Not really as bored now as evil Willow gets, but it's been a while since I have written. The Internet is so vast, and I've been spending oodles of time working on the Pious Ladies Bookmobile, hanging out in Facebook, trying to figure out what the Twitter deal is, satisfying my television goof tooth with Television Without Pity, trying to win Swagbucks, yada yada yada ...
Okay, I'm being called off to Mass. Got a date with the Master! How Willow-ish is that? Don't know why I've got Willow on the mind, but I do. She's just about my favorite character from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe. Early Willow is SO COOL. Later Willow is awful, but she flows so reasonably from early Willow. That's the scary part. Maybe that's why I like her. I was a nerdy nerd too, and I could've easily grown into Evil Rae. Sort of did, but then got turned.
Peggy Noonan - "We're Governed by Callous Children"
I don't want to jump on the Obama snark wagon because I think that yes, it is historic to have a black president and yes, Obama snark can all too easily fuel the racial hatred that everyone of good sense knows still seethes underneath the surface of the country. I don't wish to see it ignite. I don't want to be party to its eruption. I was happy that Obama was elected because I was tired of all the Bush hatred, but Bush hatred never alarmed me, it only severely irritated me.
But.
I very much like a recent article by Peggy Noonan. I AM alarmed by the seeming embrace of government control, regulation, and redistribution of wealth from this Administration. Noonan writes of a couple of thoughtful talks she has had with business folks. She writes about how there is a general disheartening from the business sector that bodes very poorly for the economic health of the nation. She argues that this recession, by the numbers, is not as bad as the recession of the 80's, but that what is bad is that there is a growing feeling of helplessness that nobody has a plan, nobody knows what to do to make it all right again, and government is sending out messages of optimism that are falling on deaf ears.
At the end of the article, Noonan writes:
We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.
40 Days for Life - a culturally diverse, all-ages grassroots activity to end the civil injustice of abortion
I am rather a one-note tune these days. But as I follow 40 Days for Life day to day, I am continually impressed and made hopeful by the folks who are willing to come out and do public witness to the great civil rights issue of our times -- abortion of the unborn.
Isaiah was born this past Thursday in Riverside, California.
Karen in Riverside reported a baby saved within the first couple of hours on the first day of last spring’s 40 Days for Life campaign. That baby, of course, was Isaiah. The Riverside team found assistance for his mom through her pregnancy and recently held a baby shower for her.
THAT is the spirit of genuine, compassionate service that goes back generations and MUST remain alive. THAT is the story that must be told!
Hope is a state of mind... not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation... An orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart, it transcends the world immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. ...Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. - Vaclav Havel, former President of Czechoslovakia
Today, on Day 26 of this fall's 40 Days for Life campaign of prayer and fasting to end abortion, a video from Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. It's not gory, just clinical. I've read Fr. Pavone's articles for years but never heard him speak. I quite like it-- and when he takes off his collar at the end, I got this little frisson of a jump into alternative realities. In this Year of the Priest, it's good to reflect on the meaning of the priesthood. What difference does it make?
I started this 40 days campaign determined to pray, fast, and read each day's report and spiritual reading. I've had my usual problems fasting. Fasting makes me cranky and sometimes crazy. And yeah, sometimes I see the daily email in my INBOX and cringe because I'm looking for something more Rae-centric, like news that I sold some more books or notice of a sale at Coldwater Creek.
But mostly I am faithful. It's like the 40 days of Lent. A cross between a root canal and a spiritual goosing.
Bishop Saltarelli has passed away. With sadness, the Diocese of Wilmington announces the passing into Eternal Life of the Most Rev. Michael A. Saltarelli, Bishop Emeritus of the diocese. Bishop Saltarelli shepherded the Catholic community of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore as the Eighth Bishop of Wilmington from November 1995 until his retirement in July 2008. Click here for more information.
Funeral arrangements have been announced. Click here.
He was a great bishop, a great priest, and a wonderful man.
DAY 17 INTENTION -----------------------------------------------------
May all understand more deeply that the pro-life message is rooted in the two basic truths of life:
There is a God; He isn't me.
I love today's intention for 40 Days for Life. It kinds of rules out pro-life atheists and agnostics, of whom there are many. So I don't agree with it 100% because I think a pro-life public policy is possible, even given our pluralistic and religiously diverse society.
But I like this message anyway. It's very 12 Steps-ish.
Before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken. 40 Days for Life - Day 6
I was caught by today's scripture passage, from Ecclesiastes. Then went on to Rev. Stallworth's commentary on it, very lucid.
When I was in 8th grade, I did my final English project on death. I remember typing out Tennyson's poem, Crossing of the Bar, and pasting a picture of a sunset to illustrate it. The old fashioned cut and paste. And I was way too young to appreciate the poem. But I liked it.
Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
-- Ecclesiastes 12:6-7
----------------------------------------------------- REFLECTION by Rev. Paul Stallsworth, Lifewatch -----------------------------------------------------
God is giver of all life. Short lived or long lived, human lives are lived out in this world. The metaphors for death are many. But their meaning is clear and singular: all will die. Even so, death is not the absolute end. It is not the end of the story. For as certainly as God gave life, at death the life or spirit that God gave returns to God.
By God, we are created. For God, we live our given days. To God, we return at the end of our earthly days. And with God, we live through eternity. Clearly, all along the way, this gracious, loving God is with us. No human life is random or alone. No human life was created without purpose. Not one human life is without destiny.
All human lives, acknowledged or not, are related to God -- from beginning, to end, throughout eternity. Therefore, in this world, all human lives are to be respected and protected, for their lives are signs of God's sovereignty.
Meanwhile, back on planet Supernatural, Dean hangs out with Castiel after splitting up with Sam...
Supernatural has its angelology completely screwed up. Still, the "Sam and Dean Show" is one of my guiltiest pleasures on tv.
The brothers "broke up" last week, over Sammy's starting the Apocalypse at the end of last season. So last night Dean was hanging out with the laconic angel Castiel. Who disappeared for a bit. Leading to this non-sequitur (since Jerusalem figures in the current plot line not at all):
Name:Rae Stabosz Location:Newark, DE Email: rstabosz@gmail.com
Welcome to Confessions of a Cooperator.
A Pauline Cooperator is a layperson who follows Blessed James Alberione with
his Pauline Family.
The Paulines are all about media.
We travel the world via airwaves and electrons telling stories of Christ to our wild, wounded world. A world that longs to find the Way, know the Truth and be given the Life.
I am wife & beloved to Bill Stabosz. We fell in love at 16, married at 19, and have traveled 37+ years through hell, high water, low water, no water, purgatory, clear water, and back to sweet Eden the garden of earthly delights.
I am the mother of nine fabulous offspring. Their names are David Ezekiel, Marguerite "Reetie" Louise, Gabriel Mary, Simon Andrew (of blessed memory), Michael Walter, Walter Andrew, Eric David (of blessed memory), Ishmael Matthew and Emily Rae. I adore my 7 grandkids: Ruth Olive Danyo, Wade Lewis Danyo, Ezekiel Crawford Norton, Owen Robert Stabosz Danyo, Amelia Thyme Norton, Donal David Stabosz and Simon Eric Gregg.
I have good friends, few enemies, and the coolest siblings, sons-in-laws, and daughters-in-laws around.
I have been a writer all my life, a published author now and then. I used to work a day job in computer support at the University of Delaware but I retired (REJOICE, O REJOICE!) in June of 2007.
Like Don McClean, the three Persons I admire the most are the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. They are maligned and misunderstood. I love them. The Trinity has never let me down. Ever. Or anyone else who trusts the Three-in-One. Anyone. You.
