~ Here's some lovely modernist architectural photography (by Ezra Stoller) (via Francisco).
~ I'd like to submit and entry for this, but the picture of my kindergarten graduation isn't online. I'm pretty sure I insisted on a graduation setup of old books, old reading glasses, and an antique-looking candle.
~ Woah--Williamsport is the 10th most expensive city to buy a six-pack of Heineken. (I told you guys that Williamsport is a city!)
~ I don't know what to say about this and this, except it offends my liberated-woman sensibilities. Oh, and: It's super weird that the men who do more around the house and have less sex: "generally reported less work-life conflict and were scored slightly higher for wellbeing overall." Perhaps the lesson is that regardless of the amount of sex you have, at the end of the day commitment to your home and sacrifice are good things. We shouldn't just let women have a corner on caring for their family in the home.
~ On the medicalization of disability (and specifically, of psychiatry).
~ Simcha on lenten rookie mistakes. I love this because, still being a rookie at Catholicism, I've had several of these urges. Some I most identify with:
Giving Up All The Things!!! Don't forget: even though it's Lent, you still have to live the rest of your life. So it's probably not wise to take on such a complicated set of obligations and observances that you will need to hire a monk to follow you around, reminding you that you have exactly four minutes to make supper or earn a living before you're due for your next spiritual reading, or to pray anther five decades of the rosary, volunteer another half hour at the soup kitchen, say a blessing before, during, and after sneezing, and put a fresh set of dried peas in your shoes, all on four hours of sleep without a pillow and after a breakfast consisting of half a prune. Just pick one or two things that you can reasonably stick with, or you will burn out and/or drop dead.
Giving up the thing that makes you bearable Lent is about you doing sacrifices, not making everybody else suffer while they endure your enduring your sacrifice. If your family sits you down 48 hours into Lent and presents you with a court order demanding that you start smoking or drinking coffee again, then have mercy and listen to them.
Early on, my friend JL, Fr. OP's brother, just straight up told me--it doesn't work as well if you try to give up everything. You just end up not giving up any one thing very well. I think that's true--at least pick one thing to thoroughly give up.
Also--I always struggled to find something to give up that was an actual sacrifice, but that still allowed me to be productive with my work. Because I don't work very well when I'm not comfortable and happy--if I can't ever listen to music or drink coffee, etc.
1 comment:
I remember the year I gave up sugar for Lent -- I was on a dairy-free diet because I was nursing a baby who was allergic to cow's milk, and for some reason I thought that jettisoning sugar as well would be workable. That lasted exactly halfway through and I stopped because as Simcha put it, I was being a penance to the people around me. I've found that giving up non-material but not great habits (gossip sites, swearing) works pretty well for me.
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