What do you say to panhandlers on the street? Obviously it is not right to ignore them or treat them with contempt, but it's usually equally incorrect to give them money... we have a problem at our Cathedral sometimes, where homeless people congregate on the sidewalks outside as Mass lets out, knowing full well the good Christian worshipers will feel like hypocrites if they don't cough up a dime or more.
I usually say "God bless you." In days of yore I had plastic rosaries I used to hand them... maybe I should get some more. Once I bought lunch for this one-eyed man named Jerry whom I could tell was probably a scam artist, but ah well, God won't fault me for being taken for a ride for a $5 sandwich and chips at Subway...
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
News
Item: For the last two months I have had a boyfriend, a wonderful guy named Dan or Daniel, as I like to call him. He is Catholic, a gentleman, and cute. Score!
Item: My brother Arthur got into University of Southern California and New York University. We have not heard from Notre Dame and we can not afford to send him to USC or NYU.
Item: Why does everyone name their dogs Maggie? Maggie is a girl's name, not a name for Yorkie terriers. Why is this not understood?
Item: Does anyone need to be told not to chew gum in church? Apparently. There was a young girl and her mother at Mass today who were part of a baptismal party and they chomped away throughout the entire liturgy. And went up for Communion. What did they do, swallow their gum in the line? Or else bits of the host would have got stuck in the gum while they chewed. And then later when they spat out their gum in the trash, host bits would go in the garbage too. I tried not to think about it. I think our associate pastor is very annoyed by this kind of thing. Lately he has been talking about the need for reverence in his column in the bulletin quite a bit.
Item: My brother Arthur got into University of Southern California and New York University. We have not heard from Notre Dame and we can not afford to send him to USC or NYU.
Item: Why does everyone name their dogs Maggie? Maggie is a girl's name, not a name for Yorkie terriers. Why is this not understood?
Item: Does anyone need to be told not to chew gum in church? Apparently. There was a young girl and her mother at Mass today who were part of a baptismal party and they chomped away throughout the entire liturgy. And went up for Communion. What did they do, swallow their gum in the line? Or else bits of the host would have got stuck in the gum while they chewed. And then later when they spat out their gum in the trash, host bits would go in the garbage too. I tried not to think about it. I think our associate pastor is very annoyed by this kind of thing. Lately he has been talking about the need for reverence in his column in the bulletin quite a bit.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Snow snow snow
Ice ice ice.
Spin spin spin.
That is basically how the weekend went, after a delicious Thai dinner at Pad Thai on Friday, a dinner so spicy and so large-portioned that it was not finish-able and I had to take half of it home in one of those cute little takeout boxes. I got a fortune cookie which had a very appropriate fortune, although I do not remember exactly what it was. I confess that it actually raised my hopes somewhat. Bad Maggie, taking more hope from the random impersonal fortune cookie than from the saving and personal love of Jesus. Jesus saves, not bland tasting Asian deserts, which are not even coated in chocolate, which is really the minimum for calling yourself a desert without shame.
My 401k is up 3 percent ... for the year. Since Jan. 1, 2009. My benefits page at work will not show me last year's results, it just displays this shockingly cheerful +3 percent figure. Does this mean we can just pretend last year didn't happen? Get a financial do-over? I would like it very much.
After I checked my 401k I headed out for dinner, and after the Thai dinner about half a foot of global warming had coated Northeast Ohio, making life a little too slippery. Hopefully there won't be more of the same this week.
Spin spin spin.
That is basically how the weekend went, after a delicious Thai dinner at Pad Thai on Friday, a dinner so spicy and so large-portioned that it was not finish-able and I had to take half of it home in one of those cute little takeout boxes. I got a fortune cookie which had a very appropriate fortune, although I do not remember exactly what it was. I confess that it actually raised my hopes somewhat. Bad Maggie, taking more hope from the random impersonal fortune cookie than from the saving and personal love of Jesus. Jesus saves, not bland tasting Asian deserts, which are not even coated in chocolate, which is really the minimum for calling yourself a desert without shame.
My 401k is up 3 percent ... for the year. Since Jan. 1, 2009. My benefits page at work will not show me last year's results, it just displays this shockingly cheerful +3 percent figure. Does this mean we can just pretend last year didn't happen? Get a financial do-over? I would like it very much.
After I checked my 401k I headed out for dinner, and after the Thai dinner about half a foot of global warming had coated Northeast Ohio, making life a little too slippery. Hopefully there won't be more of the same this week.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Why Jesus loves tabby cats
There is a story about Our Lord's nativity which says that a cat gave birth to a litter of kittens in the same stable where Our Lady was in labor. After the baby was born and wrapped in swaddling clothes, He was still quite cold, it being the dead of night and all. And so the cat jumped into the manger with Him, lay down by Him to keep Him warm, and purred Him to sleep. Our Lady was supposedly so grateful that she petted the little cat's head and left an M on its forehead, M for Mary of course. And that is why tabby cats all have coloring on their heads that forms an "M."
The Italians call this Madonna della Gatta - Our Lady of the Cat. At right is a painting (not of the nativity but of the Holy Family) with that title by Baroccio, below it one by Giulio Romano, ca. 1520. In the first a cat is entertaining Our Lord and St. John Baptist, in the latter you can spot a feline presence in the bottom right-hand corner.
My own kitty loves to climb on humans when they are asleep, so I can imagine her wanting to lie down with the baby Jesus! Who knows if there were cats in the Holy Land way back then. I am sure some scientific historian would be happy to disabuse me. But I think it's a lovely story worth retelling for the sake of its loveliness :)
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Bestest Killers video ever
I love The Killers (have never heard a song from them that wasn't at least interesting) but my favorite music video of theirs is for "Read My Mind." The little green monster or whatever he is, is so cute. The video is set in Japan and features some of the more amusing (to an American) aspects of Japanese culture: The Elvis impersonators, the capsule hotels. It even shows Brandon Flowers and the rest of the boys dressed up as geishas!
Actually the capsule hotels make one sad, since they are most often used by Japanese businessmen who are too busy at work to ever go home. They work, go to a capsule hotel for the night, and then go right back to work in the morning without seeing their families etc. America is terrible with workaholism but Japan is even worse, and they have a suicide rate to match :(
But on that depressing note, (sorry) here is the wonderful video from The Killers:
Actually the capsule hotels make one sad, since they are most often used by Japanese businessmen who are too busy at work to ever go home. They work, go to a capsule hotel for the night, and then go right back to work in the morning without seeing their families etc. America is terrible with workaholism but Japan is even worse, and they have a suicide rate to match :(
But on that depressing note, (sorry) here is the wonderful video from The Killers:
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