Choices

I was crocheting some dish scrubbies (I made the one in the picture!) and watching Ted Talks. I watched two videos in a row that seemed to almost contradict each other, but not quite.

Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of Howard Moskowitz and how Howard revolutionized the food industry starting with spaghetti sauce- click here to watch the video. Howard found out that there was not one perfect spaghetti sauce, there were actually several perfect spaghetti sauces, including chunky. The spaghetti sauce people had been doing surveys trying to find out what people wanted in a sauce, but nobody quite knew how to word it. Howard's taste tests revealed that lots of people preferred chunky but didn't even realize it. So they rolled out a bunch of chunky spaghetti sauce and it was a big hit!

Barry Schwartz talks about how people think they want lots and lots of choices, but actually having a plethora of choices doesn't make them happy -click here to watch the video.

I've read several times that when dealing with toddlers, give them two choices and they will be happy because they get to pick, and you will be happy because you set limits. Ask them, do you want pancakes or waffles? They pick one and you make it. Ask them, what do you want for breakfast? They'll probably say they don't know or say they want breakfast burritos, but you don't want to make breakfast burritos.

So people want choices, but they want limited choices, and a choice that they want. Ask a kid if he wants eggs or waffles, and if he doesn't like either he won't be happy. Give people what they want in small variety and you will have happy people. Be specific because people know what they want even if they can't find the words to express their thoughts.

A few simple and good choices will make everyone happy!

Dying To Be Together

There's a story going around about a couple that was married for sixty-five years, and they died within eleven hours of each other.

If my husband and I can't die in our sleep at the same time, then eleven hours apart would work for me. I pray for long, happy, healthy lives with my husband and daughter and any other kids we may have. It's my dearest wish.

Live long and prosper!

Honk If You...

Have you ever been driving and saw someone you knew so you honked to get their attention to wave hello? And then the person in front of you flips you off in the mirror because they think you're mad at them?

There's a simple solution in my mind. All cars should have two horn sounds.

There should be a horn sound that means, "Hey, you make a bad driving decision and endangered my life- stop it!"

And there should be a horn sound that means, "Hey, I know you! You're my friend so turn and wave at me!" or "I'm truly not mad, I'm just don't think you saw the light turned green." or for honking if you love minions and the above cab drives by you!

People would be less confused and there would be a lot more friendly interaction between people in cars.