Chesteron on Being Fat

"It may be that the thin monks were holy, but I am sure it was the fat monks who were humble. To be fat is to be laughed at, and that is a more wholesome experience for the soul of man."

My musings . . .

. . . will forever be affected by the education I have received.

I stand staring into my closet, looking at a newly ironed shirt I had just hung up.

If Karl Marx is right and human labor really does, in some magical way, transform the objects we handle, does my shirt become more valuable every time I iron it? Heck, how about every time I wash it? If that's so, my old clothes are very valuable right now, and it would be great to have some extra cash for this wedding . . .

. . . and at this point the musing veers off into daydreams about selling off used toothbrushes, holey pairs of jeans and worn out carpets for hundreds of thousands of dollars on ebay. . . .

And I suddenly stop, and think to myself: I am such a nerd!!!

Movie recommended . . .

The Painted Veil
I can't say I exactly loved it, because I'm the kind of person who resents movies that depict tragic things - my sanguine optimism prefers cotton-candy happy endings. If a movie is going to make me cry it dern well better make up for it in the end with sunshine and rainbows - - and, well, this movie does nothing of the kind. Nevertheless, objectively, this movie has a hopeful, realistic message in it and it is one of those movies which fit the Christian/Catholic worldview pretty dern well. Don't see it with kids, and don't see it if you're really sensitive to modesty issues - it covers a lot of stuff about sex, but the way it's treated really emphasizes what it means within a marriage and what it does when it is not kept within it.

A day in the life . . .

. . . "Well, I dunno, I like the name Anne, but I also like the name Fiona."

"Eh, yeah, it's okay. It's still kinda weird."

"You think all the interesting names are weird. I refuse to make another child on this earth suffer with a blah Catholic name that everyone else has. No Pauls, no Johns, no Marks, no Marys or Katies . . . "

. . . *silence indicative of thought on something else* . . .

"What are you thinking, honey?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was trying to spell 'Fiona' in Greek."

. . . *blink*, *blink* . . .

"You were what?"

"I was trying to figure out how to spell Fiona in Greek."

. . . a few moments of silence . . .

"First of all, I think that might be the nerdiest thing you've done to-date. Second, the name is Gaelic, not Greek."

"Well, you could spell it in Greek. However, I can't figure out which letter to use for the 'o'."

Fortunately, my love's risibility did kick in and he was able to see the ridiculous in this conversation. There was a time when he would have just looked at me blankly and wondered what my problem was.

And later on . . .

My future brother-in-law was wearing a shirt with a picture and signature on the front. The signature, however difficult to read, said "Jimi Hendrix". My mother had an adverse reaction to it, and asked him what on earth that was all about. He was about as animate in his response as he ever is. :) My future mother in law says, "Yeah, please, you tell him. He doesn't listen to me."

Later, when we got home, mother was telling my dad about the tee-shirt. I figured it was a good time to ask a question, since there was nobody outside of my immediate family to ridicule me.

"Who's Jimi Hendrix?"

My dad just looked at me. My mother said, "He wrote horrible, nasty, loud music. I never liked it."

"What were his hits?"

"Oh, he didn't have any." my mother responded. I seriously doubted this to be the case, since I had heard of the name in some vague way before.

My father says, "Don't ask a person for her opinion on Jimi Hendrix if her favorite singers were The Partidge Family, John Denver, and James Taylor. Jimi Hendrix wrote 'Purple Haze'."

"Oooooh, yeah, okay . . . " I said. Mom made a face at Dad.

Oh yes, a day in the life . . .

Going Postal

I have decided that I don't really like the post office anymore.

Not at all.

They hike the prices of stamps all the time (so that you never seem to have the right postage laying around), get packages to you late and/or damaged, and find every nitty-gritty reason on the planet to charge you more.

Now, don't think that this distaste for them is entirely based upon the fact that my square wedding invitations are going to cost an extra 17 cents each to mail (if they were rectangular, that would be different, of course). It's not the only reason, I assure you.

Granted, they're taking a hit from other mail carriers, like UPS and FedEx, and the internet is quickly eating up the need for mailing off bills and payments.

But we all hail the great god of capitolism . . . even the quaint little mailman has gotta make his proportinate-to-the-market buck, whatever way he can.

babysitting siblings on a Friday night. . .

"Hey, hey, sis, hey, Emiwee, I'm still hungwy."

"What? I thought you were the one that didn't eat!"

Skinny little kid blinks at me.

"Well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I'm hungwy wight now I guess."

"Okay, well, it's Friday, so you can't have meat. Do you want peanut butter and jelly? The tuna salad's all gone and Mom hasn't had time to go shopping since we got back into town."

"Okay."

. . . I'm making the sandwich. . . .

The older boy says, "Hey, you know, Mom doesn't necessarily HOLD to the not-eating-meat on Friday thing."

I look at him blankly.

"You know that you have to make some kind of sacrifice on Fridays, Graham. It's a sacrifice for you to keep from eating meat, otherwise you wouldn't be telling me that."

He pauses for a time.

"What's for dessert?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well, . . . if it's something that's not too good I could give that up instead."

"Graham Lowell! You know that the whole point of a sacrifice is to give up something you like."

"Awwww, maaaaan. Okay, fine . . . "

Smaller child gets up from dinner table and plays around, tormenting his sister with the old "I'm not touching you" move, for the umpteenth time.

"Paul, Paul, now, listen kid, when I was little Mom never let us get up at all until we asked to be excused."

Makes some strange boy-like noises involving sticking out of tongue and wild contortions of the face - much like the illustrations in Calvin & Hobbes. As that cartoon strip is a family favourite it's hard to tell whether these expressions are from the nature the Watterson originally intended to imitate or are, rather, adverse effects of his literary influence.

I blink at skinny little brother.

"Paul, do I look amused?"

"Yes."

*&$# - - it didn't work. I thought I'd pulled off a poker face. I really need to get better at this.

"Paul, my patience is wearing thin."

"Is it this thin yet?" he asks, indicating something very small with his fingers.

Don't look amused. Don't look amused. Don't look amused.

Heck, it's no use. I'm amused. He can tell. How on earth am I going to keep order around here?

. . . Fortunately mothering happens one day at a time. . . . Hopefully I can develop these skills, eventually . . .

Great News!!

My future brother-in-law has . . .

FINALLY CUT HIS HAIR!!!

Alleluia! Glory be to God! His kindness endureth forever and ever. Amen.

Free

I've finished all my finals, and I've finished my degree.
Now, after the graduation ceremony is over, I'm free to go
HOME
. . . at least for a time . . .

The Notebook Entries

As I study for finals, I end up reading notes in my little notebook, where I keep a running commentary on the room during class. I thought I'd share some of it with you:


"Philosophy - April 23
On Being and Essence, St. Thomas

. . . Ooops, I'm having listening problems. What was the opening question again? . . .
'Of the two meanings of being we first examined, which one belongs to God? What's the relation of being to the being of God?'
. . . I'm so not here today . . . *sigh* . . .
God is not in a genus because the whatness is not distinguished according to the nature in an individual.
. . . The water pitchers here will be used for Shema's defense this afternoon . . . that defense will be *such* a scream . . . won't be one of those -yawn- I wish I were being productive defenses . . .
Wait, hold on, here, did anyone figure out the answer to the question we had out on the table besides x and y? I kinda doubt it. The question was 'what does this sentence mean?' I'm going to re-introduce the inquiry. Hey, missy, now don't you take that tone with me, or I'll individuate your matter . . . Oooooo, snap . . . "


"Senior Laboratory
Einstein, Relativity

There's a man, and he's in this box . . .
Wait, whoa, *what* did you just say, student c?
. . . I find the people in this room to be remarkably unnatural beings. How on earth can people be so addicted to algebraic abstractions? They're having a hard time speaking of nature *itself* anymore. I asked a question about a whatness and they're cranking out equations. That is just . . . yeah, you people are freaks of nature . . .
Inertial mass - - the mass which makes a thing retain it's state of motion or rest
Gravitational mass - - the mass which makes things incline towards IT? -or- quality of mass as manifested by attractive power . . .
Uh oh. I think student z is using special, external knowledge again. These people are so lucky I'm really preoccupied with getting married. Due to that I don't have the energy to dis them anywhere but in this notebook . . . any other year I would be having such a fit"


"Do not sleep, do not sleep, do not sleep . . . no sleeping . . . "


"Seminar
Lumen Gentium

My experiences of Vatican II 'effects', or, more properly, the liberal interpretations of Vatican II and it's 'spirit' . . .
1) The hierarchical structure of the Church is out-dated, especially the Papacy, and it will pass away.
Sed Contra,
LC section 14: "They are fully incorportated [into the Church of Christ] . . . who . . accept her entire system and . . . are united with her as part of her visible bodily structure and through her with Christ, who rules through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops."
LC section 18: "And all this teaching about the institution, the perpetuity, the meaning and reason for the sacred primacy of the Roman Pontiff and of his infallible magesterium, this Sacred Council again proposes to be firmly believed by all the faithful."
LC section 22: "The pope's power of primacy over all, both pastors and faithful, remains whole and intact. In virtue of his office, that is as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff has full, supreme, and universal power over the Church."
LC section 27: " . . . In virtue of this power, bishops have the sacred right and duty before the Lord to make laws for their subjects, to pass judgment on them and to moderate everything pertaining to the ordering of worship and the apostolate."
2) The priesthood of the laity is to be exalted as just as dignified or equal to the sacramental priesthood.
Sed Contra,
LC section 10: "Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated . . . "

So, if these ideas were completely and flatly contradicted by the documents of Vatican II, how on earth were they construed as the spirit of it?'