"It's like saying there are too many flowers!"

[azzyschnu]

19 Kids and Counting was on this morning at 7am. I wasn't paying much attention until Jill came on with Josie, at which point the camera panned to a plaque that said:

"Saying there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers!"

[with "flowers" written in flowery lettering]

 

Yeah... it's not the same thing. There are homeless and parentless children out there starving, living on the streets, sick and dying and not getting medical attention, living in overcrowded group homes and orphanages, being neglected and abused. Equating too many children with "too many flowers" is just so naive and ridiculous... I can't even.

 

I was going to write up something long and ranty but it's too early. I'll let it stew for a bit and come back later

 

- Azzy, Long-time Lurker

[gustava]

Welcome and congrats on your first post! I'd never thought much about the flower thing, but now I'm just seeing weeds and wilted blossoms.

[flojo]

It's a mother theresa quote...

[maybeizfundie]

Yep, it is from Mother Theresa.

The one who worked with those starving, dying children. I don't think she was naiive, though I'm sure many disagree with her conclusion.

[Visionoyahweh]

There are somewhere between 230,000-270,000 species of flowers. There's no way you could appreciate each an every single one even if you spent every minute of the res of you life doing it, Duggars.

[Nothing2CHere]

It's a mother theresa quote...

The Duggars have decorated their home with a quote from an EBIL CATHOLIK???? :shock:

[slickcat79]

Michelle's repeated that quote several times too.

As far as Mother Teresa...she may have worked with the poor, but she didn't do a whole hell of a lot to help take them out of poverty or improve their quality of life. She felt that their suffering reflected the suffering of Jesus, and was thus valuable to the human experience. As far as MT was concerned, "The poor will always be with us." Way more of the money she raised went back to the catholic church than went to the people in poverty. That may be an incredibly appropriate metaphor for life in the Duggar house, come to think of it.

[debrand]

The analogy doesn't work

I know a lot of people who dislike wildflowers like dandelions in their yard. I'm sure that Michelle doesn't tell her kids to stop mowing the grass because it's just so nice to have dandelions popping up all over the place.

[CanticleoftheTurning]

Michelle's repeated that quote several times too.

As far as Mother Teresa...she may have worked with the poor, but she didn't do a whole hell of a lot to help take them out of poverty or improve their quality of life. She felt that their suffering reflected the suffering of Jesus, and was thus valuable to the human experience. As far as MT was concerned, "The poor will always be with us." Way more of the money she raised went back to the catholic church than went to the people in poverty. That may be an incredibly appropriate metaphor for life in the Duggar house, come to think of it.

She taught them NFP to try to reduce the number of kids they were having. Not much money for BCP or condoms, but she did empower the women to take charge of their own fertility and families.

As for your statement, idon'teven....? She ain't perfect but she did do what she could, tending to the poorest of the poor.

[Austin]

Perhaps you might want to look a little more closely at the Mother Theresa thing before you go there, Canticle.

[CanticleoftheTurning]

Perhaps you might want to look a little more closely at the Mother Theresa thing before you go there, Canticle.

I said my two bits and I'm done ¯\(°_o)/¯

[Ruby]

The analogy doesn't work

I know a lot of people who dislike wildflowers like dandelions in their yard. I'm sure that Michelle doesn't tell her kids to stop mowing the grass because it's just so nice to have dandelions popping up all over the place.

Exactly! The analogy works on the assumption that no one would ever say there were too many flowers. In fact, there can be too many flowers.

I really love daisies. I have a ton of them coming up in my flower bed, along with hollyhocks, petunias and lavender. But when they start to wilt, or proliferate too much, I go in there with my snips and cull the heck out of them. Its for the greater good of the entire flower bed.

I could go one step further and mention that winter is coming, and pretty soon all my flowers will be gone until next spring. Except for the petunias, which I'll have to start all over with new ones.

Do we really want to equate children with flowers?

[Brittanicals6]

As a hard core organic flower gardener (I am talking extreme, upwards of 200 rose bushes, lilies, perennials, seeds), YES YOU CAN HAVE TOO MANY FLOWERS! When my garden gets to full and I get overwhelmed, plants don't get proper care. They get fungus diseases from crowding, and don't get trimmed and deadheaded like they should. Nothing blooms right, and what does bloom, rots before I can pick it.

This fall I am planning a major "edit" of the main garden beds, and give away some of the things that are getting out of hand. Others will be moved to the ditch to fight with the weeds. Then I will be able to enjoy what's left.

You just can't do that with kids :lol:

[deelaem]

Michelle's repeated that quote several times too.

As far as Mother Teresa...she may have worked with the poor, but she didn't do a whole hell of a lot to help take them out of poverty or improve their quality of life. She felt that their suffering reflected the suffering of Jesus, and was thus valuable to the human experience. As far as MT was concerned, "The poor will always be with us." Way more of the money she raised went back to the catholic church than went to the people in poverty. That may be an incredibly appropriate metaphor for life in the Duggar house, come to think of it.

Thank your for pointing out some of the truths about Mother Teresa. It drives me crazy when she is called a saint. She actively promoted the Catholic church agenda and was against birth control and abortion, of course. I fail to see how that is teaching women to "take charge of their fertility and their families".

[Avalondaughter]

Ask someone with severe pollen allergies if there can be too many flowers.

[Trynn]

Ask someone with severe pollen allergies if there can be too many flowers.

As someone who does have allergies,YES!

[Terrie]

I have some serious issues about MT. She was known for not providing pain killers, because suffering was supposed to help people gain a better understanding of Jesus and his suffering on the cross. I will give her credit for living her faith better than many, but I think her understanding of how to do that was fucked up.

[bananacat]

It's definitely possible to have too many flowers. It's possible to have to much of ANYTHING, no matter how awesome that thing is. I wouldn't want so many flowers that I had no usable surface on my tables, or so many that I couldn't walk on my floor. I wouldn't want so many that I had to spend all day watering them just to keep them alive, or if they're cut flowers, I wouldn't want so many that I had to constantly sort through them to throw away the wilted ones. If we're talking about outside flowers, I wouldn't want so many that there was no room for anything else. I wouldn't want them to cover an entire field so that I had no place to play frisbee, and I wouldn't want them to cover an entire farm so that there was no room to grow food to eat.

These people are really bad with analogies, but that doesn't surprise me because they are so bad at critical thinking in general.

I also hate when they say that having too many children is like having too much money, especially since too much money will prevent them from getting into Heaven, according to their very own religious text.

[bananacat]

I'm so glad to find out that I'm not the only person who doesn't think very highly of Mother Theresa.

[Guest Anonymous]

I said my two bits and I'm done ¯\(°_o)/¯

And now you're going to stick your fingers in your ear and go "la la la" when people present facts that you don't like? Heck, even the Wikipedia article acknowledges the controversy around her. It's pretty well documented that she let people die in horrible pain when they could have been given drugs for it, because she thought suffering was good for their souls. That's twisted.

[Burris]

She ain't perfect but she did do what she could, tending to the poorest of the poor.

Sorry, but no.

[mirele]

I said my two bits and I'm done ¯\(°_o)/¯

Mother Teresa's reputation is built upon a lot of propaganda (thank you Malcolm Muggeridge for not telling the truth). She really didn't care for the sick, she didn't even make them more comfortable in their suffering. She really did have a warped idea that their suffering was good for Jesus. I remember years ago reading an article about how the Lancet (Britain's most prestigious medical journal) had published a report indicating that Teresa's Kolkata (Calcutta) homes not only reused syringes, but washed them in cold water. That shocked me to death. This is NOT how a person is treated.

Of course, Teresa got the best of medical care as she went jet-setting around the world, collecting money from whomever. I do remember she also sent a letter to Judge Lance Ito, asking him to show mercy to Charles Keating. You know, the guy who ripped off thousands of elderly investors in the Keating Five scandal. Ito was not impressed; he sentenced Keating to the full 10 year term for ripping people off. (Too bad Ito let things get out of hand a few years later with the OJ Simpson case.)

So no, there's not a whole lot to like about Mother Teresa. And you will note that I have not at all referenced Christopher Hitchens' The Missionary Position, which is a DAMNING indictment of Teresa and the Catholic church. It's not necessary. The record speaks for itself.

[Witsec1]

Here's yet another perspective on Mother Theresa:

KS: By the time I left there I was pretty disgusted because it seemed to me that patients were being treated as objects. There wasn’t much humanity.

RZ: You wrote a poem about how the Hospital For the Dying Destitute works as a fiduciary arrangement.

KS: Right, a spiritual fiduciary arrangement.

RZ: If there aren’t any poor, we’re out of a job kind of thing?

KS: Mother Teresa’s successor, Sister Nirmala, actually said that.

RZ: Is there no pain management?

KS: Not at that time. And practically no medicines available. Doctors would turn up occasionally.

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdail ... world.html

[Effie]

Wow, this Mother Teresa-thread is super-interesting. I didn't know. I had bought the image of her as she was portrayed in the media: that she was a saint-like person. Tell me more, tell me more! Okay, I will read the links you posted here. Very interesting read for a Friday-night when I'm kinda blue because someone I know is in a psychosis. Love ya!

[CanadianHippie]

As someone who does have allergies,YES!

As someone else who has pollen allergies, I concur.