Here is the other shirt I made for Isaac. I thought he could be a ninja Cardinal.

I tried to make some scones yesterday. They look delicious, but taste like poo. I accidentally added 800% too much salt! Barf.

The recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Well, I got confused. I realized what I had done as soon as I dumped the second teaspoon of salt, but what could I do? The salt, baking powder and flower were all white. I though I would go ahead and finish baking the scones to see what happened. Well . . . they are almost as bitter as the Cardinal’s season.

Check out the awesome outfit I made for Isaac. I think it makes him look like a VeggieTale Ninja!

I bought the pattern at Walmart for $2.50. I paid $12 for the 4 different kinds of fabric and I have enough for 2 shirts and 4 pairs of shorts.

My son is walking all over the place! I’ll try to post some video footage . . . (enjoy the pun)

I’ve been reading books and literature forums for a couple of weeks in search of modern heroes, and I gotta say Christ has them all beat.

Every hero in Western culture (maybe Eastern culture too, but since I don’t know much about them I can’t speak on behalf of the Eastern world) is inevitably compared to Christ.

Here are three characteristics I have identified in our heroes:
1) Self-sacrifice on behalf of others
2) Struggle between humility and pride
3) Realization that the individual depends on something bigger than themself (that could be God, or family, friends, other social groups, etc)

Now I will try to prove myself wrong, to see if I’m right.

Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

I started reading it because I’ve been on a hunt for heroes in modern literature, and I came across a literature form where the character Larry from this book was listed a a heroic figure. . . He wasn’t much of a hero though (unless you’re thinking of ‘hero’ in the sense of a Greek Tragic hero). He was extremely self-centered even though he professed that giving to others and self-sacrifice were the highest callings in life.

Gray was the only real hero in this novel. He lived the life of self-sacrifice for the good of others that Larry seemed to idealize after returning from India. Although Gray was wealthy at the beginning and end of this novel, any married man can tell you that a good marriage demands a daily sacrifice of time, personal desires and money. He adored his children (which seems easy enough to do) and loved his snobby wife (which does not seem so easy to do) who was bound to die just as pathetically as her uncle, Elliot. Gray also had a sincere concern for his clients; he was a stock broker in the 1920’s and when they went bankrupt, he was devastated. He tried to support them with his own money hoping the market would pick up again. It didn’t and he, through his generosity, became as poor as his former clients. He showed true compassion and loving sacrifice throughout his life. It is unfortunate that he was a minor character in the novel.
Larry, on the other hand, seemed completely self-indulgent. Even though he followed his religious convictions, which is admirable, he never made any sacrifice of himself for the good of others. Even the holy men of India, who Larry idealized, spent years leading lives of true sacrifice for years before wandering around the country attempting to unite themselves with God. After Larry had his apparent religious epiphany he gave no satisfactory reason for returning to the United States. It seemed more like he was running away again.
Everyone else was just as self-centered as Larry.

I suspect the person who recommended Larry as a modern hero was swept away by Larry’s romantic religious musings, and overlooked his fatal flaw which was that Larry was a narcissist and never spent a second of his life thinking of or carrying for others.
Although I enjoyed the book, I didn’t find the hero I was looking for.

He everybody;

I have an announcement (I laugh because it seems ironic that I’m making an announcement on a web page that gets 1 hit per week).

We’re having another baby!!!!!!

I meant to put up a pic of the ultrasound, but I keep forgetting.

Due November 16.

Two weeks ago Steve Angrisano told me an inspiring story about a friend of his who went over to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa.

Apparently his friend went to . . . what should we call it? Her office? . . . and was instructed to wait. After several hours she walked in and asked him a simple question: “Do you want to work with me?”

“Yes.” He responded, and she turned around and walking out of the room. Steve’s friend was a little confused, wondering if Mother Teresa had meant “Do you want to work with me now?” or “Do you want to work with me someday?”

He decided he didn’t want to miss this chance, and ran after her. She lead him to a train station where homeless people gathered for shelter. Mother Teresa stopped in front of a gutter where a man was laying in the sewage, she turned to Steve’s friend and broke the silence: “Pick him up.” And she walked away again.

Disgusted by the filth that covered the homeless man, Steve’s friend waited until Mother Teresa had turned her back and then rolled down his sleeves to cover his arms so his skin wouldn’t directly touch the homeless man’s skin.

He followed Mother Teresa back to her shelter and she led him into a bathroom where she again gave him simple directions: “Wash him.” Then she stepped back and waited.

He didn’t want to wash the homeless man; he didn’t even want to touch him anymore, but when you are facing a living Saint, you do what you’re told.

Steve told me that while his friend was washing the homeless man, he saw Jesus. Not in a figurative way, but literally. He saw the whip marks, he saw holes, and he looked into the eyes of our Lord. And he held that man and sobbed. After a while Mother Teresa walked up behind him, put her hand on his shoulder and said: “You saw him, didn’t you.”

God led me to the Catholic Church through the desire he put in me to serve others. I loved the simplicity of making dinner for someone who was hungry, or chatting with a homeless man whose mind was more crippled than his twisted body. And I yearn for that simplicity.

Unfortunately, there is nothing simple about ministering to middle-class American teenagers. And I’ve often considered leaving this ministry in order to commit myself, and my family to a life of simpler, more direct service.

Then I came across something that I haven’t seen since High School. Do you remember this:

It’s Maslow’s original five-step diagram of human needs. And I found some hope in it.

Mother Teresa spent her life pulling people out of gutters to bathe and feed them. She was taking care of their basic “Biological” and “Safety” needs.

The middle-class American teenagers I work with already have those two basic needs taken care of. So we begin by loving and accepting them and trying to give them a place they can feel like they belong because that is the need they are struggling with. Our teenagers are wallowing in the gutters of isolation created by our ego-driven and money-driven society, and they are covered in the sewage of television and its messages. Pulling them out and washing them off is not a simple job and there is no immediate gratification, but this is an immensely important ministry. . . and ultimately God put me here, so I’m not going to leave until he tells me to.

“There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.”
~Blessed Mother Teresa