Bryan Singer, We Miss You!

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND

I didn't think the first two movies were that deep but after seeing this effort I can see I was obviously wrong. If you want to see the difference that a director makes be sure to watch the first two movies directed by Bryan Singer and then go see this one. For one thing as a typical Hollywood director, Brett Ratner obviously subscribes to the "blowed up real good" motto. Which gets tiresome after a while frankly.

Also, this movie seemed much more rushed as if it was cramming in a lot of pieces of the story without giving them proper time for normal reactions or even explanations to develop. For instance Professor Xavier was never given a chance to explain more of the reasoning for his actions in the whole "mental barrier" thing with Phoenix. He just spit out a few sentences of explanation and then told Wolverine not to judge him and to go away. It was very unsatisfying and left Prof. X in a very shaky moral position which I doubt was actually the case in the comic books.

Also there was an obvious moral lesson that I kept waiting to be pointed out but that never was. I expected Phoenix to see the family in the car on the bridge or to think more about the little innocent mutant in the laboratory ... and then to have a glimmering that they had become everything they hated about the normal humans. Perhaps with a sentence or two said to Magneto so he could see that he had turned into a Nazi (full circle, which would be nice, eh?). But no.

Nightcrawler is gone from the movie and he was one of my favorite characters (but you'd expect that from a Catholic, right?). Gabriel's addition in no way offsets that loss as his character has very little impact on the movie anyway.

Those things aside, however, if you were a fan of the movies I would still go see it. It is not a bad movie, just not a great one. There are some great moments such as the scene between Magneto and Mystique at the end of her confinement, Magneto's reaction to Professor Xavier's fate, and Rogue's decision about whether or not to remain a mutant.

It is a satisfying end to the series ... although the very end leaves the door open. Speaking of the very end, don't leave until after all the credits are done. There is a significant scene then and you don't want to miss it.

HC rating: *** Good despite lack of flubber

Tags: Movies

Because I'm a Risk Taker ...

... I'm going to talk about this podcast ... Daily Breakfast with Father Roderick.

I don't have time to listen every day but will "tune in " at least once a week and more often if I can. Father Roderick is a Dutch priest who has a wonderful command of English, American-style. In fact, his English is so good that on the few occasions when he mispronounces something it is quite a surprise to me.

Here's the main thing about Father Roderick though ... the guy is so darned cheerful and nice. Now, I realize that is the same thing that people say about me so you know I already feel a bond with him. You only have to listen to the time he was under suspicion by the airport security guards because of his podcasting. Yes he sounded a little exasperated. But he was still much nicer than I would have been. Certainly there would have been a bad word or two slipping around if I'd have been in that situation. But no, he treated it like a high adventure.

As if that weren't enough, he loves pop culture. I mean, he loves it! Battlestar Galactica, The Simpsons, movies, science fiction ... so how can I not go for that? Right down my alley.

Then we have his extreme love and enthusiasm for the Church. Ok, 'nuff said.

It's like lookin' in a mirror, y'all. Except that the poor guy isn't from Texas. But, hey, nobody's perfect!

Now, you may be wondering, what does this post have to do with risk taking? Well, I noticed some hits coming through from an unfamiliar source and tracked it down. Lo and behold, Happy Catholic evidently has been featured on Daily Breakfast.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

So I'm downloading that episode and don't know whether he said something good or ... not. I'm really not taking that much of a risk. Like I said. He's a nice guy.

Seriously, give him a try. If daily is too much for you too then check out Catholic Insider. Because one podcast just isn't enough for him (overachiever!) although that one isn't daily.

About That Serving of Guilt ...

I have gotten some email about this post about guilt. I have also seen a few posts with ponderings generated by it.

This is all good and well except for the fact that, as far as I can tell, only a couple of people have done the requisite reading I requested to really understand what I was trying to communicate.

This is really important to me because without it we are all haring off using our own perceptions about the definition of guilt and that is part of the point of the post ... to understand it better.

So I am reposting the items that I was hoping people would read first ... if nothing else you are depriving yourselves of some excellent food for thought by skipping them.

1. The Dangerous Prayer of Blessing by The Anchoress
2. Shame, the Arab Psyche and Islam by Dr. Sanity

Because otherwise, y'all, I'm not gonna discuss that post. They are that important to understanding what I was attempting to say. (It doesn't mean that you can't disagree with me over what I wrote but without common ground on the background there is just no way to move ahead productively.)

Thanks.

Lawyers and Prayers Urgently Needed

Paraphrased from an email I received from someone who has been helping with this situation.

Alicia at Fructus Ventris has been describing a rather frightening situation.

Briefly: Alicia's friend, Nancy, is a midwife as well, and the mother of 12 kids. About three weeks ago, all the kids were removed by Phoenix Child Protective Services, based on an allegation against their 18 year old son. This includes a nursing baby taken from his mothers arms. When the baby was briefly returned to them, he had a black eye and enough of a bruise on his head that an ER doc wanted him to have an MRI to rule out a skull fracture. CPS then took him back and placed him in the same place where these injuries occurred in the first place.

You can read about it indepth here, here, and here.

The bottom line is this: They DO NOT need a letter writing campaign. That might just make matters worse. What they need is an attorney licensed to practice in Arizona. Right now they are using public defenders but a good lawyer might be able to settle this in a couple of weeks, according to an attorney who was consulted.

If anyone knows of one who could possibly help in this matter, please let Alicia know as soon as possible.

Anyone else out there might like to join in a prayer for the family.

St. Jude, the Church invokes you as the universal patron of things despaired of. Pray with us, blessed apostle, for Nancy and James Sandrock, and their beloved children. They need a lawyer to help them in their hour of great need. We pray that they find one, and that the truth of their plight be exposed. We implore you, St. Jude, to use your special place in heaven to help this family go on when their will and resources fail.

Archangel Michael, join us in this battle against the forces of darkness bent on destroying this family. Help them defend against all assaults, and to maintain their strength during the coming weeks. Defend the youngest and most innocent against any ill that might befall them.

Mother Mary, St. Joseph, go to the parents. Guide and comfort them, and help them expose the truth. Lend your protection and succor to them and their youngest especially. Keep them safe and warm in their parents' stead.

We trust in the mercy of Christ, and pray in his name, Amen.

Ahem ... It's the Third Most Important Day of the Year Again!

First is Easter, then is Christmas, then is ... my birthday!

Some people ignore their birthdays or don't want much fuss made. Not me. I OWN my birthday ... just something about it. Everyone in the household knows it too. (To be fair, they all regard their birthdays to be the third most important day of the year.)

Hannah showed the proper spirit last year when she was filling out a job application on Sunday and asked me what the date was. Then she answered her own question with, "Oh, wait. It must be the 22nd because I know Wednesday is the 25th." Yep, just like Christmas. All other dates are figured around this one.

Also it is Padre Pio's birthday which is very cool.

I'm thinking it is time to drop by Royal Thai for my birthday dinner. Something about this warm weather calls out for Asian food.

I am having Hannah and Rose make me a favorite cake that I used to choose often when I was a kid ... chocolate cake with mint frosting and then with unsweetened chocolate poured over that. Heavenly, y'all!

Now I want to show y'all the birthday card that my mother sent ... it is perfect for me ... tranquil to counteract my busy month and has that Asian feel which I love so much. Enjoy!

UPDATE:
I am enjoying the heck out of my gifts so far...

• Thanks Cathy! You made me laugh!
• Thanks Bender! You made me drool!
• Thanks Siggy!. Good thing they come two to a package, eh?
  

Lost: Answers Tonight?

"We are going to tell you why the plane crashed," Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse tells Newsweek of the season finale. "We're going to explain what happens if you don't push the button. And we're going to resolve the Michael-and-Walt story." Just as last year's finale expanded our scope of the island's boundaries, this year's will expand its relevance, writes the magazine in an interview with the cast of the ABC hit drama.

Source

The producers were saying on the podcast that they weren't going to make the mistake they did last season of revealing nothing much during the finale. So let's see ...

WOW ... they weren't just a whistlin' Dixie!

I think that "he" is Henry Gale. That was a surprise!

Michael and Walt ... good riddance. After the way that Michael killed and betrayed to get to Walt the soppy music played at their reunion didn't move me in the least. I didn't care a bit.

How can The Others be "the good guys?" Is this in their minds? Or are the "bad guys" really, really worse?

What happened to Locke and Eko and Desmond after Desmond turned the key?

How about Desmond's flame having those guys looking for the magnetic anomaly? Did she start to track him, found that anomaly before when his boat disappeared and has been looking ever since?

Also, we now understand what happened to the plane don't we?

The Answers to the "Big" Questions

A little thought on where to find those answers ... can be found at the Catholic Catechism Dialogue Blog. I am just grooving on this part of the Catechism y'all!

Can You Be a "Good" American and a "Good" Catholic?

There's quite an interesting discussion going on in the comments box of this post which was generated by a quote from Teddy Roosevelt about immigration. Don't discuss here but go join in if you're interested.

Science and God

Over at the Catholic Catechism Dialogue Blog we're at the point where it spells out what the Church thinks about science and where faith fits in ... check it out.

Teddy and Immigration

Teddy Roosevelt, that is. Via my brother.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Why Refuting Da Vinci Matters

Amy Welborn has her review of the movie up. Interestingly, it varies from most reviews in that she goes into the historical inaccuracies more than anything else. As she already knows, the regular movie critics have taken care of the problems with the movie as entertainment.

For those who say that it's just a movie (or fictional book) and that no one takes it seriously, check out an early comment on that post made by Gabriel. He obviously went to a great deal of time and trouble to post his refutations of Amy's analysis of inaccuracies. Similarly, this bit of email she received shows other ways that criticism of the movie or book can be taken in these politically correct times. I found the email to be the most astonishing, frankly.

Things like this just make it even more obvious that knowing the facts (or lack thereof) behind that particular story do matter very much indeed.

For another review that I found interesting, check out Michael Novak at NRO's reaction.

I think I have never for two-and-a-half hours felt so surrounded by decadence and hostility toward Christ.

Via Insight Scoop.

Graduation, Texas Style

Hannah was one of only three students to present something during graduation. Her theology teacher chose her to select and read a psalm during the invocation at the beginning of graduation. The boy next to her was chosen to write and read a prayer. They both did a beautiful job and were quite poised. Needless to say, we were so proud that she was chosen and she received many compliments both on her presentation and her psalm choice which I thought was a good reflection on what we must remember throughout life.

The third student? Oh, right, well, there was a valedictorian speech which was excellent as well. But what can I say? I'm partial!


These photos are fuzzy because they are still shots from our video camera taken of the Mega Tron, one of two on which the graduation was shown. Yep. Mega Trons. Graduation took place in a mega-church rented for the occasion. It holds 4,000 people and is probably the most comfortable auditorium I have ever been in.

Almost 300 students graduated with every single one of them having a college announced as they walked across the stage ... except for one student. He was the only student who got everyone's full attention (face it, you can't clap full force for every student when there are so many). What he received was prolonged applause, foot stomping, and cheers of approval. He almost got a standing ovation. That boy was joining the Marines. We saw him afterwards walking out with a relative (perhaps an older brother?) whose arm was around his shoulders. That man was in full dress uniform with rows of medals on his chest. What a proud legacy for that boy to carry on. And I was quite proud to have seen him get such whole hearted approval from the crowd.

Afterwards we went to a party at the home of one of Hannah's best friends. I don't know what the other grown ups did. Tom and Rose and I hung out in the living room where all the graduates and their friends were. And we managed to do it without putting a crimp in the festivities. Not bad eh? They were just so much more fun than the people our age so ... we indulged ourselves.

Now, about this church. I don't know if anyone else saw the King of the Hill episode this season when they were looking for a new church to attend and wound up at a mega-church. I was quite curious to see what this church was like, never having been to a mega-church before. We soon found out that mega-churches must have certain characteristics on common with one another because we felt as if we were walking through the King of the Hill episode. There was an elaborate daycare, a cafe, glossy meeting rooms, and that auditorium where services were held ... wow, it was slick! As we said, we could all be quite happy going to a concert there.

As Catholics it was a bit daunting to imagine worshipping there. Rose said that no kneelers and no pews added up to no church for her. We looked at the shuttle signs for far parking lots and the enormous auditorium and Tom wondered, "How does anyone get a sense of community here?" Thinking of King of the Hill, I thought that maybe people formed smaller communities within their larger ones, really just as we do. Our masses are spread across many times and, depending on which one we attend, we will always see someone we know. But it is our smaller community within the larger one of our parish. No big conclusions about mega-churches ... just what we felt and experienced while we were there.

Back to the graduation, it occurs to me that I didn't say anything about the school itself. I have already pointed out the many excellences of Bishop Lynch. What can I say except that we are grateful that they so vigorously support the "Catholic" in the education they are giving their students. For specific examples you can go here, here, and here. Part of that is due to the generally outstanding calibre of teachers they have. Of course, no place is perfect but it is teachers like this who show our kids that you can have a civil level of discourse and strongly disagree without coming to blows, or even disliking each other later on. It hasn't been necessarily easy to afford but Tom and I agree that our best investment to date has been sending our children to Bishop Lynch High School.

Getting Back to Essentials

The ever-essential Anchoress has an outstanding post that looks back on President Bush's accomplishments. She has not been surprised by much of it and what has surprised her just shows how consistently George W. Bush is a man who does what he says he will do. What is heartbreaking about this post is her lamentation, which is right on target, that his base has turned and attacked him for that very consistency to his word.

Imagine that. Imagine being the guy who has given his base one splendid nominee after another, in all manner of posts, make a nomination he thinks appropriate only to find that “base” coming out with both guns, defaming his nominee and directing all manner of insult at himself. President Bush is nothing if not loyal; his loyalty is often his downfall. When he asked for a little trust (which he had surely earned) a little loyalty and a little faith, from “the base,” he got kicked in the groin, over and over again, for daring to think differently, for falling out of lockstep with his policy-wonk “betters.”

That had to be bitter, for him. At that point Bush, unchanged in essentials, might have wondered if his conservative “base” had become a bit over-confident and loose-hipped, so cock-sure of their majority (not that congress used it) so certain of their own brilliance that they were beginning to believe they didn’t need him; that he wasn’t conservative enough, after all, and that the next president was going to be the solid, “uncompassionate” conservative they’d really wanted all along. The president who had delivered one gift after another to his base asked them to trust him, and his base sneered.

Do go read the whole thing if for no other reason than to remember all the great things that he has done.

My Myopia is Showing

I'm very surprised you haven't yet mentioned anything about the Maciel decision by the Vatican which is HUGE news!

The RC has been recruiting among STA parish members. They have a school, The Highlands, in Irving.

Please put something up.

Your wish is my command.

Honestly, I've seen everyone talking about this but haven't read too much of it. It slid under my radar as do many of the Catholic happenings around.

However, now that it has been called directly to my attention, I'll direct y'all to American Papist who have been keeping a close eye on the whole thing with links to all the pertinent commentaries ranging from canon lawyers to news organizations to mainstream news reactions:

• Fr. Maciel Removed From Ministry: Day One
• Fr. Maciel Removed From Ministry: Day Two
• Zenit's Objectivity About Maciel Doubtful?

A Little SEX Problem

Knitting and a love of yarn are often inextricably linked. On the web, shopping for yarn is known by the acronym SEX, which stands for Stash Enrichment eXpedition. The daughter of one passionate knitter had a dream where, after knocking on her mom's door repeatedly to no response, she walked around to the side of the house. There she saw windows breaking out as yarn poured from them. Forcing open the front door, she found the entire house filled almost to the top, with her mom swimming through the yarn.

Knit Bits: 2006 day to Day Calendar
excerpted from A Passion for Knitting.

Thereby proving, perhaps that I am not a hardcore knitter because it is one of the few areas of my life where I am perfectly content to finish one project before getting the supplies for another. Now if only I could stop buying cookbooks...

A Healthy Serving of Guilt

One cannot get the full impact of what is being said here without reading the reference articles by The Anchoress and Dr. Sanity, both linked to below. Please make the effort to do so.

Here's an interesting reaction I received to my link to The Anchoress' excellent post about obedience to God.

"No gay man or woman should have to submit to violence or public scorn and disrespect because they were dealt homosexuality."

Violence no. Public scorn and disrespect...okay.

Isn't this like saying that I was "dealt" a sexual proclivity towards cheating on my wife? If we're removing choice in sexual practices then I can easily make the claim that since men were clearly built to attach themselves to multiple partners that some men are driven to do so at a greater steam than others. Why should they have to be punished by society for the hand they've been dealt? Pedophiles are drawn to children, should they not surrender (although I'm comfortable with violence being brought out on them)? Sexual activity is what it is, an activity. It has meaning and it is important but it is a choice, in most cases two consenting people don't accidentally have relations. It involves intent and through intent one makes choices regardless of their impulses. The above statement seems to state that gays do not have a choice when they do. If no gay man or woman should submit to disrespect or public scorn, then they are held to a different standard than straights since straights are not allowed to ignore their urges.

Overall the post and the concepts in it I agree with. This particular section causes me some concern on what you're meaning.

This email came from a person I respect and really like but with whom I usually spar quite a lot although not about subjects of this seriousness. Needless to say, he was quite shocked when I told him that I agreed ... at least basically.

I think that actually what he is getting at is the need to restore guilt to our culture for certain activities which are just not healthy, both for the individual and for society as a whole. This was jump started by my memory of a discussion of shame versus guilt by Dr. Sanity which I found quite enlightening. Here's a bit, but do go read it all because this snippet is not enough to get across the entire point.

Guilt is an emotion that rises after a transgression of one's own or cultural values. Guilt is about actions or behavior; while shame is about the self. There is an important psychological difference in saying to someone that their behavior is bad; as contrasted with saying that they are bad. The former leads to guilt; the latter to shame.

The purpose of guilt is to stop behavior that violates a self, family or societal standard. Guilt keeps score on excesses or deficits of behavior deemed undesirable and is expressed in regret and remorse.

Eventually for the shame-avoidant person, reality itself must be distorted in order to further protect the self from poor self-esteem. Blaming other individuals or groups for one's own behavior becomes second nature, and this transfer of blame to someone else is an indicator of internal shame.

Most psychological theorists (Erikson, Freud, Kohut) see shame as a more "primitive" emotion (since it impacts one's basic sense of self) compared to guilt, which is developed later in the maturation of the self. Without the development of guilt there is no development of a real social conscience.

This is basically what The Anchoress was getting at also; the need to avoid shame for homosexuals. It can be difficult to disassociate shame and guilt, especially when dealing with a hot button topic like homosexuality. However, as my correspondent points out with his examples, we do seem to be able to do it.

To carry the concept further, we seem to be able to do this also with alcoholics and others with addictive personalities. We can and do enact legislation, put into place support programs, and publicly condemn the behavior while supporting the individual in rehabilitation. Where our society becomes disfunctional is about anything sexual which does not show something which we can prove is physical harm. Somehow, even though it can be widely acknowledged that divorce, sexual addition, pornography, and other such behavior is harmful to the individual and their families, it doesn't carry the same social weight of other aforementioned problems. However, these problems and the resultant fallout for the family members are some of the unspoken things that everyone knows. When one gets to bigger issues such as homosexuality and abortion it as if society itself has gone blind, wanting proof, proof, and more proof. And the proof is never good enough.

Would bringing back guilt help keep these things in check? It is an interesting question, even if one could accomplish such a thing, which is an interesting question in itself.

Please note that I am not advocating shame here. I am talking about guilt. It seems to me to be similar to making the jump that we all managed from years ago when a drunk at a party was an amusing spectacle who was often left to weave his way home ... to the attitudes of today where alcoholism is treated seriously as dangerous to everyone but the alcoholic person is viewed with compassion as someone who needs to be helped. Part of that jump is accomplished for the alcoholic by knowing society's views and how he or she is expected to make a serious effort to control those dangerous impulses. As The Anchoress says, we are sometimes dealt a stinking card in life but we still must live with it the best we can. How much easier is this when society lends a helping hand without empowering the destructive impulses?

While pondering all this I read the following in Thomas Dubay's Evidential Power Of Beauty. He was speaking of impediments to perceiving beauty but this equally applies to the questions raised above.

Comments von Balthasar:

The Biblical concept of "making blind" (with all its variations) can have meaning only if it is related to something which is objectively visible, something which could and would have to be seen in the appropriate circumstances. The French expression cela creve les yeaux (It's as plain as the nose on your face — literally, this is so obvious it pulls your eyes out) here acquires an unexpected impact: what dazzles to the point of blinding is precisely what is most perfectly evident and which meets with violent negation. (Cf. Rom 1:20ff). This is important for the understanding of scandal. It is not the object's invisibility which creates uncertainty and finally results in a failure to see on the part of the subject. It is, rather, the prior judgment we make that the thing in question cannot be what it claims to be which responsible. The true scandal is the arrogant attitude that opposes one's subjective opinion to the objective evidence.

This penetrating analysis may be rejected as outrageous by those to whom it most applies. Egocentric people do not enjoy being exposed as being dogmatic, as flying in the face of evidences to which they have no intelligent response. They hold what they hold mainly because it suits their chosen lifestyle or because their dogmatic premises will not allow another answer. Contemporary examples are not lacking. The intellectual bankruptcy of the current pro-abortion movement is plain to any informed student of the question when we compare the competent and compelling scholarship over the years in hundreds of articles and studies in Human Life Review and other pro-life periodicals and books with the meagerness of serious moral thinking in the pro-abortion camp, we find no rational explanation for the latter's refusal to see the light. What we do find are shabby slogans and transparent euphemisms that substitute for thought. It's no accident that abortion has everything to do with sexual lifestyles.

What does it take for our society to drop the blinders on subjects like homosexuality and abortion? Because it is only society that can reinforce a helping of guilt and it does seem to me that a healthy serving of that is what we need.

Media Reporting: Old Versus New

Columnist Steve Blow has been busy defending media against reports of excessive negativity, especially in the case of the Iraq war. To prove his point, he went back and read some newspapers from World War II. Guess what? Oh, you already know. He found much more even handed reporting. Here's a bit but do go read it all (free registration required).

But after several older folks mentioned to me how different the news coverage was back during World War II, I decided to check that for myself. Going into our archives, I looked to see how this newspaper covered that war.

I suspected I would find one of two things -- either unflinching reporting much less rosy than the oldsters remembered, or blatantly soft, upbeat coverage that would never fly today.

But what I found was something else -- both.

Looking back at those old newspapers, I found a combination of unvarnished, often-grim stories and a regular leavening of hopeful, inspiring stories. And I must say, the effect was quite refreshing.

This dovetails quite nicely with a similar discover about science journals made at Lofted Nest. Here's the summary but do go read the findings from this month which are listed.

I wonder, more and more frequently, just what science has become. When my issue of Scientific American comes in the mail, I find myself reading the "50, 100 & 150 Years Ago" section first and enjoying the wonder and optimism of the magazine's past. Articles about underwater photography from 1856, advances in railway engine design in 1906 and the discovery of the antiproton in 1956 show science at its best: captivating, opening frontiers of thought and exploration, drawing our spirit and intellect into the future.

But the current articles, though sometimes interesting, are often the opposite: they no longer captivate, but depress; rather than opening frontiers into the future, they paint a darkened picture of what is to come.

Is this the current mindset of our nation? Are we all so depressed about the future that it is reflected in our media? Or is it a result of the tactics used to sell papers, with more and more shocks and revelations required to gather our interest? Possibly it is a combination of both.

It seems to result in a growing cynicism and lack of optimism that is not healthy at all, whether for an individual or a society. One can easily see why people marvel after going to Third World countries and seeing joy present despite squalor and poverty. It is what Mother Teresa put her finger on when she talked about the spiritual poverty of the West that is worse than the physical poverty of the less fortunate countries.

How does one combat this?

I know of only one answer for that. (Y'all already know this one too, right?) It is to know and love God. It is to trust Him when He says that He has a better way, even if you can't understand what he is getting at when he is remaking you.

It is He who gave me a spirit of optimism and joy when before I fit in all too well with society in my basic reactions to everything. I was mentioning this to the girls last week ... that I used to be automatically pessimistic and cynical about everything. They were quite surprised and Hannah said, "I don't think my friends would believe that." Honestly, it is getting difficult to remember it myself.

However, I think it is a testimony that we can preach through our actions, without words. Living our optimism and joy out where everyone can see it is the best evangelism ever. Not to mention being quite a nice antidote to the poisonous pessimism that is spread by media today.

You Can't Always Get What You Want ...

I am not proposing that the whole world take a look at the cards in their hand and “fold.” To surrender is not to fold. It is to play the hand you’ve been dealt - to take it as far as you can, in faith and obedience (there’s a word you never hear anymore…)

Sometimes you have to play aggressively and even radically. No child born should have to “surrender” to racist treatment because they were dealt a skin shade others may not appreciate. No gay man or woman should have to submit to violence or public scorn and disrespect because they were dealt homosexuality. But perhaps part of our whole human experience is meant to contain a moment wherein we say, “okay, God, you dealt me this hand. I don’t particularly appreciate it - it’s not the hand I would have chosen. Therefore, I’ll let you play it, I’ll follow your lead and trust that it will not come up a stinker.

Tough to do…it goes against our every instinct. And yet, this is what Christ lived out for us. His trial, torture and death were NOT what his followers had in mind. It did not meet their expectations. It thwarted all their plans and turned their desires into nothingness. And they had no choice, they had to just deal with it, accept it, live through it. And on the third day, Christ rose, and the entire world was made new, due to that surrender - due to playing a hand no one really wanted to see dealt, faithfully, and to completion.

If I quoted all I wanted to from this truth-filled post that boldly speaks what so many do not want to hear, then I'd put the entire thing here. Go see what The Anchoress reveals in The Dangerous Prayer of Blessing.

ADDITION: Speaking of Ignoring the Truth
Check out this revised liturgical form being discussed by Episcopalians ... for God, Our Mother. I guess this is an example of what happens when we keep chipping away at the truth of things to satisfy ourselves. Ick.

Proud Mom Alert

Yesterday was the high school convocation for seniors. Hannah found out that she had the highest biology test results of the entire school in the Science League tests. Now, that was unexpected! And a wonderful surprise. It's looking as if she may be right on target in wanting to become a zoologist.

Here's Hoping for At Least 22 More Wonderful Years

I remember when the storm blew in during our wedding reception. The sky turned black and it was raining cats and dogs.

Raymond and Thelma, my grandparents, came hurrying over to us and said, "We want you not to worry about this storm. It's a good omen. It poured rain on the day we got married too."

Now that made it a good omen. You never knew a more compatible, devoted, and loving couple than my grandparents.

I think it is an omen that has come true for us. My mother-in-law once said that she had never seen a more compatible couple than Tom and me.

All I know is that I love him more and more with each passing year. I pray that our daughters can find husbands who bring out the best in them the way that Tom has done for me just by being himself ... cheerful, sunny, funny, smart and loving. If so then they each will feel like the luckiest woman on earth, just as I do.