Blogging and Life

Pretty much every day I think that I must, that I truly MUST stop blogging. I have one friend who encourages this regularly. Just the other day he told me, once again, to step away from the computer, OK step away from blogging/Facebook/Twitter! He thinks that if I spend more time away from it and more time actually writing, I will be quoted rather than me quoting other people.

Maybe.

I have stopped blogging at other times, long periods of non-blogging and the world did not (gasp!) stop turning on its axis. Hmmm, my friend… maybe he has a point? About the stopping, not the quoting!

In any event, today I woke up and my Google reader was chock full of  – well stuff. (Have ever tried deleting old feeds out of that thing. Ugh.)

This past week has given me a lot of blogging food for thought. On Wednesday night, I met with a group of women online, to participate in a book club discussion, of a spiritual nature. It was amazing, a group of women of various ages and from different Christian denominations, gathered on a Google+ hangout!

That particular event had me shift a scheduled phone call with an old friend that I have reconnected with. We reconnected because of social media and it is social media that is of mutual interest to us – social media and faith practices. She is a Buddhist, but we have many shared thoughts and ideas about many things. In fact, about 20+ years ago, I explored many spiritual paths with this friend and her partner, also my friend, at my side.

Our paths diverged for a long, long time. Now we have joyfully reconnected and I think that we will find ourselves collaborating on many things. That our hearts are connected as they are is a great gift overall.

So you see why I can’t just “step away from the internet and put my hands in the air” with such ease.

The internet does annoy me and I had a blog visitor recently who left two very unpleasant comments on a random post. Seriously? Smoke of satan? Peace and good to you, my brother Ken. Call me what you wish, but for goodness sake, no ad hominem attacks on my friend, Brother Dan Horan, OFM. Although, I’m not sure that calling someone effeminate is ad hominem-y… Is it? No, no it is not. Still – it was unkind!

This commenter comments under what I presume is his own first name, but no last name and no attached website. I have a HUGE issue (a couple of my beloved blogfriends who remain anonymous know this and they remain beloved to me. JCF and Doxy, you know who you are. Love you both. There are others, I get it. Typically none of these anons are spewing hate over here, so I am good with them.)

In any event, I am very big on self-disclosure.

This word cloud is based on this post!

Back to the blogging. Today I saw a post from my very beloved Grandmere Mimi. If you ask me, so much of my blogging life grew out of my association with Mimi. While I am not so much a regular at her place any longer, or really any of the places that she lead me to, I will always consider her a dear friend and companion along the way. We disagree on many things – but we agree on this. We love each other very much!

Mimi is celebrating her 5th blogaversary, please wish her well if you can.

I always remember that I found my political center among some very leftist political blogs – also friends who remain beloved. And I am acutely aware that I found my Catholic heart in the midst of my Episcopal and other blogfriends, many of them met at Mimi’s blog.

Exploring our differences in good spirits is a good thing… Sadly, much of social media becomes a method of stating our divides clearly and making walls out of them, not bridges.

I will continue to try to build bridges and to be a bridge. Sometimes I can’t do that, but I am deeply committed to trying.

As for stepping away from the social media scene… Hmmm, I don’t know! Hard to imagine, but for now, I am grateful for the good that this has wrought.

UPDATED: Words Have Power – A Lot of Power

We should all be watching ours. I know that I need to watch my own.

I am updating this for a couple of reasons.

One is that I was already on this topic of the power of words the other day, which you may have read.  When we say a word – liberals, for example, but it could be any adjective, the word gets some power from the intentions in our heart. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone spit out the word liberal, with utter disdain… heck, I might be in the one percent. No I am not even trying to be funny.

By the way – the same thing goes for when someone says “Rethuglicans” or “Republicans.” And any other thing of that sort…

Two – I did see this at another blog and I did not link back to that blog.  It is sort of a blogger’s code of honor to do so, so it is done now.

Words and Responsibility – What Have We Become As A People?

Ugly words and inciting to violence matter. This poster is proof.

Years ago, I used to rant more. I used to rant a lot. A lot. Loudly. Frequently. Then I began to question my position and my posture.

So I began to rant less. I still believe in things, but I rant less. Words – they come with a form of responsibility. If I were going to carry on about conservatives. Republicans and so forth, often calling them names, I realized that I was irresponsible. Very.

People have called me duplicitous, cowardly and more. So be it. Hearing descriptive labels spat out like poison is foul no matter which side is being called out.

Now I am aware that while my friends on the left mock conservatives often, the use of the term liberal as an insult is common practice in many circles. Even – perhaps even more so, in Catholic circles. I hear it all the time where I work.

Then I saw this today. Anyone who utters the word “liberal” as if it were just the most ugly epithet bears some responsibility for what happened here.What have we become as a people?

For one and all, I’m talking to you fellow Catholics, who want to lecture the world about the dignity of all human life. If we continue to follow this narrow path, there is no dignity.

 

 

Small Stones…

Well, my attempt at daily small stones has been – well, dashed upon the rocks! OK, that is a bit harsh, how about my river is still at the moment!

In the past I would have taken this as total failure and gone into the self-loathing shame spiral. Today, at least for today anyway, I can say that attempting to do daily writing of some other sort was and remains a good challenge for me. It is an invitation to explore.That exploration may not happen at this moment, but it will happen.

I’m glad that I tried it and have read and seen so many beautiful blogs and posts as a result. I am grateful. I will try again!

 

Also Sprach Zarathustra and Cultural Conundrums

On Saturday I was listening to NPR and heard this segment about the Richard Strauss Tone Poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra. I posted the opening scene to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey above; that certainly introduced this piece of music to the world in a grand way.

I was entirely captivated by the NPR segment and have since listened to it online – more than once. There are many reasons for this, but I will only dwell on a couple of things here.

When I heard this during the interview (transcript found here) between NRP’s Scott Simon and Marin Alsop, this struck me powerfully: (emphasis mine)

And so what happens is Zarathustra, when he’s 30 years old, he decides to go up into the mountains and contemplate life and all those good things. And he stays there for 10 years. But then he realizes that well, what good is all this knowledge and all this insight that I have if I don’t go down from my mountaintop and share it with everyone?

When that was stated on the radio, I could have driven off the road. That’s probably the primary reason I kept going back and listening and re-listening to the interview.

That is one of the best statements calling for community, wholeness, submission (in an entirely different way than we have come to understand that word, humility and sharing. I am very much reminded of Jesus in these words.

What do you think when you read that?

In any event, about the cultural conundrum that I mention?

Well, I am a bit obsessed with how power is worshiped and pursued and how our whole lives are supposed to be devoted to some kind of upward mobility.  We are encouraged to go up up up by gaining knowledge, money, power. Yet, wisdom would tell us that if going up is not coupled with a coming down, then the trip up is potentially wasted.

Do we use what we get on the mountain for ourselves or do we share it with others?

Wait! Sharing what we have earned with others? Isn’t that socialism? Sorry for the sarcasm, but it is such a common trope these days.

In any case, I continue to reveal myself further and further as obsessed and brooding nerd and more. No wonder Elizabeth Scalia is suggesting hot toddies and spa days for me and encouraging me to smile more.

But worry not – I feel no shortage of gratitude and joy. However, I do worry.

There Is No Accounting For Grace…

Grace is freely given and this is a beautiful thing. Grace changes things, makes things new, carries us forth, heals us and more. There is no “formula” – it just is.

Grace is ultimately a mystery.

A week ago, I was pretty sure that my dog would not make it another day. On Monday, things were so low that I had made an appointment for Tuesday night at the vet for… well, you know. She was not really eating, and she was incontinent, plus she was just so weak. The light in her eyes was fading.

Mark objected to the appointment and she was eating a little, so I backed off. Well, she did get a little better. Then she got worse again by Thursday – really bad.

So? Well here we are on Sunday. On Friday she started to perk up again and it has been uphill ever since. She is doing remarkably well. I know that this won’t last forever, but I am grateful for this gift of grace and of our dog, Gracie.

Thanks to so many for all the prayers. Please keep them coming and know that we pray for you too.

 

Our Companions for the Meal

The following is the text of an essay that I wrote in The Evangelist this week. In a rare moment of non-self promotion, I had not put it on the blog on Thursday when it was published. I decided to put it up today in light of today’s Gospel from Mark.

In the two days since this was published, I have gotten a fair amount of feedback about the essay. That feedback has been largely complimentary. Yet more than one person asked me if I thought it was OK for people to receive communion after a long absence from church and likely no visit to confession.

This is a fair enough question and I am very clear about what the rules are. I do have a Catechism and a Canon Law book steps away from my desk.

Truth be told, when I returned to church in 1990,

January 12

Gracie had a really good day yesterday. Thanks for all the good thoughts, wishes and prayers. She is still here and her incontinence seems to have gone away for the most part.

Here she is this morning. As long as she is eating – which she is, and still moving on her own four feet – which she is, she is here.

An Interuption to the Stones…

(No Small Stone today… I need to write about what is going on here.)

Our dog Gracie has had some health challenges in the past 3 weeks. One day she was her fine, jumpy, silly self – although clearly she has been aging. Then I came home from work and found her almost unable to walk. She was frightened and in pain.

After a night at the Vet ER, I picked her up and we were optimistic. She spent that next day at our vet’s office and then I took her home. We live in the 1970′s style house o’ stairs. There are 4 that go from the foyer to the living room, and on the foyer level, but in the family room, there are another 4 that come up into the kitchen. Another slightly longer staircase goes up from the living room to the bedrooms.

In any event, the stairs were off limits as were the love seats in the family room. She was not too happy about that. Worse yet was that she needed to be crated if unattended. Mark was off from work, so this was not too hard to manage and she had a lot of care and company.

There were days, December 31 being one of them, where she really rebounded and seemed to be headed back to normalcy. Please don’t even ask me about January 1, which was one of her worst days. So her healing was inconsistent.

Then January 3 came and the combination of either Mark, Erica or me being home came to a halt and Gracie would be alone a lot. A kind and generous neighbor helps, as did my friend’s college age daughter, when we needed some extra check-ins. Part of the challenge includes a lot of urination, due to the medication, so she really needs someone to take her out every few hours.

We were able to set up an area in the family room, using

Small Stone #5

Very, very slowly she gets up from her bed. Her legs not strong and supple, like they were once, like they were not so long ago. She stays in place for a moment, as if to be sure. She just does not know what she needs to be sure of. One paw, then the other, pushes forward, wobbly though, and weak. It seems she will simply sit again, too tired or  perhaps confused to press on. The with a start, she is up and on the move, ready to head outside, ready to greet the day anew.

(NB: Our dog is aging quickly and we are deeply concerned about her long-term outlook.)