Christianity with more questions, fewer answers.

I feel for conservative Catholics, cleric and lay, in this time.  But I encourage them to not confuse style with content.  What Francis is saying isn't anything all that earth shattering:

Judge not lest ye be judged. 

Worry about the beam in your own eye before worry about the splinter in your brother’s.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

It’s only radical because he seems to mean it.  And if it makes you uncomfortable, good.

I also want to applaud Benedict for the truly humble act of stepping down.  Benedict has given us the gift of Francis, I truly believe Benedict’s resignation was moved by the spirit.  By tossing the church a curve ball, and not giving the politics time to set in, he allowed them to respond from the spirit.  

Things I love:

1. My Mom
2. Dan Savage
3. The Python loose on Dartmouth Campus.
4. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.

I don't love all these things equally.  And I expect that I won't love them all for as long.  But there you are.

Why do some people spend so much energy on hate?

I have been pondering the pro-life anti-gay marriage movement for a while.  That there is a fear in their motivation has long seemed likely to me.  But what they are afraid of has eluded me.  I’m sure some are hiding their own homosexual leanings or curiosity.  Some of the pro-lifers probably feel trapped in their own lives and wish they could have had other choices and are angry and those who did.  I’ve been looking for a unifying thread.  Today at lunch my mother was telling a story about a man whose step-daughter died and his family’s ongoing relationship with the recipient of her heart. 

                This got me thinking about the irregular and lumpy shapes of families today.  The element of choice in family.  Most of us have non-relatives to whom we are solidly attached and think of as “family-by-choice”.  It is an idea that was at the root of gay families for years.

                So, these people who oppose abortion and gay marriage, if families all were to have an element of choice, are they afraid no one would choose them?  Is their hatred of others a reflection of their own feelings of being un-loveable?  

Ann Curry, For Better, For Worse

I like Ann Curry well enough.  She reminds me of myself, good and bad.  I felt very sorry for her when she was forced out of the Today show; I've been fired a time or two.  But my sympathy has not been so great afterwards.

She behaved like a fragile damsel.  There's nothing to put people off the victim of a situation than acting like a victim.  Also, despite the difficulties, she still had a job with an income.  A rather good income.  My mother used to tell me that bosses hire you to solve their problems, not to solve yours.  No one made Ann Curry work in the highly competitive realm of network news.

I had not realized that Ann Curry had a husband and two children.  I visualized her as a single, childless woman whose whole identity was the job. Okay, now I'm over it.  Sorry your job didn't work out.  Time to woman up.