tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post2189617664463552047..comments2023-10-21T03:54:12.029-04:00Comments on A Gift Universe: 7qt - teethingSheilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-66593235516218270352015-01-28T15:45:37.189-05:002015-01-28T15:45:37.189-05:00I see -- you feel about Pope Francis the way I fel...I see -- you feel about Pope Francis the way I felt about the Tenth Doctor! ;) Yes, I agree. 10 is charming and clever and sweet and everybody loves him. He's a star.<br /><br />But the Ninth was *special* to me. I felt like, are we not allowed to miss him? It was even worse with Rose, whom I loved, because people mocked her constantly in favor of other companions. People made fun of me for crying at her last episode! Well, excuse ME for liking the same girl the Doctor likes!<br /><br />Yes, I know Popes are different from a TV show, but it's a useful parallel. Me, I have liked all the Popes of my life about equally. Each seemed to be what I needed at the time. (Yes, I was miffed when Benedict was elected and all my traditionalist friends were gloating "SO much better than the bad old days under JP2!") For me, each election has been like a memo from God ... "this is the direction I want you to go now." Maybe it's not that way for everyone; it just happens to be for me.<br /><br />But yeah, there's mourning for what you had before, and it must be frustrating to have those around you not want to mourn or even praise him. And so the shadow of the previous Pope prevents you from seeing the next one without a strong sense of comparison.<br /><br />In Regnum Christi (yes, admittedly not a place I usually hold up for admiration) there was a strong emphasis on not comparing new formators to old ones. They changed so often. And though that was rather horrible in some ways -- I mean, each one was like a mother, and even talking about the old one wistfully was taken as criticism of the new -- there is something to be said for welcoming a new person and not make them feel like they have to live up to the last person in the same shoes.<br /><br />Marko's favorite Doctor currently is the Eleventh. He has adjusted his clip-on tie like a bow tie and is going around saying he looks cool. Also he's making me be Amy.Sheilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-26112112020098439562015-01-28T14:59:09.594-05:002015-01-28T14:59:09.594-05:00+JMJ+
#1 -- Yay! =D
#2 -- Miriam looks SO ador...+JMJ+ <br /><br />#1 -- Yay! =D <br /><br />#2 -- Miriam looks SO adorable in that photo! <br /><br />Just a suggestion off the top of my head . . . What about chamomile tea? It always helps me to sleep, so maybe it would help Miriam if she got it through your milk. (I typed that without doing any research about chamomile and babies. So if they actually shouldn't have it, just forget this entire paragraph! =P) <br /><br />#3 -- The Vor sound great! I wish the elite class where I live had a similar sense of responsibility--or even (dare I say it?!) <i>noblesse oblige</i>. <br /><br />#4 -- I shall pop over as soon as I finish this comment! <br /><br />#5 -- Reverse psychology plays me like an autoharp. <i>Of course</i> I read this take! =P <br /><br />You've asked me to blog a bit about the papal visit, and I <i>am</i> planning to write a bit more in a future post, but I thought I'd spill something here. One thing I realised during the visit was the root of my great sadness at Pope Francis's popularity, which was the sense that it was at the expense of Pope Benedict. Right after the election, when I was still a little raw and tender, I was <i>bowled over</i> by all the cheering from people who, I hadn't realised until then, had seriously disliked Pope Benedict. On another blog, someone who had observed something similar wrote, "It's as if they'd been waiting seven years to say those things." That was exactly my impression. <br /><br />And for the past two years, I haven't been able to say anything nice about Pope Benedict without someone belittling him or even insulting him. Right before the papal visit, I said in a mixed group, "Have you noticed that if you say something nice about Pope Benedict, the person you're talking to will say something bad about him, but if you say something nice about Pope Francis, the person you're talking to will also say something nice?" It caused an awkward silence. <br /><br />Anyway, for the first time since Pope Benedict's resignation, I was able to talk about him without anyone trying to contradict me--which, now that I think about it, was as if I were a child who wanted to talk about a deceased parent whom everyone else thought couldn't hold a candle to his new stepparent. (You may remember that I was also discouraged throughout my childhood from talking about my feelings about my father. Mourning wasn't allowed.) It was D's older sister who had the grace to ask, "So why <i>do</i> you like Pope Benedict so much?" And the whole story spilled out. Everyone else had just been arguing or implying that I was wrong to love him so much--that he was a closed-minded ultraconservative at worst and a "transition pope" at best. D's sister gave my feelings some real validation. <br /><br />Finally getting it all out also helped me see how easily so many Catholics (myself included) can be jerked around by the media. "Transition pope," for instance, isn't a phrase that the ordinary person says, but is likely something picked up from some news outlet with an agenda. As Jim Paredes has tweeted about something else you may remember, "Their minds are shaped by paid media." Well, exactly the same thing is happening with Pope Francis, except that this time the media wants to use him as a sort of stick to beat certain groups of Catholics. <br /><br />#6 -- Congratulations! LOL! Who is Marko's favourite Doctor? <br /><br />#7 -- But <i>this</i> is the real big news, aye? =D I'm reminded that the first word St. Therese ever read was "Heaven". I wonder which Whovian word is going to be Marko's first. ;-) Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.com