The Arrow's Path

I think one of the first questions I'm going to ask God is, "What was deal with the T-Rex's silly little arms?"

It was my daughter's turn to bring snacks to pre-school, so I thought I would try to do these little numbers: I can't take credit for the idea, as I saw the idea floating around Facebook a few days ago. Apparently they were a hit.

Fr. Dwight Longnecker has some spectacular words on dealing with what he calls "Demonic Rage" on internet sites by commenters who are apparently deluded and/or insane and post comments dripping with irrational vitriol.  I also don't tend post anything particularly polarizing or inflammatory on this blog, but I have on occasion had comments that are near this level. I usually just delete them and move on, but they do crop up from time to time.  And some of those comments that crop up from time to time are not actually people, just bots that are pre-set computer programs that some demented hacker somewhere set up that just go around spewing their bilge on every website that they can find in online directories. There is a great term for such people who actually do this kind of behavior: internet trolls.The New Atheists are particularly prone at doing this, as are certain strands of Christians sadly. Usually people are anonymous in user comments, so they can often g...

Um....yeah. 

Bashing Catholicism is an All-American pastime; it has been for centuries. Just ask anyone who remembers the 1960 Presidential Election  when JFK was running and was [oh, the horror!] Catholic. There was hysteria about the Pope running the White House if JFK won, etc. There was a very little bit of this in the last general election where Romney was an active Mormon, but oddly it was largely swept under the rug by both the  Republican base and the Democrats once Romney had sewn up the primaries. You heard rumors of it in back rooms in much the same way the press would secretly talk about some affair a President was having on the side back in the 1930's era onward. (FDR had an ongoing affair for decades, and JFK was a notorious womanizer. So much for the Pope running the White House...), but little active attention was given to those things at the time, at least in the American press. Interestingly, the British press discussed Romney's Mormonism much more openly during the Ame...

My 3 year old daughter's pre-school is having a Valentine's day party today, so she wanted to get some Valentine's Day cards to pass out. (Should I be disturbed she wanted to pass out Valentines specifically to the boys? Did I mention she's 3?!?!) Anyway, she picked out this box of Charlie Brown Valentines at the store. Most of them were fine and completely innocuously little Kiddo Valentines, until we found this one...  This has to be the worst kid's Valentine ever.

A friend of mine just wrote this great blog entry on " How My Strict Lent Once Ruined Easter: A Lesson on Lenten Crash and Burn ." It's great stuff.

"There is something entirely appropriate about holding the State of the Union address on the same day as Mardi Gras. One is a display of wretched excess, when giddy and rowdy participants give in to reckless and irresponsible behavior. The other is a street festival in New Orleans." -From a Washington Post Opinion Piece here .

"Saint Paul's..." "Do you do Ashes to Go ?" "No, I think it's heretical." "Uhhh...okay..." "We do have several Ash Wednesday services today that you'd be welcomed to come to..." "And miss my hair appointment and book club?" ... Cheap Grace is never the answer. Never.

While I do not completely agree with the author's views on Baptism (she is Presbyterian),  this little article  I ran across is very interesting on the need to include children in the Ash Wednesday liturgy. I wish I had run across this article a few weeks ago because we are planning a separate Ash Wednesday liturgy for the kids here at St. Paul's. I am always torn about what to do with kids on special liturgies like Ash Wednesday because I think its important to make liturgy as accessible and understandable as possible because liturgy is catechesis in a way, and gearing a service intentionally for kids is a good way of doing that. By the same token, though, I somewhat recoil from doing special "children's church" services that are divorced from the main church body altogether. I fear we tend to ghetto off the kids or the young adults into some weird subgroup, never to hear or see them.We do pray in common, kids being no exception to this rule. I got to thinkin...

A friend of mine who was an assistant at St. Paul's Cathedral in London and is now the parochial vicar of a parish church in London told me this on Facebook: "Some of my older parishioners remember the horse meat butcher up the road. When it closed, they were rather miffed, and the East End was far too far away." Ah, Jolly old England lives on...

I admit, I have never understood the tattoo thing. I have never once in my life wanted one. I realize there are fine people with tattoos; my Grandmother has one. My brother-in-law has several. I don't have particular moral objections to tattoos as long as you aren't getting some obscene naked lady or flaming swastika, but I just have never wanted one because there is no image in the world that I think I would not get tired of looking at in 3 months. I would not want to wear the same shirt day after day. I just think it would get old. Not to mention when you get old and saggy and the tattoo starts looking, well, old and saggy, too. I know, I know, people say it is about art. I have never quite bought that argument either. I think it more a statement of sociological need to be the center of attention, but I realize that is debatable. Assuming you were not strung out on drugs or something,  why on earth would you do this?

My aunt Lori dug this photo out of some family vault. That's my grandfather, Jim, on the far left in the now trendy again Rayban sunglasses. My great grandmother, Mae, and my great grandfather, Ashby, are 3rd and 4th from the left. We are not exactly sure who the other two gentleman are. I am guessing this is circa early 1960s or late 1950's on a vacation probably to Florida.  Jim died far too young from heart disease in 1986. Sadly, I only have a few memories of him. I wish I had known him better, as he sounded like a very talented man, many talents of which I apparently inherited from him. My mother claims I have a tendency to hold my head in a certain way when I am thinking that apparently Jim did. I certainly have him to thank for the red in my beard. Ashby died shortly after I was born, and Mae died around 1989. I do remember Mae. I called her "GG" for 'Great Grandmother,' which I couldn't apparently pronounce when I was learning to talk. I am tol...

This little piece is on how running a large corporate business and coaching an NFL team are largely similar. Basically, the premise of the article as I understand is to debate the question, "What makes a good leader?" I think this has an interesting twist if one looks at this from a standpoint of priestly/parish leadership. I am usually loathe to read "leadership" self help books and other Master's of Business degree staples because they all often lack application of common sense. Common sense and meaningful originality are both qualities you can't teach or replicate in others. You either have it or you don't. I would argue the most worthless individuals I have ever met or worked for or with have MBA degrees. There seems to be this culture out there that thinks you have to have an MBA or Ph.D. in something or other to be a good leader. I will also admit that as I get older, I have become less and less impressed with the silly piece of vellum that peopl...

This is something I don't know if I could do if I were in her place. In fact, I know its not. That's a grace that can only come from God.