EPT

During the course of this blog, I've seen many things on the ground. Teddy Grahams, bananas, dog urine--all these simple things have engendered thoughtful moments. But out of all the trinkets, trash, and treasure I've seen so far, this discarded EPT is the most important.

My camera phone could not capture the faint plus sign in the window, but it was there. Based on my limited experience with pregnancy tests, I assume a plus sign means the woman is pregnant.

I wonder how the EPT ended up in a parking lot. I've never been involved with someone taking the test personally, but don't women usually like to take this type of test in the privacy of their own homes? Apparently, this EPT owner needed to know the results of her test immediately. She bought the product and used it in the store bathroom. Emotions running high, she didn't have the fortitude to drive all the way home.

I guess the bigger question is why this life-changing object, this indicator of a most-sacred thing, was cast away into the parking lot with fast food cups and empty Doritos bags.

One explanation could be that the EPT was not discarded but celebrated. Perhaps the mother-to-be was so elated with the pregnancy that she threw the stick into the air like a winning player throws the basketball as time expires in a Final Four game. But that isn't the truth. That kind of jubilation couldn't come from a woman who took the test at the supermarket. The EPT used in a public bathroom is reserved for the woman wishing not to be pregnant. The woman who truly desires the baby would have a ready stock of tests at home. The woman who truly delights in the pregnancy would save the test to show to her friends and family.

No. In this parking lot, a woman received some bad news. She felt destroyed by her predicament and the ensuing choices she will need to make. She didn't slam the test into the ground--the fragile plastic edges of the test were intact against the asphalt. She simply dropped the test in disbelief and drove home to face her life contextualized by a pregnancy. The proof of a new life will be swept up with trash and dirt and leaves.

This picture is just a blog post to me, but to one particular woman, this picture represents the dividing point between her everything before and everything after.