Always a Great Day

"If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

This past weekend our youngest received her first and second Holy Communion. Great day - it was - for real.

If you are a Catholic Christian you understand the ginormous joy this day holds. I have been struggling all week to find the words to explain this feeling to our non Catholic brothers and sisters and have failed completely. I just could not find a relevant analogy.

As we waited in the school before the mass the men watched the women going into full Martha mode: straightening out veils and ties, curling or flattening out hair with spit, chatting with the other moms about how many guests would be at home and what they would be fed hoping there would be enough.

It was just after the line-up and before the procession to the Church that one of the dads said, “It’s like a wedding but with out the dread.”

As we went over I began to hum an old hymn “…sometimes it causes me to tremble.”

Conspiracy theory - and a Chesterton sighting

"The Invisible Man" is a frequently anthologized Father Brown story. A "postman" (i.e. mailman) plays an important role in the the story - though in a negative way.

I've sometimes suspected that my local mail carriers bear a grudge against Chesterton because of this.

My issues of Gilbert invariably arrive a week or two after other people have already begun to blog about what great issue it is and refer to articles I have not yet read.

And last week, my March-April issue of StAR (Saint Austin Review) arrived graced with Chesterton on the cover and chock full of articles about him.

The cover was torn.

Hmmm. I wonder what Father Brown would make of that. Coincidence?

Or a conspiracy?

Paranoia aside, I have been enjoying the articles. Dale Alquist, of course, contributes a piece (how could you have an issue of anything devoted to Chesterton and not have something from Dale?). He speculates what might have happened if Chesterton had gone bad!

We also have articles of orthodoxy, being a defender of the faith, fairy tales, Chestertonian drama, a little bit of Belloc, and more.

If you are a Chestertonian (why else would you be reading this blog?) and you don't subscribe to StAR, at least get a copy of this issue.

(Go to http://www.staustinreview.com/ for info.)

They Are Smarter Than We Are

Many a moon ago I discovered this truth: When building a fence around your chicken coop you don’t make it strong enough to keep the chickens in but to keep the carnivores out. I rebuilt my fence to that ideal or so I thought. Carnivores are clever in their pursuit and relentless in their search for a weakness in the defenses’.

Such a weakness was found in my coop, one loose board high up on the south side.

This morning I found only feathers.

I’m sure there is an analogy to the health care bill that could be made here but all I know is that I will now have to buy my Easter eggs.

I didn't do it. You didn't see me do it. You can't prove a thing.

ah spring

The rains have stopped and the sun is gaining confidence. The remaining snow weaves emaciated down shadow filled alley ways. It still clings, weak and weary, to the corners of parking lots like an old postcard stuck in back of your sock drawer. Its cryptic message now understood: “The weather is here. Wish you were beautiful.”

After the cookies are gone

Is this what the Girl Scouts will sell next?
Will it be door to door or will we have to go to meetings
Will they at least earn a badge for doing 'it'?

Mark Shea once said,"Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children."

...and the tears will not stop.

very cool

A Small Glass Of Whine

Recently the news has been filled with the problems of our public educational system. Simply put it is failing. The talking heads are blaming everyone from the teacher unions to not enough money.

Central Falls High School in Rhode Island fired all their teachers because they would not accept a change with out more money. That school did make the statement that the school should run the school - not the Union.

The current occupant of the white house is threatening to close more schools unless they improve.

California college students are protesting a hike in fees (they still think higher education should be free even if the state is bankrupt).

A democratic state senator in Chicago is campaigning for a voucher system in that city.

However this is not entirely about the union. Most teachers want to teach, love to teach, and do a great job and follow the Chesterton rule, "A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching".

As nice as it is it is not about the money either.

For the past several years I have been working in the public educational system and my job this year has given me a different view on why this may be happening. In the mornings I teach, off campus, a group of young boys who do not work and play well others. In the afternoons I along with two full time teachers tutor high school kids in order to help them pass their state exams - without which they can not graduate. These tests are not that difficult most of the questions are on an eighth grade level. Nearly 90% of these just don't care to learn the material.

When I was in school we would ask our teachers, "Why do I gotz to learn this stuff"?
The answer was simple, "You need a good education if you want to support yourself and your family."

Since we are now in our 3rd generation of an entitlement society this answer is no longer true. Some have learned that 'workin for da gubment' they can get food, a place to live, health care, energy allowances, with enough money for beer, cigarettes and cable TV. So why bother with school why bother with work?

It is very hard to convince these kids of the importance of education. The percentage of these kids is growing every year. This attitude of "I don't care and I don't have to care." is infections. The parents of the motivated and gifted are pulling their kids to send them to private schools or home school. The scale in public schools is tilting and not in the right direction.

This very disheartening for a teacher.

The why bothers go to school cause they got nothing else to do, and it is better than sitting at home with dad.

QUALIFICATIONS

In a Purdue University classroom, they were discussing the qualifications to be President of the United States . It was pretty simple, the candidate must be a natural born citizen of at least 35 years of age.

However, one girl in the class immediately started in on how unfair was the requirement to be a natural born citizen. In short, her opinion was that this requirement prevented many capable individuals from becoming president.

The class was taking it in and letting her rant, but everyone's jaw hit the floor when she wrapped up her argument by stating, "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified to lead this country than one born by C-section?"


And don't forget, "They walk among us!"

good times

Thursday the weather began to soften to the point where school was back in on Friday. On Saturday I had no choice but to proclaim a road trip. We went to go see semi distant family where we would partake in the simple joys of storytelling, snacking and letting the grandchildren, nieces and nephews climb all over me. Before dinner we went as a faction to church to take up a pew and a half. It is sometimes excellent to be patriarch.

I like this church. It is a small neighborhood church that sits about 200 and no matter what mass we have attended it is always standing room only. Each parish manages to bubble up it's dominate talents. This church excels in it's music ministry. It is beautiful to listen to as well as to participate with which the whole congregation does with gusto. From this we moved to great dinner of truly more comfort food.

When we returned from this trip we found that our Girl Scout cookie order had arrived.

Life is good.

Start your Lent with a Song in Your Heart

Snow Daze

We are now on our seventh day without school because of the SNOW. Snow, snow and more snow - up to our knees in snow. It is too cold to make snow persons, too deep to go sledding and too flat around here to go skiing.

Even the cats are getting cabin fever.

It's not all that bad, really we are doing ok. We watched butter soften and then made cookies. Shuffled around on the rug and played shock tag. I received on going reports from my wife on how she was doing rearranging her fabric collection. I cleaned out "that closet" and tried to solve the mystery on how there could be, in there, 7 gloves and 2 mittens none a match and all left handed.

There is a store within walking distance so we have not run out of chips and beer.

I saw my first Robin.

The Jesus Rifle

Oh No! It is the end of the world. The war is lost! (be sure to watch Rachel Maddow's video at the end of the post) But for $660,000,000.00 I will stop talking about Jesus.

"If a boy fires off a gun, whether at a fox, a landlord or a reigning sovereign, he will be rebuked according to the relative value of these objects. But if he fires off a gun for the first time it is very likely that he will not expect the recoil, or know what a heavy knock it can give him. He may go blazing away through life at these and similar objects in the landscape; but he will be less and less surprised by the recoil; that is, by the reaction. He may even dissuade his little sister of six from firing off one of the heavy rifles designed for the destruction of elephants; and will thus have the appearance of being himself a reactionary. Very much the same principle applies to firing off the big guns of revolution. It is not a man's ideals that change; it is not his Utopia that is altered; the cynic who says, "You will forget all that moonshine of idealism when you are older," says the exact opposite of the truth. The doubts that come with age are not about the ideal, but about the real. And one of the things that are undoubtedly real is reaction: that is, the practical probability of some reversal of direction, and of our partially succeeding in doing the opposite of what we mean to do. What experience does teach us is this: that there is something in the make-up and mechanism of mankind, whereby the result of action upon it is often unexpected, and almost always more complicated than we expect."

The Superstition of School, by G.K. Chesterton

The quotable Mr. Chesterton

While trolling my local Catholic bookstore, I spotted several copies of a new - 2009 -book - The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips & Cracks from the Pen of G.K. Chesterton.

It's edited by Dave Armstrong (of Biblical Evidence for Catholicism).

Some 359 pages of Chesterton quotations? Of course I bought it.

I know I can find many of the quotations on line, but it's nice to have a hard copy in hand.

The book is organized by topics, which makes it easy to find apt quotations. I've been diving through, enjoying discovering or rediscovering the Great One's wit and wisdom.

A quibble though. "The Very Best" - yet no sign of two of my favorite quotations:

"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion."

and

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

Ah well, I have eclectic tastes.

Maybe there's a second collection in the works. I'll buy that one, too.

But for now, I'll enjoy this wonderful collection - while eating cheese and rubbing my beard.

Ratcheting it up a notch

As long as I can remember I have never heard the Bishops tell their flock to explicitly vote one way or the other or support one bill or the other. They have given us a teaching and told us to vote our conscious. So you can imagine my surprise and delight when, after hearing that the Knights are having a wing fry and the Rosary Alter Society is looking for new members, I heard this:

“Congress continues to debate health care reform. While the House passed a health care bill that prevents the federal government from funding elective abortions, and includes provisions making health care affordable and accessible for all, the Senate rejected this and passed a bill that requires federal funds to help subsidize and promote health plans that cover elective abortions, while forcing purchasers to pay directly for other people’s abortions. These two bills must now be combined into one bill that both the House and Senate will vote on in final form. The U.S. bishops continue to strongly oppose abortion funding, while calling for critical improvements in conscience protection, affordability for the poor and vulnerable, and access to health care for immigrants.
In your pews/bulletins today, you’ll find a flier/bulletin insert from the U.S. Bishops Conference asking you to please contact your congressional representatives immediately and urge them to address these moral issues. The flier/bulletin insert includes a web address that allows you to send an email message to Congress with a click of a button. The bishops have asked for our swift action and our prayers. Thank you for your help. We can help make sure that health care reform will protect the lives, dignity, conscience and health of all. Health care reform should be about saving lives, not destroying them.”

We were then given a link to go to: www.usccborg/action this site allows you to send a prewritten letter to your representatives and through the magic of the internet it sends this letter to your specific rep.

After this announcement we all said the Saint Michael's prayer for the conversion of abortionists. You can get the prayer card here.

Please go to this site and send your message. Like the Bishops said at the end of their letter Act today! Thank you!

more sci-fi on the way but not so much fi

In H.G. Well's novel The Island of Dr. Moreau He tells the tale of a man making human/animal hybrids. Makes for a good story.

"Dr. Moreau and his assistant perished at the hands of their experiments. Prendick escaped and returned to England. And, as the novel concludes, Prendick, in England, said that, as he looked at the people around him, he could not help feeling that he was still amongst the beast-people of Dr. Moreau's island; and, that they might, at any point, turn on him, the way that the creatures of the island had."

The island is closer than you think. here and here just to name a few

Bukowski clerihew

Charles Bukowski
finished his whiskey.
While waiting for another
he wrote about eyeing his friend's mother.

When I first heard about AVATAR I was not in hurry to see it but after reading all the buzz about it on the blogosphere, especially by Catholics> Again I saw a huge popular media event brought everyone out to defend or condemn the "religious" ramifications on our culture. Most of it you can read on Mark Shea's bolg.

I needed to judge it for my self. My feelings on not wanting to see this film were based on the fact that James Cameron does not make great movies. And my $10.00 could be used elsewhere. Yes, he makes visually stunning cinematic experiences but really is a second rate story teller. Seeing AVATAR did not change my opinion on that.

Anyone over sixteen years old could see the borrowed plot line (Pocahotas, Dances with Wolves, and even Ewoks vs. Strom troopers) and stereotypical characters. Cameron not only tells a shallow story sans sub text he telegraphs each upcoming event. There are never any surprises or plot twists in his films. A second or third viewing will add nothing to your understanding to the film or of the human condition. But. BUT it was absolutely, with out a doubt, the best visual candy I have eaten in a long time.

In this way he is not unlike Thomas Kinkade who creates an pretty imaginary world where the viewer would like to live and everyone is happy and at peace. It also seems that Cameron borrowed Kinkade's color palette. (the picture on this post is Kinkade's and not from the film). It is a pastel world without hard edges. Even when there is sudden and bruttal death in a Cameron movie it does not make your cheeks pouch together because it is all about the visual which is only 1% of reality.

You might wish you were one of his characters, (who wouldn't want to fly a giant lizard!) but you never get emotionally attached to his characters. Which I guess that is what escapism is all about. I have heard some say that the Na'vi are blue skinned to represent democrats no no it is that they needed to be pastel and green skin was to much of a cliché even for Cameron.

However casting Sigourney Weaver was a great joke. Even when we first she her she is coming out of the "box" and asks for a cigarette. Watch the first 10 minutes of ALIEN if you need a reminder. (OK, I was the only one in the theatre to laugh).

And really who believes the corporation is just going to give up and leave all that potential money. Can you say sequel? And yes I will go see the sequel and be dazzled for a few hours. I love circus side shows too.

Speaking of Genomes part 2

In the, for lack of a better word, battle between science and religion some voices of reconciliation are being heard. Not because of their volume but from where they speak. Francis Collins is one such voice. He is one with impressive credentials being the director of the Human Genome Project and all; that little hobby of his that mapped the vast vocabulary of life's indwelling "grammar". Collins calls this grammar the language of God.

In his book, The Language of God, Collins systematically lays out a philosophy that science and religion are not only complementary but are both essential for a complete understanding of the world.

Yea, yea I know the premise of the compatibility of God and reason has been expressed elsewhere and with better poetry as with Thomas Aquinas, " For Faith is not opposed to reason but is of that which reason cannot reach." Or as JP2 said, "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth..."

The cool thing about this book is how he came to write it. Collins was homeschooled in an non-religious home - "freethinkers". Religion to him was something quaint and unrealistic so atheism was his logical choice for a world view. That was until he became a doctor and noticed the difference between the religious and non religious patients in how they faced grave and mortal illnesses. The religious ones faced it bravely and peacefully the later spent their time in a panic. When one of his patients asked him about his belief system he knew, as a scientist he could only answer this question with research and careful consideration.

His study led him to Christianity. True, that's an old story but I never grow weary of hearing it. Collins openly credits our friend C. S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity for his spiritual Big Bang moment.

True not all of his writing and many of his other views do not square-up to orthodox Christianity but he is still young in this strange new land and he is courageous.
As he is willing to debate all comers on what Collins calls BioLogos, including Richard Dawkins.

For you Homeschoolers Collins' book would be a good addition to your science library and its a good read for us science groupies.