It just ain't natural

Yesterday I passed a car that proudly flaunted a bumper sticker reading, "The natural choice is LIFE."

As the reader, I was forced to agree with at least one side of the double meaning. Certainly abortion does not take place in a natural state - to the best of my knowledge, humans are unique among animals in their ability to abort their young.

The bumper sticker had a double meaning, though. It was correct about the first meaning of the phrase, but it was also trying to tell me that "life" is "proper to the circumstances of the case (thank you, dictionary)." The bumper sticker identified "life" as a solution that rises easily; naturally, to the mind.

And that was the point. The bumper sticker wanted people to make the connection between what happens in nature, and what is proper.

I often look for solutions that are "proper to the circumstances of the case," however, and when I do that I rarely look for the "natural choice." For example, I had a few teeth broken out last year, and I found a very unnatural solution - I went to the dentist. My brother got sick during the spring, and instead of curling up miserably to die, as a typical animal would, he took the radically unnatural step of visiting a doctor.

Of course, I thought all these things in the time it took me to cruise past the stickered car. The man driving it needed a reminder that, while a natural solution might seem like a good idea, sometimes we have to advance. I like to think our species is becoming smart enough to recognize that. In the meantime, I just shook my head at this guy - did he ever consider the "natural choice" in getting to work? It sure as hell isn't driving, you hypocrite.