ElementalMom

• Having a slow and quiet day with the kids, and allowing myself the space to mourn. #
• @sufficiency Dude. I freaking *adore* Astyk. She is amazing. in reply to sufficiency #
• Charlie's husband just asked me "What would you do over, if you knew how little time she had left?" That's a question to live by, friends. #
• RT @PJA64X: Opportunities multiply as they are seized. — Sun Tzu #writing #
• Supercool: Eye in the Sea: http://www.teamorca.org/eyeinthesea.htm #oceans #
• Go Mama Bear! http://bit.ly/SM31G
  #liveaboards #sailing #
• RT @rozsavage: slogging south into SE wind. squall sent me back way i had come. #rozsavage #oceans #rowing #
• RT @rozsavage: sea anchor out. #rozsavage #oceans #rowing #
• @_intellichick_ Oh hurrah!!! But does this count in our wordcount challenge? in reply to _intellichick_ #
• Transitioning from grief to annoyance with unnecessary bureaucracy. Now instead of crying, I want to hit things. Not sure that's progress. #
• @coffeegirl2000 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in reply to coffeegirl2000 #
• Poking my head out, and trying to catch up to the madness in my inbox. Trying for zero, but not particularly hopeful about it. #
• Looking for info about the RFID passports. Links to good articles/opinions? #
• @TammyT As if there was any doubt at all. You ROCK! in reply to TammyT #
• Shiatsu final exam today. Hope it goes better than the practice, where my victim kept falling asleep… #

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I don’t think of myself as an alarmist. I try very, very hard, especially when something bothers me in that kind of pressure-on-the-sternum kind of way, to sit back, and apply logic to the problem, to vanquish the boogeyman through sheer force of thought.

But friends, this H1N1 vaccination program, and the attendant “planning” has me terrified. See, the problem is, I don’t trust our government to apply rigorous testing to vaccines as it is. When I was researching the basic childhood vaccines of the American schedule, I was *horrified* by the shoddy research and bad statistics involved. It became clear, quite rapidly, that the studies governing vaccinations were informed more by corporation’s quarterly profit calls than by rigorous adherence to the scientific method.

So when the public gets whipped up by fearmongering in the media, the Forces of Profit get together and give them… something. Probably not really what they wanted.

What’s really, deeply bothersome is that H1N1, while a horrible illness, is something that most people get and recover from. I’ve spoken to a few people who verifiably had it (complete with physician testing) and got better, just like with any other flu. Judging from their stories, I’m pretty sure (although I did not confirm it with a physician) that we got a bout of it here on the boat. And you know what? We’re all just fine, thanks.

IMO, the disease, while serious, is easy to address. It’s called “wellness.” If, as a family, you focus on good diet, adequate rest, hygiene, and good humor, you tend to weather things like viruses pretty well. These things are a threat in our overworked, overstimulated, overmedicated, undernourished society.

But is anyone working on that? No. They’re working on a mandatory vaccination program, with a vaccine whose path to approval is littered with the same shoddy research that characterizes the rest of the vaccine program, pushed to distribution way ahead of when they originally said they could, and used first on the most delicate and important segment of our population; our children.

Obviously, you can read the same stuff I’m reading, and come to your own conclusions. And I know this is highly personal stuff, and very emotionally charged for a lot of people. I’m just sayin… I find the aggressive mobilization around something that I know from personal and firsthand experience is no big deal, really nervousmaking.

National Home Education Legal Defense Bulletin #68

Pandemic Flu Online

Pandemic Flu Training Flyer

• Gorgeous day, clear, sunny, no wind, warm. Can't decide whether I should go DO something, or lay around and enjoy it… #
• Is anyone going to the AABC conf in Georgia in Sept? http://bit.ly/CSgxx #birth #
• RT @MissAdventuring: I love Reid's 44 Little Travel Rules No One Tells You: http://ow.ly/fWvu #
• Loving that my kids are cool to play games and do legos and watch Kim Possible while I read up on 5 Element theory… #
• Watching the sun glare off a perfectly flat backbay, and wondering how the day's gonna go. #
• RT @LaureenH: New blog post: 10 freaking months?!?! http://bit.ly/3gZvW #cosco busan #maritime #
• Anyone know any way to get the autotweet for new posting to include hashtags? #
• Not collapsing under mountains of laundry to be folded. But it's a close call… #
• RT @rozsavage: earbuds in, head down, slowly gaining lost ground south. #rozsavage #rowing #oceans #
• Listening to Dmitry, who is brilliant. http://www.vimeo.com/5592536 #collapse #peakoil #
• RT @rozsavage: huge black cloud approaching. we're in for the mother of all squalls. #rozsavage #adventuring #oceans #
• @JennieJoseph So… you're gonna blog about it, right??? #jjway #birth #activism in reply to JennieJoseph #
• Doing good computer backup and maintenance stuff, and hoping the Computer Gods will ressurect my Vaio as my reward. #
• RT @rozsavage: Day 52 – Wheel of Fortune http://ff.im/5f72R #rozsavage #rowing #inspiration #
• YES! This is it exactly!!!! http://bit.ly/RPedx #
• @j0ni what did they do, other than be gross? in reply to j0ni #
• My dear friend Charlie passed away on Friday morning. Biggest heart I've ever met. I will miss you, my friend. #

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I’m working on writing a book about moving aboard the boat. I’ll write more about that more on my other blog. But I’m doing a lot of cannibalizing of content from this blog and the other one. Most importantly to this post, this morning, I rewrote Rowan’s birth story.

Most of my readers here know that Rowan’s birth was insanely traumatic for me. An unplanned, unwanted cesarean, that birth catapulted me into a year of depression followed by some of the angriest years of my life, and a vocation of activism in the arena of birth. No woman anywhere should have to go through what I did, and yet, the (unnecessary) cesarean rate in this country continues to skyrocket. It’s a crisis, it’s a human rights violation, and it’s a complete international embarassment.

But that’s not what I am writing about this morning.

I wrote the story once, when I was still recovering, and it was the sweetness and light that women usually describe their cesareans as. “Totally necessary” they say. Bullshit, says I. But at the time, I’d have killed you for suggesting mine wasn’t. I wrote it a second time, once I was recovering, in the depths of my depression, in the hopes that women reading it would learn from my journey and not have to take the same one themselves. It was all about figuring out where things had gone wrong, in order to make different, better choices later.

This time, I am rewriting it as what its deepest meaning and highest purpose (for me) might possibly be. Rowan’s birth is what finally, unequivocally taught me that if I wanted it done right, I had to do it myself. That relying on the System for anything at all was a sure path to madness, and that while independence carries its own problems, those problems are at least unilaterally the result of your own choices, and not someone else’s. Someone else who almost certainly has their own paycheck and ass as a higher concern than your  well being.

So here’s to Version 3 of Rowan’s birth. It’s taken me seven long, hard, uphill, introspective, kick-in-the-teeth years to get to the place where I am grateful for the lesson, moreso than grieving of the process that got me here.

This just slays me. But then again, we all need a revolution we can dance to, yeah?

• Went to REI, forgot it was a sale weekend. Apparently world peace is a pale thing beside fighting over discounts. I'm completely disgusted. #
• RT @rozsavage: Day 43 – Mac vs PC, Land vs Sea http://ff.im/4R1qY #rozsavage #rowing #oceans #
• Desperately wanting to be offshore today. AIn't gonna happen, so I'm going to clean out cupboards and raise the waterline instead. #crui … #
• Love it when Hubs rearranges tools without telling me, and then removes the crescent wrench from the propane tank locker. Then we run out. #
• @jonaiello Hurrah! Now onto yoga! in reply to jonaiello #
• For my 1000th tweet, I gotta say… moonfruit. Heh. #moonfruit #
• RT @rozsavage: Day 44 – A Weird And Wonderful. Watery World http://ff.im/4TOLO#rozsavage #rowing #oceans #
• @birthsage @birthkeeper Next time we're in the same place at the same time, you can buy me a beverage and we'll go over why it matters. in reply to birthsage #
• desk is clean, cockpit is clean, galley is clean. Time to settle in for some serious wordcount. #huntpress #writing #
• The most glorious orangey moon is rising up through stripes of cloud. Absolutely spectacular. Get off your computer, go take a look! #
• RT @rozsavage: Day 46 – Falling Between Two Atolls http://ff.im/4ZAgd #rozsavage #rowing #oceans #
• Getting ready to go brave the post office to renew Rowan's passport. My baby's growing up! #
• *Loving* TweetDeck's new ability to toggle between Twitter accounts for posts. #
• RT @GPSstuff: Google Moon: one giant leap for cyber-exploration – Examiner.com http://tinyurl.com/q5q9bj SOOOOOO COOL!!!!! #googlemoon #
• Complete fail with Rowan's passport. There's a blog post coming. Again. What the f%#$ is it about arrogant people and government jobs??? #
• RT @radtech 30% off all Optex Gear for Mac, iPhone/iPod, Kindle & more! Learn More at http://radtech.us/blog/ #winSTMwave #
• Home from Shiatsu, with all new foot-massage skills. Yeah! #
• Acupressure class today. Bring on the points! #

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A fellow Foodlabber thought that I tirade I’d had a few years back was worthy of reposting, so I thought I’d let you know it was there.

http://ecowahm.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/finding-the-time-for-a-nutmilk-revolution/

• Just got to watch Emeryville do rescue practice for 4th of July with helicopters, full fire and paramedic teams. Awesome! #
• RT @obamafoodorama: Massive beef recall: The meat is everywhere, untracked, and little hope of hunting it down http://tinyurl.com/mtsn4c #
• I can almost feel the boat purr when she’s clean. It’s worth the bruised knuckles to burnish the teak. #
• Learning how to unlock my iPod. Amazing the things you learn because you have a 1-year old. Thanks Aurora. #
• RT @hawaii: Amazon Dumps Hawaii Affiliates http://bit.ly/amznhi California’s next. What are states thinking??? #
• RT @rozsavage: my right buttock has had more adventures this trip than some people have in a lifetime. #rozsavage #rowing #ocean #
• RT @hawaii: Glimmer of hope for Hawaii affiliate marketers? Gov. Lingle lists HB1405 as a potential veto. See PDF: http://bit.ly/5qncK #
• RT @rozsavage: Day 38 – The Misadventrures Of My Right Buttock http://ff.im/4EJw6 #rozsavage #rowing #oceans #
• @tamigroth Nothing, *nothing* sucks as bad as sneak glutening. Kes got glutened, and has this nasty exzema patch… yuk! in reply to tamigroth #
• Answering interview questions for a Parents article about me. Really weird sometimes, thinking of how your family must look from outside. #
• @jonaiello send em an email, print it out, and mail the email to them. Just to see if anyone over there gets the joke. in reply to jonaiello #
• Laughing… kinda…. kinda cringing http://www.babysfirstheadgear.com/ #freerangekids #
• RT @rozsavage: Day 39 – The Pacific Detox Diet http://ff.im/4Hyiu #rozsavage #rowing #oceans #
• @jjmidwife Go JJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in reply to jjmidwife #
• OMG SQUEEEE! Now it’s real and I can’t back out or escape or anything. EEEEEEEEK! http://huntpress.com/ #
• FB RT: Carla Hartley March 12-14, 2010 Trust Birth Conference Redondo Beach CA MARK YOUR CALENDARS Register early. This is it! #
• @jcatsexton AWWWWWWWWWW! I am so so so humbled! Thank you! in reply to jcatsexton #
• RT @TammyT: The Real Cons of Homeschooling, revised and updated, from a real live homeschooler. http://bit.ly/tg0Ze #huntpress # authors #
• Christening the boat at noon. Champagne has never been put to a better use. #
• Homebirth Australia! YEAH! http://bit.ly/JkZnG
  #birth #homebirth #advocacy #
• Having a nice, quiet morning after sailing out under the San Francisco and Berkeley fireworks with ~20 people on the boat last night. Boom! #

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