Pro-Life and the Übermensch

To say that all life is sacred. To say that a child with Down syndrome is sacred. To say that even the child born of such an unholy thing as rape is sacred. To be able to say, "The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." To be able to say thank you for all the things that have been poured into my life, for the bad as well as the good. Not everyone is able to do this. But this is what it means to affirm life.

In my case, to affirm life means to be able to say, "Thank you, Osama bin Laden, for killing my uncle. Thank you for teaching me to value life with a passion I might never have known otherwise. Thank you for teaching me the wisdom of suffering. Thank you for teaching me to understand the sufferings of others. Thank you for giving me the desire to use my skills and experiences to make a difference in someone else's life."

Somewhere Nietzsche wrote: "Do not do your enemy good when he has done you wrong, for that would put him to shame. Rather, thank him and tell him how he made you stronger."

To be grateful means to say "yes" to everything that comes into your life, whether it is good or bad. It means to stand your ground and face the music even when times are hard. It means to not take the easy way out. This is what the pro-lifers are asking. They are not asking to call a mistake good; they are not asking to call rape or incest good. They are asking for the weight and gravity of life to truly be understood, at its ugliest as much as at its most beautiful. Pro-life is not merely anti-abortion. Pro-life is really a form of life affirmation, at least it is for one pro-life friend of mine. And it's a very big and difficult step to look at all the events of life with gratitude, even the ugly ones, even the ones that have hurt me. Not everyone can do it. It is such a big step that I don't think I could ask anyone else to do it, much less require it of anyone. But it is a way to a higher perspective and a deeper understanding, for those willing and daring to take it.