Nine Months Ago Today

Getting gas in Utah (or maybe it was far SE Colorado?) on June 8, 2008. Ouch!

Seven Quick Takes (vol 2)

I'm participating in the "Seven Quick Takes Friday" carnival over at Conversion Diary... So here goes! ;)


~one~

Yesterday, a team of workers put a big dent in dismantling one of the old water towers
here in town. It was visible from our house, but on our way to do something else, we
pulled over and watched them work for a little bit. They were cutting the sheets of metal apart with a welding-type tool (I don't know the name for it when it's used to cut apart instead of weld together). It was really cool! And I just so happened to have my 300 mm lens with me... :)


~two~

Speaking of dismantling old stuff around town, work is continuing on the demolition of the old brick building(s) by the CoOp. The "city skyline" is changing! ;)





~three~
The only friends for whom I've ever taken wedding pictures got married May 31, 2008.
My family has known both of their families since they were two years old... And they were in my sister's and brother's classes. So we go way back. ;) The happy news is that they had their first baby - a girl - this past Wednesday at 8:15 in the morning! My dad delivered her... and my parents were asked to be her godparents! The baby was baptized Rita Marie yesterday evening. She's a BEAUTIFUL baby!! (I don't know too many newborns who really "earn" that adjective just as soon as they enter the world, but it takes very little prejudice indeed to see the "pretty" in this little girl. :) There has been quite a variety of opinions expressed regarding who she resembles most... but I'm sure that will become more evident as she gets bigger. :) (She's almost 36 hours old in the picture.)


~four~
Speaking of babies, my niece and goddaughter will turn one tomorrow! But technically, she is 365 days old today. :) That's what happens when you're born before Leap Day in a Leap Year. :D (She missed being born on February 29 by just 20 hours!) At one year old, she's been walking unassisted for two months, has a couple of her own words she uses for various things, LOVES dogs and books, and has distinct likes and dislikes. She's pretty even-keeled personality-wise and a virtual clone of her daddy. I can't imagine life without her now, though I sure wish our families lived a little closer than the 8-hour drive that currently separates us!


~five~
Have you ever noticed that you don't really want something until you give it up? We're barely three days into Lent and already ice cream sounds sooo good. It's 27 degrees outside! A week ago, when it was warmer, I was offered ice cream and it didn't sound very good, so I turned it down. Last night, all I could think about was how good a bowl of ice cream sounded. Terrible! It's the Friday-meat phenomenon in a different form. ;)


~six~
The stock market is flirting with dipping below 7000 points and gold is playing with the idea of crossing the $1000/ounce mark.I think this recession depression is here to stay. Everyone has a different opinion. That's mine. We're heading for painful times. :( No one can say that we didn't have it coming, though. The tragic part about it is the crazy spending being done by our government, which will surely be the death blow to a once powerful economy.


~seven~
Speaking of which, my sister introduced me to a unique YouTube channel a few weeks ago: Depression Cooking, recounted by 93-year-old Clara, complete with recipes and first-hand accounts of the (first) Great Depression. It's interesting to see with what simple things they were contented... and Clara is so sweet! She represents to me a quality of character that has become extremely rare. Definitely worth the watch...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

....Don't miss the other entries for this week's "7 Quick Takes Friday"!

I hope your Lent is going well and encourage you if you have already "fallen off the horse" in some regard to get back on it. And if you haven't really started anything for Lent, it's not too late! :)

À plus tard!

The Real Poverty in America

Kim, over at Life in a Shoe, mother of nine, has brought up an interesting topic...

If you thought your income was modest but sufficient, the truth is you could be teetering on the brink of poverty. Let's put an end to your blissful ignorance, because nobody should be forced to choose between gasoline and a gym membership. It's just un-American.

Be sure to read her whole post here.



Did you go read it and come back? Go ahead. I'll wait.




The first thought that came to my mind was how ironic it is that Americans will go into debt so as not to be "poor".
What greater poverty could there be?
Isn't poverty a fairly absolute term? Why should it be a measurement of how we compare to our neighbors? If one cannot afford to take their family to Disneyland every year, does that make them poor and the children deprived?

This all ties in with a conversation that I had with my mom yesterday. We were on a toll road and the vehicle pulling through beside us was a gorgeous, new SUV. I wondered to myself how anyone would be able to afford a vehicle like that (unless they had exceptional employment)... this mental query was quickly followed up by the realization that many people can't actually afford the lifestyle that they've bought into it.
A quick look at CreditCards.com revealed that, "The average American with a credit file is responsible for $16,635 in debt, excluding mortages, according to Experian." Another statistic quoted on The Sensible Steward says this: "Looked at another way, consumer debt today equals 132% of the average household's annual disposable income."

It is up to speculation to consider how many of these individuals and households might not have any debt if they had stopped and thought. It seems to me that there is a deficit in this country in more than just monetary funds. There appears to be just as severe a shortage in both common sense and critical thinking.
Dictionary.com defines common sense as "sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence." It defines critical thinking as "the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion."
We've all heard the saying, "Common sense isn't as common as it used to be." Unfortunately, that has caused more than a little harm (not reserved to monetary poverty alone); the consequences of which won't be pretty...

What is the best way to avoid this in the future then? My answer would be good, solid education. This is not limited to a child's formal education (although that is certainly a part of it), but includes the mindset their parents impart to them, the expectations they are to live up to (read: responsibility for their actions), and the ability to think for themselves. If more people were to think on their own and make decisions independent of pressure from advertisers, the media, and peers, maybe our country wouldn't be facing the (economic/political/social/religious) crisis that is staring it in the face.

Ultimately, I think that it boils down to just a couple of things:
- People (society) need God. They need morality and that Someone to whom they must answer for their actions and to whom they can turn for help.
- Parents need to raise the children that they bear. Broken homes, day care, excessive extra-curricular activities all contribute to children being left to "raise themselves."
Unless and until these poverties are amended, we will search in vain for the solution to the current crisis.



**Addendum... One of the gravest poverties in our country is that millions of children are being denied life, but that's opening an entirely new can of worms and I'm not going there today.**

Finding a Balance

As I loaded the last of the dirty dishes into the dishwasher this morning and started the machine, I found myself wondering how such a mundane thing like the dishes could find itself side-by-side with discussions about weighty, worldwide events. The dichotomy between something as personal and human as cleaning plates - or making cinnamon rolls, which I started after that - and keeping abreast of current affairs, good and bad, appeared huge.

It seems to me that in times past, most people were probably able to live their lives more-or-less in their own little worlds. They took care of their families, socialized with their friends and neighbors, participated in local events, and only on occasion received news on a national or worldwide level. They could trust their civil and religious leaders to really take care of and look out for them. They did not need to know what was brewing on another continent... They concentrated their energy on getting their crops planted and their children clothed, fed, and educated. (That is not to say that they were ignorant - simply that their focus was more localized.)
Then came the advent of the telephone, the airplane... the internet and the cell phone. Information now travels extremely quickly, making the world seem smaller than ever. It is now necessary to keep up with global events - to bear part of the weight of the world on your own shoulders.

And so I wondered, as I paused for a cup of tea this morning, how best to strike a balance between day-to-day life and the worldwide political, economic, and religious crises whose effects we will not be able to escape. It occurred to me that the situation is a bit like being in the midst of a battlefield while not actually being a soldier. I pictured a group of civilians huddled beneath arrows that were flying overhead in all directions. And so I think it is for the average person today: it is impossible - indeed, dangerous - to ignore the battle that's going on all around us, but it is of the utmost importance at the same time to keep guard of the family unit and to keep living one's daily life.

The only unifying factor I can think of is God.
In God and with faith, we will see that by doing our duty of state to the best of our ability, we can simultaneously (if vicariously) take part in the battles that are being waged on a larger scale. All baptized Catholics are a part of the Communion of Saints, members of the Church Militant. Thus, every action done for love of God goes toward the common good.
We are therefore able to balance the vast affairs of nations and doing our laundry... on the battlefield of Life.

Hard Times

Reading His Excellency's recent words is sobering, in the healthiest of ways. Nonetheless, these words of insight and wisdom, which are so timely, lead one such as I (a relatively deep-thinker and relatively young in age) to wonder just what the future holds. It would be easy to give in to fear, but that is without benefit as well as opposed to the theological virtue of Hope. Yet human prudence still begs to know what to do in such a situation. Being without a great deal of experience, I don't know. (I would imagine that even those with a great deal of experience are somewhat at a "wait and see" junction themselves.)
The bottom line is that there is no guarantee of any kind, no surefire way to hold onto security. There's no field of work that will be left untouched. It would be prudent to have a backup plan for one's profession, life work, or job. Should things go sour (and they will), it would be reassuring to be able to switch, say, from being a store manager to plumbing. It would be wise to have something (different) to fall back on, should your field of specialty fail. That way, you'd still have an income, a means of support, something! But it's impossible to tell which fields will be the most promising in times to come. What will be indispensable? What skill would be useful, to trade for goods and other services? Doctoring, undoubtedly, is one. But beyond that? I wish I knew with more certainty.
I don't, however. Therefore, this is a prime opportunity to rely on God to see us through!

I wonder how long these necessary trials will last? Five years? Thirty?
Oh well! As long as we have the Faith (and the freedom to practice, which isn't guaranteed either!) and our family (and preferably something to eat and a place to sleep :)), we'll be okay. It is at a time such as this that I'm especially and unspeakably glad to be living where I am. Deo gratias!

Let's hope and pray that the triumph of the Immaculate Heart will come sooner than later...! And in the meantime, let's do the best we can in every aspect of our lives, with the intention of restoring the Kingship of Christ to society!

Updated to add: I found one concept in particular from His Excellency extremely fascinating and very well put. That is, "People are overfed, yet undernourished." Wow. Exactly.