Happy Mom’s Day

“That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women…Yet we can destroy this gift of motherhood, especially by the evil of abortion …. No job, no plans, no possessions, no idea of ‘freedom’ can take the place of love.” – Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

A great example and embodiment of the quotes by Cardinal Mindszenty and Mother Teresa is presented in this video.

I’m a few days early, but Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.

*****

H/T to my friend John for sending me the video this morning.

Think About Nothing

A rare, quiet night. No baseball games. No practices. No school/parish/community related events. I finished leading the ten-week series on Catholicism last night. Wonderful experience that I’ll have to write about one day.

After four days at work laden with meetings tomorrow my schedule is free of them (though I’ve still plenty to do).

I mowed. I played with Buster and the kiddos. I relaxed. Too much actually. I don’t think I’ll make it to 10:30. Before shutting down this computer I came across this quote written on a piece of paper and placed on my desk. I scribbled it down a few years ago but had forgotten about it.

The eternity of God is his length; his love is his breadth; his power is his height, and his wisdom is his depth.  – The Cloud of Unknowing

Somewhere in this house and my shelves of books I’m certain I have this one. Somewhere. Maybe. But the quote put me in the mode of thinking of lazy, summer reads and what I want to tackle this summer. While I haven’t figured that out yet I do know I’ll be reading at least one of Henry Van Dyke’s books. Last summer I scored a major coup when I found eight volumes of his essays and poetry at our downtown used bookstore for $7 each. Published between 1895 and 1910 if I recall correctly these books are the perfect, lazy summer read. Henry loved to fish, and while I don’t I can appreciate how that pasttime influenced his easy and approachable prose.

What will you be reading this summer?

What a charm there is in watching a swift stream! The eye never wearies of following its curls and eddies, the shadow of the waves dancing over the stones, the strange, crinkling lines of sunlight in the shallows. There is a sort of fascination in it, lulling and soothing the mind into a quietude which is even pleasanter than sleep, and making it almost possible to do that of which we so often speak, but which we never quite accomplish—“think about nothing.”

From the short story “The Ristigouche from a Horse-Yacht” in the collection Little Rivers, by Henry Van Dyke, 1895.

*****

Image source.

It seems they grow up faster than this

“Every cliche about kids is true; they grow up so quickly,
you blink and they’re gone,
and you have to spend the time with them now.
But that’s a joy.” ~ Liam Neeson

Photographer Frans Hofmeester filmed his daughter every week from birth up until she turned twelve. He then made this neat time-lapse video.

Friday Five (Vol. 28) – Dreams edition

— 1 —

As Debbie Harry famously crooned: Dreaming is free. And I thought I’d do a little today, mostly because I woke up with the first song I link to below echoing in my head, but also just to do a little light writing. I’d considered the subject of dreams before as examples of them are scattered throughout Scripture and the lives of the saints. But that involved heavier lifting than I’m up for today.

First up, a song from my daughter’s favorite movie, Tangled. No matter who we are or our situation, we all need a dream. Make it a big one, and be flexible and receptive to change. Like a million other little boys I wanted to grow up to pitch at Fenway Park. Ok, so that didn’t work out…but I found a new dream or two instead.

I’ve Got A Dream – Tangled
Though my face leaves people screaming
There’s a child behind it, dreaming
Like everybody else, I’ve got a dream

— 2 —

“God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next… I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons…” ~ Cardinal John Henry Newman

— 3 —

Part of getting a new dream is realizing that our dreams are not meant to be kept to ourselves. A great dream is a selfless one…a mission…and it is often in serving others that we awake to find we’ve suddenly achieved a dream of our own even if it wasn’t the one we set out to accomplish. The lyrics I quote below are meaningful to me today as half of my life is behind me and I am the sum of my experiences, both good and bad. When you dream, do not be afraid to fail or make a fool of yourself. You have to put yourself out there.

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your Will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing…” ~ Thomas Merton

Dream On – Aerosmith
Half my life is in books written pages
Live and learn from fools and from sages

— 4 —

“I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

— 5 —

Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

Photo source: photos.cleveland.com

And now that I have reached the halfway point (or more) I find that my dreams transition to those of my children. To do what I can to help them not just achieve their own, but to learn how to dream themselves. I find I do this through books, stories, movies and musicals and plays and sonnets and songs. And through fairy tales. Especially through fairy tales. These tales, while seeming to be overly simplistic or idealistic to some, demonstrate over and over again the real life virtues of Fides, Spes and Caritas (Faith, Hope and Love). Of Prudence and Temperance, and of Fortitude and Justice. Without dreams and fairy tales the seven opposites of these virtues flourish (pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust) can flourish. If we, or our children or others we influence in this life, do not learn, practice and share the light of these virtues the gathering darkness will indeed grow more suffocating.

“Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat…giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

I Have A Dream – ABBA
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see

 

Friday Five (Vol. 27)

— 1 —

I’ve not had the time nor energy to write for the past two weeks and the harddrive folder in which I save ideas is beginning to overflow. Life has kept me gloriously busy and to be honest I’ve found myself questioning both my writing ability and the need for the blogosphere to be further diluted with said scribblings. My heart and my mind are full, as are my schedule and my journal. I vacillate between a permanent vacation or a break and am thinking that my life is not to be spent at a keyboard, at least not unless I’m working on my book or book ideas.

My last five Wednesday evenings have been spent with 100 people, Catholics and non-Catholics, leading the Catholicism study series at our parish. It has been to this point a very rewarding and energizing experience. We are taking a “halftime” break during Holy Week but will reconvene April 11 to begin our final five sessions. You always wonder if what you do makes a difference and this morning I received the following email from a husband and wife who are attendees:

Thank you Jeff for the email and for all your leadership and information you present at our weekly meetings.  We appreciate all your efforts and for you being such a great witness in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May God bless you.

I think that this may be the single most affirming and humbling email I’ve ever received. Never have I considered that in some small way I’m being a “witness” or “spreading the Gospel”. In fact some may consider this entire series of paragraphs to display an incredible lack of humility on my part. I guess I am placing it here to say this: if you are like me at all you consider giving up so many times with writing about matters of faith because there are so many who do it very well. And not just well, but they are fantastic and tireless and never at a loss for words. And so you wonder: what in the world am I doing? Why am I doing this? Who cares?

• What am I doing? I’m witnessing through example.
• Why am I doing this? To spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my own very small way.
• Who cares? Someone does. They really do.

— 2 —

Six years ago I lost one of the best friends I’d ever had. Last Sunday we welcomed a new member into our family and while I’m having to relearn my puppy parenting patience skills Buster appears poised to fit right in with the family just as Fenway did.

Yesterday I drove to my vet with a little dog sitting in the passenger seat next to me. It was the same stretch of highway to the same veterinarian that I took my old companion in the last days, and on the last day, of his life. Suddenly six years washed away. As Buster and I sat in a room very much like the one where Fenway breathed his last while sitting on my lap (my vet moved two blocks to a new space about a year afterwards) I was unprepared by how easily the emotions of that sad day washed over me. Below is what I’d written on March 31, 2006, as he and I prepared to make the same drive I took yesterday:

Fenway turned 11 today, but I’m taking him to the vet in a few hours…we think his lungs and heart are failing…it’s not looking too good at the moment.

I sat him on our bed last night and curled up with him, petting him and talking to him. I can tell he’s just getting old and weaker…I can’t imagine our house without him.

Funny how I can still see him bounding across my in-laws tall grass when he was 6-weeks old, being released from my parents car (who drove down to deliver him to us) and seeing him make a bee-line STRAIGHT towards me…and getting halfway there before getting high-centered in the grass.

Below is a photo of Fenway (left) on his last morning with us; Buster (right) during his first afternoon with the family.

— 3 —

My quote of the day…week…lifetime…is below. Because so much of what I see in the media today is absolute rubbish. You wouldn’t eat out of the trash unless you were starving or the poorest of the poor. So why do a supposedly enlightened and affluent citizenry do the same? I would argue because the media’s pablum doesn’t make them think. It is the ultimate reality TV show. I first became familiar with the phrase “yellow journalism” in junior high and in my insulated and idealistic bubble thought it was a term of the past. I figured that we’d learned our lesson and would never return to those days. Pick up any newspaper, turn on any news channel, or open any news-based URL today. What you will read (if you are able to be honest and separate yourself from your prejudices and ideologies for a moment) is a most urine-stained shade of yellow. It’s written by children to be consumed by adults with a child’s comprehension. Do yourself a favor and shut it off during Holy Week until after Easter.

“The curse of all journalism, but especially of that yellow journalism which is the shame of our profession, is that we think ourselves cleverer than the people for whom we write, whereas, in fact, we are generally even stupider. . . . Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers another; the public enjoys both, but it is more or less conscious of the difference…. But the, people know in their hearts that journalism is a conventional art like any other, that it selects, heightens, and falsifies. Only its Nemesis is the same as that of other arts: if it loses all care for truth it loses all form likewise.” ~ G.K. Chesterton, All Things Considered

— 4 —

Yet another quote: I’ve never seen the movie Fight Club, and I don’t remember what led me to this quote a few weeks back, but it fits in very well with what I was discussing above.

“…an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables — slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off…”

Does anyone reading this recommend the movie? Should I watch it?

— 5 —

I do want to say something about that quote from Fight Club. While I don’t discount the fact that too many people may feel that way and that it would be very easy myself to fall into that trap, the simple truth is that it is a worldview that is incompatible with my faith. It is because I do not buy in to the product being sold by the news or by celebrities that I am able to retain any sense of optimism at all. Theirs is a message of cynicism and angst and envy. I know it well because I was right there with them over twenty years ago. But by the grace of God I found an alternative message and way. And it has made all the difference. The video below illustrates a significant portion of that grace.

Beauty and miracles in the desert

“Boredom of course is another matter. It has little to do with what actually exists in the world outside any of us. The world is just fine; it is full of beauty and miracles abound even in the midst of the most desolate of deserts.” – Kevin Codd. To The Field of Stars: A Pilgrim’s Journey to Santiago de Compostella. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (2008).

*****

I read these lines just before turning in last night. The words struck hard at the heart of what has become such an epidemic in today’s modern world. Everyone, it seems, is bored. Or they are scared of being bored and race and work and stretch themselves in a million directions at once in order to avoid the fear of being bored. We stuff our lives and our homes with mountains of stuff, hoping that the next thing will once and for all fill that hole in our soul. When it doesn’t we work longer hours and push ourselves harder to make enough money to buy the next thing. Yet the hole remains, as we remain on the mad gerbil’s wheel. Instead of considering the miracles that surround us with each step we take, we bemoan the fact that our lives are drab, unexciting…boring.

It’s a paradox perhaps that the hub of what modern man sees as the necessary excitement and activity is the modern city. But it is within these city walls that we block out the very miracles to which I refer. The sun setting (or rising) on the distant horizon is difficult to see when surrounded by city buildings or suburban rooftops. Nature, grass, animals (outside of the squirrel, possum or rat variety) are non-existent unless one goes to the zoo. And my personal favorite, millions of stars and the constellations that fill the night sky, are almost impossible to see in the illuminated city at night. God’s wonder in nature hasn’t left us…we left it.

And when nothing seems to work and we begin to wear down from all the fruitless pursuit of activity we can succumb to boredom, acedia, and finally melancholia. “What’s the point of all this?” we ask ourselves. “Is this all there is to life? How long will I wander in this paved, urban desert?”

The answer, I believe, is provided in many places. I happened upon one of them a few weeks ago when I read the following poem by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958):

To A Pessimist
Life like a cruel mistress woos
The passionate heart of a man, you say,
Only in mockery to refuse
His love, at last, and turn away.

To me she seems a queen that knows
How great is love—but ah, how rare!—
And, pointing heavenward ere she goes,
Gives him the rose from out her hair.

You see, I believe the hole that lies in the hearts of humanity is, to use a well-known cliché, God-shaped. It is a huge hole, one capable of only being filled by God. And what is God? Love, of course.

I’m sure I sound like a Hallmark card to you by now and I’d have to agree, but I also know from my own personal experiences in this life that this is true. I’ve ridden the depression rollercoaster. I’ve also watched as it took hold of friends and loved ones and attempted to pull them down below the ocean waves of this life. You feel as if you’re drowning; gasping; struggling to stay above water to breathe while clinging to any life raft, driftwood or flotsam you can find each time you can get your head above water. Only too many times we are grabbing an anchor, weighed down by yet another purchase or another activity that we gravitate towards instead of the one thing that we need. Such is the stubborness of man.

In his second stanza Noyes perhaps is pointing the way. I’m not a learned interpreter of poetry by any stretch of the imagination, but to me the “queen” he refers to is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who knows the depths of love that God’s heart is capable of storing, as well as the depths of depravity possible in a human heart. She points heavenward, and gives the pessimist a “rose from out her hair.”

A rose is a widely recognized as the queen of flowers and a symbol of love. Catholics who pray the Rosary also know the significance of Mary and roses. Indeed, the word Rosary means “Crown of Roses”. One piece of Catholic imagery says that each time they say a Hail Mary they are giving Mary a beautiful rose, and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses.

From The New Baltimore Catechism of 1941, Part 1, Lesson 1: The Purpose of Man’s Existence, we read

1. Who made us?
God made us.

2. Who is God?
God is the Supreme Being, infinitely perfect, who made all things and keeps them in existence.

3. Why did God make us?
God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.

4. What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?
To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church today begins thusly:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. (CCC 1)

Both the old and the new Catechisms in their following paragraphs point towards Jesus as the key to knowing love and finding the chief truths taught by Him. The Rosary is a biblical meditation upon the life of Jesus and one of the best ways I’ve found to come to know Him.

Or, if you prefer, perhaps the queen is an allegory for what the Greeks called sophia; that is, Wisdom. The concept of wisdom goes all the way back to Plato and his Protagoras dialogue. It is also a common tenet in Christianity where it is not only found throughout the Old Testament in Proverbs, Psalms, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, the Book of Wisdom, etc., but also in the New Testament where Christ referred to wisdom, as in “the wisdom of God.” Indeed, wisdom is mentioned over 220 times in the Bible.

So what do I do when I feel I’m about to go under? The first thing I try to do is to get out of the city for awhile. Go camping. Or hiking. Visit family or friends who live in the country. And when I can’t get out of the city? I seek wisdom in the very spot I’ve been planted.

No matter which method or activity you choose, whether accepting the conclusions of Socrates in the Protagoras:

Socrates claimed that “all virtue is knowledge and therefore one. He argues that the reason people act harmfully, to others or themselves, is because they only see the short term gains while ignoring the long term losses which might outweigh them, just like one makes errors in judging the size of objects that are far away. He says that if men were taught the art of calculating these things correctly, have a more exact knowledge that is, they would not act harmfully.

or by seeking, sharing and serving God in this world:

So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” Strengthened by this mission, the apostles “went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it.” Those who with God’s help have welcomed Christ’s call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ’s faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer. (CCC 2-3)

or both (because they are not necessarily mutually exclusive) pick one. Remember Psalm 19:1: The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. 

Then (and with humility) end each day with these words from G.K. Chesterton:

“Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world around me;
And with tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?”

[Admin: It should come as no surprise to anyone that my daughter's name is Sophia Rose. It was chosen for many of the reasons I've just mentioned. Also, I chose not to go into depth regarding the Rosary as I plan on writing more about this prayer in the coming week or two. This single prayer, meditation, or exercise…whatever you choose to call it…has been responsible for deepening and widening my faith more than any other. It has opened the door for me to a rich world in which my head is able to stay above water. At least for the most part. I am human after all.]

Happy 280th Birthday Mr. President

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

American general and commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775–83) and subsequently first president of the United States (1789–97).

Born: Feb. 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Died: Dec. 14, 1799 at Mount Vernon, Virginia

Resolving 2012

I had meant to send this out a few weeks ago but was simply too busy with writing other things to get it finished. And this in a nutshell is what the #1 item on my list for 2012 involves: time. Over the past six weeks I’ve learned that our loved ones, specifically children, need our time no matter what their ages be they four, eight or sixteen. It’s true that the younger ones are easier to dedicate time to because they are more apt to snuggle up with you and their pink blanket or smother you with unlimited hugs and kisses while the teenagers will roll their eyes and sigh a lot. Nevertheless time is what they want from you and it is what they all deserve. In 2012 I hope to spend more of that time with my oldest child but also with the others in my life who love me enough to desire the same.

Here’s my list of goals for a 2012:

• Make a morning offering each day. Simply kneeling down each morning to offer up the day ahead for God’s glory. This simple act will set the tone for my ability to have the energy to live out the following goals.
• Set aside time for at least 15 minutes of silent daily prayer. A little “one-on-one” fact time with God, whether at home or in church before the Blessed Sacrament.
• Get in at least 15 minutes of spiritual reading each day. Time spent in Scripture as well as any of the dozens of spiritual classics that I own. I bought a new commentary on The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis that I plan to read, as well as a few on Ignatian spirituality.
• Attend Holy Mass at least once per week and receive Holy Communion in the state of grace. I already do this, but my goal is to walk to St. Mary’s from my office at least once a week to attend Mass at noon.
• Pray the Angelus or Regina Coeli prayer each day at noon.
• Pray the Holy Rosary each day. Why? I’ll let Lynne, one of the Catholic Sistas, tell you. She does a fantastic job in Of P90X and the Holy Rosary. You really must read it.
• Make a brief examination of conscience each night before bed. An excellent bookend to the Morning Offering in order to close the day with an attitude of gratitude and of responsibility for actions taken.

"The Angelus" by Jean-Francois Millet, 1857

These first seven are items I took from a list written by Fr. John McCloskey. To it I will add going to confession once a month. But you said you wanted to spend more time with your kids, Jeff. How can you do that by adding all of these things each day? Well, if you add all of them up (except for the weekly Holy Mass) they will take a little over an hour out of each day. Plus some of these things I am already doing, if not more when you add in an occasional Morning or Evening Prayer from The Divine Office. So the additional time is not really an issue. In order to ensure that it’s not an issue I’m going to open more time in my daily schedule. How? By deleting my Facebook account for one thing. I’ve attempted to only check it during business hours off and on, but that’s just stealing time from my employer. And since I don’t always have my laptop or PC on at home I wind up spending way too much time engrossed in the screen on my Droid. This morning while walking back from Starbucks to the office I watched a woman get plowed into by a guy on a bicycle. He’d tried to avoid her but she was too busy checking her Facebook (she admitted this to me as I helped her up). A good friend of mine recently deactivated his Facebook account when he had been too busy checking it while giving a practice spelling test to his first grader and realized he had no idea whether his son had spelled any of the words correctly. I’ve tried for months to limit my time spent there, but repeatedly fail. So it’s got to go. Will I come back? Probably. But I need to go cold turkey for awhile. It will go black this weekend at some point.

I want to give my family and especially my children more of my time. I also want them to get the best, most “at peace” version of me that I can give them. The seven items above are designed to do this by providing a solid foundation for the day, the mind and the soul. It is from personal experience in the past “pre-Facebook” that I know this to be true.

Besides, it’s not like I’m falling off the grid. I’ve still got five separate email accounts(!) and this blog through which I may be reached. Just a few short years ago that was more than enough. It’s too much in fact, but it’s reality.

Now, what things am I going to try to avoid in 2012? Aside from Mayan Prophecies and reality TV I plan on avoiding:

• Comparing myself to others.
• Going “should” on myself.
• Trying to get people to like me.
• Interrupting others.
• Worrying about how I look.
• Working constantly.
• Failing to give people a break.
• Complaining about minor illnesses.
• Being a jerk.
• Avoid doing the right thing.
• Making fun of people.
• Being too hard on myself.
• Politics.

Once again, I’m lifting the bulk of this list from elsewhere but I’m incorporating them as my own. I don’t presently do a few of these but I decided to keep them on the list as reminders. I added “Politics” because 2012 is shaping up to be the most polarizing, ugly and nasty year in American politics that we’ve seen in quite awhile. Americans seem to politicize everything and because of this identity politics is rampant. Oh, you believe in x? Than you must be for y. There is a real effort to eliminate the ability for any person of faith to comment or hold a position on an issue. If he or she does, she is accused of dragging their religious beliefs into the public square. It is madness and an attempt to whitewash history. Each generation has vainly thought it was the “most enlightened” generation and that all who came before were ignoramuses who lived in the dark ages. A line spoken by Vizzini in The Princess Bride always comes to my mind when I consider this:

Vizzini: “Let me put it this way. Have you heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?”
Man in Black: “Yes.”
Vizzini: “Morons.”

If you recall that arrogance didn’t serve Vizzini so well. It doesn’t serve us either.

Tony Esolen wrote something pithy recently while discussing American politics that I copied down as it struck home to me while drafting this piece. He said

When one does not believe in a transcendent God, to whose goodness and wisdom none of us can measure up, then the Next Big Thing in sight becomes a god. I’ve been arguing that there are three candidates for Next Big Thing. In my mind they go by the names Baal, Pharaoh, and Adam: Nature, the State, and the Self. The Left now worships at the altars of all three, by turns. The secular Right worships at the altar of Adam, with sometimes a nod to Baal, and a nod to Pharaoh when he’s on the warpath. A pox on ‘em all.

Indeed. I see too many of us making a god out of the state. History is replete with this and sadly it’s happening again.

In 2012 we’ll celebrate the 600th anniversary of the birth of St. Joan of Arc (Jan. 6, 1412), the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens (Feb. 7, 1812), and the 100th anniversary of the opening of that baseball shrine: Fenway Park (Apr. 20, 1912). We will also commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and of the over 1,500 who lost their lives on that voyage on April 12, 1912.

It will be a year of reading books of course. Among the many I plan to read there are three major works I’ve put off for a few years and my goal is to finish at least two of them. The Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I’d started Brothers a few years ago but stopped after a hundred pages. I plan to start over. Of this giant among literature Simcha Fisher recently wrote:

I wish more people would give The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky a chance. It’s intimidating because it’s so long and it’s A Classic, but it’s surprisingly modern, and has everything you could wish for in a novel: unforgettable characters, crazy stories, laughter, blood, tears, sex, God, monks, prostitutes, puppies, etc. This book will change you for the better, if it doesn’t kill you first.

How can you not want to read that book?

It will be a year of baseball, birthdays, and blogging. Oh, and a little bourbon thrown in to smooth out the year.

And that’s my 2012.

What’s on your list? What do you just know you can do?

The Road Ahead

I read this quote this morning and it sums up perfectly my mindset for the past month. Ever since I returned from my vacation words to this effect have been rattling around the recesses of my mind. My friend Bryan said some things to me that week that started it, though I suspect they served merely as a catalyst for something that’s been gestating for a long, long time. From Heroic Living, by Chris Lowney:

We in the developed world have failed to make ourselves any happier or more fulfilled than we were decades ago. We don’t have the satisfaction we crave, yet we are too shortsighted to notice that the road we’re traveling won’t get us there.

Once we lift our heads high enough to take in a bird’s-eye view of our culture, we, the world’s prosperous, start to seem like a convoy of anxious drivers lost together on a foggy road, carrying on and hoping we’ll soon pop out into sunshine.

Unfortunately, we’re not driving toward fulfillment; we’re driving ourselves nuts.

I’m seeking an off-ramp. Now.

Cold Straw

From Flannery O’Connor’s “The Violent Bear It Away”:

God told the world he was going to send it a king and the world waited. The world thought, a golden fleece will do for His bed. Silver and gold and peacock tails, a thousand suns in a peacock’s tail will do for his crib. His mother will ride on a four-horned white beast and use the sunset for a cape. She’ll trail it behind her over the ground and let the world pull it to pieces, a new one every evening.

Jesus came on cold straw, Jesus was warmed by the breath of an ox. “Who is this?” the world said. “Who is this blue-cold child and this woman, plain as the winter? Is this the Word of God, this blue-cold child? Is this His will, this plain winter-woman?” The world said, “Love cuts like the cold wind and the will of God is plain as the winter.”