The Musings of a Magyar

Last week we gave “the test” for Confirmation in PREP/CCD.  As expected, my kids’ results could at best be called lackluster, though I blame that as much on the test as their own ability.  The wording of some of the questions is tough, and the subtle nuances between Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Counsel were not very well distinguished, in my opinion.  But, I didn’t create the test, and others may have taught the subject matter differently.

At any rate, one of the “essays” was to describe the 15 hours of service they did, and what corporal and spiritual works of mercy they see in their service.  I was amused by some of the responses, and irritated by others.  I think I need to propose to the Coordinator of Religious Ed. that the service requirements be beefed up a bit.

Some examples of “service” presented:

• I helped my grandparents decorate for Christmas
• I babysat my brother/sister/cousin/neighbor for free
• I played in a charity soccer tournament
• I did some extra chores around the house, like taking out the trash
• I helped my little brother/sister with his homework

Now, I grant you that there were also some good examples on there (like helping in a food bank, and volunteering for the church festival, and visiting the residents of a nursing home).  But I’m amazed that scenarios like the above would ‘count’ for service.  Helping out family is not, in my mind, community service, but rather a matter of being responsible.  Likewise, I’m not sure how playing in a soccer tournament counts as “community service.”  I suppose the tournament probably raised money for a cause, and if the kids didn’t play there’d be no money for the cause, but I still think it’s a stretch.

Back when I was a kid (and I had to walk barefoot to CCD for 8 miles in 3 feet of snow carrying my little sister on my back) we had to do 40 hours of service.  Further, there were different categories, and we had to do at least 5 hours in each category.  I believe they were as follows: Church, Church Festival, Poor/Homeless, Senior Citizens/Sick, and Other.  There might have been a category for children/education or something like that too.  It’s been a while.

The goal was to ensure that we did a considerable amount of service in a variety of areas.  Each activity we did required us to fill out a form documenting the service and what we learned from doing it.  The kids today just had to have a single sheet on which they wrote their service hours and had a parent sign off.  Back in the day, we needed signature not only of a parent, but also the contact info and signature of someone at the organization.

I’m seriously recommending talking with the pastor and the CRE to see if things can’t be beefed up a bit.  Because I really don’t think helping Grandma put ornaments on her Christmas tree or taking out the trash when it’s your brother’s turn is what Jesus meant by “what you did for the least of these, you did for me.”

Well, there are a million and a half reasons I’m sure, but this quote is up on the list now.

It seems that an Italian newspaper printed some negative article about His Holiness (shocking!) one day.  It appears when asked about the article, His Holiness responded:

“If I don’t read an article like that every week or so, I have to examine my conscience.”

It is a sad reflection on the culture when thugs have absolutely no qualms about shooting a police officer.  It’s senseless violence, and just disgusting to think that there are people who care so little about life.  (Ignoring the obvious elephant in the room about the abortion issue.)

But what seems really interesting to me, is that all these officers who have been killed in the line of duty have been Catholic.  As far as I can tell, every one of the last half dozen or so have all had viewings and Masses of Christian Burial in the Cathedral, with the Cardinal Archbishop or one of his Auxilaries as principal celebrant.

Don’t we have any Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, or Atheist cops out there?

(Not that I want any more violence or that I think any other religion deserves to share in the tragedy.  It just strikes me as odd that they’ve all been Catholic.)

If you can’t think of something nice to say about someone, then you must be talking about Hillary Clinton.  — Jeff Foxworthy, Blue Comedy Comedy Tour Rides Again.

…seeing a mid-40’s-ish woman dressing like she’s in her mid-20’s?  Super-short skirt, boots up beyond the knees, low-cut top, all kinds of flashy jewelry.  An outfit that certainly makes a statement, and that statement is “I didnt’ see the sign that said I had left the world of Misses Sportswear and had entered  Juniors department.”

Well, okay, yeah, I suppose there is.  It could be a mid-50’s ish woman dressing like she’s in her mid-20’s.

TLC’s What Not To Wear could probably do an entire season here at work.

The company I work for [at least for the next few months anyway] makes a big hoopla about its committment to diversity and inclusion and whatever other nonsense politically correct phrase it can think of to justify the fact that 99% of its highest-paid people are white men.  There’s apparently an “office of diversity” and even a Chief Diversity Officer in the executive circles. 

Being a health insurance company, we also jump on the various bandwagons out there to support various health-related causes.  Hence, things like fundraisers for the Alzheimers’ Association or the MS Foundation among others are part of our corporate culture.

So, when an opportunity to combine “diversity” and “health causes” comes up, I think the powers-that-be get the biggest gleam in their eye.  The bandwagons are mobilized in full force and everyone is urged to jump on in the spirit of supporting the cause and showing our committment to diversity and the health of all Americans.

Such is the case with tomorrow, February 6.  Apparently February is Hearth Health month, and 2/6 is a national “Wear red for women’s heart health” day.  And so for the past couple weeks, we’ve been bombarded with propaganda announcements encouraging us to show our support for ending heart disease in women by wearing something red.  Suggestions included a red dress, a red shirt, red tie, red socks, or a red lapel pin, among other possibilities.

Umm, pardon me, but last I looked, heart disease affects both men and women.  51% of people who died from heart disease in 2005 were women.  I don’t think it’s too illogical to claim that this statistic falls within the margin of error to say that heart disease mortality is evenly split between the sexes.  So why this big hoopla over women’s heart disease?

Where’s the hoopla about heart disease in men?  Nobody has ever suggested that we wear red one day in support of men who have heart disease or to raise awareness of heart disease in men.  Why don’t we get our day?  Why are we discriminated against?  Do we not care about the men who suffer?

Come to think of it, it’s not just women’s heart disease that causes the bandwagon to come to town.  Everyone’s probably realized that that in October it seems you can’t buy anything that doesn’t have a pink ribbon of some sort on it in support of the Susan G. Koman ["Let's support Planned Parenthood so their constant pimping of abortions and the birth control pill can cause more people to get"] Breast Cancer Fund.  Don’t get me wrong, we need to focus on ways to raise awareness about breast cancer and encourage preventive and self-care measures for early detection and whatnot, and certainly look for cures for all types of cancer as wel.

But what’s good for the goose should be good for the gander.  When will we have Testicular Cancer Awareness month?  Why not have a month where everything has blue ribbons on it in support of some male cancer fund?  I’ve seen crass slogans out there on bumper stickers and magnets designed to get people to perform self-exams for breast cancer (e.g. “Feel Your ____” or “Save the ____”) but I’ve yet to see anyone say “probe your posterior” in support of prostate cancer prevention/detection.  Why?

This is an outrage.  Until we have equality in our disease awareness efforts, I will NOT wear red tomorrow.  I will not support the sexist machine!  Equality now!

Today being the feast of St. Blaise, there was a blessing throats following Mass.  This also happened on Sunday after the Masses in anticipation of the feast.  Our pastor invited people to receive the blessing again today, even if they got it on Sunday, since it never hurts to receive a blessing.

A sufferer of frequent canker sores, rhinovirus attacks, and other sinus/ear/throat ailments, I readily partook of the blessing on both occasions.  I need all the help I can get after all.

So why, then, do I feel a sore throat coming on?  Hello, Blaise?

So, a woman with six kids decides to go off and have IVF and ends up with 8 more.  This makes bigtime national news and causes an enormous media frenzy.  And as usual the mass media focuses on the completely wrong elements of the story.

The day the news broke, the two main highlights were (1) that this woman was going to try to breastfeed all 8 of them and (2) that the hospital refuses to release her name or anything about her.  (1) was uttered almost with a tone of derision that this woman is nuts for even thinking she could try such a feat.  Yeah, that’s probably going to be impossible.  And the news reporters seemed thrilled everytime they reported that one or more of the octet were being nourished from a bottle.   (2) makes it sound like because this is newsworthy, all laws protecting confidentiality and privacy are null and void.  Personally, I wouldn’t want news cameras sitting there watching every move, regardless of how noteworthy such an event is.

And now comes the nonsense about how she should have engaged in “selective reduction.”  And how messed up it is that she gave birth to them all.  And other nonsense about the cruelty of the whole situation.

How messed up are we to be so intrusive into the private life of this family?  I thought the legal premise of Roe v. Wade was some kind of right to privacy, which granted us the (ahem) “right” to abort?  So why not a right to privacy for choosing to keep the children?  Let the woman alone already!

If anything, we should ask why a doctor agreed to perform in vitro fertilization on someone who already successfully bore 6 other kids?  What was his/her motiviation for this?  Money?