Catechesis and the Water Cycle

Me: Your teacher sent a video about the water cycle.

Sleeping Dragon: What's the water cycle?
Me: Water goes from water to ---

Sleeping Dragon: Wine?

Me: No.  Water goes from water to ---

Sleeping Dragon: Blood?

Well, we have succeeded in catechesis.  

Rochester and Bertha Mason

The overwhelming opinion of my undergrads is that the marriage between Rochester and Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre is invalid.  Are they right? Debate over dinner tonight.

FTW

Today, I made a child do chores because she was complaining of boredom.  Friends, I have arrived.

Dilemmas

Preschooler: I have to blow my nose, but then I will have to wash my hands! I don't know what to do.

She is learning something from the times.  But also, why is washing hands so terrible?  #PandemicProblems #5yearolddilemmas

Next Year in Jerusalem

I hope you are having a blessed Triduum, my 3.14 readers.  It's hard to be exiled from your liturgy at such a liturgical time and I miss the celebrations terribly, despite the difficulties last year in bringing two young children to long church services. I find myself longing for something tangible in the era of virtual everything. 

The Dominican friars gave a great guide to the Triduum at home, but it was a little too... "advanced" for my domestic church.  You can see it here.  I want more suggestions like this from our parish and bishop.  How can we transform our homes into churches when we cannot gather for Mass?

The Captain suggested that we do a "seder" on Thursday night, and it was a beautiful experience of how to have a ritual, embodied prayer in the midst of our exile from our normal ritual, embodied prayer.  Especially moving was the last line: "Next year in Jerusalem!"  In my exile from the Eucharist, that is my prayer.

It's Been a Bit

It's been a while, folks.  Chances are that I have lost most of my 3.14 readers; I'm probably down to 0.14 by now.  However, my family is currently isolated due to Virginia's "stay at home" order, and I have decided that now is the time to re-emerge on the internet.  Just for the time of crisis, when events like finding a mostly-full container of Clorox wipes hidden in the basement cause excess amounts of joy.  When my greatest triumph is successfully getting a twelve-pack of toilet paper shipped to my house.

Things That Exist: Dialectics for Kids

In the course of initial research for my philosophical anthropology course (i.e. what is the human person, for Aquinas and Hegel), I discovered... "Dialectics for Kids: Dialectics Defined Since 1999"!  It includes "The ABC's of Change" (for kids four and up); three songs about the dialectic, written by the website's creator; and testimonials from real-live kids who learned about dialectics (by watching balloons explode?).

Science, Society, and Entertainment

I came across this story from NPR earlier this week. It's about the beginnings of incubators for premature babies.  Here's a teaser: it does not involve hospitals and does involve a sideshow.  Science has come a long way and gotten some help from unexpected places.


(Photo by Bonnie U. Gruenberg (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Thank You, Thank You Very Much

First, read the intro to this series here.

50 Ways to Be a Woman: #4

Write thank you notes. It is one of the best ways to make a good impression and literally takes five seconds. It is a dying art that so desperately needs to be revived. If someone is nice enough to give you a gift or recommend you to a position, the least you can do is give them a proper thank you. People remember thank you notes.

I am actually not going to fudge around and change this one.  Write thank you notes.
This one is not something I am terribly good at.  I had a boss who wrote the world's best thank you notes, full of personal warmth and sincere gratitude.  Mine are awkward and stilted, but sincere. It's a skill my mother forced upon me as a child for a brief period of time, and which then lay all but forgotten, momentarily revived when I was told, "Your grandmother sent you money, but it won't hit your bank account until she gets a thank you note."

Enter wedding time.  Do you know what happens when you get engaged?  And then married?  And then have a baby?  People you barely know give you things you don't deserve.  People you know well give you more than you need.  People who love you turn out in material abundance, emotional abundance, spiritual abundance.  I have written so many thank you notes from the time I got engaged to now... Hopefully the habit will stick.  Because thank you notes let those who give know that you do not take them for granted---that you do not expect the world to provide for you---and that you know how to receive graciously.  The art of gratitude becomes manifest in the art of the thank you note.


Way of Womanhood #4: Write thank you notes; it helps you cultivate gratitude.

For next week, we have #5: "Get involved. Join societies and organizations that have a positive influence in your community. Create positive exposure for yourself."

Photo by Flickr user vistamommy [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In Lieu of a Thoughtful Post...

I give you this image of periodic table battleship, from TYWKIWDBI:



I also will not embarrass myself by sharing how many times it took me to spell "lieu." (Or "embarrass" for that matter...)

The Captain, the Sleeping Dragon, and I spent Valentine's Day eating chocolate chip pancakes and watching the Republican Debate.  The latter especially does not provoke profound thoughts, so this is all I've got this week.

On Pearls

First, read the intro to this series here.

50 Ways to Be a Woman: #3

Certain fashion staples will always remain timeless. A few conservative dresses, a string of pearls, a nice handbag and a good pair of pumps should always be in your wardrobe.

If the last item on the list was about knowing what you are communicating to the world by how you present your body and choosing deliberately, this item suggests that there is a particular image that ought to be presented.  Conservative dresses, a string of pearls, a handbag, pumps---these are timeless, classic, and professional.  For a woman, this wardrobe communicates: I am comfortable with my femininity and I am a woman to be respected.  While there are ways beyond pearls to do this, the message carries:

When I Said Fruit Salad...

First, read the intro to this series here.

50 Ways to Be a Woman: #2

Dress modestly. Gain attention through who you are rather than the parts of your body you choose to expose. It is worth far more in the long run.

The first two items on the list have to do with women's bodies.  The first item I rewrote to focus on the importance of being in touch with our own bodies, of knowing the physical part of our body-soul self---and knowing how to limit it as necessary.

The Problems of Embodiment

I promised one post a week and am already behind... because when Sunday evening rolled around, I had a baby who was having problems with embodiment (read: bowels) and was exhausted from trying to help the bitsy one work through it.  Never fear, however---the next post is one the way.  In the meantime, here's something interesting I found on embodiment: scientist are finding out what the appendix does!

Graceful Embodiment

First, read the intro to this series here.

50 Ways to Be a Woman: #1

Practice good personal grooming habits. If you are going to have colored hair, keep your roots covered. If you are going to have fake nails, keep them filled. Take care of your skin, take care of your teeth. 

I want to go a few directions with this one, so please bear with me.  First of all, my inner feminist is screaming because at the top of the list of how to be a woman, we are told to cover our roots.  This superficial approach to our femininity can be seen as the cause and effect of so many gender problems of our society.  I could go off on a rant about these....

The Art of Womanliness

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am starting a series taking a Thought Catalog list of "50 Ways to Be a Woman" and annotating it, one item at a time.  I chose this list from convenience (it appeared on my Facebook) more than any completeness of the list.

One Down, Three to Go!

I have finished one semester of the PhD program and I have learned that when life is full, the extraneous things fall away.  Most of the extraneous things, I haven't even missed. However, I do miss blogging, and so I have come up with a plan for the coming year.  Once a week, I will write a post inspired by a list I found of "50 Ways to Be a Woman."  Consider it the prequel to my Catholic feminist manifesto.  Await it eagerly, my friends!

Seven Things with Names

In some cultures, names are thought to give one great insight into the one being named.  While many in our culture want their names to express their selves (have you seen that Facebook “quiz” that splits names into blatantly false root words), I would argue that our names say more about the namer than the named.

And so, I thought, for today's quick takes, I would share seven of the names in our household, for your insight into my mind and the Captain’s:

1. Elefantiles (Eh-lih-FAHN-tih-leez) the Elephant
   

Taylor Swift and Plato

In honor of the first week of taxes, I share this gem with you.  If Taylor Swift and Plato met:

SOCRATES: Yes, I see. Alcibiades is, in fact, a player who will play, play, play.
SWIFT: Yes, very much so.
SOCRATES: But must he? That is the question at hand.
SWIFT: I believe he must for, consider that the hater must hate, hate, hate, and the faker must fake, fake, fake. Why should the player be different?

 Read it an enjoy while I go study St. Augustine!

How Far Is Too Far?

How far is too far? -- Not how close is too close.  I ran across an Ethika Politika piece the other day that piqued my interest because the writer articulated some of the feelz I have in an accessible and non-emotional account. 

It deals with couples (and individuals) who eschew all/almost all physical affection until marriage.  These are the side-hug, no-hand-holding, first-kiss-on-the-altar type folk.  While the idea of purity appeals to me, something about this manner of courtship has started to bother me more and more since I first heard about (and considered) it in high school.  

When Women Refuse Consent

Let’s talk about consent for a moment.  Consent is this important concept that derives from the basic principle of autonomy.  The relationship is thus:

1. I have the right and duty to exercise my free will (autonomy).
2. The existence and exercise of said free will means that I am an actor and not an object.  I acted; I am not acted upon.
3. Sometimes, I am acted upon – for example, a medical procedure.  Because I am an actor, I must give permission for this “acting upon.”  This permission is called consent.
4. I have a right, under ordinary circumstances, to know/be told what will be done to me, what the possible consequences are, and what my other options are.  
5. If I refuse to give this permission, I should not be acted upon.