Horror of Horrors

As a "studentessa" of Thomas More College in 1995, I stayed in a 17th century convent, run by retired Augustinian nuns. The girls stayed in small bare rooms that had two beds, a sink, and a wardrobe. Most rooms had a small balcony, although mine did not.

Our beds were made with stiff cotton sheets, and rough, heavy wool blankets. My Mom sent me a teddy bear for Valentine's day, and I would put it next to my cheek to sleep as everything else in the bed felt too harsh.

There was little heat, and the showers frequently overflowed. The toilets lacked seat covers, and the dinner served nightly was pasta and "siempre vitello" - veal being the cheapest meat in Rome at the time. All of the bedrooms overlooked a small courtyard with a fountain off in one corner. There were giant goldfish in this fountain, and I remember watching one of the workmen clean his brushes in the fountain. It apparently, did not bother the fish.

We loved the austerity of the place, the old nuns "keeping their difficult balance" as Wilber says, the cold marble floors, and the beautiful chapel - the last to be built by Boromini before his death. Actually, it was never finished as the patrons ran out of money.

And now, the nuns have passed away, many who had carried marks of starvation from WWII when they hid Jews in this convent. The "suori" fed us both breakfast and dinner, reprimanded us for our antics, and lovingly though harshly sometimes slapped our cheeks.

The Santa Maria dei Sette Dolori convent has been sold to a hotelier. The luxury and magnificence of the building belies the true love and growth that occurred there. Students would never be allowed to roll their oranges down the hall after dinner, or take their shoes off and skid down the carefully cleaned and swept floor, furtively watching out for the "suori" the whole time. The sinks in each room are now gone where every student dutifully washed their laundry, hanging it out on the balconies to dry. The metal beds that held studying students during the day, and sleeping students are night are replaced by velvet and silk monstrosities.

It is as if the convent has lost all character and personality. And so, this post is a requiem, perhaps, of that beautiful building and the nuns who were so long protectors of it.

Below are the pictures of what it is now. I will search around for pictures what it once was.

http://www.alpitourworldhotels.it/sito/ita/swfSchede/AMDONITAI8/index_new.asp?code=AMDONENGI8

Evening with the Vazquez & Flat Stanley

Here's how I spent my Wednesday night!

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested by Mary Ann

Staff Sgt. Jude Voss
1st Battalion, 3d Special Forces Group (Airborne)


His courage illustrates a combat truth to these veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam: Soldiers aren¢t thinking about glory or ideals in the midst of a battle. They fight for the men to the left and right of them.

And that's just what SSgt. Jude Voss did in September of 2006 when, without consideration to his safety, SSgt. Voss ran through enemy fire and the burning, smoking debris of a truck to rescue Sgt. 1st Class Greg Stube. Sgt. Stube was in a bad way. Uniform burning and legs busted, but because of the actions of SSgt. Voss he is alive today.

Because of his actions that day, SSgt. Voss was nominated for and received the Silver Star Medal for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action. "I did what everybody out there would do" Voss said. "I was just the closest guy."

You can read SSgt. Voss's story here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Have Every Right To Dream Heroic Dreams. Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Pope Honors the Irish - And why shouldn't he?

Irish Get Special Place for Corpus Christi Events Honors Recall Paul V and 1608 Flight of the Earls

ROME, MAY 21, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Thursday's Corpus Christi procession led by Benedict XVI will have a historical flavor honoring the Irish. Students from the Pontifical Irish College will have a special role in the Corpus Christi Mass and procession. Deacons Colin Crossey from the Diocese of Down and Connor, and Shane Gallagher from the Diocese of Raphoe will participate in the Mass. And six other seminarians (four of whom are Irish) will flank the Pope as he processes with the Eucharist from the Basilicas of St. John Lateran to St. Mary Major.

The participation of the Irish College seminarians hearkens back 400 years to 1608 when Earl Hugh O'Neill and his party received the honor of carrying the canopy in the Corpus Christi procession. According to Monsignor Liam Bergin, Rector of the Pontifical Irish College, "The honor shown to the Irish Earls 400 years ago, by Pope Paul V, has been revisited on eight Irish College seminarians who will assist Pope Benedict in this procession tomorrow.

As this anniversary is being marked in Ireland and beyond by historical and cultural events, it is appropriate that the religious dimension is also acknowledged and that the welcome given to the Catholic princes four centuries ago, by the Holy See, be joyously celebrated today."

History O'Neill and his followers arrived in Rome on April 29, 1608, fleeing from Ireland. The party was received with full honors by Paul V and was given prominence at civil and religious events in the city. O'Neill, together with his son-in-law and six other nobles of his party, were given the particular honor of carrying the canopy in the Corpus Christi procession on June 5, 1608.

Tadhg Ó Cianáin's contemporary diary of the event records: "The Italians were greatly surprised that they should be shown such deference and respect, for some of them said that seldom before was any one nation in the world appointed to carry the canopy. With the ambassadors of all the Catholic kings and princes of Christendom who happened to be in the city at that time it was an established custom that they, in succession, every year got their opportunity to carry the canopy. They were jealous, envious, and surprised that they were not allowed to carry it on that particular day."

The 400th anniversary of the so-called flight of the Earls was widely celebrated in Ireland last year, as the party left Ireland on Sept. 14, 1607.

Marriage of True Minds

I love it when my favorite things come together, like the following:

1. Pope Benedict XVI in Yankee Stadium
2. Vanilla ice cream & warm apple crisp
3. New CD & a road trip
4. Eager student & old books

And the newest amazing pairing:

5. Country Music and Shakespeare - "To Quote Shakespeare" by The Clarke Family Experience.

Check it out.

O! The Ironies

Prince Charles is giving us 18 months to help the environment - or else ...

There was a time in our history when people were practically hostages to the weather. School could only be taught when the weather allowed children to get to the schoolhouse. Certain areas with extreme desert or tundra conditions were rendered inhabitable because there was no protection from the elements. Only those strong enough to endure harsh winters or harsh summer months would survive to adulthood. Travel was expensive, and costly not just in monetary terms, but also in terms of lives. One had to be rugged in order to endure a long trip without dying of disease, exposure or starvation.

In today's uber-technological world, it is absurd to schedule one's day around the weather. Employees are expected at work despite rain, wind or shine. Even times of flooding, blizzard of tornado are considered mere inconveniences that can be overcome in a matter of hours... or, in extreme cases, days. And yet, the heir to the British throne is telling us that billions of dollars MUST BE SPENT to stop deforestation and climate change.

Yes, this is heir to the same throne that successfully clear cut Ireland six hundred years ago. The Irish have survived. So can bonnie Prince Charlie.

Wednesday Hero

Sorry I've been out for a week. I had a conference in Boston, and chaos at work. Be back soon!


This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Cindy

Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Davila
From Sierra Vista, Arizona


On the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States, Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Davila raised an American flag over Camp Korean Village, Iraq, he brought with him from Arizona.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Sierra Vista firefighter and emergency medical technician Chris Davila presented that flag to Fire Chief Randy Redmond as fellow firefighters looked on. Monday, May 5, 2008, was Davila’s first day back on the job with the department after being gone for nearly nine months, with seven of those months deployed as a Navy Reserve corpsman serving with a Marine unit near the Jordanian and Syrian border area in Iraq.

And, as luck would have it, on his first shift saw him responding to a blaze in Sierra Vista. "Right back to work," he said with a laugh.

You can read the rest of PO 2nd Class Davila's story here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Wednesday Heroes: CCM Robert Prosser & LTC Erik Kurilla

CSM Robert Prosser and LTC Erik Kurilla
1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (Deuce Four)


LTC. Erik Kurilla and CSM. Robert Prosser's story is an amazing one. One that Michael Yon has told far better than I ever could. Warning. The site contains very graphic images. Some may want to turn off images before viewing.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

The Long Fatal Love Chase

Here's Rush talking about it.

Her life was in shambles. She was about to lose her opportunity to take her dream job. Her husband was sabotaging her career, her adversary was wiping the floor with her. She turns to the man who has ever paid her any attention. Sure, he may have led the vast Right Wing Consipiracy to destroy her and her husband. Sure, he professes nothing but intense hatred and disgust for her. But she knows that he's hiding something. If she can just bring it to light, maybe she can give up her ambitious dreams and career goals. Maybe she won't have to try so hard. I mean, maybe, just maybe she can just be herself... she turns to the only man who has ever seen her for what she really is... evil.

He Staged a Fight - How Brilliant

I heard with suprise that Obama has "recovered from the Wright scandal" and is now back to double digits ahead of Hilary Clinton in the polls. Amazing. After his minister was outed for a being a racist, American-hating bigot, Obama has been able to publicly shed this monkey off his back, leaping ahead in the polls yet again.

Then, it occurred to me. Obama uses his 20 years as a Christian church-goer to counteract the claims that he is muslim. It is then presented that his 20 years as a church-goer have been spent listening to anti-American propoganda. How could he possible get back into the race after his solution for one problem creates another?

He stages a public fight with the very man who was supposed to save his non-muslim reputation. Wright gets in front of the media, says some other crazy ridiculous things, Obama condemns him, Wright feigns being "hurt", and the problem goes away.

Except that one still suspects that Obama hates America.
Except that one still suspects that Obama is a racist.
Except that one still suspects that Obama is more slippery than an eel.

Because one remembers that a 20 year friendship can sustain a public fight.
Because one remembers that a 20 year career spent preparing for the Presidency can stand to be a bit embarrassed for a weekend.

I'm betting that the Reverend Wright will still hold the bible when Obama takes the oath of office as the President.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may...

We had a great day today at the zoo with Xavier & Tilly. The fleetness of Spring brought this poem to mind.

Make Much of Time
by Robert Herrick

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

Hill of Crosses

When I went to Lithuania two years ago, I visited a placed called The Hill of Crosses. During the uprising of 1831 when Lithuania was occupied by the Russians, some revolutionaries were praying in a chapel. The Russians surrounded the chapel, locked all the windows and doors. They then covered the chapel with dirt, killing everyone inside.

The people started bringing crosses to this hill as a memorial to those killed inside the chapel. During the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, the Soviets took all the wooden crosses and burned them. The metals ones they bulldozed into the ground. One night, a group of the faithful took a 30' foot cross and began a march towards the hill. The Soviets heard about the plan, and placed a stake out at the hill in order to catch and prosecute those in charge.

The next morning, as the sun rose over the Hill of Crosses, the silouette of a 30' cross was seen on the horizon.

John Paul II visited this hill, calling it a place of hope, peace and sacrifice. There are crosses from concentration camp victims, from pilgrims from all over the world, and of course, from the native Lithuanians. They are a proud people, and this place is a testament to their unflinching fidelity to the cross.

The St. Brigid's cross is my sister Deborah's. It was the only celtic cross that I saw there. The one below is from the St. Benedict Center.

Blu-oo-oo-ue, Blue Blue Blue - oo

Life is too short not to have a blue tongue every now and again.

Racism Revisited

I figure that I ought to expand my views on racism in America given the obscure references in my previous post.

When I was growing up, my parents taught me to appreciate the unique gifts in each person. Its really that simple. There are differences in people, and the differences that divide people is usually in ideas and principles. Regardless of ideas and principles, God loves each person individually and it is up to each person what they do with that love.

Notice that there is nothing about race in there.

Okay, so when I became an adult, and questions about race would come up, I found it amazing when people would talk about which races were acceptable to be friends with, which races were acceptable to date/marry, etc. Dividing people by race doesn't make any sense to me, especially because we knew many families who had adopted children from all over the world, and the color of someone's skin said almost nothing about their character or personality. I also thought that most people, except those rare racist types, thought like I did.

Jeremiah Wright has made a business out of being black. He has found a way to rally people around him based on the fact that they all share an ancestry from the same continent. That makes no sense to me. Maybe if they shared a same culture, like Tutsi or Kenyan... but no. He really has gathered a whole Church together based on the idea that they claim an allegiance to a large mass of land with as many diverse cultures as a mosaic has colors. And he's found that the easiest way to unite a people is by giving them a common enemy - not because they share a culture. No, they are united in the idea that a common enemy has oppressed them and is a wicked and cruel murderous tyrant. And again, for JW, its a business from which he has profited handsomely.

For him to play the victim is typical, of course. He's used to manipulating people, so why not? Why not bank of hundreds of years of real cruelty and oppression and convince people who are just as privileged as he is that they have suffered from this same cruelty? When one thinks of the real abuse, the inhumanity that occurred during slavery and compare it to what Jeremiah Wright has "suffered", it is a mockery to those who really did suffer. When one thinks of the truly lost opportunities by those who were turned away from jobs, housing and marketplaces and compare it to a Princeton graduate who writes that blacks will never have access to the highest places in American society, it is pure mockery of those truly brave ones like Rosa Park.

Sure, there is still racism in America and in every corner of the world. Human nature has not changed. However, until we stop using racism as an excuse to perpetuate our own victimhood, we will never learn to move beyond it, and we'll never be a nation united.

I say God bless America, and so should every American regardless of race.

Logic of Jeremiah Wright

Here goes:

JW says racist things, which proves that racism still exists in America. If you criticize him for his racists remarks, then you are persecuting him because he's just trying to show you that racism exists, and your persecution of him proves that racism exists. So, even though people are trying to villianize him, really he's just a racist victim of racism.

Racism is bad bad bad. He knows that better than anyone because he is a racist.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

To William Shakespeare, and Aimee Cowan!!!

Take this Shakespeare quiz to see how much you actually know.

Then go and visit Aimee on her blog!!

Some fun facts about me and Aimee:

• While roommates in college we rearranged our room every Monday afternoon while the freshman below us tried to take a nap.
• We travelled to Spain, Ireland and Venice together after our Rome semester.
• While roommates we each had the bed that we didn't want for fear of hurting the others feelings!!
• We agreed to go to graduate school together, but never applied to the same schools!
• She went to every station Mass in Rome... while I always set my alarm to go, but rarely made it.

I'll add more as I think about them throughout the day!

Heard from the hallways...

"So, I found out where the library is. I walked by a building and I saw M- and G- (two fellow students) in there and I said to myself, 'that must be the library."

Interesting ...

Pope & the Confederacy

"Under the reign of Pope Pius IX, an interesting link developed between the Vatican and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America...

"Remarkably, the Pope himself offered the most solace afforded to the former Confederate President by two simple gifts while he was in prison. A personally hand-woven Crown of Thorns symbolized Davis’s suffering at the hands of his enemies. And Davis likely found additional comfort in a portrait of the Pope, autographed by the pontiff with the words from Sacred Writ, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.' "

****I heard about this from one of the commentators during the Holy Father's visit... but the above is from Here.

Kids Aren't That Stupid

So, yesterday was the PERFECT Spring Day. The sun was shining, it was the perfect temperature outside, and the wind was blowing lightly as if to caress the newly sprouted grass and brightly colored crocuses. I cut a few of my classes short and brought the kids outside to walk in the spring puddles and enjoy the blue sky.

In the afternoon, I met some of the students in the quaint New England college town of New London. Its a cute town with lots of little shops, and one of the best ice cream stands around. Let's put it this way, they serve ice cream AND espresso. What could be better than that? So, when my students finished selling advertisements for the yearbook, I met up with them and took them out for ice cream. So far, so good.

We called one of the parents and arranged to meet at the dock so they could pick up their kids. On the way, the Dad called me and said that he'd be running late.

We don't mind. Its a sunny day. We'll walk on the dock.

Idiot.

"Elijah, I'll give you five dollars if you jump in."

"Yeah right, the water is freezing."

... minutes later...

"what will you give me to jump in?"

Me: You are not jumping in. You cannot ride in my car if you're wet. The water is freezing. There is still ice on the lake.

Does it matter? no.

*splash*

The worst part of this whole situation, is that the kid had reasons:

1. Impress the girls at school
2. Make my stock go up among the boys
3. Have something to talk about at school

It sounds so logical, but is so idiotic.

From the Holy Father

"Love your priests!"

The Golden Rose

Did anyone notice that our Holy Father seemed a bit surprised at the gift from the Archdiocese of Washington? It was a check for $890,000 to be used towards his charities. He seemed to start and I am conflicted as to whether it was the amount of the gift, or the fact that it was money itself.

Our Holy Father's gift is beautiful - a Golden Rose in honor of Our Mother. Next time I'm in D.C., I'm visiting that rose.

Pax tecum

"We accept the challenge to reject the tyranny of relativism." President George Bush

Holy Father's Visit

A Good Resource for the Holy Father's Visit

Buon Compleano at te - PPBXVI

I hope I look this great at 81!

The Force

I received the ultimate compliment yesterday. I was invited to celebrate Xavier's 4th birthday with him. He told his parents that he wanted Luke Skywalker, Yoda and Jessica to come! While he ate his birthday cake, he assured me that at least Luke would still come, but maybe not Yoda. Yoda lives in a galaxy far far away.

Follow up

So, after my little "run in" with the mud, my car shook like a shivering puppy out in the rain anytime I went over 55mph. Luckily, I have free tire rotation at BJ's and I figured that it needed to be aligned after "the incident".

I took it into BJ's, and the mud was caked so hard into the tire that they had to use the balancing machine to scrape the mud off of it. The whole rotation process was supposed to take 3o minutes, but just scraping the dirt out of the wheel took 30 minutes.

They don't do alignments and my tire rotation was free!!!!!!!

I am the luckiest girl alive :)

Off Roadin'

Sort of...

My wheel was completely submerged... and so was my exhaust.

Doesn't it look like chocolate swamp in Candy Land?

Deb arrived on the scene and stayed for moral support.

Ahhh... mud season in New Hampshire.

Politically Incorrect Saint

BLESSED ANTHONY NEYROT

Anthony was born in northern Italy in the fifteenth century. He joined the Dominican order in Florence, Italy. The prior at that time was another saint, Antoninus. This saint was to have a great influence on Blessed Anthony. Brother Anthony was sailing from Naples to Sicily when pirates captured the ship. Anthony was taken to Tunis and sold as a slave. He was able to win his freedom, but fell away from the Church. He denied his faith in Jesus and abandoned his religious vocation. He accepted the Koran, the sacred book of the Muslims. For several months, he practiced the Muslim religion. He also married. In the meantime, his former Dominican prior, the saintly Antoninus, died. This led Anthony to have a shocking experience. It seems that one night, Anthony had something like a dream. St. Antoninus appeared to him. The conversation between the two men was to lead to a radical change in Anthony. He became truly sorry for having betrayed the Lord. He knew that in his heart he could never give up his faith in Jesus. He knew that he could only be a Catholic. And he realized that he still wanted very much to be a Dominican brother. Blessed Anthony sent his wife back to her family. He then put on his white Dominican habit. In spite of his fear, he went to see the ruler of Tunis. A large crowd gathered and the ruler came out to the courtyard. Brother Anthony publicly admitted he had made a terrible mistake. He was a Catholic. He believed in and loved Jesus. He was a Dominican and wanted to be so for all his life. The ruler was angry. He threatened and then made promises of rewards if only Anthony would take back what he was saying. But Anthony would not. He knew this meant his death. Anthony knelt and began to pray for the courage to give his life for Jesus. Suddenly he felt the large stones pounding him. He just kept praying for the strength to remain true to the Lord. Then he lost consciousness.

Anthony died a martyr in 1460. Some merchants from Genoa, Italy, took his remains back to his own country.

Emily Dickenson

IN A LIBRARY

A precious, mouldering pleasure
't isTo meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,
His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.
His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;
What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;
When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,
He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.
His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

Wednesday Hero - Michael Williams

Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael T. Williams
(Click Image For Full Size)


Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael T. Williams, a kennel master with Task Force Military Police, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, and his dog "Kitt", search for ordnance and firearms during a route reconnaissance operation through the western Anbar province of Iraq April 1. The dog handlers conduct operations in support of 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion to bring peace and stability to Iraq and its people.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Farewell to Snow

We took advantage of one of the last Saturday nights of winter to enjoy the slopes at Pats Peak.

Here we are, chillin' out on the ski lift waiting to get to the top.

Nathaniel & Ana looked awesome in their sunglasses, until Nathaniel dropped his under the ski lift!!

He didn't really need them. He's a great skier anyway. You should have seen him going over the rolly pollies, until his skis were over his head, and eventually detached from his feet!!

Tim was a great skier who love the "wall" - he even went down a few blue square trails, and really kicked up the snow!!

Rose loved the glades, and did a great job navigating the trees!! Who wouldn't be a great skier with that scarf on??

Ana - coming in a for a crash landing... as was her usual.

The sign reads "Please use caution: Experts only". It was really too crowded for us on this trip, so we left this run for another day.

Sunday Bookstore

So, I went into a bookstore today to look around at, well, books. I won't say which bookstore. Its not THAT important. I was in particular need of a copy of the Inferno, but I wanted Mendelbaum's translation. So, I headed for the Literature and Fiction section. Sometimes, the larger chain store will split these two sections apart, and put more classical books into Literature, but I don't really think it matters since great works are always relevant. I couldn't find one anyway.

So, I started searching for the elusive "Classics" section which they sometimes put near Philosophy. Still nothing - it didn't exist. There was a strange temporary and very ill-displayed bunch of cheap versions of some of the classics, but I still couldn't find the Divine Comedy. With a sigh, I decided to find the Literary Criticism section to see if I could find anything about the Divine Comedy. There was no Literary Criticism section, it was simply called Literary.

Literary what?

In honor of Yeats, I leave you with:

A Coat

I MADE my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eyes
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

The Redress of Poetry

"The world" is shocked by the reports that a group of third graders plotted to stab their teacher and clean up after the bloody mess. The media reported it, and people repeat the story, each with their own, or someone else's opinion about how this could happen. The favorite culprit, of course, if video games, the internet or television. I'm not one to say that any of these people are not correct. However, there has been a shift, some sort of a change in the way that media (by this term I mean any sort of communicative device, like a painting, a movie, etc.) influences and educates a human person.

A few years ago, I picked up a book written in 1978 that was a commentary on the way that television reflects society. The purpose of the book, however, was to propose that television is actually a way to reflect that way that society ought to be. Indeed, its authors are not newcomers to this idea. Literature itself has always proposed scenarios about how love stories "ought" to end. Romeo and Juliette, for example, is a story about families allowing their own hatred and ambition ignore the upbringing of their children. Their children, in turn, have nor moral compass to guide them through what they impetuously perceive as love. This scenario, is compounded by a foolish priest who suggests to them that they heal their families through a secret marriage. We all know the end of the story, but the real conclusion is the life lessons that can be learned through this tragedy. Don't ignore your children, don't trust the judgment of a 16 year old, and don't trust men who compare you to the moon. Shakespeare's success relies upon the fact that this scenario is timeless, and his stories are relevant to every age and culture.

Rather than using television then, to represent either what is, or what was, producers went another direction and proposed what they think ought to be without any moral compass, like Romeo and Juliette. But rather than what "ought to be" in a world where high ideals exist and the nobility of the human spirit reigns supreme, the media decided to represent "what's cool". What's cool, as William Faulkner explains is "not of the heart, but of the glands."

Others disagreed with this turn. Vice President Quayle chided Murphy Brown for glorifying single motherhood. People called him "behind the times" and others lauded Candace Bergman for representing what women "can attain" meaning a beautiful harmony involving a successful careers and joyful motherhood. While pundits plauded the show and the message it portrayed, the storyline itself is not sustainable. I cannot think of any popular sitcom at the moment that portrays a single working mom where there is no man in the picture. Not only does it not work in reality, it can't even work in the fictional world of television. Without realizing it, this experiment to show people what "ought to be" in this utopian world of high definition television is failing. It can't continue its own storyline.

However, that doesn't mean that the storyline is not being continued off the screen in the lives of hundreds of fans around the world. There is some collateral damage to this sort of experiment. A mother of an 8 year old girl told me that her daughter has started saying that she's "fat". The mother doesn't know where she gets it from because she watches very little television. The mother's instinct is key here - because this mom knows what messages her daughter will get if she does watch television. What the mom doesn't realize, is that she gets it from her friends at school who do watch television. She also gets it from the clothes stores that make clothes smaller and smaller for growing girls.

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet from Derry, in northern Ireland. He grew up in a world of violence where the pronunciation of your name, Seamus or James, dictated whether or not you would get housing, food stamps, a job at the local factory or harrassed at the local checkpoint on main street. He left the north of Ireland amidst much criticism for abandoning his country. There was a lot of pressure for him to use his talent and his art to tell the story of what was happening. Yet, he went to the south of Ireland and purchased a small cottage where he could reflect on what ought to be, not what was. In his nobel prize acceptance speech, he quotes Wallace Stevens who says that "the nobility of poetry is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without." In other words, the struggles of life which can be fought through wars and violence, can be wrestled within the imagination, mitigating the violence that can occur in the world.

There are a large number of writers in recent years who have emerged from the violence of their own childhoods. Toni Morrison writes about slavery. Czeslaw Milosz survived in Warsaw during World War II and defected from the Soviet Union years later. These writers, if true to their craft, will use their writing to point to a world that ought to be. This world will include virtues such as perseverence, modesty, fortitude, bravery, kychekw`love, sacrifice and honor among others. For the poet to write about these "old verities" as William Faulkner explains in should be one of the "props, pillars to help [man] endure and prevail."

Television and other forms of media, like poetry, needs to come to terms with its responsibility in the world and its effects on those who view it. The Holy Father recently enjoined the media to consider developing a kind of info-ethics, akin to bio-ethics for the scientific community. Until all forms of media are willing to accept that words, images, pictures, and music actually mean something, third grade teacher ought to start packing heat.

This is What I Did to celebrate Easter

Othello had a great time visiting with the nephews in Delaware, until he went "wets" on me and one of the kids. Nicholas discovered a long lost friend in him and was sorely disappointed when Othello had to go home. It was quite sad.

We went to the park in Old New Castle (an oxymoron if ever there is one). And enjoyed the playground, the beach, the porta-potties and the basketball court.

We looked for treasure washed up along the shore, but we only found a few Spanish dubloons, and some trinkets from the Titanic. Nothing big.

Dominic and Isaiah went in search of clams... and some of those elusive buggers really had to be coaxed onto shore.

Isaiah proudly shows off his catch, while Alex shows fraternal joy in support of his brother.

Kiernan has been dancing since he was in the womb, I'm told, and this shot proves that he only needed to find an appropriate dancing partner - one that could keep up with his smooth moves. Only the tide fits this bill.

Just hanging out with the nephews in the playground!

Our final trick of the day!!!

This is What its All About...

Magdi Allam Recounts His Path to Conversion

Benedict XVI Baptized the Journalist at Easter Vigil

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Magdi Allam’s account of his conversion to Catholicism. The Muslim journalist was baptized by Benedict XVI at Saturday's Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
An abbreviated form of this account appeared as a letter to Paolo Mieli, the director of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Allam is the paper’s deputy director. The Italian version of the complete text is available at magdiallam.it.* * *

Dear Friends,
I am particularly happy to share with you my immense joy for this Easter of Resurrection that has brought me the gift of the Christian faith. I gladly propose the letter that I sent to the director of the Corriere della Sera, Paolo Mieli, in which I tell the story of the interior journey that brought me to the choice of conversion to Catholicism. This is the complete version of the letter, which was published by the Corriere della Sera only in part.* * *Dear Director,
That which I am about to relate to you concerns my choice of religious faith and personal life in which I do not wish to involve in any way the Corriere della Sera, which it has been an honor to be a part of as deputy director “ad personam” since 2003. I write you thus as protagonist of the event, as private citizen.
Yesterday evening I converted to the Christian Catholic religion, renouncing my previous Islamic faith. Thus, I finally saw the light, by divine grace -- the healthy fruit of a long, matured gestation, lived in suffering and joy, together with intimate reflection and conscious and manifest expression. I am especially grateful to his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who imparted the sacraments of Christian initiation to me, baptism, confirmation and Eucharist, in the Basilica of St. Peter’s during the course of the solemn celebration of the Easter Vigil. And I took the simplest and most explicit Christian name: “Cristiano.” Since yesterday evening therefore my name is Magdi Crisitano Allam.
For me it is the most beautiful day of [my] life. To acquire the gift of the Christian faith during the commemoration of Christ’s resurrection by the hand of the Holy Father is, for a believer, an incomparable and inestimable privilege. At almost 56 […], it is a historical, exceptional and unforgettable event, which marks a radical and definitive turn with respect to the past. The miracle of Christ’s resurrection reverberated through my soul, liberating it from the darkness in which the preaching of hatred and intolerance in the face of the “different,” uncritically condemned as “enemy,” were privileged over love and respect of “neighbor,” who is always, an in every case, “person”; thus, as my mind was freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimates lies and deception, violent death that leads to murder and suicide, the blind submission to tyranny, I was able to adhere to the authentic religion of truth, of life and of freedom.
On my first Easter as a Christian I not only discovered Jesus, I discovered for the first time the face of the true and only God, who is the God of faith and reason. My conversion to Catholicism is the touching down of a gradual and profound interior meditation from which I could not pull myself away, given that for five years I have been confined to a life under guard, with permanent surveillance at home and a police escort for my every movement, because of death threats and death sentences from Islamic extremists and terrorists, both those in and outside of Italy.
I had to ask myself about the attitude of those who publicly declared fatwas, Islamic juridical verdicts, against me -- I who was a Muslim -- as an “enemy of Islam,” “hypocrite because he is a Coptic Christian who pretends to be a Muslim to do damage to Islam,” “liar and vilifier of Islam,” legitimating my death sentence in this way. I asked myself how it was possible that those who, like me, sincerely and boldly called for a “moderate Islam,” assuming the responsibility of exposing themselves in the first person in denouncing Islamic extremism and terrorism, ended up being sentenced to death in the name of Islam on the basis of the Quran. I was forced to see that, beyond the contingency of the phenomenon of Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictive.
At the same time providence brought me to meet practicing Catholics of good will who, in virtue of their witness and friendship, gradually became a point of reference in regard to the certainty of truth and the solidity of values. To begin with, among so many friends from Communion and Liberation, I will mention Father Juliàn Carròn; and then there were simple religious such as Father Gabriele Mangiarotti, Sister Maria Gloria Riva, Father Carlo Maurizi and Father Yohannis Lahzi Gaid; there was rediscovery of the Salesians thanks to Father Angelo Tengattini and Father Maurizio Verlezza, which culminated in a renewed friendship with major rector Father Pascual Chavez Villanueva; there was the embrace of top prelates of great humanity like Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Monsignor Luigi Negri, Giancarlo Vecerrica, Gino Romanazzi and, above all, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, who personally accompanied me in the journey of spiritual acceptance of the Christian faith.
But undoubtedly the most extraordinary and important encounter in my decision to convert was that with Pope Benedict XVI, whom I admired and defended as a Muslim for his mastery in setting down the indissoluble link between faith and reason as a basis for authentic religion and human civilization, and to whom I fully adhere as a Christian to inspire me with new light in the fulfillment of the mission God has reserved for me.
Mine was a journey that began when at four years old, my mother Safeya -- a believing and practicing Muslim -- in the first in the series of “fortuitous events” that would prove to be not at all the product of chance but rather an integral part of a divine destiny to which all of us have been assigned -- entrusted me to the loving care of Sister Lavinia of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, convinced of the goodness of the education that would be imparted by the Catholic and Italian religious, who had come to Cairo, the city of my birth, to witness to their Christian faith through a work aimed at the common good. I thus began an experience of life in boarding school, followed by the Salesians of the Institute of Don Bosco in junior high and high school, which transmitted to me not only the science of knowledge but above all the awareness of values.
It is thanks to members of Catholic religious orders that I acquired a profoundly and essentially an ethical conception of life, in which the person created in the image and likeness of God is called to undertake a mission that inserts itself in the framework of a universal and eternal design directed toward the interior resurrection of individuals on this earth and the whole of humanity on the day of judgment, which is founded on faith in God and the primacy of values, which is based on the sense of individual responsibility and on the sense of duty toward the collective. It is in virtue of a Christian education and of the sharing of the experience of life with Catholic religious that I cultivated a profound faith in the transcendent dimension and also sought the certainty of truth in absolute and universal values.
There was a time when my mother’s loving presence and religious zeal brought me closer to Islam, which I occasionally practiced at a cultural level and in which I believed at a spiritual level according to an interpretation that at the time -- it was the 1970s -- summarily corresponded to a faith respectful of persons and tolerant toward the neighbor, in a context -- that of the Nasser regime -- in which the secular principle of the separation of the religious sphere and the secular sphere prevailed.
My father Muhammad was completely secular and agreed with the opinion of the majority of Egyptians who took the West as a model in regard to individual freedom, social customs and cultural and artistic fashions, even if the political totalitarianism of Nasser and the bellicose ideology of Pan-Arabism that aimed at the physical elimination of Israel unfortunately led to disaster for Egypt and opened the way to the resumption of Pan-Islamism, to the ascent of Islamic extremists to power and the explosion of globalized Islamic terrorism.
The long years at school allowed me to know Catholicism well and up close and the women and men who dedicated their life to serve God in the womb of the Church. Already then I read the Bible and the Gospels and I was especially fascinated by the human and divine figure of Jesus. I had a way to attend Holy Mass and it also happened, only once, that I went to the altar to receive communion. It was a gesture that evidently signaled my attraction to Christianity and my desire to feel a part of the Catholic religious community.
Then, on my arrival in Italy at the beginning of the 1970s between the rivers of student revolts and the difficulties of integration, I went through a period of atheism understood as a faith, which nevertheless was also founded on absolute and universal values. I was never indifferent to the presence of God even if only now I feel that the God of love, of faith and reason reconciles himself completely with the patrimony of values that are rooted in me.
Dear Director, you asked me whether I fear for my life, in the awareness that conversion to Christianity will certainly procure for me yet another, and much more grave, death sentence for apostasy. You are perfectly right. I know what I am headed for but I face my destiny with my head held high, standing upright and with the interior solidity of one who has the certainty of his faith. And I will be more so after the courageous and historical gesture of the Pope, who, as soon has he knew of my desire, immediately agreed to personally impart the Christian sacraments of initiation to me. His Holiness has sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too prudent in the conversion of Muslims, abstaining from proselytizing in majority Muslim countries and keeping quiet about the reality of converts in Christian countries. Out of fear. The fear of not being able to protect converts in the face of their being condemned to death for apostasy and fear of reprisals against Christians living in Islamic countries. Well, today Benedict XVI, with his witness, tells us that we must overcome fear and not be afraid to affirm the truth of Jesus even with Muslims.
For my part, I say that it is time to put an end to the abuse and the violence of Muslims who do not respect the freedom of religious choice. In Italy there are thousands of converts to Islam who live their new faith in peace. But there are also thousands of Muslim converts to Christianity who are forced to hide their faith out of fear of being assassinated by Islamic extremists who lurk among us. By one of those “fortuitous events” that evoke the discreet hand of the Lord, the first article that I wrote for the Corriere on Sept. 3, 2003 was entitled “The new Catacombs of Islamic Converts.” It was an investigation of recent Muslim converts to Christianity in Italy who decry their profound spiritual and human solitude in the face of absconding state institutions that do not protect them and the silence of the Church itself. Well, I hope that the Pope’s historical gesture and my testimony will lead to the conviction that the moment has come to leave the darkness of the catacombs and to publicly declare their desire to be fully themselves. If in Italy, in our home, the cradle of Catholicism, we are not prepared to guarantee complete religious freedom to everyone, how can we ever be credible when we denounce the violation of this freedom elsewhere in the world? I pray to God that on this special Easter he give the gift of the resurrection of the spirit to all the faithful in Christ who have until now been subjugated by fear. Happy Easter to everyone.
Dear friends, let us go forward on the way of truth, of life and of freedom with my best wishes for every success and good thing.
Magdi Allam

Yes, America...

I am still giddy about the Giants winning the Superbowl :)

Star Wars - An untold Tale

Okay - so, over at Aimee's blog, there is the handsome and loquacious Xavier telling what REALLY happened during Star Wars, including the little know, yet vital contributions made by the Lego Warriors. However, I feel that I may have stumbled onto some very adept story tellers myself - here.

A few new ones!!

1. Driving Deb's Jeep to the ocean
2. Taking the dogs on a picnic
3. Jumping in rain puddles (thanks LIZ!!)
4. Summer festivals
5. Outdoor theatres
6. Swimming in the ocean
7. Ice cream
8. Getting dark at 9:30pm
9. Road trips!!
10. Summer animals - deer, squirrels, bunnies, etc.

Summertime!!

So, in anticipation of summer - it has to come sometime, right - here are somethings I'd like to do.

1. Get a tan that does not involve a sock-tanline
2. Run a few more 5K's with the nieces...
3. Go to the ocean
4. Take a few road trips
5. Camp in Wyoming
6. Garden - a big bright full beautiful garden
7. Go to Nova Scotia
8. Write a children's book
9. Hike a few of the Presidentials
10. Picnic next to a waterfall
11. Go kayaking
12. Go canoing - with Kathy :)
13. Take the dogs to the beach
14. Get ice cream
15. Find an outdoor Shakespearian play
16. Read a book in the sun, and then take a nap
17. Take Aimee's kids to the zoo (Aimee & Will can come too!)
18. Celebrate Ana's graduation from college
19. Drink a cool glass of lemonade in the shade
20. Have an early morning breakfast outside

That's a good start anyway. When will winter end!!!

(*I have no idea who this child is!)