bearing blog

bear – ing n 1 the manner in which one comports oneself; 2 the act, power, or time of bringing forth offspring or fruit; 3 a machine part in which another part turns [a journal ~]; 4 pl comprehension of one’s position, environment, or situation; 5 the act of moving while supporting the weight of something [the ~ of the cross].

Cold showers.

Provocative article on corporal mortification at GodSpy.

In our society, it’s considered perfectly normal to mortify our bodies so long as the reason is secular and the goal is physical. No one bats an eye at cosmetic plastic surgery, Botox, tattoos, and body piercing. Even physical fitness taken to extremes is looked upon as almost de rigeur. I’m all for staying in shape, but when I see joggers here in Florida sweating in 95 degree heat during their run at lunch hour, I have to wonder: Are you trying to have a stroke?

… But if you perform corporal mortification for religious reasons, to achieve some spiritual good, you’re an oddball. To borrow an analogy from Boston College professor Peter Kreeft and give it a twist, if I were to announce at a cocktail party that I just got my tongue pierced, I would be surrounded by an eager crowd of spectators. But if I were to announce that each morning before work I take a cold shower as a religious ritual, I would soon be talking to myself.

h/t: Amy

Sep 29, 2006

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Closed!

Finally! We closed on the sale of our duplex yesterday afternoon. Since we have to look at it every day, living next door as we do, this will be a huge load off our minds. It’s gone! It’s not ours anymore! Hurray! Down to one mortgage!

The market in Minneapolis is slow, very slow. The duplex market has ground to a halt. It is so slow that "average time on the market" is a meaningless metric right now. A few weeks ago the best way of characterizing our neighborhood was like this:

Duplexes on the market: 51

Sales of duplexes pending: 0

And then, miracle of miracles, the second number ticked up from 0 to 1, and we were the chosen ones! Yes, us! I mean, our duplex was.

We attributed this miracle to (1) Mark’s laborious refinishing and repainting over several months, which surely must have set it apart from others, (2) our realtor’s aggressive marketing of the duplex among Spanish-speaking realtors, as our area is very close to a vibrant district of predominantly Spanish-speaking businesses, (3) the offer of a thousand dollar bonus to the realtor of the buyer and also that we would pay closing costs.

Who was this foolish person who was willing to buy our duplex at the asking price in a buyer’s market without any haggling?

He was Adrian, a Mexican-born man about our age, friendly and very halting in his English. His realtor translated for him as we worked (I listened with interest to see if I could understand any of the Spanish, but mostly what I caught her telling him, as she pointed to documents, was: Su nombre aqui. Y aqui. Y aqui. Y aqui. A closing is not a very interesting thing to listen to) And then, after we had been sitting across the table from him for about an hour, our realtor, making small talk, asked his realtor, "So when is Adrian going to move in?"

She replied, "Well, he will take his time, because he lives next door."

At first, confusion. No, you’re mixed up. WE live next door. But no! It is the neighbor on the other side!

The first thought that occurred to Mark was this: Man, I could have saved us about eight thousand dollars if you’d have just knocked on my door.

The first thought that occurred to me was this: Oh my God. You’re the nice guy who indicated "don’t worry about it" after I collided with your parked car last year and ran a big scratch all up the driver’s side.

I had to explain that last bit to Mark later, when he wanted to know why I looked excessively embarrassed. I think I will make an extra-special effort not to hit the man’s car again.

Sep 29, 2006

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My new resolution.

There’s a pun in there somewhere.

I’m not a camera person. This means that I enjoy my vacations and my life in general without staring constantly through the viewfinder. But it also means I do not have very many pictures of my children.

Vacation pics aren’t really what I want to look back on and remember, as much as Life Itself. But I do want pictures of my growing family to have someday.

So I resolved to pick one day every month, in advance, and take my camera with me and take some pictures that day — not a lot, just a few. And then to upload them immediately to Shutterfly. After accumulating fifty or so, then, I can get prints all ready to go in an album.

Yesterday was my first attempt. Here’s what we got chronicling wake-up, breakfast, and errands including a trip to Noodles and Company (which is a great restaurant to take kids — my kids anyway).

Mark took the last one after I got home from shoe shopping.

Sep 28, 2006

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Shopping.

I never used to think I liked shopping very much.

Last night I was going to go get my hair cut. Mark promised to watch the boys and
I was going to take MJ with me. But at the last minute I thought of how for Sundays and restaurants, the last three months or so, I’ve been wistfully spit-shining the scuff marks on my seven-year-old black heels (bought to go with the new black suit I wore at my preliminary oral examination, before I had my first son) and how I’ve got two new nursing dresses with no shoes to match. And I said, "Darn it! I’m not going to get my hair cut. I am going SHOPPING."

Mark recoiled in shock. But didn’t object.

So I took MaryJane with me in the sling and went to the mall — not the Mall of America, because the department stores are too far apart for efficient shoe shopping — and bought 3 pairs of shoes.

One pair was on deep discount at Marshalls, the others full price at Macy’s, I’m sad to say.

Now that I have children, I’m beginning
to understand what a luxury it is to be able to go shopping, occasionally, with the freedom to try things on and walk from store to store to compare choices. It’s really not fair to kids to try to take them with you for this kind of thing.

The trip inspired me to drop an email to my best friend from high school, with whom I used to wander the malls of suburban Ohio for want of anything better to do. I attached copies of pictures of cute Mary Janes.

Over coffee this morning I thanked Mark for taking care of the boys for four hours (and cleaning up the dinner and doing the laundry too). I said, "I guess I always took ‘shopping’ for granted." He said, "Hmph. I guess I married a girl after all."

Then he related a conversation he had at the company offsite meeting, where he was seated at a table with several other men and no women.

ONE GUY: I guess this is the "shopping table." Ha ha.

MARK: Hey, that’s not fair. I’m the one to do the grocery shopping in our family.

ANOTHER GUY: That’s not shopping.

FIRST GUY: "Shopping" is for anything under $1000. Above that, it’s called "buying."

MARK: Hey Jim, you go shopping for tools, don’t you?

JIM: I make sure never to spend less than $1000.

I don’t know if my new shoes qualify as super fantastic, but I like them, especially the high heeled Mary Janes (was going to buy something much more boring that looked exactly like my old black heels, but was inspired by new baby daughter to buy more stylish shoe), and I think the Manolo would approve.

Sep 28, 2006

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1 comment on Shopping.
“God is not great.”

A thoughtful post at the Shrine.

Sep 22, 2006

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Body art, body of Christ.

Ann Althouse discusses a BodyWorlds-type exhibit — to include a crucifixion. She points out that, if it’s offensive to depict crucifixion this way, it really can’t be just because it’s graphic. We have a long tradition of pious, graphic crucifixion art. There must be some other reason. (And, as I point out in the comments, the word "blasphemy" is inaccurate.)

I’ve had mixed feelings about the BodyWorlds exhibit ever since I saw it in the Science Museum of Minnesota. Some of the bodies and body systems and body parts were displayed in the tradition of anatomical models: fascinating, informative, respectful. Others are displayed as "art" and while those were also fascinating and informative, I was repelled by my own fascination. I left the exhibit uncertain about whether this use of the human body was improperly respectful of it.

Enter the thought experiment: what if, instead of being depicted riding a horse or pulling back a bowstring, the plastically preserved human body was depicted as Christ on the cross? Yeah, that would offend me. It’s more a gut reaction than an intellectual analysis, I admit, but unlike my uncertain reaction to the horseman or the archer, my reaction to the hypothetical depiction of the Crucified One is definitely repulsion and sorrow. Obviously any depiction of the Crucifixion ought to inspire repulsion and sorrow — but at the suffering of Christ, not at the art itself. This is why graphic depiction is not the problem.

I conclude that von Hagens’s art is inherently disrespectful (not to accuse von Hagens himself of a sin of disrespect, not knowing his state of mind; he may not intend it or be aware of it). If it were legitimate depiction of any human being, it would not be an inappropriate depiction of Christ. But the fact that it seems improper to use it to depict Christ, means that it should seem improper to depict any human being (an image of God) that way.

Sep 22, 2006

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Five things.
Ray from MN tagged me with the Five Things meme. I think this is the first time I’ve been tagged for anything since elementary school. Anyway, sez Ray, "Just make a post listing five items you have in your Freezer, a Closet, your Car, and your Backpack."

OK.

Freezer:
1. Mary Jane’s placenta
2. Coffee beans
3. Eight pounds of butter from grass-fed cows
4. Several boxes of popsicles
5. Two quarts of homemade tomato soup
Closet:
1. The oak dresser I had in my childhood bedroom
2. A maple dresser from Mark’s grandpa that Mark stripped and refinished (the dresser, not the grandpa)
3. A plastic bag containing my late mom’s jewelry
4. Laundry
5. Cell phone charger
Car:
1. Box of emergency granola bars
2. Rosary
3. Spare set of clothes for each child
4. Shovel
5. Roll of paper towels with the core stuffed full of plastic grocery bags
Backpack’s empty right now, gathering dust in the attic…
Sep 15, 2006

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4 comments on Five things.
Irreplaceable property.

Does artificial reproductive technology lead to the attitude that children are a commodity?

Well, this is somewhat interesting: Couple sue clinic over lost embryos

In their lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court, the Keoghs argue that both Morbeck and the clinic were responsible for destroying their "irreplaceable property."

Umhm.

Sep 15, 2006

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A homeschooling bleg.

OK, here’s a question for the homeschooling Catholics. Answer in the combox or on your own blog; please e-mail or put it in the combox and I’ll link to it.

How do you work prayer with your kids into the school day? I have always had trouble with this and I’m looking for more ideas. Help.

Sep 15, 2006

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2 comments on A homeschooling bleg.
Summing it up neatly.

As reported by Amy Welborn.

"There’s a controversy in the United States [about evolution and creationism and "intelligent design"] because there is a lack of awareness of a thing called philosophy," said [Father] Fessio, whose Ignatius Press publishes Benedict’s books in English.

"Evangelicals and creationists generally lack it and Catholics have it," he said.

"When you look at the world and see what appears to be order and design, the conclusion that there is a designer is not a scientific conclusion, it’s a philosophical one."

"Intelligent design" theory, in my view, is a clumsy attempt to reconcile two opposing worldviews that are not worth reconciling because they are both fundamentally lacking. It’s not that "evolutionism" (which I define here as the view that there is certainly no Designer and that the theory of evolution coupled with the collection of data is sufficient to explain everything important about life on Earth) lacks one thing which creationism supplies, and that creationism lacks something else which evolutionism can supply, so that all that’s necessary is to bring them together and cancel out contradictions. No, what is needed is something that is different from either.

"Are you a Creationist or an Evolutionist?" is a loaded question that doesn’t deserve an answer, on par with "When did you stop beating your wife?"

Sep 8, 2006

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1 comment on Summing it up neatly.
Brief conversations.

My favorite blog comment of the morning, so far, comes from Rich Leonardi’s Ten Reasons, where RL recounts the brief conversation he had with Archbishop Wuerl upon encountering him by chance in an airport. Commenter Chris writes:

I’ve had much briefer conversations with a couple cardinals, a few archbishops and several bishops. They have all been identical.

Them: The Body of Christ!
Me: AMEN!

One was slightly longer.
He said: Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternm. Amen.

And I stuck my tongue out at him.

Hm, I seem to be encountering the same sort of conversation stopper with my parish priest.

Sep 8, 2006

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Schoolroom pics.

UPDATE: Other people’s learning rooms.

Today I treat you to pictures of our schoolroom, as is. (That is, I just walked in — didn’t clean up at all.)

We moved into the house this winter, and decoration has been a low priority, so the walls are pretty bare. Yesterday I taped a weekly schedule to the wall above the big worktable, for Oscar to see. Later Mark plans to screw to the wall there a thumbtack-board made from a spare half-sheet of drywall, wrapped in colorful fabric. I still haven’t gone to get the fabric.

Yes, we have an IKEA around here. How can you tell?

The room is a little disproportionately narrow, so I took over some of the adjacent "foyer" space. A small shelf is meant to hold work for the now-three-year-old to use at the little table. As soon as I figure out what that will be.

Here’s another view. The cabinets hold supplies. The base cabinet is recycled from our old house, and the tall cabinets are just ordinary steel locking cabinets. We added combination padlocks because I kept losing my keys. See the clothespin bag hanging on the left wall? There’s a clothesline running across the top, just out of the frame, but you can see some paintings that are hanging from it in front of the curtain valance. Red, blue, green. I’d say they are hanging "to dry" except that Milo probably painted them weeks ago and are just hanging around.

Let’s look inside the tall cabinets. First, the one that I open every day because it contains each day’s work:

Ahh, I’m so proud of this nice, neat cabinet. The white dishtubs are labeled "Math," "Reading," etc. There’s a lot of odds and ends, manipulatives and flashcards and stuff; the dishtub is easy to retrieve.

Paint and glue are in secondary containment, always an important consideration when working with hazardous materials. The little file thingy holds upcoming math masters and the files for the reading program I devised (with help). Subjects that require only a couple of workbooks or so live in magazine files. The tubs on the bottom hold manipulatives.

Less tidy: The Cabinet I Hold Extra Stuff In!

Just don’t ask.

The underside of the base cabinet isn’t locked and contains things I want the children to have ready access to. For example, certain craft supplies (certain = "the ones that do not spill") and a box of folders with Oscar’s more independent work. Theoretically, I can say "Go get your red folder and do the worksheets in it" now.

Last but not least, the window through which we can wat ch the yellow school buses speed by:

Sep 6, 2006

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6 comments on Schoolroom pics.