Learn something new today:

It’s good to learn something everyday. I’m sure we all learn something new almost everyday, but sometimes I just can’t pin point what I’ve learned. It is my mission this month to intentionally learn something new each day.

I had a bit of a late start on this one, but here’s what I got for the past few days: Today I looked up the definition of the Immaculate Conception. I had thought in the past that the term applied to the conception of Jesus, but somewhere in the back of my head I didn’t think that was right . . . I must have read something somewhere . . . I decided to find out about it.

The immaculate conception refers to Mary, the mother of Christ. According to the Catholic Church dogma, Mary was born without the burden of original sin (although she still carried the penalty of it, “Unfair!” I say.) Some theologians believed (believe) that Mary was sinless, because the redemption of Christ bought her whole and unblemished.

I read (am still reading) about all this from the Catholic Encyclopedia. What I thought would be a one to two page explanation (at the most) turned out to be a fourteen page article. Oh those Catholics do go on . . .

Yesterday I did some research on the “Bubble Boy.” I just watched the 1977 made for TV movie “Boy in the Plastic Bubble” starring a very young John Travolta. I had heard it was “based on a true story.” So I was trying to find the “true story.”

As it turns out there really was a Bubble Boy, but only one. A small percentage of children over the years have been born without immune systems. Today this condition is treated with drugs, blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants and is still very deadly.

The majority of the children born with out immune systems are boys. In the late 1950s (I think) a boy named David Vetter was born and immediately diagnosed with the disease. (His older brother had already died of the condition.) Soon after birth David was isolated. He remained in his “bubble” until he died as a result of experimental treatments at age 12.