Fifty Shades of crap!

I mistakenly picked up this book in the airport thinking it was a mystery novel I had heard about that was suppose to be good.

It's a sexually graphic novel of a bondage themed business arrangement between two seemingly consenting individuals. It's pornographic and fairly boring aside from just plain odd. I ended up trashing it once I figured the only mystery was why this trash was on the bestseller's list. Is this what women's liberation looks like? Is this the fantasy women want? 

Apparently women are buying this trash so perhaps the answer is maybe.

I'm very ashamed of my gender. We are idiots or a select group of us are. 

Bill Bennet had a good analysis of what the whole hookup culture has done to women and it has not uplifted us. Nope, it degrades us and makes a person an object to desire and do with as one pleases. I've heard the arguments that the story ends in redemption and culminates into some semblance of self-sacrificial love. Interesting. So the climax so to speak isn't the erotic climax but the self-sacrificial climax. The erotic climaxes just keeps you in the story plugging along until you reach the real climax of what love actually is and what each of us truly yearns for, that one who will give up their own interests even to the point of death for the good of the other.

This type of material aside from exploring every crack and crevice of erotic pleasure or pain is addictive precisely because it does not satisfy. You'll want more and more of it to try to satisfy when what you really yearn for is found only in the opposite direction of where you are endlessly trapped. That is why I pitched the book, well that and I looked over at my daughter in the airplane seat next to me and decided this material was dangerous to her innocence and mine. I treasure her innocence and it's my job to protect it until such a time it becomes her job or her husband's.

And for the record, this was one of the trilogy books I was looking for and still haven't read:

Replacement Refs

Anyone catch Gripe and Mike on ESPN? They had this hilarious recording of "Roger Goodell's voicemail" . If you haven't heard it, you should. It's stellar, and then I also found this. Enjoy!

My family is bat crap crazy!

Those were the first words out of husband's mouth this morning.

Well actually it was, "Good morning gorgeous!" which just wrapped me in a blanket of warmth this chilly morning. I never thought anyone could love me as much as my husband does me and I wonder constantly, "Why would anyone love me??", but he does and I'm just grateful. Sometimes it's best not to wonder and just go straight to gratitude.

His second sentence was the today's blog title. 

Mom and dad got moved into assisted living on Monday. It's been stressful for all involved. He said he has a hard time being upset with his dad because he is just bat crap crazy at this point. He was an MP in the Army and the Director for medicare fraud in his career so he's been used to people taking his orders. He's had a hard time adjusting to an assisted living place. On day 2 he got moved into the memory care lock down unit because he took off out the door and couldn't explain to anyone where he was or where he was going by the time they caught him walking the streets. He's been angry and verbally abusive to mom so having him in lock-down is probably a good thing.

You might recall husband went down there last year to try to get them in assisted living but everyone fought him on it so in the end he put it all back in God's hands and came back home. So mom says yesterday "we probably should have gone into assisted living a few years ago" - You think? What a novel idea!

Well he has a hard time being upset with her too because as he said, "She's just crap crazy! The bats are coming!", which made me giggle.

I suppose it's good that we can laugh at the situation.

Well the interesting part of the situation for me came when he explained the God moment that happened:

Dad gets up every morning at 4 am. He has for years. We'd been praying for this whole situation of course and for moving day because we knew it would be stressful. Moving day came and the movers showed up to box up and load up the furniture. Dad was asleep. He didn't wake up until close to 8am by which time he wondered, "what the @#?@?". It all went pants at that point! Dad was up in arms why people were in his house taking his stuff. So as they calmed him, the movers moved the bedroom and boxed up that area because he was now out of bed! How convenient! 

It was chaotic and stressful but it was beautifully orchestrated in only a way God is able to do. I recall in each of our moves, it happened relatively quickly. There wasn't a whole lot of advanced notice and it always seemed a bit chaotic but in the chaos there was always this beautiful orchestrations of events that you just can't plan. That's where trust is so important. Trusting God's plan for our lives doesn't mean that things will turn out like we want or will be stress free but it does mean that he will be there in the midst of it. Although it was stressful in the midst of it, husband said it was the best thing that could have happened because everything got moved so easily, even the temper tantrum.

Evangelical Atheists

Do you ever notice the folks who espouse tolerance never actually practice it?

As a general disclaimer, I don't believe in tolerance. To tolerate something is to endure or permit (not resist) the action (of a drug or food) without side effects/discomfort or put up with something less than ideal. It's putting up with stuff! It's not reaching towards perfection but instead accepting and yearning for less than perfect. Honestly does that make sense to anyone? People really get excited about that? What kind of people have we become that this is the great ideal?

Shouldn't we reach for excellence? Shouldn't we shoot for the moon because even if we miss we'll end up among the stars?We shouldn't tolerate illiteracy, poverty, injustices or evil. We sometimes disagree on what is evil. We paint broad strokes on what is evil and what is not. The devil's in the details. Yes he is! He'll confuse you blind until you can't tell what is right or wrong because it's under the beautiful guise of tolerance.

I find it funny that women who disagree with the thought of God being referred to as "He or Father", never once complain about referring to the devil as "he" but I digress. My whole purpose on introducing the tolerance topic is that the same people that espouse tolerance certainly can't practice it.

I travel a lot and I eat a lot, typically out. I enjoy meals. I love to plan my next meal as I'm enjoying my current meal. It's a small joy of mine. When I eat, regardless of my location, I pray. I make the sign of the cross and say my silent request to God, thanking him for the food, for my family for the company that joins me for my meal and for all the good things he's done for me. I ask him to bless all those around me and then I eat. I've grown accustomed to this pre-meal ritual of bowing my head and taking a moment in silence to orient myself to the greatest good. In my travels I ran across an evangelical atheist who took exception to my pre-meal silent ritual. I was immediately outed as a Christian and my denomination had to be known. I explained my faith was not a denomination. (Catholicism is not a denomination but just about everything else is because at some point other Christians broke from the Catholic church and thus making those religions denominations.) I was then blamed from everything from Pope Pius XII's outright assistance to the nazi's - lies(all of them) to the existence of Jesus and the evil and vicissitudes of the Pope. I listened quite politely, refraining from partaking of my grilled eggplant and proceeded to agree to disagree. I apologized that this was their thought on the matters but oh no, it wasn't over. It was only the beginning. The berating continued through dinner, dessert, taxi and I thanked God we were going separate ways after that but it resumed again the following day during the meeting breaks.

You make one little sign of the cross and try to thank God and the next thing you know, someone who professed to tolerate just about anything couldn't tolerate my reverence and love of God. For my part I was quite happy actually to sit there and delay my meal in order to be berated. That's the mark of the Christian. It's not that we are right or that we argue better or that we know more, or have more. It's that we love our neighbor even when our neighbor says or does disparaging things about our faith or mocks our faith.

It's a beautiful day!

Good morning beautiful! How are you?

Finland, Finland, Finland

The country where I quite like to be.

It's quite beautiful in Finland. I am looking forward to another Finnish mass on Sunday to add to my collection of mass celebrations in other countries.

Helen Gurley Brown vs Nellie Grey

I have been traveling in and out of the country. While on my travels I ran across this article in USA Today.

I was floored because
- it was essentially a piece about the differences about abortion rights vs human rights
- it was an article posted in USA today
- it was very well articulated
- it was honest and truthful avoiding emotional attacks or personal insults
- the author was in a sense detached from the entanglements that can snare people when you discuss this subject

Let's face it, this issue gets people riled up regardless what side you take. The abortion advocates can be just as mean and nasty as some of your more lunatic human rights advocate. Recently though I have noticed this shift in the human rights activists. In all honesty I think more people have joined the cause. These are the ones who have stayed away because of the stigma attached to the human rights advocates, the outlandish ones. More and more women who've had abortions have come out regretting their actions. I've met a few and their stories are heartbreaking. I tell them how much they are loved. If a fallen being like me can reach out in compassion to them and hurt for their pain, how much more must God love them?

Finally though I was floored by who wrote it, mainly because of the author's detachment. I thought to myself, how much have they grown and how much has that tune changed?

Then I was just amazed and very very proud.

Animal prayer

For your amusement