Author: JenniferFitz

Ordinary life . . .

. . . is time consuming.  FYI no drama here, all just ordinary goodness.  I’ll re-emerge soon.  Meanwhile: Grammar.  And Math.  And, er, swimming.  Yep.  Swimming. So you see why I’m busy.

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But you needed someone to pray for, right?  Please pray for a couple having marital difficulties, and their two teenagers.  A miracle would not go amiss.  God is fully informed of the details.  Thanks!

Actually, make that two couples.  Two miracles.

Or three.  I’m remembering another one.

And you probably know some others.  Difficult century for marriage, that’s for sure.

More reading – nice ranty sermon for you

Change “missionary” to “parent”, and this is the rant that has me writing the homeschooling book. 

To customize, insert “teacher”, “DRE” “Pastor” or “___your name here____”.

I would add, this is the kind of judging others we should be wary of.  It’s easy to know whether one ought to steal or murder (no).  Not so easy to know what I should do today, and what prayers to pray, and how to explain to the children they really must learn math. Really.  And handwriting.  And not punching people.  Except sometimes.

Oh wait.  Divine Mercy.  Scratch that punching thing.  Oops.

Or not.  Legitimate self-defense only, I promise.

Audio books; not-audio books.

Few quick links this morning before I attempt to resume school after the Spring Break That Would Not End.

My Audio School .com Recommended by a friend of mine, who uses it for her daughter who struggles with reading.   It’s a well-organized compilation of audio books of particular use to homeschoolers and other educators.  The free resources are useful, and my friend tells me that if you have a need for lots and lots of audio resources, it is worth paying for the subscription.

On the topic of audio books, Christian Audio’s free download this month looks sorta interesting.  It’s free, you know?  I downloaded The Hiding Place last month, and I guess I signed up for notifications?  Which is handy, because they reminded me today there was a new book up.  For free.  Otherwise have not been receiving much spam from them (none that I recall, but I have a fast-acting delete key, so I might have supressed the memory).  Reputable source, seems to me.

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On the topic of non-audio books: The Catholic Writers’ Guild blog is pretty much put together now.   This morning Walt Staples is up for his monthly humor column, and the topic is writing and cats.  So you know where that’s going.  The blog address, by the way, is this:

http://blog.catholicwritersguild.com/

And you have to type that exactly, no “www”, or something weird happens.  Just so you know.

FYI my affiliation with the blog is that the important people at the guild saw me saying it would be nice to have a blog, and they pounced.  So my job is to line up writers.  If you are a (dues paid) member who has something 500 words or less and in some way related to catholic writing and publishing, you know where to find me.   Current schedule is:

  • Sunday pm/Monday am: Prayer with Mike Hays – post your requests in the combox.
  • Mondays: Monthly columns by guild members on the topics they love.  Current line-up is:  Humor; Gardening; Teens & the Faith; Self-publishing & e-books.  Need someone to fill that 5th Monday that pops up every quarter or so.
  • Tuesdays: Beginning Writers.  Or Karina Fabian says something friendly and encouraging, Or I write about editing.  If you have seen the pen of death in action, you already know what I’m going to write.  [Hint: It’s not about grammar.  You knew that.]
  • Wednesdays: Sarah Reinhard has been writing a column on blogging and related topics.  I’d like to find some other volunteers to join the Wednesday rotation, and I’d like the focus to be on everything related to writing and the internet.  In case that interests you.
  • Thursdays & Fridays: CWG Officers write about officer-y things. –>  I’m looking for someone to do a regular member news column.  If you’ve always wanted to be a gossip columnist and you are a member of the guild (easy to do), there’s a gig waiting for you.  Your name in lights.  Meanwhile, members with news just have to e-mail me and then I post it.  So you see why we need someone better than that.
  • Saturdays: John Desjarlais on writing catholic fiction.  So far I think this one is my favorite column.  Don’t let the other writers know. (Despite Blogger’s evil attempts to thwart him.  I don’t love blogger either.  But it’ll do.)

So that’s what there.  Because you needed more blogs to read, I’m sure.  Happy Monday.

BADD 2011 – The Vast Middle

I’m persuaded that the late 19th and early 20th century love affair with eugenics continues to inform our understanding of disability.  If the unfit are slated for elimination, it becomes very important to draw a clear line between them and us, and put “us” firmly on the proper side.  The recent return-to-fashion, via pre-natal screening and consequent abortion of undesirables, hasn’t helped.

What I see is a fictional polarization, in which the culture cuts a medical boundary between them and us.  On the one side, people who are Disabled, on the other, everyone else.  It is a fanciful line, that has little regard for actual abilities, or happiness, or life expectancy.  Oh sure, if you’re significantly paralyzed, that makes you Disabled.  But say you have a hand that doesn’t work quite right, or is missing parts? Does that make you Disabled?  Or just sorta decrepit?  Discrimination is in the eye of the beholder.

It would all be a silly parlor game if the stakes weren’t so high.

But they are high, because there’s an all-or-nothing mentality out there.  I stumbled the other day on an internet conversation about faking disability.  One accusation: If you see someone in the store using a wheelchair or scooter, and that person is actually able to stand and even walk, they must be faking.  (Because, you know, they’d totally want to show their hand right there in front of you. It was all a great game until the Cheetos were out of reach.)  No comprehension that  someone might be able to walk a little bit.  Inconceivable.

The US disability benefits system is a bit like those combox warriors, only clucking over who can work and who can’t.    There is cash at stake, and people do fake in order to grab at it.   But still, the can-she-or-can’t-she thinking permeates the system.  There is little recognition that many disabilities may limit, but not eliminate, the ability to work.  That one may need assistance only intermittently; or assistance to compensate for lower wages,  higher expenses, or the ability to only work part-time.

But to me the most painful aspect of the polarization is the social aspect.  The whispering and uncomfortable tones.  The notion that in order to write or care about disability issues, you must somehow Be One of Them.  There must be some Deep Reason you care about this arcane, specialized topic for weirdos; simple common sense is not enough.  And furthermore, if you complain that this or that facility needs better acomodations, you must be one of those nutty bleeding-heart types.

–> After all, those people don’t _________, and anyway if they wanted to do, than they could __[insert ridiculous cumbersome workaround guaranteed to keep Those People away]_.

It’s dumb.  It’s just dumb.  So don’t play.

Rant over.

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Thank you to Ruth for reminding me once again of the date and place for the annual BADD Blogfest.  It is not too late contribute yourself, so have at it.  Time-delay entries are accepted.

Happy Easter & an Exultet bleg

Pithless Thoughts wins the award for my favorite Easter blog post.

Happy Easter.

And how do you say that in Elvish?  I so want to know.

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Bleg:  I’m looking for just the right recording of the Exultet.  Have searched around a little bit on You Tube, but didn’t find what I wanted.  Here’s what we need:

  • In English.  English and only English.
  • Sung by a guy.
  • Just the basic chant, optional simple accompaniment, no musical showing off.
  • Nice clear recording.

Something a non-musical guy, but who can more or less sing your basic hymns thanks to years of repetition, could listen to over and over and over again, and eventually get the tune good and stuck in his head.

If you find it, please let me know!  Thank you.

nothing new under the sun

On the topic of catholic education, a friend points me to this encyclical (Dec/21/1929), which in turn quotes this one (Jan/10/1890).  Worthy reading, and not only for internet debate purposes.  ==> Though you will quickly learn not to quote to selectively, lest your opponent trounce you with a counter-quote from the same document.

So there’s something to do tonight, in order to not think about eating.  For example if your next door neighbors are grilling steaks.

The popes.  The internet.  Powerful combination.

Writing today — Good Friday — is nerve-wracking.  It cannot be done well.  It is the day we remember we are small and weak and mostly useless, and that if God Himself were to come and take us by the hand, we’d probably still screw it up.  (And, happily: God knows this, and will come do it anyway.  Lamb slain since the foundation of the world.  It is His nature, to pour himself out for us.)

But anyway I want to point today to the battle in front of us.  Darwin gave us a snippet yesterday, and if you read the combox at either of his blogs, you get the picture.  You already knew about it, of course.  If you are catholic and you can fog a mirror, you know that our church is a giant jumble of bickering and snippiness.

It is a battlefield.  Our Church.

When the Lord of the Rings movies came out, I found it curious to learn that Peter Jackson’s specialty was horror movies.  Then I thought: Yes, of course.  War is always horror.*  

And so, our church is festooned with all the horrors of battle — the injured, the angry, the bitter, the violent, the sadistic.  And all the wonders: self-sacrifice, obedience, heroism, love unto death.  Jesus has promised the gates of Hell shall not prevail against us.  The implication is that those gates shall certainly give it their best in trying.

It is thus not surprising, that having so thoroughly torn apart American families, having so successfully pitted parents against their children, even to the point of murder, having made every virtue the object of social scorn, and every sin the object the great praise, Satan should now set his sights on our Catholic schools.  It is not enough for him, to attack our parish schools where he will.  He must incite us to civil war, pitting catholic families against the schools and, where he is able, catholic schools against families.

This is nonsense.

Refuse.

Refuse.

Do not be the infantry and the cavalry taking shots at one another.  Fight the real enemy.

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I wish you a very good Friday.

And if, like me, you are perhaps not so successful at being good, then may it at least be a very grateful Friday.

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*A similar case:  Mel Gibson and The Passion.  A most violent day.  Who else could render it so clearly, except someone who specialized in bringing violence to the theaters and living rooms of the world?  God can use anyone.  Anyone at all.

recycled church buildings

This is why we remove the stain glass from closed parishes, as Father V. explained here.

[FYI: I actually like modern architecture.  Much of it, anyhow.  Although this happened to us this morning – Superhusband and I sitting in adjacent rooms, e-mailing each other.  Smart man.  It’s not that I’m not a morning person.  It’s that I want the morning all to myself, and nobody else making noise in it.]

More language stuff – Audio Bibles

Free audio bibles, in about a zillion languages.  Download as an MPS, or scroll down to the bottom and listen online.   Mighty mighty handy if you are studying a foreign language.  Or just wish to amuse yourself.

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Funny story, and I can’t be the only one:  So I found that link via Gwenn Mangine, the very down-to-earth evangelical missionary in Haiti.  I go take a look at the bible site, click a selection to listen to, and then flip back to Google Reader to see what else she has to say.  Click on the next unread post, and read this:

I once read a comment by Lady Abbess Benedict Duss, OSB to the effect that the chant in Latin was the most effective and most complete and transcendent prayer of praise outside of the mass. I don’t doubt it.

And I thought: Really?  I had no idea she was such a fan of Latin Chant!  What do you know?!

What you know, though, is that it was the Anchoress who said that.  I had two different windows with Reader open, and I’d unwittingly clicked on the other one.

–> Happens all the time.  I think I’m reading one blog, but I’ve actually clicked on a different one.  They all look the same in Reader.  And I’m thinking, “Wow, what an interesting thing for that writer to say . . .”

Really tests your ideas, when you don’t have the context of who is saying it, and you have to judge the ideas on their own merit.  Google Reader needs a ‘shuffle’ button.  Would help the brain, I feel sure.

 

Zombie Literature. Bedrock of any good homeschool program.

Christian LeBlanc says in the combox on the grammar book:

Except for God, the most interesting thing in the world is grammar. Consider that grammar is the operating system for your brain; now speak another language for a bit.

That frisson you get is the brain imagining itself with a whole ‘nother OS.

Hmmn.  Maybe so, maybe so.

But look here: Jimmy Akin links to the ASL version of Re: Your Brains.   Which is maybe more appealing to certain boys than “Signing Time”.  Great way to see the difference in grammar between English and ASL.

Enjoy.