These flowers are dying.

The flowers in my vase are dying.

Well, they are dead, I know that, but three of them are tulips. Tulips are the only flower that I know of that continue to grow after they are cut from their roots. Er, bulbs. Bulby roots. Anyway, don't believe me? Go to your local flower shop (they will die if you try to have them sent from home. I know they're already dead...but you get me) and ask for ten tulips arranged "real pretty like" in a vase. Take them home and place them on a table. Now would be an opportune time to throw a party. A person you have a crush on will come by and say "My, what lovely flowers!" You will say "Yes. They are tulips. They are the only flowers I know of that continue to grow after they are cut from their roots." Then that person will say "My, you are educated, you should (insert fantasy here)!" You will coyly reply "Oh, I thought about that, but I wouldn't get to spend this evening with you." Then you and your guest will enjoy the rest of the evening in pajamas, talking about amazing times each of you has had in different parts of the world involving different people of note. You will exchange stories about how you did something wonderful for the world and also how you feel terrible about something that you did when you were seven years old. "My father would only shake my hand" one of you might say. "I used to let my older brother beat me in basketball" might also be heard. You will share with each other your deepest feelings of politics, religion, and love; feelings neither of you have shared with any other living thing on Earth. There will come that moment in the evening when you look at each other and you share thoughts without saying words and for a few hours the world surrounding you dissolves into an effervescent nothing.

The next day, the tulips will be slightly longer.

Take an Interest in All of Your Neighbors

We really should only have one job in this life: Take care of each other. There is no other species alive that tries to weed itself out. Sure, the male beta fish kill each other, but it is only for reproductive rights. Humans discovered hate for each other out of ignorance long, long ago and it is now rearing it's ugly head in the strangest of ways.
I just read an article stating that birth control costs are expected to double, possibly triple, very soon at colleges across the country. Any woman who enjoys sex and having money should be outraged. While I lack the biological requirements for the aforementioned stipulations for anger, I am upset. We have populated this planet too densely too quickly, and just like any other virus we are killing the Earth. Now, my purpose here is not to limit the number of children people have (How's that working out for you, China?), but rather the type of people that have children. The only criterion being...responsibility! Entirely too many people have children for the wrong reasons. Tax breaks, saving marriages, or "Oops!" are all very bad reasons to create something that is loosely referred to as sacred. I started off talking about the third one, and I'll continue with that, but I'm not done with you, poor people. I'm not done with you either, desperate souls of the world.
Oftentimes you hear that if women feel they are old enough to start having sex then they are old enough to be responsible about it and be on birth control. Firstly, men are just as much a part of the equation in this department. No, dude, condoms are not that annoying. A malnourished child with an ear infection wearing a dirty diaper crying about it at all hours of the day is annoying. Secondly, it has been my experience that most women want to be on birth control, but the side effects of some are so terrible that it isn't worth it. I would bring up the baby again, but I don't know what a period feels like and I certainly don't know what a chemically induced period feels like, so I'm not saying a goddamn word about what a woman goes through when she menstruates. Wow, you look pretty today, have you lost weight? I digress...
I know there are many types of birth control out there, and a woman can't really know which is right for her (i.e. not going to cause a war between the ovaries) unless she educates herself either through literature or trial and error. So basically, as I understand it, just in order to find the method of birth control that works for a particular woman's chemistry, she has ridiculously tedious hoops to jump through for a good chunk of her life. Is it right to start charging her more money to do all this?
What is more important to you, dear reader: An educated, responsible woman who is able to control if and when she ever bears a child, or a woman that is unable to confidently make a decision of birth control, and rather than throwing caution into the wind and just picking one (which, remember, could have devastating if not life-threatening results) form, she forgoes it altogether and gets pregnant at a point in life where she can not raise the child as well as she may have been able to were she allowed to become prepared?
Bob Barker worries about the pet population and reminds us to have our "...pets spayed or neutered." When is someone going to recommend the same for humans? I am the first in line to advance our species, but this is the largest scale case of "Quality, not quantity" that I can think of. Please be careful out there everyone. Please.