08 September 2013

The Meh List

The Meh List
The Sunday NY times is an occasional luxury even if I don't get to it until a couple of weeks later. I save the magazine section insert and cram it in my pack when I travel. Concentrated, quality writing in a thin package. I leave a trail in airports that are snatched up by the next person taking my seat. 


Reading glasses on for the small print, I make my little noises of approval, acknowledging tidbits of interest, and snorts of disgust at something I disagree with. I was on the plane from Charlotte to Indianapolis when I spluttered out a new one and almost whacked my neighbor's arm to exclaim, "Can you believe this?!" 

On the top of the The One Page Magazine page is a tiny box titled The Meh List. Not Hot, Not Not, Just Meh. This one was submitted by a Susan Good to Samantha Henig. She listed Zumba, Simple Syrup, 10 percent discounts, Sidewalk seating…..so okay. These are thing she just ain't that impressed with. They aren’t hot, they aren't not hot, just Meh. 

It was #6 that blew me away. "Mom and Baby are doing great." 

Holy Cow. "Mom and baby are doing great" are some of the sweetest words in the entire universe. I can only imagine that the writer has never carried a precious child or fallen in love with a baby before it was born. She has never got teary watching the miracle of a heart beat on an ultrasound. She's never longed for a child and been heartbroken by a miscarriage. She's never felt an umbilical cord slide in front of a baby's head during childbirth, or pumped oxygen into a wee one's lungs. She has surely never reached down to welcome a slippery infant to her breast. I guarantee she has never been the resident crying in the delivery room while a beautiful young woman died or the nurse wrapping a stillborn baby in a hand knit blanket to carry it down the hall to the family. I can't imagine that she has even been an anxious family member or friend spending endless hours in a waiting room when doors burst open to a flushed and beaming new father announcing that "Mom and baby are doing great."

Who is this writer who can shrug off mothers and babies doing great? Get thee to a birth. Find some way to get invited to a real MEH - a Miraculously Extraordinary Happening.

Seriously. You don't know what you are Mehsing. Disclosure: I have two kids. I am an old labor and delivery nurse. I didn't have many meh moments in the years I spent helping mothers and babies and that is a lovely thing. 

11 comments:

  1. Wow. I would have been incredulous to read that BEFORE I had children. SMH.

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    1. Amen! How on earth was that included? It makes you wonder what kind of human being they are. It blew me away.

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  2. I wonder if it's just the phrase that she deems overdone. Because everyone says it, or so it seems. Kinda like the "And a good time was had by all" when someone describes a company picnic or Christmas party. There is no way that anyone could consider the actual miracle of a newborn baby as "meh."

    But a 10% discount? Definitely meh. Gimme "buy one, get one free!"

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    1. I HOPE so. I hadn't considered that.

      I do agree with most of the others. I can't be bothered with coupons either. Occasionally I do cut them out but I never have them with me.

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  3. Pixel Peeper has it. They're not saying that mom and baby doing well is "meh" - it's that when you're wondering how someone (especially a mom and newborn baby) is doing, you really would prefer a few personal details, some actual NEWS, rather than the old sawhorse "mom and baby doing fine". It's kind of like getting a letter from someone off on a great adventure vacation that says "having fun wish you were here." It's not that you don't want to be missed, you want some real communication!

    My addition to the "meh" list: Applebees, TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesdays, Olive Garden, et al.

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    1. I am with you on the restaurant list. Luckily as my taste got more refined and expensive my kids are grown and gone so I don't have a dinner bill for a family. Don't know how anyone can afford to feed a family now.

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  4. Nothing "Meh" about a child. No way!

    S

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    1. I've seen pictures of your adorable grand-babies, so I know you know that!

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  5. Your comments about the birth scene in all of its different ramifications give me strong images, both joyful and sorrowful. I agree with your reactions and felt a tug at my heart when I read about the stillborn and the weeping resident.





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    1. Kate - So many peak moments in childbirth. People tend to forget how dangerous it can be and that nothing should be taken for granted.

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  6. My daughter was cared for in a neonatal section for two weeks after surgery when she was three days old. What a sad place to visit. Everyone there longed to hear that blessed phrase about mother and baby. Thanks.

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