My Sister's Keeper: Keep the Faith

Author's Note: This is my response for My Sister's Keeper.  I chose to write more of an opinionated response because this is a very controversial book.  The entire premise centers around a question that many would struggle with.  I gave my input on the decisions made in the book, as well as what I would have done, and some of my personal experiences.  It was kind of difficult reading about such a tough topic, simply because it could go a lot of different ways.  Please feel free to leave your own opinions on the subject.

What would you do if you found out your first daughter had acute promyelocytic leukemia? What if you knew that the only way to save her was to endanger your other daughter?  You try and find some kind of compromise, some way to avoid it, but there is no other option.  What would you do if you had to choose?

For most parents, their biggest responsibility is keeping their children safe.  They try to protect, to comfort, to be a role model, but honestly, there is never going to be a way to keep every single human being safe.  All Sara Fitzgerald wanted was a normal life, with a normal family and a healthy environment.  As it turns out, these things would not become her scenario.  At the age of three, her first daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia.  This is a cancer that has a very low survival rate.  With Kate's life in jeopardy, she is in desperate need of donor blood cells, but none of her family members are a match.  Now, Sara is faced with a choice:  let her only daughter die, or conceive another child as a donor that matches her.  Often we overlook these cross-road moments, these times that we think will never happen, but they always find a way of popping up.  The path we choose to take may decide the direction our life takes, which of course adds to the pressure.  Why does God do this to us?  If there is such a thing as love, why is there painful moments, painful decisions, like these?  This is a question that people spend a life-time struggling with, but if you ask me, the answer is simple: Faith.  God has a plan for all of us, and if there is such a thing as love and pain, we have to have faith that He will help us find a way.   

When I was little, and I knew that there was something going on, I would ask my mom and dad.  Like any other typical parents, they would either say "Oh, nothing honey," or "Don't worry about it, it will be all right."  At that age, I was pretty curious, or more specifically, nosy, so this never really satisfied me.  Even now, I like knowing what happens around me, even if it has nothing to do with me, but I believed them then because I needed something to believe in.  When Sara first found out that Kate had this disease, she knew that this was not okay, but, just like my parents would have, she told Kate that everything would be okay.  Children look up to and admire their parents,  and what would they think if their parents told them it wouldn't be okay?  Parents shield their children because they want them to hold on to their childhood, to their innocence as long as they can.  Children put their faith in their parents, and parents hope that they can have faith in themselves.

If any of us are ever to overcome our problems, it will have to start with trust.  Sometimes it may not end up the way we thought it would, but we still have to trust that it might.  When Sara and her husband Brian were presented with this crossroad, they did what they had to do:  They gave birth to a daughter that would help save Kate.  When Anna, their new child, was born, she had to have faith even then.  She served as a donor for her sister all throughout their lives, and even if she didn't like it, Anna had to trust that her parents knew what they were doing.  Some people may criticize this decision, but I don't.  Although Anna was born because of her sister, this is a choice that any parent would do.  If they loved their child, they would want to save them.  Does that make it wrong to do what they did?  Maybe, but they were doing what they felt was right.  Sara and Brian did their best; does that make it wrong?  Parents have to try, because if they don't, their children will suffer more than they will.

Ultimately, there isn't really an answer to what's wrong and what's right.  When I become a parent, I want to be able to keep my child safe, whatever the cost.  I'm not saying that it was right to have a daughter just for that purpose, but I shouldn't be one to judge.  Fortunately, no one in my family has ever had cancer, (knock on wood) so I wouldn't know how to react if I found out someone close to me had APL.  There is no predetermining how anyone will react to whatever is thrown their way.  I know I would be upset, but if there is a God out there, I would put my faith in him, and pray that He has a greater plan.  I want to be able to be there for my child, but I can't do that unless I have faith in the choices I make, and that I am able to overcome the obstacles.  We have to trust that we will make it out, because if we don't, there is nothing to believe in.  If there is nothing to believe in, there is no point in trying.  

The Truman Show Part Dos: Changing Things

Author's Note: For my second post for the Truman Show, I chose to write a poem describing the emotions and feelings that Truman was going through.  He is starting to really question things and wants to break away, and I tried to capture those kinds of feeling in this piece.

I look around,

At familiar faces.

Familiar places.

What has happened,

To everything I knew?

I had it all,

But I wanted none of it.

I feel like running,

Yet there is no where,

To go.

I feel like crying,

But no one,

Would stop the tears.

All I remember,

All of the moments,

All of the memories,

Feel lost.

I try to get away.

I seek the truth.

They won't stop me,

And neither will I.

Never again,

Will I be same.

The Truman Show

Author's Note:  This is my response to The Truman Show.  I focused on what I felt the movie was trying to say to us, and who Truman is as a character.  I also talk about why television plays a role in our daily lives, and how that also relates to the movie.  

Television.  A system that we all rarely go a day without using.  We may try to deny  it, but television is truly our guilty pleasure.  Everyone has something, whether it be nail-biting soaps like Days of Our Lives, the ridiculous antics of Jersey Shore,  or just a good laugh from How I Met Your Mother.  We feel better about ourselves knowing that maybe, just maybe, we aren't alone in the situations we deal with.  Sometimes it can be refreshing to find some common interest in these shows, but if we forget what we need to be doing, we will wind up becoming as real as a created character on TV.

There is never an exact answer as to why we do the things that we do, or why things happen to us.  Is it just because that is the way the dice fell, or is there some greater force playing a role? In the movie The Truman Show,  Truman attempts to answer these questions for himself.  On the outside, Truman is just another normal human being, but the reality is much bigger than he had ever known.  Throughout his life, he has dealt with situations that most other people go through.  Subsequently, an entire world is watching his every move, enthralled in those situations.  Before he was born, Truman had been cast as the star of his own show without his knowledge, with the creator of the show controlling his every move.  Like any other show, it attracts the attention of those who can relate to what he goes through, making it so popular, and continues to keep Truman away from where he should be. 

It is one thing to watch actors do their thing on a show, but it is a completely different circumstance when the actor isn't really an actor at all.  The creator has developed a world where nothing is concrete, nothing is real.  As he uncovers this sliver of understanding, Truman begins to question just what he is doing there.  He dreams of vacationing away, travelling to search for what he so desperately needs, but is held back by what put him there in the first place.  All his life, he has lived by the same rules, the same way of life, and as he breaks this barrier, he also starts to break the world around him.

We hold on to what we know because the unknown poses as a risk.  People don't watch their television shows because it is some kind of habit; it is because it is what is known.  Television exists to pull out some sort of seed of Truth amidst the landscape of fiction.  It is the same for this movie.   The television show creator builds this set from scratch, as the Creator did.  He develops Truman's life before him, and watches over, monitoring his every move, like He does.  Truman was created solely for this purpose, like Jesus was created to save us all.    At the end of the film, Truman sails across the sea and finds the end of the set, the end of his world.  At this point, stairs lead up to a door.  As Truman ascends the stairs, he is finally letting go of his world, realizing that this is where his journey ends.  The movie is symbolically saying that there is much more than what meets the eye, and if we can't see that, we won't be able to do what we need to do. 

When the television is turned on, it takes us away, if only for a moment.  Sometimes all it takes is a little refresher from our shows to help us realize that there is hope.  We watch Snooki from Jersey Shore because it is funny to watch others do stupid things.  We watch Barney Stinson from  How I Met Your Mother because his jokes keep us laughing.  We watch to find understanding.  This is healthy now and then to just relax, but it is when we click the television off that we can truly understand that there is a bigger card to play.