week 6/7, or, why I'm doing this

This past semester, I took a class on Pragmatism, the philosophic thread of William James and cohorts (1890's, post-Civil War) that suggested we take notions of right/wrong and good/bad out of the ether and determine worth based on "cash value" instead. What's it good for? What does it do? John Dewey said that every experience is a moving one--it either moves you toward something (like being open to new experiences or to learning more), or it inhibits you. I had a blast writing my final paper on how we use humor to reinterpret memories so that they have "cash value", so they move us toward further experience. If we do something socially stupid, it's more pragmatic to turn around and tell a funny story about it instead of cringing and filing it away. If we can joke about it, we can almost retell it and laugh with each other (which feels much better than being laughed at, even if just in your own head). 

I think that blogging about pregnancy and motherhood is a fun way to make sense of and even reinterpret all of the craziness that descends on us as we start this journey. I'm hooked on this hilarious (yet insightful--the best combo, right?) mommy blog called Dooce that exemplifies it perfectly. It just seems like if you take too much of this stuff too seriously, you'll quickly drive yourself too crazy. 

The latest indignity that I've read about? What to Expect When You're Expecting has a section that explains how you might think you're showing in the first trimester, but don't get excited--you're actually just bloated. I mean, I'd just be embarrassed by that if I couldn't make fun of it. I've been thinking about how that's in part why I wanted to tell people that I work with about this new "condition," because I don't know how to make sense of it if I'm not laughing about it.