Thoughts here and there
I have a few things swirling about in my brain, but I haven't exactly gotten around to writing anything. What can I say, I've been a little busy recently with budgets and I have syllabi to write. Great fun! Actually, what's more fun is going to be figuring out what the heck I'm going to cover in dance and yearbook. Yes, that's right. Your friendly neighborhood music ed major has been employed to teach band, choir, dance, and yearbook. Should make for an interesting year. My poor students...they don't know what they've gotten themselves in to.
The Carnegie-Mellon professor famous for his "Last Lecture," Randy Pausch, died last week. My mom and I just finished watching one of those Dateline-type specials on him, and he has some great points. First off - you've got to decide whether you're a Tigger or an Eeyore. To quote him directly, "I think we all know where I stand on the Tigger-Eeyore debate." Most of you should, at least. Secondly - girls, ignore everything that a guy says and pay attention to his actions. This should be a no-brainer, but it makes an awful lot of sense. Actions speak far louder than words, no matter how pretty those words are. Unfortunately, we of the feminine persuasion are usually won over greatly by words and can often dismiss actions that don't match up.
Or maybe it's just me. I doubt that, though, with the number of women in abusive relationships.
Meaghan and I were just reminiscing about an early morning meeting we'd had a few years ago with Catherine and Jay. We were all in Catherine's kitchen, sharing breakfast and talking over ideas to kick-start the vocations aspect of Christian Formation, when we somehow got on the topic of abusive relationships. Catherine said some statistic about how 1 in 4 women or something like that have been abused or assaulted at some point, then remarked how lucky and blessed she felt that that had never happened to any of us. Jay got angry, saying that we shouldn't feel lucky - that's the way it's supposed to be! He had to leave the table and calm down. That was the most riled up I'd ever seen my mild-mannered friend become.
I hate arguments and arguing and the whole lot that comes with it. Discussions are one thing; getting to the point where feelings are getting hurt and people aren't understanding the other and no one gets anywhere is another. I hate that kind. I do most anything to keep the peace. I won't stand for something that is wrong, but I will do my best to avoid even a heated discussion.
I couldn't believe PZ Myers, by the by. Myers is an outspoken and unapologetic atheist. All right, that's fine, free speech and freedom of religion means freedom from religion and all that, but his actions went far over any line of ethics, respect, general courtesy and, I believe, free speech. For those who haven't heard (which, I imagine, is most, because the news is almost always on in my house and I found out about it through facebook, of all places), Myers desecrated a consecrated host, which Catholics (myself very much included) believe has the Real Presence of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread. He posted pictures along with incredibly derisive and cruel language mocking the core beliefs of Catholics on his blog. To say I was upset is...a bit of an understatement. However, one of the defenders of the faith posted in the comments (and was subsequently ridiculed for saying) that Myers wasn't the first, nor would he be the last, to commit sacrilege and desecrate the Eucharist. The Church and the Eucharist have been around for about 2000 years, and if all it took to shake the foundations of the Faith was one hateful person to not believe and prove how much they didn't believe it by putting a nail through it, the Church would have been gone a long time ago. He's right, too. There's been an awful lot of persecution of the Church and more horrible things done to the Church and her people and the Eucharist over the years. It's not going to stop, and it's probably only going to get worse. But my Church will still be around and it's not going to fall.
That said...I still wanted to cry when I saw the pictures.
I'm sure I had other things to write. Oh! Yeah. I did. But it's gotta be a separate entry.
The Carnegie-Mellon professor famous for his "Last Lecture," Randy Pausch, died last week. My mom and I just finished watching one of those Dateline-type specials on him, and he has some great points. First off - you've got to decide whether you're a Tigger or an Eeyore. To quote him directly, "I think we all know where I stand on the Tigger-Eeyore debate." Most of you should, at least. Secondly - girls, ignore everything that a guy says and pay attention to his actions. This should be a no-brainer, but it makes an awful lot of sense. Actions speak far louder than words, no matter how pretty those words are. Unfortunately, we of the feminine persuasion are usually won over greatly by words and can often dismiss actions that don't match up.
Or maybe it's just me. I doubt that, though, with the number of women in abusive relationships.
Meaghan and I were just reminiscing about an early morning meeting we'd had a few years ago with Catherine and Jay. We were all in Catherine's kitchen, sharing breakfast and talking over ideas to kick-start the vocations aspect of Christian Formation, when we somehow got on the topic of abusive relationships. Catherine said some statistic about how 1 in 4 women or something like that have been abused or assaulted at some point, then remarked how lucky and blessed she felt that that had never happened to any of us. Jay got angry, saying that we shouldn't feel lucky - that's the way it's supposed to be! He had to leave the table and calm down. That was the most riled up I'd ever seen my mild-mannered friend become.
I hate arguments and arguing and the whole lot that comes with it. Discussions are one thing; getting to the point where feelings are getting hurt and people aren't understanding the other and no one gets anywhere is another. I hate that kind. I do most anything to keep the peace. I won't stand for something that is wrong, but I will do my best to avoid even a heated discussion.
I couldn't believe PZ Myers, by the by. Myers is an outspoken and unapologetic atheist. All right, that's fine, free speech and freedom of religion means freedom from religion and all that, but his actions went far over any line of ethics, respect, general courtesy and, I believe, free speech. For those who haven't heard (which, I imagine, is most, because the news is almost always on in my house and I found out about it through facebook, of all places), Myers desecrated a consecrated host, which Catholics (myself very much included) believe has the Real Presence of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread. He posted pictures along with incredibly derisive and cruel language mocking the core beliefs of Catholics on his blog. To say I was upset is...a bit of an understatement. However, one of the defenders of the faith posted in the comments (and was subsequently ridiculed for saying) that Myers wasn't the first, nor would he be the last, to commit sacrilege and desecrate the Eucharist. The Church and the Eucharist have been around for about 2000 years, and if all it took to shake the foundations of the Faith was one hateful person to not believe and prove how much they didn't believe it by putting a nail through it, the Church would have been gone a long time ago. He's right, too. There's been an awful lot of persecution of the Church and more horrible things done to the Church and her people and the Eucharist over the years. It's not going to stop, and it's probably only going to get worse. But my Church will still be around and it's not going to fall.
That said...I still wanted to cry when I saw the pictures.
I'm sure I had other things to write. Oh! Yeah. I did. But it's gotta be a separate entry.