I made a mistake at work today.  I feel sick whenever I think about it. One of the professors I work with is probably the world’s authority on a particular fossil record.  He found a superb specimen of that particular fossil for sale on EBAY. The problem was that the auction ended while he was in class teaching. He asked me to go into his office, use his computer and bid with about 10 seconds remaining. The current bid was in the mid-$20 range.  He told me to bid an astronomical amount.  He said he wanted that fossil and he didn’t care how much it cost. I was not worried. I am an avid EBAY-er.  Bidding at the last moment was not new to me. I was more worried that I would get distracted and forget to go do the deed.  With 15 minutes to go I decided to go in and hit refresh every minute or so to make sure I was ready when the time drew near.  I watched the time dwindle down.  With 15 seconds to go I decided to place the bid.  I hit “submit” and then “confirm”. The computer didn’t seem to do anything for a second, so I hit “confirm” again.  The message “We are sorry, but this auction is closed” blazed on the screen.  I felt like crying and a knot immediately formed in my stomach. How could I tell him the fossil he entrusted me to buy for several hundreds of dollars went for $20 to someone else?  I wanted to go home for the day. Immediately.  Before he got out of class. Instead I stayed and watched for him to come down the hall.  When I told him I didn’t bid in time he thought I was kidding him.  He was a good sport when he finally realized that I was telling the truth, but I still feel awful.

Sometimes I think about how different things are now compared to times long ago. In many ways the changes are good.  How hard would it be to have children 100 years or more ago, and watch them die one by one?  There is one particular family in my genealogy that had such heartbreak that now when I look at their family statistics my heart breaks with them.  They had a baby boy and named him John. He lived a short while and died.  Soon after that they had another little boy and named him John.  He also died while still an infant.  The next male child that came along was also named John.  I can’t imagine the feelings of that family as they buried one after another of their children.

I am so grateful for the medical advances in the last 100 years.  If not for these neither I nor my husband would even be alive!  My husband, Mike, was born 50 years ago in Seattle.  His mother had negative blood. Mike’s older sister was born with positive blood which set up the stage for his mother’s immune system to attack the baby she was currently carrying.  Mike was born 6 weeks early,  his blood was being poisoned by his mother’s blood; he was an RH factor baby. The University of Washington Medical Center had never done a total blood transfusion on a newborn before, but they did it that day and saved his life. The doctor called Mike his miracle baby for years. 

My medical miracle happened 22 years ago.  I had a pregnancy that I thought was going along fine. Then in my 4^th month I started hemorrhaging a lot.  It was discovered that I had a Molar Pregnancy (hydatiform mole). After my treatment was complete I happened to ask the doctor whether this particular problem was hereditary, as my grandmother said she had experienced something similar.  His reply stopped me cold.  “No, it’s not hereditary. Women used to bleed to death from this.

Technology nowdays in the area of communication boggles my mind.  I can post a blog here in Idaho and seconds later it can be read and responded to by people all across the world. I can make new friends from Miami or Alberta or Africa in a blink of an eye. When my daughter lived in Cincinnati for a couple of years I would talk to her on her cell phone at least once a day, sometimes two or three times a day.  We were connected over the miles, involved in each other’s lives, and our relationship grew stronger.  I think about the many mothers and fathers who watched their grown children move away, maybe to the unexplored west, maybe across the Atlantic.  Did they ever hear from their children again?  If they did get a letter, maybe it was dated months earlier.  What has happened since then?  Are they okay?  I am grateful for the miracle of modern communication.

I am also grateful for the miracle of the internet.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get to visit the many places on earth that I would like. But I can go there on a virtual tour.  If I ever need information about the periodic table (to answer a question from Joni), or find out the phone number of the new Wal-Green store in town, or find an old room mate from college, all I have to do is google.

And if I want to buy a rare fossil from Bolivia for my friend and colleague to apologize for my mistake all I have to do is Ebay.