I haven’t gotten a chance to crow online about all my Christmas loot this year.
I’m a great lover of Christmas loot, and–so there’s no ambiguity here–I welcome as many Christmas presents as I can possibly lay my hands on, and IT’S NEVER TOO LATE. I won’t be offended by any late presents that TSOW readers might want to send along–you know, as in: you ordered the unabridged, fully annotated Summa Theologica in hardcover for me, but Fed Ex delivered it to your house the Tuesday after Christmas, darn them, and now it’s just sitting there on your kitchen counter and you just don’t know if sending it this late would be offensive to me–it won’t be. In fact, it would ease the pain of not getting a Gandalf pipe, which was high on my wish list. Reading Bad Catholic’s post on pipes the other day only made my suffering more acute.
I’m, of course, thrilled to bits over the loot that I DID get (so far, wink, wink), which leads me to a strange discovery I want to share with you. As you may know, I’m a passionate fan of music, almost all music, and way up at the top of my favorite musicians is Peter Gabriel. My excellent wife bought me his most recent release, New Blood. It’s a lush symphonic arrangement of many of his best songs. I’ve been listening to it a couple of times a day–it is extremely well arranged, it’s creative, inventive, and Pete sounds great. It’s just a really cool achievement. Here’s the cover:
That’s right–you don’t know what it is. I didn’t either. Photograph of an organic ball on a metal thing. Looks microscopic. I didn’t spend much time thinking about it. Then, one day, while giving the CD another listen, I was reading through the liner notes, and I come across the cover photo credits. The title of the photo is: Embryonic Stem Cell on tip of Needle by Steve Gschmeissner/SPL.
That threw a big wet blanket on my mood. I looked at the photo again and thought: that’s all that’s left of an aborted human being, propped up on the tip of a flippin’ needle so we can photograph it and call it art.
I have no idea where Peter Gabriel stands on this particular issue–he may have no idea that there is a crucial difference between fetal stem cells and adult stem cells. I know he’s an extraordinary composer and songwriter; I know I admire him greatly. But I discarded the cover photo. No offense. I kept the CD, of course–it’s a triumph.
Elsewhere among my Christmas loot was the one-in-a-million late-’60′s collaboration between Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim:
Brilliant renditions of all your favorite Bossa Nova-and-such tunes and, as a bonus, the cover photo does not contain a single reference in favor of abortion, infanticide, immoral bioengineering practices, or any other aspect of the Culture of Death, assuming that pinky ring Frank is wearing isn’t a covert nod to a super-secret, multi-tiered European Eugenics Cult. Can’t rule it out yet.
Anyway, have a great Epiphany, and Merry Christmas, people!
FLASH UPDATE: It’s a mouse! Steve Gschmeissner (about whose work I was completely ignorant) left a comment below and showed a remarkable amount of restraint in letting me know that the stem cell in his photo is from a mouse, not an aborted baby. So, that’s good! Don’t throw away your New Blood covers, people! I’m truly sorry about the confusion I caused, Steve.
I might add, though, that the laws governing the use of human and animal materials aren’t necessarily strict everywhere, and there are large numbers of folk working hard right now to get the doors to embryonic stem cell research thrown wide, and there are artists who would have no problem using aborted human tissue as part of their projects–the same kind of artist who would submerge a crucifix in urine or make an image of Mary out of elephant dung–so I’ve developed a kind of nervous tick about it, I guess. Anyway, Steve Gschmeissner is not in that category and, again, Steve, I apologize. God bless.
Looks like everything’s finally straightened away with the FedEx folks (finally!), sorry for the delay, man…Also, I was listening to ‘Intruder’ while reading this, my favorite Gabriel tune. Keep up the good work!
Well, that stinks about the Gabriel cover. Hopefully the music will be good at least. (I’ve downloaded it as part of my Christmas Amazon gift card bonanza, but haven’t gotten around to listening to it yet.)
Just to put you straight and lift your mood, you need not worry as your aborted human is actual a blood stem cell from a fetal mouse.
The laws governing the use of human and animal materials are very strict and my images are use internationally for education and raising public interest.
Get the cover out the bin and put people straight on your blog
Regards Steve Gschmeissner
Thank you for setting me straight, Steve! That does lift my mood. I’ll write a post script and update the post.
Thanks for that info Mr. Gschmeissner, it does ease my mind actually.
By the way, I looked up some more of your work and found quite a few galleries of your excellent microscopic photos. Fantastic. The complexity of this world we’ve been given stewardship over never fails to amaze me.
i am disappointed by this post. if it was a human embryonic stem cell. it would not be from an aborted fetus. it would be from a 5-7 day old blastocyst (embryo) that had always been in a plastic dish that otherwise would be thrown in the trash. a pregnancy never was involved and no potential for birth present. this picture is ethical (stem cell or not) and can be informative for stem cell research and is not some artistic ploy for attention. that is similar in size and shape to what a blastocyst looks like that embryonic stem cells are from.
Thanks for this thoughtful response. But if you believed, like I do, that an embryo is a human being, you wouldn’t just throw it in the trash, and whether it’s in a plastic dish or not wouldn’t really be relevant. Genetically, everything that is present in an adult human is present at the embryonic stage. Obviously, the embryo is developmentally immature, but if “everything’s there,” genetically, then how can we not define that as a human being?
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/1970/72/7072303
This article might give you a better idea of Mr. Gabriel’s opinions.
Cheers from Chile
Thanks, Fabiola! That’s valuable information. Cheers!
Well, mouse is better than human, but how about covers with no cells belonging to living creatures? I’ve given up hope of getting any more gifts
Squeamish, eh, Laura? Well, that’s understandable. So, I guess you’re not interested in the toy elf I made entirely from human hair as a late Christmas gift?
What can I say? I wish fetuses stayed on their mommy’s belly, anything else sound a bit Dr. Frankestein to me. Human hair? no, it sounds kind of gross
I would accept elfs made from pretty much anything else though.