Over at the National Catholic Register Today

Next week, I'll be doing a creative writing class, so I'll be busy writing things with and for class. I might try them out here, but in the meantime, here's my latest over at the National Catholic Register:
Shining Christ's Light on Internet Bickering.

Signs the Quarantine is Getting to You

10) You watch cooking shows with a chip on your shoulder. "Sure you can make something from that basket, you've got a fully stocked pantry at your fingertips and you're only cooking for four." 

9) Discussions about what movie will be shown have camps, crossing over because the other side has better snacks is frowned upon.

8) Bedtime, morning alarms, lunch time, these are all mere social constructs that everyone else should follow.

7) One outing in the car a day is enought to require a two hour nap.

6) People discuss the weather with a degree of animation normally associated with sports or politics, because it's an observable change in the experience of day to day living.

5) Recall of what I was doing, why I came into this room, what day/time it is, and what we did yesterday is shot.   Memory of what we were doing last summer at this time? Crystal clear.

4) The creep of worry about the state of things has crept into where things will be next year.

3) Going into the car to curse at reality is a theraputic necessity that no amount of ice cream can eliminate.  --based on reports from teens. 

2) Your daughter offers to cut your hair based on the youtube videos she's been watching and your response is an unquestioning, "Okay."  because it's been since February since the last time anything of that nature happened and even if it's bad, no one will know.

1) You know how if you wear glasses, sometimes when you're not wearing them, you can still see the frames in your line of vision?  The same thing is happening with masks. 

Small Success Thursday

Last week, my son turned 21, and I decided, as a gift to my family, I would begin working out again. (Not at a gym mind you), but walking and/or as I call it, wogging --where you jog down hill.  Wogging has resulted in me setting an actual weight goal, which I've already discovered, is going to be a lot of work. 

That being said, every day this week, I've gotten up at 6:30 and gone for a walk/wog.  I've gone from the five pounds past my you shall not pass point, to one pound past my you shall not pass point.  This you shall not pass point is five pounds over what the old you shall not pass point was, so that will be the next goal post.

I've been told my children who run regularly, that 90% of exercise is willing it, willing to do it.  I am lousy with will on this point.  So I started wogging from one mail box to the next, and then to the next...and became irritated, because I'm following the philosophy of Frozen 2, do the next right thing and then the next and then the next with respect to exercise.  The morality isn't wrong, it's just the movie isn't good.

However, it's now day eight, and I've lost four pounds in the first week of committing to this, so I'm reporting it as part of my small success Thursday.  I'm hoping to keep this up, and SST is a good place to state, these are my goals.

These are my goals:  Lose (over the course of a year, 32 pounds).  Get 52 articles published (one a week), finish writing my book, and read a book a week.  These are the ambitions for the year.  They fold into parenting, living, working, learning, and all the ordinary chores that clog up any week --like getting my sons their physicals, getting the car fixed, and registering people for classes and preparing one child for confirmation.  Every week is jammed with lots, and sometimes the lots overwhelms.

Still, I'm blessed beyond blessed during this time of Covid-19, that at the moment, all of us are healthy, and we have each other to play spades and hearts with (trounced them all two nights in a row), to throw water balloons with --there was a full scale war in the back yard today, and to feast with at dinner time.   Hope your week was full of small successes.  If you need me, I'll be out wogging tomorrow.

Things We Can Do...

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of living in fear. I'm tired of only hearing how much we as a nation can prove how deeply divided we are.  I'm tired of hearing constantly how awful things are and I have a solution.

It isn't a news boycott.
It isn't a declaration that all of what is awful and there is a whole lot of awful in 2020, isn't real., 
It isn't hide away and pretend none of this is happening.

To fight the darkness, the despair, the anger, the rage, the frustration, the violence, the suspicion, the mistrust, the injustice, the suffering and the threats of this age, we must be Catholic. 

Where there is a despair of the heart, let us bring hope.
Where there is anger, let us address the source of the rage.
Where there is injustice, let us repair and restore fairness.
Where there is violence, let us use words, let us be examples of deep peace. 
Where there is suspicion, let us show ourselves faithful,
Where there have been lies, let us be worthy of trust
Where there has been suffering, let us meet the needs of the one who needs.

It is simple.  The world needs us to be the both ands we were always supposed to be.  If we've learned anything from this year, it is that we need to be moral actors, to not be neutral in the face of suffering or evil.   The things we can do, is love our neighbors as ourselves --by not ignoring their health for the sake of our comfort, and not demanding we have live be normal at the risk of others having their normal forever changed.   

Being Catholic, means being a source of salt and light.  It's what we can do.  It's necessary, especially if we want the world to get better. 

Over at the Catholic Standard Today

...and if you have a chance, go by Jasmine's Bakery and order some Tiramisu or a cake, they're tasty and you'll brighten both Azizi's day and your own: The Sweet Taste of Doing For Someone Else.

Small Success Thursday

Today I restart this series that I kept up for years: Small Success Thursday. 

It's July 23rd and my son turned twenty-one today.  We feasted on Bucca-di-Bepo, we had chocolate chip cookies and sang Happy Birthday.  We played electronic pictionary (cool tech version where the artist can't see the drawing as they draw) and watched opening night of baseball until it rained. 

I am grateful for this son, for his humor, for his quiet leadership, for his courage, for his personal integrity, for his kindness and class --he's been a leader in high school, and college has been good for him.  He's a fun person to just be with...even if no one but perhaps his younger brother can keep up with him. 

Having everyone home means  I get some quiet monents with individual kids I wouldn't, and I love those moments. Walks with some, baking with others, just silly times playing dolls with the youngest, and the moments you can't script, like hearing one sing along to the radio that doesn't normally sing.  I love those hidden gems the best. 

This marks my I don't know how many times I've tried this attempts at fitness.  I've been working out by getting up and walking.  This is week 1, day three.   Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow so I can keep up the process.   

That's my report for this week, and I hope all of you have a great week filled with Small Successes. 

What's in a Name?

The football team in Washington DC is seeking new names for the team that donned the Burgundy and Gold. They once dominated the gridiron, but as of late have remained a constant disappointment to fans, both for their performance on the field and the inflexibility of the owner to recognize how the name of the team gave offense.

With the prospect of the team changing its moniker in 2020, it's important to support such decisions by providing helpful possibilities for the new identity of the team. Team names need to reflect the history, the values and the culture of the city/region they represent. As such, the new name should be chosen with great delicacy.

Here are a few options:

The Federalists --it would tie in with the history. Of course that would mean every team that opposed them would be the anti-federalists. No word on whether Lin Manuel Miranda would consider composing a new theme song for the team. His guy helped wrote sixty-one of the essays.

The Electorate --I can't see it happening but if I were a sports writer, I'd be on my knees begging for this one if only to be able to say when the defensive line held, it was a voting block.

The Washington Red Tape --there are so many ways to go with this, it's almost too easy but on the upside, it doesn't require a color scheme change.

Everyone's proposing the Fillibusters but do those ever work? Would the team become famous for running out the clock without ever executing a play?

I've also seen the Washington's Finest --but it reminds me of those chocolate bars we had to sell every year as a fund raiser for school.

The Washington Club has a chummy sound to it, and connects with all the swampy aspects of the federal government and how things happen. One could easily see a link up between football and golf and a heavy dose of alcohol sales connected with such a name, not to mention sandwiches.

However, it doesn't quite have the sizzle that sells t-shirts and jerseys and gets people pumped on a Sunday to head out to the game or the bars to cheer the team on that makes for a good francise name.

The Washington Politics --with a picture of a tick on the side of the helmets to remind us all of the blood sucking parasites that operate in the parties and across the three branches.  

I think it would work. I think it would stick. 

I'd buy that shirt.

Who Was That Masked Person?

In this time of Covid-19, people have strong opinions about the validity of wearing masks.  Some argue against it as an impingement on our freedoms; so are safety belts, bicycle helmets, and having food workers wear gloves and pull their hair back --but I think the public as a general likes the idea of accidents we can walk away from, brains of our children inside their heads, and hair free food.  Policies are created to promote the greatest amount of good possible, and when we disagree about the how, that's where one's political affiliation comes into play.  Where it shouldn't apply, is in addressing reality.   So here's Sherry's Soap Box for July 20, 2020...I recommend emotional seatbelts and political helmets because it will be an unsafe ride otherwise.

1) A virus has no political affiliation and does not care about who it infects.  It merely travels easily on vapor from people's speech, coughs and sneezes, and can be transmitted by touch and as such, we need to give ourselves a protective circle to avoid coming into contact with others who might either be immunocomprimised or who might be asymptomatic.  None of this is arugable, it's the nature of the disease and why it has infected 3,773,260 people in the US and over 14.5 million world wide.  It's also why 140,534 people in the US have died.  Three million seven hundred seventy three throusand, two hundred and sixty people in the US being known to have been infected, is eleven percent of the population.   That's how many have endured the disease with the quarantine mostly in place! 

2) Masks help.  Now the government has tried not to be draconian in asking people to wear a mask or what type of mask, because any protection is better than none --but people are using that vagueness as proof that a mask itself is ineffectual by talking about fools who wear lace masks as if that's an argument against masks rather than an argument against foolishness.   They scream about their freedom --and at anyone who objects to being potentially infected because of their indifference.  Here's the thing.   Someone who refuses to wear a mask is probably not social distancing or limiting their range of motion, so the probability of their coming into contact with someone either infected without knowing it, or of infecting someone who is susceptible goes up.  If you want to not be asked (Asked) to wear a mask, stay home where you can boast of your immunity and indifference to the world all you want on the internet.   You can bet your own life if you wish, but not everyone else's. 

3) Wearing a mask is not a sign of living in fear, it's using the brains God gave us.  Wearing a coat in the winter is not living in fear of the cold, it's not wanting to be cold and doing something about it.   Masks are hot and bothersome (yes).   However, being sick is a lot hotter and permanently bothersome so --wear the mask.  Remind yourself of the reality we're trying to achieve for everyone, to keep people alive. 

4) The goal is as few people die as possible, and it will take everyone being creative and thoughtful to get there.   When will it be normal again?  I have no idea and no one else does either. 

There are already been many sacrifices and losses from this pandemic, graduations, proms, sporting events, wedding feasts, plays, awards, ceremonies, and the like.   I think of all funerals lacking the lots of people to provide comfort.   Even kids have surrendered classwork, class trips, movies, countless anticipated joys lost because we're all trying to beat this thing.  Everyone is suffering from what isn't, because of what is. 

These losses hurt, and they will continue to hurt, but they'll hurt more if they were surrendered for nothing because everyone got tired of sacrificing and started up just because and let the pandemic rage its course.   That's a Darwinian solution to a problem, "if they are to die, then let them die, and decrease the surplus population." It's not moral or ethical. 

5) Calling people sheeple or dupes from the media is childish and most of us don't allow our children to do it in the course of argument, so it should be tolerated by adults.  People who wear the mask are trying to do the right thing by each person they encounter. It doesn't make them saints, it makes them citizens trying to do the right thing in this circumstance. 

People who refuse the mask seem to think everyone who opts not to are somehow the enlightened unaffected by the media illuminati, wiser than everyone else by their independent streak and rebellious spirit.   The problem is, we are not fighting politics, we're fighting a disease, and your demand to be unimpeded in all your acts will affect others.  

Be a rebel in all the other ways, speaking your mind, writing your congressman, engaging in vigorous debate online, vote, do all those things that allow your voice and opinion to be heard. However, when you go out into the world, buckle up, wear a helmet, gloves and your hair back if you work in the food industry, and irrespective of all that, if you're going to a place indoors, where social distancing is not possible, wear a mask.   The life you save may be your own, but the rest of us, will thank you for your courtesy. 

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday was the feast of Saint Thomas and I'd written a piece that ran last year, but happy for me, got a boost again this year.   If you missed it because you were doing hot dogs and fireworks last year, here' my piece on Saint Thomas and his reaction to the Risen Christ.

Blessings of the Year

I usually do a bucket list for what is to come every summer. This year, on my birthday, I'm counting my blessings from the past one in part to answer the question from my husband, "What does it feel like to be 54?" Yes, being married to a writer means every question gets an essay answer.  He knows this, and mercifully, he loves me in spite of it. 

By rights we should hate the year 2020, because there has been much suffering, much turmoil, and many sins and sores and long standing injustices exposed.  Yet it is also a year of great blessing, because the many sins and sores and long standing injustices have been exposed, and thus can begin to be addressed and with our cooperation with Divine grace, healed.

I am grateful for all the stollen time with my family, time that would not exist if we'd gone about business as usual.  While I want the pandemic cured and over, I do not want the return to ordinary time, where we don't think we need to spend time with each other. I don't want the excuse that business allows, where we spend time doing the unneccesary things don't eat together or even if we do, we're not present. 

I am grateful for the jobs some of my family have been able to acquire, and for the degrees some of them attained. I'm proud of all of them for their work and accomplishments. None of these feats are easy, none a given, and all should be properly celebrated. 

I am grateful for everyone that is still healthy, despite the risks of a world wide illness we do not know how to stop, only treat.

I am grateful for answered prayers, and that God keeps answering my prayers even when I'm not immediately grateful even when I know a prayer has been answered.  He knows I'm a needy greedy and self indulgent soul and somehow, He still answers, He still loves.  Very grateful to be in His heart.

My life has been one big blessing.  What is it like to be fifty-four? It's a blessing, just more of it.

I have a piece over at the Catholic Standard Today

I belong to a Facebook group called Game of the Day and this column came from the prompt given; what have you learned from this time of Covid-19?