10X9

Last night was the 10X9 storytelling event. The theme was Final Frontier and, as usual, it was fascinating to see all the directions people went in. Two told of the difficulty of getting pregnant. Incredibly intimate stories. One man, my favourite storyteller, started with: “70, 76. Those were our numbers.” He went on to explain, after an artful interlude, that his wife has a condition that means a 70% chance of miscarriage and a 76% chance of significant abnormalities. What do you do in the face of those odds? She wanted to try again, he did not. They tried and had a baby. “Ten fingers, ten toes, no significant abnormalities, other than hopelessly bad at math.”

The other woman was not as lucky. Three ectopic pregnancies. The fourth, twins conceived by planting an egg (eggs?), also miscarried. Hard to fathom the pain of going through each of those pregnancies--the hopes and the dashed hopes. The woman is an astronomer and she had a ring made to represent Orion’s belt, which apparently has three bright stars and the point to a double star. Something like that.

Whenever I see the depth of sorrow some people have to endure, I just marvel at the resiliency of the human spirit.
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