i like lists, and Cole started it. also, this is a good way to break the 'real post' barrier.
favorite parenting things:
glider chair
library
crayons
taking walks
overalls
favorite medical things:
reflex hammer
whatever clothing i change into post-call
stapler/staple remover
scrub boots
free meal vouchers especially when i can get macaroni and cheese with them. yum.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
The Oscars!
Did anybody care about the Oscars, really? I didn’t watch them; not even five minutes. I work in an office that features more than one person who watches every episode of American Idol. Nobody that I worked with watched. Well, one girl had them on in the background, but she couldn’t tell me who won any of the awards, besides the big ones that I had already heard on NPR on the drive in to work. I wanted to know if Pan’s Labyrinth won best foreign film – it didn’t – but besides that one, I didn’t see any of this year’s nominated movies in the theatre. The only other one I saw at all was Little Miss Sunshine, which I liked well enough, but didn’t love – everyone says its so funny, but I found it kind of sad; and a poor man’s Wes Anderson (quirky characters doing borderline nonsensical things in a deadpan manner), sans a Wilson brother.
Pan’s Labyrinth aside, on the rare occasion when I do spring for a movie in the theatre, I go to some inevitably disappointing “blockbuster,” instead of seeing the movies that I know will actually be good. I tell myself that I will watch the “good” movies on Netflix, because the drama of a well scripted and acted movie does not need the 80 foot screen to make it come alive, whereas King Kong, or Spiderman, or Harry Potter will only be good on the big screen – where the special effects can shine. But you know what? The Harry Potter movies are letdowns no matter where I watch them, because they aren’t as good as the books. King Kong would be crap on an Imax (or my TV) just as much as it was in a regular theatre.
I am totally sucked in by marketing – I make the effort only to see the truly huge spectacle movies, because I don’t want to be the only one who doesn’t see it – even though the vast majority of these blockbusters aren’t very good. Even the Lord of the Rings movies, Oscar winning or not, were weak (and got consecutively worse). And while I would like to say that I catch up on all the smaller quality films on DVD, I don’t. We just cancelled Netflix because we found we weren’t watching enough to make it a worthwhile expenditure, but even when we were doing it, we watched mainly television shows because there just weren’t that many movies I wanted to see (and there were lots of TV shows that I missed out on cause we don’t have cable and our reception is terrible: everyone should watch Veronica Mars Season 1!).
So my question is, does anybody out there go to the movies on a regular basis? What do you see? Are there any great movies from this year that I missed? Did anybody give a crap about the Oscars, and if so, why?
Pan’s Labyrinth aside, on the rare occasion when I do spring for a movie in the theatre, I go to some inevitably disappointing “blockbuster,” instead of seeing the movies that I know will actually be good. I tell myself that I will watch the “good” movies on Netflix, because the drama of a well scripted and acted movie does not need the 80 foot screen to make it come alive, whereas King Kong, or Spiderman, or Harry Potter will only be good on the big screen – where the special effects can shine. But you know what? The Harry Potter movies are letdowns no matter where I watch them, because they aren’t as good as the books. King Kong would be crap on an Imax (or my TV) just as much as it was in a regular theatre.
I am totally sucked in by marketing – I make the effort only to see the truly huge spectacle movies, because I don’t want to be the only one who doesn’t see it – even though the vast majority of these blockbusters aren’t very good. Even the Lord of the Rings movies, Oscar winning or not, were weak (and got consecutively worse). And while I would like to say that I catch up on all the smaller quality films on DVD, I don’t. We just cancelled Netflix because we found we weren’t watching enough to make it a worthwhile expenditure, but even when we were doing it, we watched mainly television shows because there just weren’t that many movies I wanted to see (and there were lots of TV shows that I missed out on cause we don’t have cable and our reception is terrible: everyone should watch Veronica Mars Season 1!).
So my question is, does anybody out there go to the movies on a regular basis? What do you see? Are there any great movies from this year that I missed? Did anybody give a crap about the Oscars, and if so, why?
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
read this story!
Hey all,
Here is a story by Primo Levi that was published in the New Yorker this month. I don't have much to say for it, as it speaks for itself, but it really is a beautiful story that begins to capture the immensity of the universe and our inability to describe it given the limits of human language and the human mind.
Please enjoy!
Click here to read the article.
[Blogmaster fixed link]
Here is a story by Primo Levi that was published in the New Yorker this month. I don't have much to say for it, as it speaks for itself, but it really is a beautiful story that begins to capture the immensity of the universe and our inability to describe it given the limits of human language and the human mind.
Please enjoy!
Click here to read the article.
[Blogmaster fixed link]
Two Thoughts...
I love NPR. I do. Reflecting on my love for NPR (as I sometimes do), led me to two thoughts.
The first is a memory of a game I played with a friend my freshman year in college. We were fast friends and although it seemed we'd known each other for a long time, we really had just met. One night instead of doing Calc homework we played a game we made up called, "what do you love most." The "game" essentially forced each of us to think of the five things (yes actual things, not people or ideas) that we loved the most. Hers included Gumby, Maps, and Pickles. Mine: New athletic socks. (I don't remember what else I we said) I here by add.... NPR. Silly? Perhaps. But it's fun. I am curious what everyone else loves the most.
The second thing I was thinking about is this series of essays they do on NPR called "This I believe". People, famous and ordinary, young and old, read essays they've written about what they believe in above all things. ( http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve/about.html ) In any case, I have sometimes thought about trying to write an essay like this. But today, if anyone is looking for something blog about, give this a try?
The first is a memory of a game I played with a friend my freshman year in college. We were fast friends and although it seemed we'd known each other for a long time, we really had just met. One night instead of doing Calc homework we played a game we made up called, "what do you love most." The "game" essentially forced each of us to think of the five things (yes actual things, not people or ideas) that we loved the most. Hers included Gumby, Maps, and Pickles. Mine: New athletic socks. (I don't remember what else I we said) I here by add.... NPR. Silly? Perhaps. But it's fun. I am curious what everyone else loves the most.
The second thing I was thinking about is this series of essays they do on NPR called "This I believe". People, famous and ordinary, young and old, read essays they've written about what they believe in above all things. ( http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve/about.html ) In any case, I have sometimes thought about trying to write an essay like this. But today, if anyone is looking for something blog about, give this a try?
A Favorite Poem
Here is a favorite poem by Wendell Berry that I reread in thinking about service and life. hope others enjoy.
X
Loving has taught me the infinite
longing of the self to be given away
and the great difficulty of that entire
giving, for in love to give is to receive
and then there is yet more to give;
and others have been born of our giving
to whom the self, greatened by gifts,
must be given, and by that giving
be increased, until, self-burdened,
the self, staggering upward in years,
in fear, hope, love, and sorrow,
imagines, riding like a moon,
a pale moon risen in daylight
over the dark woods, the Self
whose gift we and all others are,
the self that is by definition given.
By Wendell Berry from: A Timbered Choir: Sabbath Poems 1979-1997
X
Loving has taught me the infinite
longing of the self to be given away
and the great difficulty of that entire
giving, for in love to give is to receive
and then there is yet more to give;
and others have been born of our giving
to whom the self, greatened by gifts,
must be given, and by that giving
be increased, until, self-burdened,
the self, staggering upward in years,
in fear, hope, love, and sorrow,
imagines, riding like a moon,
a pale moon risen in daylight
over the dark woods, the Self
whose gift we and all others are,
the self that is by definition given.
By Wendell Berry from: A Timbered Choir: Sabbath Poems 1979-1997
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Thoughts for a talk to Jr. High students about service
I’ve been asked to give a talk to a group of Junior High students who are preparing for confirmation about service. Each student is expected to do a service project as part of their preparation. In thinking about what I want to say I keep coming back to the idea that it is essential to be aware of your intentions in acting as much as the result or outcomes of your action. Let me explain a bit.
There is a significant difference I think between serving others because it is part of your confirmation preparation, and serving someone because it is something you feel is the right thing to do. Service is minimized when it becomes only one more thing we do because it is what is expected or because it looks impressive, or we can talk about how generous we are with our time or the poor unfortunately people we have helped. While service is most certainly about serving others, it is also about making the act of service a part of the way we live our lives, not a part of our resume, or an ego boost.
Perhaps in Junior High we are a little young to truly grasp the importance of this distinction. But I would like these young men and women to venture into the world, into the working world, with a calling to serve. I would like that to be a calling that comes from within their own hearts, not a calling their junior high religion teacher or their parents chose for them, or their high school required of them to graduate. Whether they chose to serve as an accountant, or as a community organizer it doesn’t matter so much. I would argue, and encourage our youth to think about the fact that what is important is that the work we do is for and in service of others. If that is serving people in business, or serving people on the streets, again it doesn’t matter. As long as the purpose of our work is for others, not for the Company, not for the money, not for the power and prestige the work may bring us, but for the people that will benefit from our work.
It may be better to serve because someone tells you to, or requires it of you in order to reach another goal, like high school graduation, than to not serve at all. But I think we need to challenge our youth to think for themselves, to find their own way and their own way to serve, and their own passion to serve. Perhaps we need that initial push out the door and into the world of service in order to be immersed in it and then to take a deeper look at what we are doing and why. But ultimately, service needs to be about a longing to give of oneself for others, a selfless giving, a realization that the self by definition is made to be given away.
Politics may be a good example of this notion of our intentions. If you enter politics to someday gain the status of Senator, or President, you are missing the point of the job. Politicians are public servants and in that respect, what they do must be done with the intention of serving the people, not themselves, not their special interests, or big business, not their friends, but the public good.
I have a week or so still before I have to give this talk, so if anyone is moved to give thoughts on service that they would like shared with junior high youth let me know, I’m happy to have others thoughts and suggestions to work into my talk. Certainly this is not the only thing to be said, but i think it is an important point to make. In a way what i think I am trying to say to them in a real sort of way is to remember to see and to serve God in all that you do, in the poeple you serve.
Hope everyone is well.
There is a significant difference I think between serving others because it is part of your confirmation preparation, and serving someone because it is something you feel is the right thing to do. Service is minimized when it becomes only one more thing we do because it is what is expected or because it looks impressive, or we can talk about how generous we are with our time or the poor unfortunately people we have helped. While service is most certainly about serving others, it is also about making the act of service a part of the way we live our lives, not a part of our resume, or an ego boost.
Perhaps in Junior High we are a little young to truly grasp the importance of this distinction. But I would like these young men and women to venture into the world, into the working world, with a calling to serve. I would like that to be a calling that comes from within their own hearts, not a calling their junior high religion teacher or their parents chose for them, or their high school required of them to graduate. Whether they chose to serve as an accountant, or as a community organizer it doesn’t matter so much. I would argue, and encourage our youth to think about the fact that what is important is that the work we do is for and in service of others. If that is serving people in business, or serving people on the streets, again it doesn’t matter. As long as the purpose of our work is for others, not for the Company, not for the money, not for the power and prestige the work may bring us, but for the people that will benefit from our work.
It may be better to serve because someone tells you to, or requires it of you in order to reach another goal, like high school graduation, than to not serve at all. But I think we need to challenge our youth to think for themselves, to find their own way and their own way to serve, and their own passion to serve. Perhaps we need that initial push out the door and into the world of service in order to be immersed in it and then to take a deeper look at what we are doing and why. But ultimately, service needs to be about a longing to give of oneself for others, a selfless giving, a realization that the self by definition is made to be given away.
Politics may be a good example of this notion of our intentions. If you enter politics to someday gain the status of Senator, or President, you are missing the point of the job. Politicians are public servants and in that respect, what they do must be done with the intention of serving the people, not themselves, not their special interests, or big business, not their friends, but the public good.
I have a week or so still before I have to give this talk, so if anyone is moved to give thoughts on service that they would like shared with junior high youth let me know, I’m happy to have others thoughts and suggestions to work into my talk. Certainly this is not the only thing to be said, but i think it is an important point to make. In a way what i think I am trying to say to them in a real sort of way is to remember to see and to serve God in all that you do, in the poeple you serve.
Hope everyone is well.
Ash Wednesday
So, it’s Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. A day of fast and abstinence. A day when all good Catholics go to mass and get ashes smeared on their heads and become visibly recognizable for what we are: first, the explicit thing - mortal sinners - “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” - but more obviously for the world at large, it identifies us as Catholic. Ash Wednesday is the only day of the year where it is readily apparent to everyone that sees me that I am a Catholic.
I went to Catholic schools from first grade through college graduation, so for most of my life having the black mark on my head did not make me stand out in any particular way: nearly everyone I encountered on a daily basis showed up on this particular day with a blurry sign of the cross rubbed onto their foreheads. In fact, not having the ashes made people stand out: poor Kara G., the one non-Catholic in my grade school class used to stay home from school on Ash Wednesday (and Halloween, but that’s because her parents considered it a day of devil worship) because she didn’t want to be the only one in class who looked different. Of course, in those same years we used to compare the size and darkness of our marks, as if the larger, darker ones made us more holy (full disclosure: I still try and find a mirror as soon as possible to check out what it looks like). At Notre Dame, there was a little of the same mentality – in the campus ministry circle, anyway, people definitely noticed if you didn’t have the ashes on your head. “Don’t forget it’s Ash Wednesday!” the girls would cheerfully call out, if you weren’t already marked. Freshman year I waited until dorm mass at night to get the ashes, and after a dozen friends pointed out what day it was to me throughout the day I decided that for the next 3 years I would go to a morning mass. Side note: Ash Wednesday was also memorable at ND because every year (and every Friday during Lent), the cafeteria refused to serve meat; leading to virtually the same editorial/ letter to the editor being published in The Observer, about whether this was exclusive to all the non-Catholics on campus. My friend PS used to set up a grill outside the d-hall and offer grilled brats and hotdogs to anyone who wanted them. He explained himself by saying, “Hey, at least this way people are actively choosing not to eat meat, instead of just having it thrust upon them.” Notre Dame: good times.
It wasn’t until I graduated that I realized that in the “real” world, walking around all day long with a black smudge on your head was somewhat unusual. I was working in Chicago (if temping at various crappy office jobs is really work) and for the first time in my life having the ashes on my forehead actually made me feel like I stood out – people on the L did a double take, the strangers I worked with that week seemed confused about why the surly temp had dirt on his head – but no one asked and I didn’t volunteer. It was somehow empowering to stand out in that way; I felt the slightest bit like an old testament prophet: a witness to the world (which is silly, because how can you be a witness if people don’t know what you’re witnessing about?). But at that point, I was just one year out of ND and it was still easy to feel totally connected to my faith and my religious convictions.
Well, this morning I got the sign of the cross marked on my head and I’ve spent that day marked for what I am: a Catholic in a secular world. And instead of feeling self-righteously proud (well, I might still feel a little of that), I’ve been wondering why I still identify myself so strongly as Catholic when I find myself frustrated by so many of the things that the Church does. And that it is what I will fast and pray about this lent: my own Catholic identity. Because I identify myself as a husband and a father and a Catholic. The presence of my wife and my son make the first two identities easy to understand, but the last of them takes some puzzling over. In some ways I identify myself against the things that the secular world values (no TV for the kid!) – that’s why wearing the ashes is still a powerful symbol for me – but if I am honest I must confess that I subscribe to mostly secular humanistic values while questioning many things that the Church teaches. But I am still Catholic. Hopefully over the next forty plus days I will have an epiphany of why this is true. If I do, I will let you all know.
In the meantime, happy Ash Wednesday; and as my grade school religious ed. teacher, Sr. Mary Mark, would bark, “No meat and no eating between meals!”
I went to Catholic schools from first grade through college graduation, so for most of my life having the black mark on my head did not make me stand out in any particular way: nearly everyone I encountered on a daily basis showed up on this particular day with a blurry sign of the cross rubbed onto their foreheads. In fact, not having the ashes made people stand out: poor Kara G., the one non-Catholic in my grade school class used to stay home from school on Ash Wednesday (and Halloween, but that’s because her parents considered it a day of devil worship) because she didn’t want to be the only one in class who looked different. Of course, in those same years we used to compare the size and darkness of our marks, as if the larger, darker ones made us more holy (full disclosure: I still try and find a mirror as soon as possible to check out what it looks like). At Notre Dame, there was a little of the same mentality – in the campus ministry circle, anyway, people definitely noticed if you didn’t have the ashes on your head. “Don’t forget it’s Ash Wednesday!” the girls would cheerfully call out, if you weren’t already marked. Freshman year I waited until dorm mass at night to get the ashes, and after a dozen friends pointed out what day it was to me throughout the day I decided that for the next 3 years I would go to a morning mass. Side note: Ash Wednesday was also memorable at ND because every year (and every Friday during Lent), the cafeteria refused to serve meat; leading to virtually the same editorial/ letter to the editor being published in The Observer, about whether this was exclusive to all the non-Catholics on campus. My friend PS used to set up a grill outside the d-hall and offer grilled brats and hotdogs to anyone who wanted them. He explained himself by saying, “Hey, at least this way people are actively choosing not to eat meat, instead of just having it thrust upon them.” Notre Dame: good times.
It wasn’t until I graduated that I realized that in the “real” world, walking around all day long with a black smudge on your head was somewhat unusual. I was working in Chicago (if temping at various crappy office jobs is really work) and for the first time in my life having the ashes on my forehead actually made me feel like I stood out – people on the L did a double take, the strangers I worked with that week seemed confused about why the surly temp had dirt on his head – but no one asked and I didn’t volunteer. It was somehow empowering to stand out in that way; I felt the slightest bit like an old testament prophet: a witness to the world (which is silly, because how can you be a witness if people don’t know what you’re witnessing about?). But at that point, I was just one year out of ND and it was still easy to feel totally connected to my faith and my religious convictions.
Well, this morning I got the sign of the cross marked on my head and I’ve spent that day marked for what I am: a Catholic in a secular world. And instead of feeling self-righteously proud (well, I might still feel a little of that), I’ve been wondering why I still identify myself so strongly as Catholic when I find myself frustrated by so many of the things that the Church does. And that it is what I will fast and pray about this lent: my own Catholic identity. Because I identify myself as a husband and a father and a Catholic. The presence of my wife and my son make the first two identities easy to understand, but the last of them takes some puzzling over. In some ways I identify myself against the things that the secular world values (no TV for the kid!) – that’s why wearing the ashes is still a powerful symbol for me – but if I am honest I must confess that I subscribe to mostly secular humanistic values while questioning many things that the Church teaches. But I am still Catholic. Hopefully over the next forty plus days I will have an epiphany of why this is true. If I do, I will let you all know.
In the meantime, happy Ash Wednesday; and as my grade school religious ed. teacher, Sr. Mary Mark, would bark, “No meat and no eating between meals!”
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