7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 118)
— 1 —
I can’t believe that Lent is just around the corner. It’s interesting how some years I’ve felt drawn to make a lot of serious changes in my life during this time, then other years (like this one) I think I should just keep it simple so I don’t get overwhelmed. Either way, Lent always tends to be a period of great spiritual growth for me, so I’m looking forward to it. If you’re not familiar with this season, Marcel has an updated “all about Lent” post over at his blog. Great stuff.
— 2 —
Over at the National Catholic Register, I’ve been getting a surprising number of comments about my bio. A lot of folks have offered the constructive criticism about the part that says that my family “currently includes four young children (with one on the way).” Some people say that it sends the wrong message that I didn’t include the baby on the way in my kid count. It’s made me realize that stating the number of children you have can be a surprisingly tricky issue. If you’ve just found out you’re pregnant and aren’t ready to announce it, should you go ahead and include that child in the number? If you’ve lost children to miscarriage, while of course you include them as members of your family, do you add them in when people ask how many kids you have?
Since the common parlance is to list the number of kids you have interacted with and actively taken care of, I had said “four (with one on the way)” to avoid confusion. But maybe it sends the wrong message. What do you think? Should I change the bio?
— 3 —
I can’t stop talking about Evernote. I discovered it via this post by speaker / writer / executive Michael Hyatt, and my life will henceforth be categorized as “before Evernote” and “after Evernote.” This is the most useful software I have ever seen. Basically, it’s a simple system for organizing ideas. You create a note for each new idea, and can organize them by creating “notebooks” and adding tags to each note. It also has a browser plugin so that you can easily capture ideas you have while surfing the web. If you write, blog, or do anything else that involves keeping a list of ideas, you must have this software. (And it’s free!)
— 4 —
Before I say what I’m about to say next, I want to state for the record that I admire and respect Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss). His contributions to the world of children’s literature were inestimable, and I am sure that his lovely books will continue to delight children and adults alike for generations to come. But. Umm. Do you come across certain books of his where you feel like he was just phoning it in?
Because I am a deeply cynical person who is obviously in need of prayers, whenever I read One Fish, Two Fish to my kids, I always imagine Mr. Geisel calling his agent and saying, “Write this down: ‘At our house we, umm, open cans. We have to open many cans. And that is why we have a — heck with it — Zans.’” He rattles off a few more lines, and calls it a day after creating the word “Yop” to rhyme with “hop.” Then he tells the agent to have the massive royalty checks directly deposited to his bank account.
UPDATE: Well, I’m wrong, turns out he worked very hard on One Fish, Two Fish as I discovered in this interesting article called 10 things you didn’t know about Dr. Seuss.
— 5 —
My husband and I are still making our way through all the episodes of Jeeves & Wooster. One of the many things I love about it is that I recognize my cultural roots in these English characters. Many of their mannerisms and habits remind me of the way my grandfather does things, even though his ancestors have been in America for as far back as we can trace.
It reminds me of a fascinating book I once bought called Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, which talks about how there were four distinct migrations by four different British socioeconomic groups, and how you can still see their influences in American culture today. Unfortunately I did not check the page count before purchasing the book, and at 972 pages I haven’t quite been able to get through it. But the subject is really fascinating, and I hope I can learn more about it one of these days.
— 6 —
Here is something inspiring to start your weekend. It’s a talk by a young seminarian named Philip Johnson who has an inoperable brain tumor.
Seminarian Philip Johnson from Deacon Watkins on Vimeo.His insights about the meaning of life and what cancer has taught him are amazing. God bless him. (And you can follow his journey at his personal blog here.)
— 7 —
I’m going to spend this weekend relaxing (to the extent that that’s possible around here, anyway) since I’ll be traveling to Illinois for the Behold Conference next weekend. What are you up to?
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Your bio is fine! Some people really need to find something else actually worth complaining about.
I agree about Dr Seuss–some of his books are great, and some (Cat in the Hat) I have never liked.
Evernote sounds great. I remember watching my husband scroll through pages and pages of notes on his PhD and wonder if something like that would have saved a lot of time and energy. And I might have to look into it for myself (not that I am doing a PhD or anything, just for general usage!)
Re #2:
“Since the common parlance is to list the number of kids you have interacted with and actively taken care of, I had said “four (with one on the way)” to avoid confusion.”
Exactly. I have occasionally come across people doing it another way, but it always seems odd. If you wrote 5 with one on the way I would think you’re family consisted of 6 kids…
It’s pretty clear to say, I am a mother of 2 kids, with one on the way and one angel in heaven (all of which is currently true for me, besides the one on the way).
My comment from yesterday seems to have disappeared…
More on the children,
You don’t really have the baby, before they come into the world, they’re really in God’s hands, not yours.
I agree with everyone that you can describe your number of children however you see fit. People have too much time on their hands.
But my simplest answer is usually to pat my belly and say “this one is number ___”. no room for confusion either way. but i guess that doesn’t work as well in print….
I knew of the Jeeves and Wooster show before, but when you mentioned the author P.G. Wodehouse, I thought, “I ought to read that lot.” I picked up the compilation of all the Jeeves and Wooster stories in one volume at the library recently . . . what an enjoyable read! Thanks for the suggestion!
Sarah Oldham recently posted..Squished
I love what you said about Lent. I can’t decide if I need to make big changes or stick with the little things. Maybe a book by St. Therese will be a good idea!!
I honestly think the reason people have even said anything about your bio is because the prolife argument SO OFTEN becomes more about semantics and vocabulary than anything else. Big picture is that it doesn’t change your point of view, your argument, or who you are, so it shouldn’t matter. But sometimes we all get obsessive over the little things. I’d let it roll. (I also totally agree with Maria! ^^^)
I am a few days behind everyone – I just discovered your blog! Everything has already probably been said about the number of children. But I will add a few words anyway. I have 7 living children, one child who died as a baby and I had 7 miscarriages. Usually I say I have 8 children because the baby who died feels like a real part of the family. His presence is felt although he is no longer here with us. On my blog I have described my children as 8 (or 15) because I blog about grief and I want to make connections with others who have suffered the loss of children. I sometimes feel guilty I haven’t named my miscarried children or mention them very often. Do I not feel they are important? Of course I do! I think am going to be unexpectedly overwhelmed when I meet these children in Heaven.
Re: Lent: I’m torn this year about what to do. I am looking forward to it, but I’m also on bedrest and not sure what kind of sacrifice I can possibly make in my already limited position. I’m thinking of making it a point to add more prayer time (a daily Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Morning prayer, haven’t decided).
Re: the # of children: I agree with all the previous commenters: people have way too much time on their hands to be criticising soemthing so minor. I wouldn’t worry about it. It is a personal question. I answer that question depending on the context of where I am, whether a conversation is appropriate at the time, and who I am talking to. In the context of other Catholics, pro-lifers, etc. I will say that I have three in heaven and two on the way (expecting twins). But at other times if I don’t know the person well, I’ll just tell them I am expecting twins and leave it at that. It was hardest for me when I had been married for almost three years, my DH and I got married in our mid-thirties and we still had no living children and weren’t yet expecting this time. I felt guilty saying we had no children, so I’ve slowly gotten more and more comfortable referring to my little ones in heaven, but it still depends on context. And everyone is different, I would never criticise anyone for keeping information about any miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death to themselves rather than share it publicly.
Re: the video of the young seminarian: what an inspiring story. My DH has a cousin also in her 20s and suffering an inoperable brain tumor/cancer. Such a scary thing. Thanks for sharing the video!
Kerri B. recently posted..The Depth of Gods Love
Thank you so much for the info about Evernote! I love it! If you need to make bibliographies, you might look into Zotero, which is kind of like itunes for bibliographies: zotero.com