Life of The Unborn Child

Life of The Unborn Child

Awakening the spirit of humanity through literary piece

Courtesy: John L Rothra

“Lo, children are heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.  As arrows in the land of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.”

—     PSALM 127:3-4 KJV

Every living creature is called to become what is meant to be. The caterpillar is meant to become a butterfly; a seed into a full grown herb, bush or tree; and a human baby into a mature person, the person “who is fully alive, the glory of God” in the words of St. Irenaeus.

A number of researches of human development have been conducted. A lot of theories for human development have been forwarded. The process of human development involves beginnings and endings. What was this organism then? What will this organism be?

How this development happens is what we learn in our biology class. We’ve seen it to be a fantastic process. So wonderful process that we can’t help but experience a feeling of awe for the Power or Force or the Principle, God, as theist call this Power or Force. Hence, do you agree that that which is developing in the womb is a mere ‘blob of tissue’ or ‘uterine contents’ as abortionist claim?

 THE SILENT SCREAM 

I remember the film on abortion that I once saw, “The Silent Scream”. The mother submitted herself to a medical doctor for abortion in her third month of pregnancy. When the abortionist inserted his scalpel into the mother’s womb to crush the head of the fetus, very clearly in that film, the fetus had his/her mouth open like he was screaming for help as he evaded the deadly scalpel of the abortionist.

 That’s why the film was given the title “The Silent Scream”. This only means that the developing being in the womb is a human being and not just a conglomeration of cells or tissue.

That which is in the mother’s womb is indeed a developing human being. An unborn baby of eight weeks is not essentially different from one of eighteen weeks or twenty-eight weeks. From conception the zygote, the embryo and the fetus are undeniably human life.

Human life begins from the moment of conception. All that we have, all that we are have been there at the moment of conception!  The fact that you have brown eyes and black straight or curly hair, and the fact that you will turn bald at age 50 have been there at the moment of conception.

I wanted to share the article that I have read titled Life Before Birth which unveil the undeniable truth that the developing being inside the womb is life.

LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

The development of the unborn child

            The development of human life in the womb was once a mystery, but science and medicine have changed that. Abortion advocates still try to dehumanize the developing baby in the womb by speaking of the child as “a blob of tissue” or “uterine contents.” But ultra sound images, pre-natal surgery and other advances in obstetrics are shattering the blob-of-tissue myth.

            Dr. Paul Rockwell, a New York physician, made these profound observations after his amazing encounter with a tiny unborn baby: “Eleven years ago, when I was giving an anesthetic for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy (at two months gestation), I was handed what I was believe was the smallest living human ever seen. The embryo sac was intact and transparent. Within the sack was a tiny human male swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid, while attached to the wall by the umbilical cord.

This tiny human was perfectly developed, with long, tampering fingers, feet and toes. It was transparent, as regards the skin and the delicate arteries and veins were prominent to the ends of the fingers. “The baby was extremely alive and swam about the sac approximately one time per second, with a natural swimmer’s stroke. This tiny human did not look at all like the photos and drawings and models of ‘embryos’ which I have seen, nor did it look like a few embryos I have been able to observe since then, obviously because this one was alive.

When the sac was opened, the tiny human immediately lost its life and took on the appearance of what is accepted as the appearance of an embryo at this stage (blunt extremities, etc.)

“It is my opinion that if the lawmakers and people realize that this very vigorous life is present, it is possible that abortion would be found more objectionable than euthanasia.”

The point at which Dr. Rockwell witnessed this unborn baby – eight weeks after conception – is during the period that a majority of abortionist describe as most desirable for performing an abortion.

Source: https://www.mccl.org/prenataldevelopment

Based on these facts, it is wrong to do abortion. The womb is supposed to be the safest all places for human development. Unfortunately, however, with scourge of abortion it has become a tomb!

Look at yourself. You are perfectly made, the one “who is fully alive, the glory of God” or should we say “the heritage of the Lord” (Ps. 127:3). The cells of your lips are at your lips. Your mouth is close to your nose. You can breathe normally. You are a bundle of possibilities. If you can live, like any other living thing is meant to be; so are babies inside the wombs of all mothers around the world.

− Kim Menendez

Literary Theory & Critical Practice: Bleach Volume 74 Poem Explained

Bleach Volume 74 Poem

It’s been 2 years since Bleach ended and now it’s 2018, and I really want to get back to it.

Other people would ask me: “Why do you love this Manga [Bleach]?”

I love this Manga because I love literature. To me, this form of literature is rarely seen in history. I want to take a look at a feature of BLEACH that doesn’t get enough attention: the poems. Every volume of the manga has a poem centered around the character featured on its respective cover. A majority of these poems are very enlightening and one has to wonder about Kubo’s intentions in inserting them into the manga. And I think his style of storytelling/writing reflects his inclination towards poetry - perhaps one of the reasons why a lot of people don't appreciate Bleach...?

Poems are something you usually don’t see in a majority of manga series. Kubo, however, makes it an emphasis to include a poem in every volume. Does he want his readers to be inspired and see the world in a different light than what people would tell them otherwise? People write poems for a variety of reasons: self-expression, creative expression, inspiration/motivation, and emotional expression

I really want to commend Kubo-sensei. One adage and it kept me thinking all night. I love what he does with this volume 74 poem. At first, I didn’t understand it at all, but then I remembered Ichigo’s poem in the first volume, and it had a connection to this. And then I saw Rukia’s poem in the second volume. And I remembered Aizen’s speech on “Courage”.

Before everything else

All the images belong to Kubo Tite and JUMP Comic and I take no credit.

Let’s start from here.

I think the picture there is a play on this panel:

That’s Ichigo becoming the ultimate protector in his eyes - his mom

I think this panel is a foreshadowing on how Ichigo really becoming a protector to everyone like how his mom, Masaki, protected him when she was alive. Ichigo is just a common person with a tragic past and he’s is not like every shonen character because he only wants to protect, not because he tries to act as a hero. Just like what he said, “To protect everyone.”

Then next are the wordings.

Note: The 1st and last volume just start the same way

poem 74:

我等は姿無くとも

warera wa sugatanaku tomo

”Even if we are without form,

歩みは止めず

ayumi wa tomezu

we do not stop moving forward”

1^st  poem:

我らは　姿無きが故に
warera wa sugatanaki ga yue ni

“We fear

それを畏れ
sore o osore

that which we cannot see.”

What is this “without form” mean in poem 74? It is death and death is what cannot be seen by our eyes. In reality, as well as at the start of the series, no one knew about the afterlife, what happens after you die, whether you become a soul or just disappear. As far as ordinary people are concerned - We die - we lose form, become invisible – people will forget us. That is why we are so afraid of dying. That is something worth being afraid of.  At least this is what I think Ichigo’s talking about in 1^st poem. The second poem made me think that he’s referring to death. 

2^nd poem:

人が希望を持ちえるのは

hito ga kibou o mochieru no wa

“People can hold on to hope

死が目に見えぬものであるからだ

shi ga me ni mienu mono de aru kara da

“because death is something that cannot be seen with eyes”

Here’s the other translation from halcyonjazz:

“People can possess hope

because our eyes are unable to see death.”

 So death has no form, therefore we cannot see it. These volume 1 & 2 poems go hand in hand with each other. The first poem is stating that we are afraid of something (“We fear that which we cannot see.”), and the second is explaining what exactly it is we are afraid of (it is “something that cannot be seen with eyes or what our eyes are unable to see).

These lead us to chapter 686, the last chapter

Yhwach’s speech:

Yhwach is telling Ichigo that his defeat meant the continuation of death and the fear accompanying it, meaning that this formlessness is forever.

Then, we have Aizen’s speech on courage, in which he offers a rebuttal to Yhwach’s vision of world. And it is also contained the explanation of the poem 74, tying the 1st and the 2nd poems as well.

Here’s the fear of death, from Ichigo’s poem 1.

Here’s the hope that can people hold on to from Rukia’s poem 2

And here’s the “we do not stop moving forward” from poem 74.

Aizen-san states that in creating such a world without fear of death would result in one which would be without hope. He remarks while people could go through life simple living, it does not compare to courageous individuals like Ichigo, who is willing to face death and cut through fate without fear.

___________________________________

P.S.                     

Oh, my God! I’m crying... what a ton of tears I have when it comes to Bleach especially when I always remember Ichigo’s rainy days, he’s memories in the rain. Yes, it’s everything but the rain.  (But I’d like to say “Thank you Aizen for playing a respective role in the life of Ichigo’s parents, Isshin & Masaki. Without you, Aizen, there would no Ichigo.”) Hence I had a theory that Aizen is Kubo's rendition in the manga.

The poem conveys what Ichigo has learnt from Rukia, the one that get us through life. That helps us keep on moving forward, even we are without form. Because she thought him the courage, no matter how you view the bond these two have in a manga, it is undeniable. She was the one who told him that despair cannot even hope to stop him.

But let’s back on how the series started, Ichigo met Rukia. They’re the one who started the series. Then fast forward to the Arrancar arc when Aizen claimed what his doing, which he planned everything just how Ichigo met Rukia and gained his Shinigami power through her. These two are the core of this manga. I think that was the reason why Kubo put Ichigo and Rukia in the last volume cover. Then Aizen gave that speech on courage as the explanation of volume 74 poem itself, and the fact that the volume 1 & volume 74 had the same title.  Now I can see clearly the logic. The two have such a strong bond. The two of them are what makes Bleach as Bleach, they are made for each other but Kubo decided that romance is not for them. In spite how the ending turned out to be, just look how their bond even extends to their children; Kazui Kurosaki (as little Ichigo) met Ichika Abarai (as little Rukia).

It doesn’t matter to me what is the ending (because others are saying it was rushed). Kubo was right. Time goes on but this bond will never break. The bond we have, well, at least I do, with this manga is unbreakable. In the end it doesn’t even matter, Bleach is always Bleach for me. 

NOTES:

But you probably wondering where did I get this “… we do not stop moving forward” in Aizen speech.

So, here’s where I’m coming from.

·         The imagery on Aizen speech and on poem 74 is the same. Notice the phrase “marching forward in the face of death.” Does this phrase draw the same imagery on poem 74? Yes, it is! 

The figure speech here is paradox, which expresses a seemingly self - contradictory.

Example: 

“While it is true that people can continue to press forward through the simple act of living. 

versus

That is in no way comparable to marching forward in the face of death, while doing their damndest to keep it at bay. That is why… “

REFERENCES:

§  Kubo, Tite (2016). Bleach, Volume 74: The Death and the Strawberry. Shueisha. ISBN 978-4-08-880774-4

§  Kubo, Tite (2013). Bleach, Volume 60: Everything but the Rain. Shueisha. ISBN 978-4-08-870782-2

§  Kubo, Tite (2012). Bleach, Volume 54: Goodbye to Our Xcution. Shueisha. ISBN 978-4-870386-2

§  Kubo, Tite (2008). Bleach, Volume 36: Turn Back The Pendulum. Shueisha. ISBN 978-4-08874603-6

§  Kubo, Tite (2004). Bleach, Volume 3: Memories in the Rain. Viz Media. ISBN 1-59116-443-5

§  Kubo, Tite (2004). Bleach, Volume 2: Goodbye Parakeet, Goodnite My Sista. Viz Media. ISBN 1-59116-442-7

§  Kubo, Tite (2004). Bleach, Volume 1: The Death and the Strawberry. Viz Media. ISBN 1-59116-441-9