On dying

"We cannot point to the high virtue of Christian living and the gay, almost mocking courage of Christian martyrdom, as a proof of our doctrines with quite that assurance which Athanasius takes as a matter of course. But whoever may be to blame for that it is not Athanasius." C.S. Lewis, "On the Reading of Old Books"

To which I reply: quite true. But why not??

I've been thinking about dying lately; not that I have any intention of doing so in the near future, but it's unavoidable in my current job. A most melancholy thing has struck me. Hardly anyone hospitalizes gracefully or dies well. Even those who claim that their "faith gives them strength" seem to fall apart when their bodies do, and there's nothing sadder to read than a do-not-resuscitate order of a self-proclaimed Christian.

I don't think that the Church these days really talks about dying much. I'm not sure why. It's pretty likely to happen, like taxes. I'm thinking of two ladies from back home. One said, "If God loves me, He'll heal me," and when she died, some of her family fell away from the faith. It's just not true that God will heal all His children in this world. And then there's a lady who spent her last months with cancer memorizing the saints' words from Revelation. She said she was learning her lines ahead of time.

The other day I came across an article. I wish I could remember what it was in. It was talking about the cost of hospitalization and the difference between people who had hope of an afterlife, and still fought to live, versus the people who had this life only and were fine with a DNR order.

We hate death, but we do not mourn like those who have no hope!

Very good and exciting news

I planted a whole packet of basil seeds a few weeks ago, and a bunch of them came up right away and withered almost immediately. It was heartbreaking. And then, last, as one untimely born, a lone little sprout came up.

And... it stayed up. I've been assiduously putting it in the sunniest spot ever since.

And tonight I noticed it's growing two more little leaves! It's decided to keep growing! HURRAY!

English as a written language

"Some people have no concept of English as a written language." Ben A 3-15-09

I submit a few instances for your consideration. They affect context rather horrifically:

Losing/loosing
Bowls/bowels
Marital/martial

And my personal favorite: "heart faliure."

Well, I thought it was funny...

Sunny with a high of 77

I would just like to announce that it was 77 here today, and more or less sunny. This, after we had so much snow Monday that the public schools were closed three entire days. (The snow's all gone now.) I approve of Richmond weather.

A real mermaid

I loved this story about Weta Workshop (that Weta Workshop!) turning a a lady with amputated legs into a mermaid. :-) She got a functional prosthetic tail made to be used in water, and she even got the makeover to go with it. It's beautiful.

Apparently kids see her in the water and go, "Oh, right, there's a mermaid," but adults think it's really awesome.

Hat tip: Brandywine books.

Snow day

Yesterday was a miserable, chilly, rainy, sleety, hail-ey day. They were predicting snow but I didn't believe a word of it. We came home from church and huddled. With chocolate chip cookies.

But about 5:00 yesterday, it snowed! It really did!

We woke up this morning to find Olwen, and the rest of town, completely covered. That white lump in the foreground is our bush. My work and Jonathan's school were canceled. :-)


I celebrated by making tea and a breakfast casserole, with some El Pinto salsa that Kroger's here carries (!!). We mean to continue huddling inside today, catch up on laundry and taxes and such... and I just challenged Jonathan to a Scrabble duel. I love snow days.

Quote of the day

This quote comes from Thursday last, at small group, comprised of chiefly young couples.

Babies: "Watch out, they're catching." Katie