1) Can you imagine what kind of chaos would exist in our world if God didn't design us to have full control of our bladder and bowels by the age of 4? I'm grateful that I learned this essential skill, and that my life does not demand that a bathroom be close at hand. (This is my favorite story: according to my mother, I potty-trained ridiculously early because I hated to have wet clothes touching me.)
2) Kids are beasts when they are overtired. Especially with infants, it's such a pathetic (in the best sense of the word) thing to witness when a baby is so tired, she cries and can't get to sleep. Infrequent insomnia aside, I'm grateful that I don't just sit down and cry when I'm overly tired. College would have been a disaster.
3) Those poor little toddlers, spouting perfectly enunciated gibberish that only falls on foreign, grown-up ears. It's got to be so frustrating for little Andy when, to his ears, he calmly asks for more bunny crackers, and I look at him with big eyes, saying, "I'm sorry, honey, I just don't understand you." No wonder 2 year olds throw so many tantrums. It would be like me moving to Hungary with a Hungarian phrasebook only to have all the townspeople, with pity on their faces, reply, "I am sorry, I cannot understand you" in English. How maddening!
Being with children is the most useful and enlightening education I've ever had the pleasure of receiving.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
4 Reviews in 400 Words
Julie & Julia
I may have appreciated this more because I read Julie Powell’s account. She and her husband were, for the most part, accurately portrayed, and of course Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were a pleasure to watch. Nothing new said there. Also unoriginally, the movie made me hungry. But it was a movie about writing as well as cooking: Julia Child painstakingly rewriting Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Julie Powell discovering fame through blog writing. Perhaps an autobiographical movie featuring Child would have been as heartwarming, but the juxtaposition of the two life stories was a refreshing storytelling format.
Pride and Pr
ejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
As I mentioned, I ended up not being impressed by this book. In fact, I dreaded returning to it every day. I should have known that my unabashed love for the original would keep me from enjoying an alteration. I also don’t like zombie movies, so that should have tipped me off. Grahame-Smith kept changing details which didn’t need to be changed and making obvious things that were better left unsaid. While I value the concept and applaud his ingenuity, I feel like a better version would be one in which Austen’s intent and themes remained unchanged, just with zombies.
Glee – Episode 2
This show so close to my heart DID improve after the pilot! I thought the characters more tempered, but still outlandish enough to make me laugh out loud (the cheerleading coach is hysterical). I can’t pretend to be ok with their message about sex – desires should not be suppressed, but contracepted. I’m intrigued by the main cheerleader (aka cheer-io), because she’s clearly Catholic and serious about faith. It’s usually the born-again characters who are serious. She also has the all-too-understandable motive of getting her boyfriend back. The music was awesome, especially a cover of Golddigger. I want more of that!
Marie Antoinette
This retelling of the Cake-Eater’s life directed by Sofia Coppolla totally succeeds! Everything is period (except the music), and therefore beautiful to watch. Kirsten Dunst is absolutely perfect as the naïve princess who prefers the simple life, but “parties like a rock star” when she can’t get Louis to do his duty as a husband. The film movies slowly, but Coppolla establishes monotony and repetition amidst the splendor of
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Litany of Humility
I must apologize for #6 in the last post. I kept ruminating on it long after I had shut my computer down for the night, thinking things like, "man, when I have kids, it's going to be even more impossible to get things done!"
And I stopped with my toothbrush hanging out of my mouth as the voice of the Holy Spirit (also known as the conscience) asked, in a wry tone: "What is wrong with you?"
"When you have children, is the most important thing really going to be keeping on track with projects?" He continued. "Or reading everything you would like to? And really, are things so different now?"
The Spirit made me turn around and look into the mirror to see my ugly selfishness. This has been a major struggle in the last few months. I became aware of my selfish streak just before graduating college. The last four years have been a veritable "me" frenzy; students are naturally disposed to focus on their studies, life decisions, etc. You have to be focused on yourself to a certain extent in order to do well in class. Otherwise you'd be running off to the slums of a major city to help the poor (as Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati did). Maybe that's the better option. For those of us who stick it out, it's a great 4+ year experience that can teach you very bad habits.
God wanted this year to be about me giving of myself in order to understand love - real love. The self-sacrificial love that is necessary in the care of children and honestly deserved by all adults. Somehow I had forgotten about that in the summer months. Being desperately unemployed probably didn't help. Somehow I slipped back into my ugly habits. I wasn't interested in how other people were doing, but desired to be filled and loved by them. I wasn't volunteering my time to help people out, but doing it to boost my resume. I wasn't engaging with the children I cared for and taught, but studying how it made me feel, whether I was called to be a teacher or a mother or whatever. In this whole vocational not-quite-crisis, I had forgotten one of the biggest Vocational requirements of all.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
I was showing way more love to myself than my neighbors. Even my dearest friends were being robbed of the love they deserve from me. On that night, with the toothpaste still in my mouth, I sat down on the toilet seat and observed that I wouldn't much like being my friend right now. Because no matter what we do in life - sister, priest, mother, father - we are to put others first, as Christ showed us on the cross. There is no excuse. We must, if we are to call ourselves Christians. Not just put others first when it's convenient, but all the time. Especially when it's not convenient. My personal goals and aspirations are nothing in the end; when I stand before the Trinity and am laid bare at the end of time, I won't be worrying about not finishing a beanbag nativity set or not reading Augustine's Confessions. I'll be thinking back on all the times in my life when I failed to show love to another soul.
This prayer has done more for me than any other, particularly when I'm struggling with selfishness and pride. If you pray it on a regular basis, I promise you will be changed.
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…
Amen.
And I stopped with my toothbrush hanging out of my mouth as the voice of the Holy Spirit (also known as the conscience) asked, in a wry tone: "What is wrong with you?"
"When you have children, is the most important thing really going to be keeping on track with projects?" He continued. "Or reading everything you would like to? And really, are things so different now?"
The Spirit made me turn around and look into the mirror to see my ugly selfishness. This has been a major struggle in the last few months. I became aware of my selfish streak just before graduating college. The last four years have been a veritable "me" frenzy; students are naturally disposed to focus on their studies, life decisions, etc. You have to be focused on yourself to a certain extent in order to do well in class. Otherwise you'd be running off to the slums of a major city to help the poor (as Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati did). Maybe that's the better option. For those of us who stick it out, it's a great 4+ year experience that can teach you very bad habits.
God wanted this year to be about me giving of myself in order to understand love - real love. The self-sacrificial love that is necessary in the care of children and honestly deserved by all adults. Somehow I had forgotten about that in the summer months. Being desperately unemployed probably didn't help. Somehow I slipped back into my ugly habits. I wasn't interested in how other people were doing, but desired to be filled and loved by them. I wasn't volunteering my time to help people out, but doing it to boost my resume. I wasn't engaging with the children I cared for and taught, but studying how it made me feel, whether I was called to be a teacher or a mother or whatever. In this whole vocational not-quite-crisis, I had forgotten one of the biggest Vocational requirements of all.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
I was showing way more love to myself than my neighbors. Even my dearest friends were being robbed of the love they deserve from me. On that night, with the toothpaste still in my mouth, I sat down on the toilet seat and observed that I wouldn't much like being my friend right now. Because no matter what we do in life - sister, priest, mother, father - we are to put others first, as Christ showed us on the cross. There is no excuse. We must, if we are to call ourselves Christians. Not just put others first when it's convenient, but all the time. Especially when it's not convenient. My personal goals and aspirations are nothing in the end; when I stand before the Trinity and am laid bare at the end of time, I won't be worrying about not finishing a beanbag nativity set or not reading Augustine's Confessions. I'll be thinking back on all the times in my life when I failed to show love to another soul.
This prayer has done more for me than any other, particularly when I'm struggling with selfishness and pride. If you pray it on a regular basis, I promise you will be changed.
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...
That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…
Amen.
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