7 Quick Takes, Saturday Edition

What? Friday is really just a terribly inconvenient day for me to blog, and I never remember to pre-write one so I can just hit "post" come Friday...

~1~

An Atlanta legend of sorts named Brother Sean passed away on Monday. He might've even been a saint, who knows?

Once a successful lawyer, Sean decided one year that he wanted to celebrate his birthday by giving pizza to the homeless people who lived around his favorite pizzeria. Long story short, he ended up literally selling all his possessions to live with the poor (he was barely better off than the homeless). He became known as "Brother" Sean not because he joined an order but because he performed works of mercy, and the homeless can be quick with nicknames. He spent all his money feeding the poor, and spent all his time just being with them. People would give him money to care for himself, and he would spend it on Atlanta's poor. He would often take groups (usually church or school-related) around to feed the homeless, always including that most uncomfortable--and most important--linchpin of spending time with the homeless, of just talking with them.

The poor have human dignity, too, which is often forgotten, especially by those who can't or won't give money to panhandlers. Just saying hello, smiling, chatting, or promising a prayer is often at least as helpful as money or food. Encountering Brother Sean turned the location of my apartment from convenient enough, even if there are beggars nearby, to a blessedly constant opportunity buy food for our wonderful homeless people and sometimes chat with them a bit. Seeing them now genuinely bring joy to my heart, and for this I have Brother Sean to thank. Requiescat in pace.

~2~

So I was commissioned to write a piece about how Sacrosanctum Concilium impacted my life, for the 2014 edition of this fairly useful-looking product. Took me a while to pull my thoughts together, but ended up writing about how I grew up with what I termed "ethnic envy," that is, feeling boring because I was white and thus didn't have a cool cultural history like most of my friends did... until I discovered in college that Catholicism is a culture, and I'm perfectly entitled to it. This changed rather a lot, in my experience of the world. (I'm rather pleased with the piece, and am somewhat impatient for it to come out!)

On a theoretically unrelated note, I've been reading the Torah lately... It's turned out not to be unrelated it all. Just as the centuries of Catholicism are my culture, so too are the Hebrews' years of wandering in the desert! I could have sworn I'd read these books before, but now I'm suddenly understanding minutiae that never struck me before - the arrangement of the twelve tribes, the year of jubilees, the practical usefulness of a lot of the strange-sounding laws, including those of ritual purity. All of this, too, is my heritage, and it's exciting and fascinating. I always knew I loved our Jewish roots, but wow! :D

~3~ 

New favorite saint alert! St St Stanisław Szczepanowski, or (if you're less comfortable in Polish) Stanislaus of Cracow, or Stanislaus the Martyr. As bishop of Kraków (one of the first Polish-born bishops in Poland), he excommunicated the king for brutalizing his subjects, so the king ordered him killed. The soldiers were hesitant in the face of Stan's holiness, so the king slew the bishop himself - while he was celebrating Mass.

Awesome.

~4~

At my new freelance client's office, the guy who sits at a desk across the room heard the following twice this week:

*clap* "Yes!"

That's right: The glorious combination of sounds that means I successfully killed that bug (in this case, gnats) on the first try. I'd be lying if I said I weren't proud of myself. :D

~5~

So, Year of Faith, whoo! Totally didn't even realize until about last week that it was in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II (oops). I've been thinking I ought to, like, care about this whole year of faith thing, but really lacking the motivation to do so. Then a friend booked me to give a talk to a group at her parish about the Year of Faith. Enter: Excellent motivation. Whoo hoo!

~6~

Another vaguely work-related take. For one of my clients, the proofreading projects frequently require me to look up one-verse Scripture passages. It makes me very grateful for that song I learned as a child about books of the Bible, and for the shoutouts I added to include the Deutero-Canonical books (it was on some cassette about bees, for the two of you who are wondering)...

Well. Every time a passage is cited from either letter to the Thessalonians (or sometimes just when I flip past Thessalonians), I pull a Larry the Cucumber. I can't help it. Just wanted to confess that publicly on the internet.

Either skip to 48 seconds, or click this link. I can link to the middle of the video, but I don't have the skillz to embed from the middle of a video. Sorry for its poor quality, but really, the audio is all you need there. Yeah.

~7~

If you had asked me 7yrs ago, when I was singing them at least weekly, whether I'd ever forget the words to such Ann Arbor classics as the Te Deum and Born Into a Battle, I'd've laughed. My memory for all the verses of a hymn is definitely above average... and yet, after having tried to sing these and others in my car last night, I actually had to look up their lyrics. Wow.

Modern-Day Tax Collectors ?

It occurs to me that, in order to put into perspective what people meant when they scorned Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, we might want to consider the modern-day equivalents: lawyers (and/or maybe politicians).

No offense intended to lawyers and politicians; there are some genuinely good people in the batch, at least a few of whom I would positively enjoy spending time with. But consider the stereotype, the reputation: corrupt quasi-government officials, taking advantage of their positions of influence to fleece innocent people out of their money...

Think about it. Wouldn't it seem at least a bit weird for Jesus to go eat dinner with a bunch of lawyers, when so much of his ministry was to the poorer classes, and so much of his remaining time spent with priests and religious leaders?

St Matthew the Apostle, pray for us.

St. Thomas More, pray for us.

14 Quick Takes (Vol 6)

~1~

What? I'm making up for lost time! I'm relatively confident these will actually be somewhat quick, as opposed to my usual Friday fare... Okay, at least some of them will be.

~2~

So today is Plaidurday, invented last year by some guy "to celebrate plaid. To bring together all the wonderful plaid-wearing people of the world." Too hilarious a holiday for me not to celebrate!

...Except I was rather surprised to discover that I own almost no plaid. I mean, I know, I wore it day in and day out for eleven of my twelve years at Catholic school (preschool required no uniform), but I like to think I've gotten over that. However, my entire stock of plaid consists of a gingham shirt, two hats, and some underwear. I might have to go shopping before next Plaidurday.

~3~

My sister's been telling me for weeks that her school is ranked by the Princeton Review (or somebody equally impressive, give me a break, I'm no guidance counselor) for being one of the Prettiest College Campuses in the USA. It's not so much that I doubted her as that I wasn't sure what to expect.

It's pretty. This particular photo (which, of course, doesn't do justice to the real view) shows part of a section of campus known as The Colonnades. Unsurprisingly, this impressive colonnade is whence these dorms get their common name.

~4~

Speaking of my sister's school, one of their eateries makes these fantastic muffins--which are really just the socially acceptable form of eating Chocolate Cake for Breakfast...

Anyway, as part of their meal plan, they get a certain number of free food items from the non-cafeteria eateries on campus, called "swipes" because the food costs one swipe of the card.

...which resulted in my sister offering all weekend to swipe me a muffin. Totally legit. Did not get old!

On second thought, that might've been a "you had to be there" moment, but at least it gave me a reason to link you to one of Bill Cosby's most memorable comedy sketches...

~5~

While I've mentally returned to my sister's campus, I can't help but recall how wonderful it was to see my family this weekend. Not only was it delightful to be in their company again all together, with no one else to distract us, something possibly more important: it felt so profoundly normal!

Probably it felt this way because the routine of a college visit became familiar to me during undergrad, when they visited close to every semester, but there's something wonderful about an adult visit with your family wherein it's just good old-fashioned family time, no distractions; wherein your adulthood is neither negated nor ignored, yet the stresses and changes of adult life are not present. It was fantastic. I miss them already. :)

~6~

But it's back to reality! My newest freelance client, in metro Atlanta, wants me to come into the office for about 30 hours each week. It's great to have the structure and the social element of an office environment (not to mention the consistent work), but wow does transitioning to a normal work schedule take a toll on you! I'd forgotten quite how tired those first few weeks are.

~7~

However, there are other fun perks to this job. I don't want to give away too much detail, but suffice it to say that I've been organizing a sort of inventory of saints for them. The inventory was put together piecemeal over several years and by various people, and as a result, it's an impossible-to-navigate mess. A simple example: St. Matteo and St. Matthew have separate categories, as do St. Cecilia and St. Cecila. Don't even get me started on the collection of Saints Catherine!

Because of this project, I've gotten to dabble in translations of names. Some are simpler: The Latin Jacobus produced both Jacob and James. Emmerich (or Emeric) = Imre* = Henry. Eduvigis = Hedwig! (Believe it or not, I backed into Hedwig via Spanish and Polish, two languages in which I have very limited competence.)

*I swear, the name Imre came up in some fiction I've consumed within the past several months. Or perhaps something that sounds very similar? My sincerest gratitude to anyone who can figure it out...

~8~

Most entertaining website that I came across in the aforementioned search to confirm saint names in various languages? This one.

Seriously tempted to buy one of these for my gambler uncle for Christmas, just because...

~9~

So, between my trip out to see my sister and my return to a commuting lifestyle, I have found a way to solve my aforementioned literary dilemma: Les Mis from audible.com! It's actually been pretty fantastic (notwithstanding nearly two hours about the Battle of Waterloo, most of which I lacked the military jargon to understand, and whose entire purpose, I think, was one five-minute scene that helped to firm up the despicable character of Old Man Thenardier). I'm about 18 hours in, and it's a 60 hour book, so I have some hope of finishing it by mid-December...

I forget this whenever I'm not reading very much: My life is always better with fiction. Movies and TV aren't the same at all. I suspect part of this comes from the fact that most of the fiction I'm reading is at least a generation or two old, so it's of some quality, having stood the test of time. But I think it's largely just that encountering the world and its truths in that particular medium takes me out of myself and causes some reflection.

~10~

Speaking of reflection, I realized quite suddenly this week (and with some surprise) that I positively disbelieve in the Hegelian dialectic. For those of you who did not take that class with me (or, perhaps, at all), it is from Hegel that we derive the notion that society is always improving, that "progress" is inherently good. Hegel posited that the new ideas popular in society form into a sort of "thesis," which is followed by a backlash, by people trying to turn back the clock--the "antithesis"--and the two slowly meld and become the "synthesis," which essentially means progress. (I'm no philosopher, but that's how I understand it, anyway.)

I looked with ambivalence on the idea when I first learned of it, but it wasn't until this past week that I realized that I completely disagree. Shaped as my worldview is by a desire for virtue and the belief that original sin has dogged humanity since the beginning of time and will until the Parousia--albeit perhaps in different forms--the idea that life in previous centuries was so bad, and things are getting better and better... it just took me by surprise how patently ridiculous is the whole idea.

After all, that's what blogs are for, right? Making the internet read whatever you feel like sharing with it?

~11~

If any of y'all are still reading, you're quite the troopers. While I'm still talking about surprising moments while reading Les Mis... *~*SPOILER ALERT!!*~*

Okay, I'm only a few books in; Jean Valjean and Cosette have just moved to Paris at present. So I've really only encountered Javert in Montreuil-sur-Mer. I've also gotten the full dose of the Thenardiers. I remembered coming into things that both are pretty terrible characters, but that was all I remembered.

Well. The Thenardiers actually didn't make me all that angry, as book characters go. But Javert! During the scene where he arrests M. Madeleine at Fantine's bedside, I actually dropped at least one F-bomb on him--out loud! I was SO furious at him!

With a bit of reflection, I've concluded two possible reasons for the intensity of my reaction: 1) The Thenardiers barely pretend to be "good people," whereas Javert thinks he's being righteous in his utter lack of mercy (or human courtesy). 2) Or perhaps the crux of the matter is that the Thenardiers treat everyone more or less equally (the difference only being the best method to bleed a man dry), whereas Javert has a very strict code wherein some people are sub-human.

The more I think about it, the more I vote for explanation number two. Bonus points for Jennifer Fulwiler's latest article, conveniently timed for my musings. I must be influenced by Hugo's views on society creating its criminals (which I want to say Dickens also spread?), because I have no sympathy for people treating them any differently. Or maybe by Catholic social teaching, which explicitly abhors anything that denigrates any person's human dignity. But let's cut off this rant before it begins...

*~*END OF SPOILERS*~*

~12~

I believe I promised last week to report on my marshmallow brownie experiment. When I put it in the oven, I was entirely certain that I had messed up by putting WAAAAAAAAAY too many marshmallows in the brownie. Instead, what I pulled out of the oven was actually boiling on the top. The marshmallows had all melted and risen to the top, and taken a lot (though not all) of the chocolate chips with them. The result was that the top layer of brownie was almost caramelized (sticky but not hard), while the bottom 2/3 was much cakier than usual. It made a good brownie (I love me some foolproof desserts!), but it wasn't at all what anyone expected.

~13~

Another update: The bunch of us who built the St Francis Scarecrow went to visit him at the Atlanta Botanical Garden last night! It was an enormous amount of fun (and they waived the $18 ticket price for all of us, whoo hoo!). St Francis was nestled down below the path, but near the front of the maze of scarecrows. (I use the word scarecrow loosely. Most of the "scarecrows" submitted bore little to no resemblance to the traditional scarecrow; they were just sort of themed statues cobbled together out of stuff...)

Note the button on his lapel that says "Ask me a question, I'm Catholic."
Don't note the three of our gang who are (presumably illegally) behind the gate...

But he looked great in the Garden, and whenever one of our gang dawdled inconspicuously near St Francis to eavesdrop, they noticed that people were stopping to take a closer look at him, which we found encouraging. One pair of ladies nodded approvingly, one saying to the other, "And on his feast day, no less!" while they clinked their classes and drank to St Francis. What a perfect Catholic moment!

~14~

Like all good things, this must come to an end, despite the fun I've had writing it. At the Botanical Garden last night, I kind of checked something off my bucket list:

Meeting a carnivorous plant! It would have been way cooler if we'd actually seen any of the pitcher plants eat anything, of course, but it was still cool (especially since the quail in the other exhibit eluded our sight, though they were quite vocal).

Anyway! That's more than enough of me for two weeks. The rest of these Quick Takes (which are still probably quicker than mine) are at Jen's home page. Until next time!

7 Quick Takes, Vol 5

And for another take on Jen's brilliant quasi-cop-out!

~1~

I don't want to say too much, because the situation is only temporary, but... let's just say that I've got work enough to keep me in Atlanta for another couple months, at least. :)

~2~

Pleasant acquaintances from my parish threw a housewarming party last weekend. There were many high points of this party, but the cutest was definitely their four-month old, whom I got to hold for several hours. Apparently I have the "magic touch," because she doesn't fall asleep for people easily, but did for me twice... Her parents are thrilled to have a babysitter, and I'm thrilled to have both new friends and a baby to play with. They're really adorable at that age. :D

~3~

So one of the gals in my Bible Study group got an email several weeks ago from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, asking if her community organization wanted to participate in Scarecrows in the Garden this year. I think she said yes without even asking us, because seriously? How fun!

And it was indeed!

What scarecrow is complete without use of power tools?

Best snippet of conversation all evening:

     Guy 1: Do we have a staple gun?

     Guy 2: Yeah, I brought my staple gun, it's right here.

     Guy 3: Wait, we have a staple gun and we haven't been using it!?

Needless to say, the staple gun was used gratuitously from that point forward.

Kind of the anti-scarecrow, St Francis is...

Full story to follow via Dorothy's blog, but I just couldn't resist. I don't know how you spent your Tuesday night this week, but I'm quite certain mine was cooler. :D

~4~

Due to a passing idea mentioned by a friend, I am all set up for a brand-new batch of experimental brownies: Bursts of marshmallows! All the recipes I've found online are for a layer of marshmallows, but the challenge is to have them hidden throughout the brownie. I'd forgotten how relaxing yet exhilarating it is to explore making up a new dessert recipe, with a willing audience!

Someday, I will own this!

~5~

Okay, I was about to talk this fall being "a good year for lit majors," as Liz mentioned in an email, but Laura beat me to it, and did a much better job. So, for the three of you book nerds who aren't too lazy for an extra click, head on over to read a bit, and watch trailers.

However, I will say: Both Hobbit and Les Mis come out December 14. I'm only going to have a chance to reread one of them. The Hobbit is the one of the two that I remember better... but it's also about 1200 pages shorter than Les Mis...

Also: Just this minute discovered that I don't own the Hobbit. Really? How on earth did that happen? (Aside from, you know, having read my dad's copy years ago and then moved out of the house...)

Fortunately, ThriftBooks sells both books for $4 each and free shipping! (Perhaps by "fortunately," I mean "dangerously"...)

~6~

Got a freelance gig this week that actually makes good use of my collection of obsolete Magisterial documents! You know, the slightly-less-awesome-than-one-might-hope ones that came out after the Council  on subjects like architecture and liturgical music, and have since been replaced by better-even-if-still-not-ideal ones? Those! I'm actually searching for equivalent quotes in the new documents, for the second edition of a book. It pleases me much to report that the stranger and more touchy-feely parts of the old documents are quite absent in the new ones, which aren't so bad after all. :)

~7~

I probably won't do one of these next week, because I'll be leaving early Friday morning to visit my sister for her college's Family Weekend. By stating this now, I am officially dispensing myself from next week's obligation. Nag all you want, but ya' probably won't see me. Ciao!

7 Quick Takes, Vol 4

~1~

So you know how the internet is full of addictive stupid games that provide no benefit whatsoever except perhaps some semblance of relaxation?

Enter FreeRice.com. For every question you answer correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated to hungry people. It's not a lot, but it's kind of a neat concept. My favorite game: Identify Countries on the Map. (It's my favorite because I'm absolutely terrible at it, and it's a real challenge. Seriously, just try it. If you get to 200 grains with no errors, I'm duly impressed. I usually get to about 30.)

~2~

Twice in the past month I've discovered that the lady with whom I was pleasantly chatting is either a minister or a seminarian. Having grown up in Jersey, where very nearly everyone I knew fit into one of four groups---cultural Catholic, practicing Catholic, non-Christian religion, or religiously apathetic---this is an unusual happening. And, having two degrees in Catholic theology myself, I have plenty of background to have an interesting discussion of theology with them.

And yet all I find myself wanting to ask is, But what do you study!? I can't wrap my mind around a degree in theology without the solid grounding in tradition that the Catholic Church has given me. Obviously, I can't ask that question because it's rude and probably disrespectful. Yet I'd be very interested to use these moments as an opportunity to learn about our Protestant brethren. Any suggestions on how I can use this curiosity and the commonality in our faiths to actually talk to people?

~3~

So this week I celebrated a birthday. There are birthday celebrations still to come (and most of my relatives haven't even put cards in the mail yet, I'm sure), but thus far I've gone out to dinner four times with different small groups of people: Mexican, American (pub), Thai, and Italian. AND one of my dearest friends down here bought me roses! My favorite kind, the yellow ones with pink around the edges - she could not possibly have known they were my favorite! (An aside: When I mentioned this to my mom, her response was, "Yes, you have always had a particular affection for those." Cracks me up.)

~4~

My taste in music has become significantly more indie folksy since I discovered NoiseTrade.com. Legal free downloads (donations requested but not required), and the only catch is they give the artist whose much you downloaded your name and zip code. I've picked up a few artists I'm really pleased with.

I found one today that's a really cool concept album. I'm not quite sure yet whether I like the guy, but I appreciate that each track is a tribute to a different C.S. Lewis book (you can listen to each full track without downloading, just click the Play arrow). He clearly has been influenced by many genres. I look forward to listening more closely and picking up the lyrics.

~5~

It's that time again! Arguably my favorite feast of the liturgical year: the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross! My annual tradition is to read the Anglo-Saxon epic poem The Dream of the Rood, and this year I'll even have friends with me to read it aloud, which is definitely my favorite way to celebrate!

This gentleman reads the first seventeen lines; I approve of both his pronunciation and his inflection, so though there's no translation on the screen, you can just listen to how high-class English sounded in the 7th century.

~6~

Arabian Nights: Update

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I'm reading Arabian Nights via DailyLit.com, and have been enjoying it. Well, based on some reader feedback, I thought I'd continue with some semblance of a book review with an eye to its usefulness as bedtime stories for a contemporary American Catholic family.

It would be easy enough to find a good place to stop each night, because it's a story within a story within a story within a story within a story (approximately), so there's constantly a new part either beginning or ending. The one constant in every single story is the presence of the supernatural--mostly genies, but sometimes ordinary enchantresses or giant magical animals. There is also a LOT of infidelity, which is always presented as a bad thing (and is usually punished); it's (nearly) always the woman who is unfaithful, which is a bit one-sided. It's set in a clearly Muslim society, which is a perk for things like the sanctity of marriage and the importance of prayer and family underrunning every story, but you still may want to wait until your kids are old enough to handle questions of Truth and different religions (for, of course, the Muslim religion is the true one, according to any character who speaks of it).

Still, it's been a very interesting read (I say this now, less than 1/6 of the way through), and I do recommend it to anyone who's curious.

~7~

Last but most certainly not least, the hands-down winner for best birthday card this year:

Apatosauruses love birthdays!

"So what's your favorite part of the new translation?"

I've been traveling in liturgical circles for a little while now. So while this new translation of the Missal didn't take effect until this past Advent, I've been familiar with quite a number of the texts since the fall of 2007.

Yet it still caught me completely off guard when I was catching up with a dear friend, then finishing her notiviate with the Carmelites, and she asked me what my favorite part was of the new translation. Well, I don't know. The whole thing, really. I'm a huge fan of this whole formal equivalence principle of translation, wherein the English kind of sounds like the Latin does, only, ya' know, in English. She, in response, had some incredibly profound reflection on how one particular phrase was a real testament to God's incredible love for us (unexpected profundity has always been one of her strong suits, but still).

I don't generally have "favorites" very often, of anything, yet her question stuck with me. And now, that I've been praying this translation day in and day out for months, I do have a favorite part: "poured out," during the consecration of the chalice.

take this, all of you, and drink from it,
for this is the chalice of my blood,
the Blood of the new and eternal covenant,
which will be poured out for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
do this in memory of me.

We used to pray "which will be shed." Most (possibly all) of the English hand Missals printed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, used by parishioners to pray in English what Father prayed in Latin, translate that as "shed." Even hand Missals being produced now for the traditional Mass seem to all say "shed."

Part of the rationale given for the change was that "shed" is inferior because it only works for blood, not for wine (you can't really shed wine), so "poured out" is better because it's more symbolic and evocative and whatnot. That's all well and good, and entirely true, but still falls short of the fullness of the Latin original.

The Latin original of the word in question is effundetur. I'm no great Latinist, but they tell me effundetur means more than "shed," more even than "poured out." It means emptied out of every last drop. Think of when Our Lord was scourged, then crowned with thorns, then crucified, and even then, after He had died, the soldier pierced his heart with his lance, and more blood (and water) flowed out. He gave and gave and gave until he quite literally had nothing left to give, no blood that had not been spilled for our sake.

THAT is how we are called to love in His image: to give of ourselves, for the love of Him and of His children whom He has entrusted to us. We are to give and give and give -- and even when we're completely at the end of our rope and couldn't possibly give any more, to give just a little bit more. He'll be right there, giving us the strength to do it, just as He did on that Good Friday so many years ago.

You'll never read this, Sr Teresa Margaret, but I can now tell you: my favorite part of this beautiful new translation of the Roman Missal is that reminder of the fullness of His sacrifice -- literally to the last drop. Thank you for putting that question in the back of my mind all those months ago, and for your prayers which probably led me straight to this reflection. I only pray that each day I may pour myself out for Him half as lovingly as He did for me.

Sanguis Christi, in Cruce effusus, salva nos.

Cor Jesu, lancea perforatum, miserere nobis.

Seven Quick Takes, Vol 3

~1~

I started this blog as my own writing outlet, to keep my brain working. With the introduction of these Seven Quick Takes (h/t Jen), the accountability and friendliness of doing this with Liz and Sana has really begun to change the way I look at blogging. (Also, writing a post like this that's about my life takes less time and--more importantly--less mental energy than a complicated post about liturgical minutiae. Don't worry, I'm sure those will come back eventually. I start lots of such posts in my head...)

All that being said, thanks to you strange people who do bother to read! ("Strange" is quite an affectionate term, by me.) I'll do my best to act like a real blogger and actually reply to your comments and stuff. :)

~2~

This week, I discovered a website called DailyLit. You go through their catalog of books, and decide which ones you want to read (there are a lot of classics - yay for public domain! - and also a lot of P.G. Wodehouse), and they deliver you a small portion of the book each day. You can choose either email or RSS. The only downside I've found thus far is that I can't just click to go to the website and keep reading for hours on end...

~3~

Speaking of DailyLit, I've been using it to read Arabian Nights. Ya' know, one of those books you've heard about for years and years but don't know anyone who actually read it. Well, now I'm reading it, and it's pretty good. I may want to buy a physical copy eventually to use parts (not all!) for bedtime stories.

...and I've been waking up with that song stuck in my head for most of the week. Or occasionally Arabian Nights instead. I must have been exposed to more Middle Eastern culture than this as a child, right? Right?

~4~

You may have seen this someecard making the facebook rounds, and/or similar sentiments expressed in status updates:

Well. The ever-brilliant minds at Lifehacker posted a brilliant link today: How to Block Annoying Political Posts on Facebook. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is all of them.

The extension basically allows you to filter out statuses and links (though not pictures, unfortunately) based on a simple keyword search. Lest you get too excited, it didn't work perfectly, but it definitely seems to have done something...

Not quite that bad, but surprisingly close.

I have found that going beyond complaining to use self-discipline and avoid reading even the headlines of anything political whatsoever has had the surprisingly calming affect of detoxing my experience of facebook. I do recommend it (the self-discipline for sure, the extension for maybe).

Bonus: Social Fixer allows you to permanently block certain elements of facebook, like the ads and the other sidebar things that try to get you to like random pages or friend people with whom you have one friend in common. Useful!

~5~

Whoever thought to make tiny O-shaped pasta in a generous proportion to tomato soup was brilliant. Seriously. Spaghetti-O's = delicious comfort food.

Lunch!

~6~

Randall Munroe is seriously a genius. The man makes a living drawing stick-figure comic strips three times a week. He once stated that he sometimes spends as little as ten minutes on each strip.

Anyway, this strip hit home because, though I've never heard that simile, I've been using that method for years. 90 seconds for a minute and a half (what, saves a keystroke and uses an infrequently used button!)... Yes, I am weird. :)

~7~

In honor of the higher-than-usual proportion of dreams I've been having this week, I leave you with a brief poem by Bill Watterson, from The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes (unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the image online, so you'll have to click through to the Google Book for it).

At night my mind does not much care

If what it thinks is here or there.

It tells me stories it invents

And makes up things that don't make sense.

I don't know why it does this stuff.

The real world seems quite weird enough.

And that's a wrap! Time to eat my Spaghetti-O's. :D

Seven Quick Takes

1. One of these days, probably sooner than later, I will have to move from Midtown/downtown Atlanta. I will miss it! Today I walked a mile and a half to meet a friend for lunch at her husband's restaurant, and on my way there, I deduced three things just from watching the people around me: 1) The University of Tennessee is playing in town this weekend (football, of course), and their color is orange (I believe they're playing Georgia State, based on a conversation I overheard in the deli). 2) North Carolina (State?) is playing in town this weekend, and their color is red (there just wasn't enough black for it to be UGA). 3) Dragon*Con starts today! Okay, so I knew Dragon*Con was in town this weekend, but it was fantastic to walk down Peachtree St and see costumes galore! Flashbacks to high school, really. Someday I may even go. :)

But the thing I'll miss most about Atlanta itself is actually our homeless people. Their kind compliments and harmless hollas have always been a source of joy, but some days they're more fun than others. Today I took a different route home from lunch, and was surprised to see that Woodruff Park has a Chess Court with chessboard tables and a large chessboard:

Not quite as large as the chessboard we played on in Salzburg,

but still pretty darn cool. Anyway, so as my attention was distracted by these, I saw a gentleman stand up and say, "I didn't know the sun rose twice today!" (A photo of himself, courtesy of Google/Flickr.) He offered to tour me around the park, then to walk me to the MARTA (subway) station that I declared a need to get to, and generally chatted pleasantly and praised my beauty. He, of course, asked if I could spare a buck; I always respond that I don't have any cash, but I'd be glad to buy him something. He did let me buy him two slices of pizza and a drink, which was just lovely. It's an awesome gift to feed the hungry, especially when you know your money is going entirely toward food.

2. I firmly believe that everyone's first car should be an old car, and they should drive it into the ground, if only for how much they learn about cars in the process. My car spent five of the last seven days at one mechanic's or another (don't worry; all fixed for under $200), and when I first brought it in, without even preparing what I'd say I easily explained what noises (and smells and kind of smoke) I heard when, what the car's been through before, and what else seemed to be affected. Just bringing the car in to get things changed every now and again has made me very aware of this potentially deadly machine that I drive around all the time like it's nothing. Don't get me wrong, I still don't know much about cars. But I know about my car, and I've learned how to report its symptoms to the mechanic (possibly better than I can report symptoms of a physical ailment to a doctor), and that seems to me an inestimable strength.

3. So my parents left yesterday morning for a week and a half in Hawaii. My best friend leaves tonight for a week in Israel. How is it that the two people I call most frequently are off the continent at the same time!? It may be a long week...

4. A friend of mine recently hosted a showing of the new documentary Miss Representation:

Ordinarily, I would stay faaaaaaaaaaar away from a project that headlines Oprah, Gloria Steinem, and Nancy Pelosi, but I'd seen the trailer, and it appeared to contain more truth than agenda, so I went to watch and discuss.

It warms my heart when people who value different things can agree on something more important than their differences. The oversexualization of women in our culture is hurting girls from early childhood (also men and boys, respectively, as we discussed), in ways that they carry with them into adulthood. Additionally, for being such a forward-thinking country in theory, the U.S. lags far behind many other nations regarding women in politics (I would love to learn more about how this works in practice in said dozens of other countries.) I am kind of surprised that I recommend this film, but I do, especially if an intelligent discussion is to be had by the viewers afterward.

Language advisory: There are several moments when the women speaking use uncouth language; it wasn't frequent, but when it was there, it was unabashedly there. I mention this because I know it bothers some more than others. The media images shown are really far more offensive than the language, which is by design; this really is a film designed for adults.

5. I am officially a published author! The article based on my Master's thesis was printed in the journal of the organization at whose conference I presented the same paper in January:

Society for Catholic Liturgy Conference, January 2012, St Louis

  

Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer 2012)

At first my delight was overshadowed by shock and disappointment that they truncated my title (removing its subtitle, "Reverence in Celebration and Active Participation"), but then I decided to get over it and just be excited. Besides, that feeling is probably helpful to me as a copy editor. Solidarity with authors!

In the meantime, I'm waiting for my author copies of Liturgy Training Publications' The Liturgy Documents: Volume II, and they've contracted me for the 2014 version of other annual publications, even after I lost my job with its conveniently respectable subtitle. Not only is this plenty of fun and a good exercise for my brain, it's also very kind of them to continue to employ me. Besides how crazy is it to see my name next to much more prominent liturgists like Fr Cassian Folsom, Fr Paul Turner, and Fr Rick Hilgartner!? My life has its sufferings, but it's also really darn cool sometimes. :D

6. So I've been watching the BBC series Merlin recently, which loosely takes inspiration from Smallville insofar as it's the "before his powers were known / before he was famous" take on things. It's just a fun take on the legend, as King Uther has banned magic and essentially waged war on all magic users, so naturally sorcerers come in every other episode trying to destroy his kingdom...

It's been a fun show, but what's got me tickled pink is that they've used actual Eald Englisc (that would be Old English for you modern Anglophones) for the words of all their spells! (Example that I couldn't embed here) Granted, my one college course in Old English has not caused me to retain enough vocabulary to recognize more than the occasional conjunction, but there's no doubt in my mind that they've leaned on the ancient linguistic patrimony of the British Isles for their spells (which, in other series, are often Latinate), and that is awesome. I don't recognize what language they use for the dragon-speak, but I suspect it's Old Welsh or something Celtic. As one who very nearly pursued a career in linguistics, this kind of unnecessary-but-fruitful use of dead languages makes me very, very happy. :)

7. Facebook is a-twitter (no pun intended) about the new Mumford and Sons album that's being released at the end of next month. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to it as well, but I'm far more excited about the new Avett Brothers album, which they have had the kindness to release on my birthday! You can even listen to the entire album online now, courtesy of NPR. I really enjoy their rock-influenced bluegrassy/bluesy folk!

Yeah, they are kind of hipster, but their music isn't nearly so pretentious.

I think "quick" takes are probably supposed to be briefer than mine usually are... Hmm... Well, thanks for reading part or all!

7 Quick Takes

1. Okay, I'm doing this. It'll keep me accountable to posting at least weekly, though I'll of course try for more. Liz and Susanna have both discussed with me how we want to get back to the blogging we once did regularly. And they both have adorable children who do hilarious things, as well as keen minds; what more can a girl ask from her old blogging buddies?

2. This past weekend, a few of us were supposed to go peach picking, but all the orchards were suddenly picked out, so we went on a multi-location adventure in the North Georgia mountains instead. Possibly one of the most memorable random places I've ever visited: Goats on the Roof. It's a country store and ice creamery that actually has goats living on the roof.

I believe this was just after we fed them.

Be warned: their ice cream is delicious, but oh my goodness, what portions! Biggest ice cream cone of my life. Seriously, I think it was a quarter pound of ice cream, for $4. Now, I don't know exactly why or how they have goats on their roof, but their Legend of the Goats gives some idea, albeit more absurdity than anything...

3. On said adventure, we also stopped at Babyland General Hospital (aka Cabbage Patch HQ), which looks from the outside like an old Southern plantation. I was never a huge fan of CPK as a kid, so I wasn't quite as enthralled as the other gal in our party, but it was fascinating to see how fully they've developed their mythology and the schtick surrounding it.

There were so many patches like this! Very thorough, they were.

Their employees all wear scrubs, and every 15m or so a "Licensed Patch Nurse" gathers everyone around the Magic Tree to watch as she delivers one of the babies from its cabbage--complete with punny names of cabbage-related birthing procedures, and followed by what looked like all the postnatal tests hospitals give to human babies. Each doll's name is chosen by the people in the audience while it's being born, which was sweet. I expected the thoroughness with which they treated their dolls like real children to be creepy, but it was actually endearingly thorough, especially when watching the children's excitement, and seeing them learn about real babies by carefully holding the newly born CPK.

4. Four clicks to a less annoying YouTube. Thank you, Lifehacker, for making the internet a better place.

5. Tim O'Malley strikes again with this arresting piece on the violence inherent to the American political system, and how we as Catholics are called to more. For those of you who are unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend his reflection on infertility. Possibly the single most heartbreakingly beautiful piece of prose I have ever read.

6. This morning, as I was praying Morning Prayer in the customary spot on my porch, albeit earlier than usual, I noticed that the spider whose web sits just a few inches away was still spinning. Note: I love spiders. I got to watch her while reciting psalms from memory, and to reflect upon the beauty in the simultaneous strength and fragility of her web, even as a metaphor for our own lives...

7. I saved the best for last. My awesome, beautiful (absurdly tall) sister is moving into college today, and I am sooooooooooo proud of her!

Pretty sure I'm wearing a low wedge heel, and she's barefoot.

Love you, T! ♥ I can't wait to see what wonderful things the world learns from you as you continue to grow into the beautiful, talented woman you've become. (And what do you mean, of course I'm not crying at all right now...)

Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel, / quia visitavit, et fecit redemptionem plebis suae...

Job Searching = Having a Crush on Every Boy

That title either rings true immediately or causes confusion; in either case I'm finding it often brings laughter. Observe.

There are a staggering number of possibilities out there, statistically speaking.

A few of them even seem like they might be a good fit.

So you dress up real pretty (resume/cover letter), and spend a lot of time saying "Hi" and smiling across the room (sending resumes).

Sometimes, you get a "Hi" back (acknowledgment of receipt of resume), and occasionally even a coffee date (interview, perhaps via phone or Skype).

This may even be followed by a dinner date (second or in-person interview), but it's still a little premature to obsess over how you'll respond if he offers you a ring--after all, unlike a conventional proposal, you get a few days to ponder out a job offer, and no one's really that heartbroken if you say no.

 ≠ 

Okay, funny analogy, but so what? Searching for a job, like obsessive crushing, more or less requires the subject to live in a fantasy world that is only tangentially in touch with reality. Because there are so many targets and so few responses, everything changes so quickly; the story is so often completely different in just two days.

That's why so many conversations that are meant to be straightforward and kind are felt like this:

Friend 1: I want to show that I am interested in your life and well-being, so I'll ask how the job search is going, because I know that's a big thing in your life. It's the equivalent of asking "How's work?", right?

Friend 2: OH MY GOSH will people please stop asking me to give them the painfully intimate details of the fundamental uncertainty of my life at the present moment!? I mean, I'm glad you care, but can't we talk about anything else!? (Not that I can think of anything else, as the job search is kind of consuming my life at present... Hmmph.)

Ah, stress.

What's the moral of the story? I'm not really sure it has one. Sometimes the observation of a truth is enough.

Spiritus sapientiae et intellectus, miserere nobis.

Spiritus consilii, fortitudinis, scientiae, et pietatis, miserere nobis.

Spiritus timoris Domini et prudentiae, miserere nobis.

Note: The video whence the title catchphrase originates is entirely superfluous to my point, but for those of you now having Homestar Runner cravings, I've just saved you a Google search.

On the Heartache Inherent to the Pursuit of Pleasure Alone

I just finished Melinda Selmys' excellent book Sexual Authenticity: An Intimate Reflection on Homosexuality and Catholicism. It's part autobiography, part bridge between gay culture and Catholic culture, helping both to understand the other. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Selmys makes it clear that beauty and truth are driving forces in her life, and these show clearly in her writing. One passage in particular has stayed with my memory: so hauntingly true, so plaintively evocative...

          Do you think that you know, better than someone who is trying the path of flesh, that its promises are void? That you know better that it is all heartache and failed romance? That you have a keen insight into its existential abysses, lacked by those actually drowning in the darkness?

          We needn't squander too much time demonstrating that there is no hope for man in the satisfaction of his impulses and desires. Those who pursue Lady Pleasure as their mistress will find out, sooner or later, that she is a ruthless goddess, a consumer of hearts, who feasts on the carcasses of her faithful and leaves their bones to the dogs. Those who are involved in sexual excesses of any variety -- heterosexual, homosexual, or other -- will eventually discover that they are held hostage in the prisons of their own desires, and that what looks like freedom tastes like death. People who languish in the dungeons of sin know. They know. They are only trying to tell themselves otherwise as a means of keeping sane -- much as a certain kind of prisoner, confined in chains and kept for years from the light of the sun, will slide into a deep and imperturbable fantasy in which the bedbugs do not bite and the whip does not crack. If you feel compelled to rattle someone into a realization that they are sauntering down the wide avenues to hell, concentrate on the complacent, the respectable, the self-satisfied. The sinners -- the public, obvious sinners, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, and the men on Queen Street with the leather thongs -- they know. Christ was always very tender with these people. He saved the epithets and violence for the Pharisees and the moneychangers in the Temple.

Andrea Vincentino, Christ and the Adulteress
Credit: Web Gallery of Art

May we all be a bit more tender with the manifest sinners in our lives. May our love for them draw them to Christ, Who is the only source of healing from the sores left by Lady Pleasure's reign. And may we each embrace His love and forgiveness, and welcome Him to heal the wounds of our own sins.

Propitius esto, parce nobis, Domine.

Propitius esto, exaudi nos, Domine.

On Thinking Outside the Box and Seeking the Unanswered Questions

So one of my penances for Septuagesima and Lent is that I'm reading Abp Bugnini's thousand-page tome about the postconciliar reform of the liturgy. I'm keeping a pencil and a notebook next to the volume and jotting down questions as they occur to me. The very first one:

But whence came the idea of revision by committee?

At the beginning of Archbishop Bugnini's narrative, Pope Pius XII gathered a handful of scholars into a committee that seemed to be aimed at exploring the possibility of future liturgical reform, clearly suggesting that this idea was not new as of the postconciliar era.

Now, my study into the process of reforming the liturgy has only just begun; there are many histories left for me to read. Perhaps Alcuin Reid addressed the genesis of the "revision by committee" idea in the 20th century in The Organic Development of the Roman Liturgy, and I missed it in my targeted thesis-related skimming (or perhaps he do so will in his sequel Continuity or Rupture?, rumored to be released in 2013).

Too, previous liturgical reforms, minor though they admittedly were, have left us much sparser records. I would love to compare in what manner the various popes who've made liturgical revisions through the centuries leaned on the respective experts at hand. Alas! There is little hope of such comparisons. Earlier centuries were not so concerned with recording every confessional detail for the edification of future generations.

Now that I'm a whopping 8% of the way through the book, I realize that not one scholar or bishop presented in the narrative for my consideration seems to have ever asked himself my question above. It's simply taken for granted that this method of revision by many committees is good, because it avoids the errors of revision by one person, and the work moves forward.

This oversight reminds me directly of my complaint with most liturgical catechetical resources in the field today. Books like Fr Paul Turner's popular Understanding the Revised Mass Texts are full of solid theology and good praxis, but take for granted that the reader knows and appreciates why his presence at Mass is important. The vast majority of resources out there never address what seems to me the central question: Why should I bother to go to Mass anyway?

We can do great things for the spirituality of all the faithful by helping the liturgy to look and sound more beautiful, by teaching people when they're supposed to do and say what, and why. But we cannot afford to lose sight of the important questions, the questions no one seems to be asking.

In the current case, it's our bored teenagers who've got the missing question. In the 60s? I don't know. The more I learn about the 60s, the less I understand them (recommendations of a readable history on the 60s welcomed in the combox). Those who voiced opposition to the reforms were perceived as stuck in the past - as sometimes they truly were (as par. 7 here). But it seems to me that finding this answer, discovering where the idea of reform by committee originated, may reveal where the floodgates flew open and allowed for reform that is so easily perceived as a rupture with our liturgical tradition.

The Church, in the promulgation of her liturgical books, is indeed infallible, or at the very least highly trustworthy. The reformed books of the Roman Rite are unquestionably valid, and I do think that future reform must begin with them. However, the actions of her individual members are not so objectively defensible, and a careful examination can be helpful. Unfortunately, it seems that my question will not be answered in this book, so I will have to tuck it away in my brain and keep seeking.

It's going to be an interesting Lent. You may be hearing from me more frequently...

Qui mysteria abscondis prudentibus et sapientibus et revelas ea parvulis, miserere nobis.