GGS

The Cock Crows

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In today’s Gospel, more than denying the Christ, Peter is abandoning a friend, his close friend. How long had he traveled with Jesus? How long has he witnessed for him? He left his livelihood and his family and his home for Him. Jesus asked him to build his church.

Today he deserted him, not once but three times. This is probably the hardest to read for me. How many times have I abandoned a friend because I was afraid of someone else’s response? It is so much more than being selfish or simply looking out for yourself. The amount of fright and sadness felt by Peter I’m sure was palpable. He wasn’t just afraid of what would happen to him from the crowd if he admitted to his friendship or to his discipleship, but also his reaction to Jesus seeing his betrayal and immediately forgiving him. The shame and relief were probably at war with each other.

The hardest part is not only asking for forgiveness but forgiving yourself.

Anniversary

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I saw the head of the RCIA program at mass tonight. She asked me if I thought about the upcoming anniversary of my baptism. I have been thinking of it. A lot. On one side I can’t believe a year has come and gone so quickly; it’s really flown by. On the other side it feels as though I’ve been Catholic forever. It’s an exciting feeling, though knowing how I feel about Jesus, and knowing that he is always with me.

Reading is….

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Reading is fundamental. When I was growing up in the 70s this was more than a sentiment, it was a movement with suggestions and ideas and a non-profit. After food and a warm place to sleep this was what babies enjoyed most: the soothing sounds of their parents’ voices reading them stories. Our entire lives are made up of stories from fairy tales to our own origin stories. From princesses to cowboys, planes to trains and everything in between we have our stories.

The very first class I took for my Master’s degree was Children’s Literature. Not only seeing what was out there, but how to use it in the classroom. This was coupled with a new concept in the 80s which I adopted for the rest of my life: whole language. Whole language was the teaching of reading through actual reading rather than a focus on phonics. Phonics have their place for some learners, but what better way than using context and the whole language to learn how to read. From the moment I heard it, it made sense and it has never left me.

Three of the other things that I learned in reading classes for my teaching degree:

  1. Children’s literature encompasses much more than See Dick Run.
  2. Children’s brains and eyes are not ready to read proficiently on their own until they are seven years old, so stop forcing kindergarteners to pick up books and read them to you. Age-appropriate always.
  3. If you can read, you can do anything.

I can remember getting lost in the worlds of Winnie-the-Pooh and Cranberry Thanksgiving, one of my favorite books as a child. It is probably one of the main reasons I love Thanksgiving and it is my favorite holiday. I still have it somewhere. I put myself on the subway with Sarah and John in The Magic Tunnel, a book which still sits on my bookshelf. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were also favorites of mine. For my son it’s the Wimpy Kid books and the Zombie Chasers. For my daughter it’s Monsters High.

Whatever the favorites are, the reading is pure joy.

Here are a few of my favorites from these genres:

Sci-fi/Fantasy

Sci-fi/Fantasy is wonderful because it can be set anywhere from back in time and time travel to the future and spaceships. You can be in outer space on another planet or on a spaceship traveling the stars. You can be with the dinosaurs while also using ray guns and modern to us equipment or you can be in a magic land of Harry Potter-esque wizardry or Hunger Games dystopia. You can play what if Lincoln had lived or what if Jefferson hadn’t written the Declaration of Independence. The possibilities are endless.

  1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. You can also find Adams’ perfect cup of tea
  2. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
  3. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  4. Bellwether by Connie Willis (and most of her books. After this I read To Say Nothing of the Dog.)
  5. Neil Gaiman
  6. Stephen Donaldson

Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

I’ve been on a biography/memoir kick lately. My top five of recent reads are:

  1. Life’s That Way by Jim Beaver
  2. I Am What I Am by John Barrowman with Carole Barrowman (memoir)
  3. http://nphbook.com/Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
  4. My Beloved by Sonia Sotomayor
  5. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden

Religious and Spiritual

This is a genre that I have found more recently. As a child attending Workman Circle Schools I knew all of the Bible stories and loved to read and re-read from our set of four Jewish History books, three of which I still have. It was a wonderful time in my life and fostered and encouraged both a love of my religion and of history.

More recently as I have journeyed on my conversion to Catholicism, I have read numerous books and booklets, periodicals and devotionals, some better than others, some outstanding. Here are my top four:

  1. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
  2. Jesus: A Pilgrimage by James Martin, SJ (I also highly recommend this e-book retreat, Together on Retreat (Enhanced Edition): Meeting Jesus in Prayer.)
  3. Under the Tamarind Tree: A Secret Journey into Our Souls: Inspirational Quotes About Life, A reminder of the Inner Magic by John Harricharan
  4. The Little Books Series. I’ve read The Little White Book for Easter, The Little Blue Book for Advent and I am currently reading The Little Black Book for Lent.

A few others to enjoy:

  1. A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (history)
  2. On Writing by Stephen King (writing)
  3. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawning of a New America by Gilbert King (history, won the Pulitzer)
  4. A Writer’s House in Wales by Jan Morris (travel, Wales)
  5. The Truth and Legend of Lily Martindale by Mary Sanders Shartle (historical fiction, North Country, NY)
  6. Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich (memoir)
  7. How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman (history)
  8. Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame, and Floundering by Meredith Baxter
  9. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned by Michael J. Foxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Fox.

Also, Lucky Man, also by Michael J. Fox

  1. Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman (history)

Recs – Kindle Fire

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When I like something everyone knows about it because I gush. I’m a gusher. My black boots from Payless? No less than three posts about them since the fall. Supernatural? Need I say more?

Most regular readers know how much I love my Kindle. I received my Kindle Fire for Mother’s Day in 2012. From the moment I pushed the power button I loved it. I talk about it all the time. My only complaint about that first generation Fire was no memory card slot and no exterior volume control. In reality no biggie. I used this Fire religiously on a multi-daily basis from that first day through the end of 2014. Two and a half years of positive bliss.

During Amazon’s Christmas sale, we decided to get my daughter one of the new ones. The HD-6 was less than a hundred dollars and the rest were also very good deals. I advanced myself a small portion of our tax refund and upgraded mine. (My first generation still works fine, and I’m prepping it for my husband’s use.)

The new one (an HD-7) was a little more than $100 but I opted for greater memory (still no external memory card slot), 16GB. The new one does have exterior volume controls, and a sleep mode if you buy the compatible case.

I use my Fire for everything; literally everything:

Photos
Checkbook and Expense tracking
Paying my mortgage
Calendar
Traveling – between lists and planning and maps, it’s indispensable
Facebook and Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter
Email – ALL of my accounts
Music
Netflix
Mass Readings and/or Devotionals
WordPress writing and posting
First drafts and other short writing (for this Mother’s Day, I’m planning on getting the keyboard to make this even more accessible for my writing)
And of course, reading. I moved my subscription to The Writer to my Kindle, the only magazine subscription I get and I download my library e-books on here too!

In fact, I’m writing this on my Fire in my car right before my therapy appointment!

A Note About Comments

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Yesterday I wrote about abortion. I’m sure that I will be doing that again. I write about many controversial issues and I’m not naive enough to think that my opinion is the only opinion. I don’t mind discussing facts and I have enough of an open mind that I listen to other viewpoints even if I continue to disagree with them.

I like comments. I like feedback. I don’t mind dissension. I will approve comments if they disagree, but where I do mind and won’t approve is if I’m talking about abortion and/or reproductive rights, you shouldn’t be commenting on illegal immigration and Obama’s policies on such. If you’re going to state “facts”, make them facts. Tell me where your information came from.

How many kids are in foster care?

How many kids are abused?

How many kids are murdered? In my area we’ve had two in the last three months.

The thing I will answer from this unapproved comment is two-fold:

1. It’s subjective to say that I sound superior but I’d agree. I am superior to a fetus that can’t live outside its mother. I’m alive, breathing on my own and capable of higher reasoning and cognitive thought.

2. It’s true that I’m here because my mother did not have an abortion. She, however did not have any choices in 1966. I don’t know what her options would have been if abortions had been legally available. I know that I and my siblings were clearly wanted and cared for and loved. I also know that if I wasn’t here to talk about a woman’s right to do with her body what she deems, someone else would be speaking out in my place and for that I’d be grateful.

Underachieving by design

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What a wonderful thing for me to read this morning amidst the bustle of a school morning. It is something I struggle with daily, especially as a writer who shares her thoughts and deeds on a near daily basis. I wonder if I’m oversharing; if I sound as though I’m bragging when I am really excited about something I’ve done or said and want everyone to know about it. I like the likes. And I want to be liked. At what point, though do I go from well-meaning sharer to over-enthusiastic egotist? It’s a struggle to balance both impulses, and this post by my friend is a good reminder to slow down and rethink things.

Fran Rossi Szpylczyn's avatarThere Will Be Bread

'Interesting. . . I see you have a degree in 'Under Achieving'. . .'Another day in Lent, another Gospel challenge. Today – underachieving by design! Yes, you are thinking, “what is she on about now?” You know me, sometimes I like to kid – even, perhaps especially, during Lent.

Achievement. Our world seems pretty much built around it. I worked in the media business for 27 years. My first job was as what was then called (does it even exist now?) “sales assistant.” What did I do? I was a glorified secretary, working for a salesperson. In 1980, this was more likely a man than a woman. If you did your job really well, you would be promoted to – wow, I can’t even remember the title. In was the over-glorified secretary I guess, because you worked for the sales manager, and you supervised the other sales assistants. Yes, I did get this job and I was an incredible disaster at it. At…

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