7 Quick Takes

1.  Biting Off More than I Can Chew Take#1


Halloween candy.  It can't leave the house soon enough.  I have discovered when it comes to chocolate and me, there is no will.  My sweet tooth rules.  Having vowed not to purchase the stuff, when it shows up unannounced and free, my power to say no vanishes.  Gained two pounds and there's still stuff here.  Bleah. 

2.  Biting Off More than I Can Chew Take #2



Reading Dorthy Day's "Duty of Delight." I lifted the picture from Amazon, if you want to look inside, click on the link. But it's quite lengthy and short on narrative.  It is a diary of a woman being considered for sainthood, and filled with both profound gems revealing her intense desire to be close to God, and equally human realities of being frustrated, worried, and irritated by those who co-opted the service she was engaged in, for other purposes.  I have to finish it so I can write a rewiew, but it is slow going and I'm worried I won't get finished in the next ten days. 

3.  Hey Sherry...you could you know...be reading instead of writing.

Yeah...I know.  I too am out of discipline with writing and deadlines.  It's good for me to Have to do something. 

4.  Want to See...Tower Heist. 

It looks like fun and God knows these days, we could all use a few good belly laughs.  Hope it is as good as the trailers appear.  Plus I liked that Eddie Murphy recognized he was using his signature laugh to get laughs and that it was false.  It shows thoughtfulness and care for the craft to actually recognize a crutch and abandon it; a rare trait in Hollywood these days.  I admit, I'm in the mood for some lazy entertainment that is a tad self indulgent and this seems like it would fit the bill.

5.  Right Calls?

So much of parenting is praying you aren't screwing up too much.  Do I force a kid to play a sport to teach fortititude? Do I honor the opinion to stop an activity a kid excells at because she doesn't want to be taxed? 

A lot of it seems to be countering whatever a child's tendencies are, making the timid one stretch, the reckless one disciplined, the orderly one loosen up, the silly one mature, the responsible one more charitable towards less disciplined, the less disciplined more respectful and mindful, more orderly.  Sometimes it seems like every question of ballance is one where when I opt for one, it should have been the other.  I let a child do her homework without a glance over as I usually do.  She got a bad mark.  Do I hover over the homework in perpetuity when I know she needs to learn to have a critical eye and I know she can do it, she simply does not apply that lens to herself.   Or not? 

Tweaking is one of those things that is perpetual.  Today, the "A" thi pme wrote is just fine.  Tomorrow, we need to anchor it to the line.  And she remembers yesterday and wonders why the bar moved. How do I not nit pick and still offer course correction?  Sometimes it feels like we're working simply against their grains, and sometimes, it seems like it is necessary if they are to smooth their rough edges.  It's hard to know.

5.  Organizing Self (Related to prior post).

I go through shifts in organization, sometimes it's "What I need to do today" and other times, it's according to child.  Durring the school year, it's easier/better to do according to child.  So it looks like this:

W: schedule dr. appt, driver's test, homework, job apps.
B: homework, paperwork for b-ball, service hours
M: high school apps, homework, clarinet
(and so on).  It makes it easier to break it down. Now I have to do get them to summon the will to do it.  

6.  Why is this man blind?

One of the best questions in the New Testament, (John 9:1-5).
As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth.^a2^* His disciples asked him,^b “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

To which Jesus gives a mysterious and great answer. 

3Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.^c4We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.^d5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”^e

It was on my mind as my children asked why their Granddaddy suffers from Alzheimers.  They asked, "Will he forget us?" "Will he forget his birthday?" "Will he forget how to make pumpkin pie?" "Will he forget Christmas?"  "Will he forget all the books he's read?"  and it is painful to answer, "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. and Yes."  Before we had that conversation, my mind had been much on the strange possiblity, that all suffering can be meaningful. 

If the crucifixion, the act of a mob and a fixed court and fearful friends to destroy the One who is Love, is the most meaningful act ever, (and it was one of  pure hate, pure injustice, pure cowardice, pure malice, full rejection by the world of the creator, as sinful an act as ever there was), and yet it through love has been made the cornerstone of our capacity to enter into a new life, then all little sufferings can be a shadow of that act.  All sufferings great and small can be a road to the cross, a carrying of the cross, an embracing of love despite the world, and for the world.  The rest of us get to walk with my father and weep that he must endure this, powerless except to occasionally wipe his face and help with the cross if we are near enough, unable to stop the long walk to Calvary.

The harder it becomes, the more God's grace is required. But it is a hard mystery, to be given the oportunity to need so much. 

7.  Mundane but a New Love: Top Chef Texas

I love these cooking competition shows, plus it gives me a dose of home.  Hope they visit Beaumont and Galveston.  They should given that Tiffany was a big plus in their Top Chef Allstars, being a Beaumont Native.