like wax on a hot stove, a leg here, two arms there, with no head between them. I turn the pages on my own preoccupation with these sorrows. JL he myths of Greece and Rome sprang out of our fascination with fo rm - centaurs, chimera, Pan. Perhaps these ill-shapen babies, born early, usually dead, manifest our own unspoken, unrealized demons, the impulses we keep locked tightly away. In the Darwinian world, we turn away from them for a simple and eminently practical reason—to get on with the business of the species. These distorted misconstructions, lacking faces, limbs, breath, are not human— but neither are they less. Evolution makes its jerky, mysterious gains in just such ways, and the mistakes left behind have much to say about our obsession with form. Every culture has its snakes, born full-grown from a woman’s breast, but we’ve catalogued them, Latinized them, and filed them away. What a riddle. Look, we have saved Janelle’s life, she is a miracle! It is motion as swift as the embroiderer’s needle, patch and darn. Her mother, pretty angel, casts aside a fantasy and opens her arms to accept what is given. Is this the difference, then, between prevention and elimination, between Janelle and a monster? Do we grant humanity? Is it ours to take away? What a wonder, how we are given the children we receive—the injuries and the sorrows we receive. Her is another riddle, science. It is like the lottery—you stand in line for a ticket and the person in front of you gets the winning one. If only you’d found a parking place sooner. So many eggs, so many sperm, so many tiny bacteria and parasites and p lanes 'tha t crash. Decisions that last a lifetime, made in the small moments between dreams. Writer Sallie Tisdale lives in Portland. Her last story in CSQ was “My Father is a Fireman.” Artist Susan Gustavson lives in Portland. Copyright ®1986, by Sallie Tisdale, R.N., from The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Inside the Modern Hospital. Published by McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. 717 BROADWAY E. S 12-6pm daily S TAKE-TWO consigned apparel & accessories 1632 - 12TH Avenue 322-9180 . |w ) ( o n C a p i to l H i l l Inserted by CANTO — Cultural Workers and Artists for Nicaragua Today. ONE HUNDRED MILLION COULD HEAL A LOT OF WOUNDS HERE AT HOME. Reagan wants to support the "contras" — mercenaries fighting to overthrow the elected government of Nicaragua — to the tune of $100,000,000. At the same time he's gutting vital social programs here — like Viet Vet counseling and Mental Health funding. Does this sound backward to you? Please tell your Congressperson exactly what you think — he needs to hear from you. ► STOP A ID TO THE "CONTRAS" for late night dining University Bar & Grill 4553 University Way N.E Seattle, Washington SERVING CONTINENTAL CUISINE UNTIL 7 AM WINES BY THE GLASS 632-3275 Rendezvous atthePony! M e e t a f r ie n d to n ig h t f o r g re a t M e d i te r ra n e a n dishes, fresh pastas, cockta ils, w ines, beers, coffees, a n d desserts a t the in tima te , casua l R istorante Pony. T u e s d a y -S a tu rd a y 11 A M - 1 2 PM Su nd ay 5 P M - 1 1 PM 621 V2 Q u e e n A n n e N . 2 8 3 -8 6 5 8
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