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)