Proud...

My son Fred's band is playing a big date at the Middle East in Boston soon, and you have to go to Ticketmaster for your tics!!!  Ticketmaster, yo!  We're really psyched, and wish him luck! The whole fam (minus our youngest, who will be at a wicked awesome sleepover!) will be cheering him on!

Check it out >  http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3393215&REFERRAL_ID=tmfeed&crosssite=TM_US:1537678:337303

Nice Speech at an Important Time

Great job by President Obama on his speech in Tucson, which just concluded.  I though that he did a great job, and the tone was perfect, I thought.  He does such a great job as an orator, and sometimes that is just what we need.

I have been concerned about Obama's presidency, but have to hand it to him on this night.  Great job, Mr. President! Just what your country needed.

All Geared Up for 2011

So, these are my dogs, Copper (bigger hound) and Neeley (scrappy rat terrier.)  My house is like a Disney movie wth these two characters running around all day.  I happened to walk into our family room in time to see them 1) miraculously not looking at me, 2) miraculously calm, and 3) miraculously not on my couch, but where they should be, on their bed.

They are the original Odd Couple.  Copper is laid-back and pretty easy to please, where Neeley seems to be doing drugs all the time - and not very good ones.  The only time they are at the same emotional pitch is when I put my sneakers on; they become unglued because this might mean we are taking a walk.  Of course, it might not, and they cannot handle the not knowing.  They jump around and try to make eye contact wth me, (they know I avoid looking right at them if I am not taking them) and they also make this weird noise - between a bark and a whine - which ends up sounding like a word, sometimes.  I texted my middle son Matt the other day with the message: "Copper just said a word."  Matt, unphased, texted back, "What did he say?"  I responded, "He said "Now."  He did! LOL")

Anyhoo - I heard it here first.  I believe they can talk.  Now if only they could behave - and stop trying to look into my eyes!  It's not normal!

Another Shooting

So, a Congresswoman shows up at her local Safeway to meet and greet her constituents.  A friend stops by to say hello, a little girl who is interested in government attends with a neighbor, a staffer chats on the phone or checks messages. People come and go wth groceries.

A few seconds later the little girl and the friend who stopped by are dead, as well as the staffer.  An intern for the Congresswoman uses meat department aprons from the supermarket to try to stop the bleeding from the Congresswoman's head; a bullet has travelled the length of her brain, on the left side.  Someone has got to notify her husband; the President leaves a message on his cell phone.

At Mass today people bowed their heads to pray for all of these people, as well as for ourselves.  How many of these stores can we hear?  How many mini- 911's can we go through?  When do our individual and collective psyches start to show the wear and tear that violence - and the media coverage of that violence - puts us through?

Timing that is interesting to me - through what we will call a "communications error" between myself and my husband Fred, today I ended up walking from Mass to meet him further down the street than I should have, not waiting for him where he asked me to wait, but forging on ahead on my own.  So of course, I missed him entirely when he went another way to come get me, and end up cold, gloveless and shivering in the wind, with only a copy of  the January 2011 Magnificat to keep me warm.  Sitting near the railroad depot on a bench, waiting and reading about Christ asking the apostles to leave family and comfort to follow him, I was struck by how cold I was, and how we are all really alone, in many ways.  This tragedy with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords illlustrates this, too - we must accept our solitary status, as much as we love and need others - there is only One that makes us un-solitary.  We can take this love, from God, and let it allow us to give and receive human love, whether it is friend love, romantic love, or any love, even more deeply, more richly.

We can truly love these victims of this horrific shooting by first loving God, and accepting what He offers, and then offering our heartfelt prayers for their recovery, and for their families.  We are haunted by the instability of life, and reassured by the gifts of life.

Really heavy, I know...but that's how life is.  Tomorrow will have blue sky, I'm sure.

Happy New Year...3 Items of Interest

Happy New Year, Everybody!!  Hope it is an absolutely terrific, mind-blowing year for each and every one of you!

A couple of things:  First in 2011: a totally embarrassing thing on my part, but I have been bothered by it, and it is in the "Reality TV" category : apparently the star of "The Bachelor" this season was also the star of the same show three years ago, where he committed the unpardonable outrage of Not Proposing to Anyone at the end of the show.  Back then, he left two women at the alter (or, the fake podium, to be honest about it.) He was not ready to marry, and did not truly fall in love.  He has been slapped in the face and maligned on the internet, and seems to spend all his time apologising. Was he actually supposed to marry someone because he was on TV??  It's just bothering me.  I am vowing to cut down on my reality tv watching and read more; it's one of my New Year's Resolutions, or Rez's ( I have so many I just call them rez's now; it cuts down on 3 syllables at least 8 times a day.) 

** I have a new theory that America eats so much and watches so much mindless tv because we are in a constant state of exhaustion from all that technology allows us to do now. ** More on that later.

Second in 2011:  have you heard about birds falling from the sky, and millons of fish dying?  It's happening.  Google it.

Thirdly, in 2011: the first viral video of the year is the homeless man with the announcer's voice who has been discovered on a highway and given a second chance at so many things.  May we say a collective prayer that we do not kill his new chances with our attention, our investigatons into his past, and our tendancy to "pedastal" people.  Just let the man talk; it's clearly what he was born to do.

More later...again, here is to an amazing year for you to enjoy, learn from, grow in, and remember.