Amsterdam is not the richest or most glamorous area, but everywhere you go, people are upset because tings like this "just don't happen here".
This family does not live that far from me. I don't know them, but I was wondering if it would be innappropriate to bring a Mass card and even a covered dish of some sort.
Update: (I'm a day behind everything) She was not killed by a car.
In my strange odessey of falling asleep from fatigue during the day, I am compounded by insomnia after 10 PM. I have remedied this by watching reruns on the WB of Sex in the City. Like many HBO shows, I watch this with equal parts disgust and intrigue.
There are parts of Carrie Bradshaw and her friends I can actually relate to. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to play that game "sooo many women across America" claimed: "Oh Carrie is just like me and my friends. We act and talk just like that!" Baloney. Women who smoke and eat out every meal (having bacon and eggs every morning) do not have bodies like Sarah Jessica Parker. Women who are that promiscuous have venereal diseases, they have children out of wedlock, and are depressed from all the drama their life brings with worthless men...the list goes on. Also, even in my "pre-Catholic" days (we'll leave it at that), I never sat around a table eating and at the same time chit chatted about how much I enjoy anal or oral sex. Women don't talk like that, unless of course things have changed greatly in my years since I started practicing my faith. Women spend more time wondering things like if this time it means he is going to commit. Actually, I have to revise that a bit, because when I went back to school last summer, I heard a lot of details sitting with recent high school grads over coffee than I would have liked that left me a bit slack jawed.
But like I said, there are things I can relate to with Carrie, which in essence is what makes the show successful at all. I understand her hurt feelings with the way Mr. Big treats her, and I understand why she falls for him repeatedly-to an extent, but moreso if she were 20 as opposed to 38. But yesterday I put my finger on what bothers me most despite understanding her. Here we have what seems to be four intelligent women: a writer, a lawyer, a succesful PR agent, and an art expert. But in the name of independant, intelligent women, they have stepped so far backwards in the evolutionary (for lack of a better term) ladder. They are intelligent, but have stopped thinking for themselves in their heads, but simply react with their hormones. On the surface it doesn't seem that they are that stupid because they are free-thinkers not chained to any preconceived outdated notions of relationships, but their actions never make them happy.
Their line of thinking makes me very sad. The feminist movement has taught women to sell themselves short. Becoming wives, having men commit to you, and having children has become slavery compared to having one night stands. Anyone who has had a one night stand I am sure feels a hole in their heart and would rather have a dress and a ring. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. Glamorizing this lifetyle really is not a step in the right direction for women. Why do people persist in this fantasy?
“It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another.”
~Fulton Sheen
HT to Mary Kay for the quote.
Two weeks ago, we were assulted with a Homily which has become common place in this diocese about the importance of giving financial support through the Bishop's Appeal.(Last Sunday's Homily was about how all Catholic's should go see The DaVinci Code in good fun). The homilies are usually offensive because they are often arm twisting lectures about how people are just too cheap and if they want to continue receiving Communion, they better give more. Now I do not dispute of giving what you can to help the Church, that is not what my complaint is about. Nine times out of ten, the congregations that were being addressed (that I have seen) were senior citizens on fixed incomes from modest, working-class neighborhoods. The priest of the parish that gave the Homily two weeks ago complained after Mass that "Italians are so cheap" (the congregation is predominately Italian). But also, I don't give any longer to the Bishop's Appeal, because the Bishop's pet project is to take priests out of the Mass. They do not even deny this fact:
Here is a small sample of the programs you support when you make a gift to the Bishop's Appeal.The Formation for Lay Ministry Program, a two-year program, designed for the holistic formation of laity as leaders in their parishes. Through the program more than 900 women and men have been trained as lay leaders since it began in 1984.
I think the part that bothers me most is that all the talk of helping the poor, of social ministry etc. etc. (and again, there is no disputing the importance of this), this diocese does little to nothing in helping your everyday person in the pews with everyday Catholic family issues. The Catholic schools lack any kind of faith formation. The CCD programs offer even less.
On a parish level, there is no support for families or seniors. There is nothing social. Just lots of parish councils consisting of the wealthier members of the parish talk, talk, talking about the latest politically correct agenda and how they can implement it. Truthfully, they don't even get that far as much to implement anything, as much as patting themselves on the back for being "forward thinkers" in the Church.
There is no recognition that the people who do donate are not hoarding money somewhere that they finally relent to giving up because Father yelled at them on Sunday-that these funds just might be a sacrifice.
Then on top of it, there is no representation of the needs of the common parishioner in the agendas.I think in many places the homeschool support group has filled in the gaps for families where parishes fall short. How many times have you heard of help with new baby suppers, or babysitting come from these communities instead of the parish? I am just so tired. I get so jealous when I see Church flyers from other corners of the country that have mother's groups, that have pedicure night, that have a night where guys can go to the gym and play basketball, where there are Montessori religious Ed classes for small children, or heck a CCD class where they talk about "eating and breaking bread" the whole time and chuckling about how dopey those older Catholics were for wearing white dresses to their First Holy Communions(the list goes on). And yes, I have gotten onto a Parish Council and tried very, very hard to request some of these more simple things to no avail. It has occured to me how much this has worn me down in regards to my faith.
What does one do in this situation? Leave the diocese? Keep hitting that brick wall of going to parish meetings just to get them to open the gym one night a week so the men-folk can play basketball and ignore your family in the process? Or just deal and smile?
Pansy and Peony: The Two Sleepy Mommies
