7 Things I Love Meme

Mulier Fortis has tagged me for a Meme although she makes a comment about the point of Memes to be to tag the more little-known blogs.

What is she saying? That my blog is little? That I'm not known? Well, I'm not a Big-Time Blogger, but don't insult my beautiful 118 followers! THEY know about me, even if they only randomly read my links! (My dear followers, let me take this moment to thank you, sincerely, for following this not-so-humble blogger who desperately needs all 118 of your prayers if you'd be so generous.)

And Yes, Mac, I know what you mean and I totally agree that linking to other cool but less-well-known blogs is the best thing about Memes! (Yeah, I'm as guilty as you are, for saying "Tag Thyself" maybe even more so!)

So, without further ado, these are Seven Things I Love:

1. Raindrops on roses

2. Whiskers on Kittens

3. Bright copper kettles

4. Warm woolen mittens

5. Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

6. Catching a firefly and setting him free

7. Tying your shoe for the very first time

*** sound of needle ripping across a record****

OK, ok, the above comes from The Sound of Music and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. But...the ARE cool things, aren't they? And I DO love all those things and even remember tying my shoe for the very first time! And I mostly like wild geese with the moon on their wings because that view means they're not pooping in the field.

BUT!

You really want REAL stuff? Really? I'm sorry, but I'm really boring and not nearly as poetic, but here goes anyway, the real Adoro. (Yes, I see the irony in that statement.)

(7 Things in no particular order):

1. Roses and Lilacs and Dandelions. Yes, Dandelions. And Violets. Bleeding hearts, Irises, and baby's breath, all together in one bouquet. ALL of these. I've never received such a bouquet but if I did my heart would melt. I know that if anyone were to ever give me such a weird mix of flowers they must REALLY love me because they can't necessarily be obtained from a florist, and I would expect the person to give them to me to know WHY I love those specific flowers. If someone were to know that puzzle, well, that would indicate real love for they'd have to know me WELL to be able to answer it.

2. Horses. I really love horses. And no, little girls don't always "grow out of it." Sometimes we keep that unrequieted longing for life, and that makes it that much more precious.

3. Coming home. No matter how bad my day has been, there is someone there waiting to turn inside-out with joy at my presence. That's only ONE of the things I love about dogs.

4. Coffee. Especially Mystic Monk. 'Nuff said.

5. Writing. If I didn't write, I'd die. You don't want me to die, do you?

6. Mexico. I lived there for a semester, loved it, was crying as I left my host family. The cab driver who picked me up from their house was concerned and so I had to explain I was going home but wanted to stay in Mexico, my new home. Apparently those words endeared me to him and he appreciated that an American could so fall in love with his country and his people. It wasn't hard. Los Mexicanos son muy amables, simpaticos, especialamente para los estudiantes, y su pais es bonitissima. Te amo mucho, Mexico! (Lo siento, no hablo bastante bien, se me olvido' tanto!)

7. Jesus. If I didn't love Him, NONE of what I mentioned above would mean anything at all. He is my reason for being, He CALLED me into being, and love wouldn't be anything but a word if He hadn't revealed the true meaning of love as He gave Himself for all on the Cross. If I love at all, it is only because HE loved first.

I tag.....

Makemeaspark

CUAGUY

Rae of Shadows

Fr. Cory Sticha

Fr. Leo

Joe of St. Therese

Kelly at Gratie Ut Deus

I look forward to reading all your favorite things! (You don't have to be as wordy as me, I'm just being me...and you know that and put up with me despite that character flaw...)

OBEDIENCE!

If someone asks you why you blog, or Twitter, or whatever your chosen method of social networking...just explain that you're acting in obedience to the Holy Father's directive!  

Vatican City, May 20, 2009 / 11:21 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI is calling upon young people to evangelize using the Internet as the Church prepares to celebrate the World Day for Social Communications.

At the end of his Wednesday general audience, the Holy Father launched an appeal asking that cyberspace be a place that promotes a "culture of respect, dialogue and authentic friendship where the values of truth, harmony and understanding can flourish."

Speaking English, the Holy Father recalled how in his message for this year's celebrations, "I am inviting all those who make use of the new technologies of communication, especially the young, to utilize them in a positive way and to realize the great potential of these means to build up bonds of friendship and solidarity that can contribute to a better world.

"Young people in particular, I appeal to you: bear witness to your faith through the digital world!" the Pope urged.

"Employ these new technologies to make the Gospel known, so that the Good News of God’s infinite love for all people, will resound in new ways across our increasingly technological world!"

The World Day for Social Communications will be held on Sunday, May 24 this year.

SOURCE


Ah, I KNEW I loved our Holy Father from the moment I laid eyes on him!

I do want to call attention to his primary message, though: he is not just asking us to use the internet and social communications in a general sort of way, but very specifically he calls us to two very important principles:

1. Charity  - "respect, dialogue and authentic friendship"    That means the snarkiness doesn't have a place in social communications.  He's right.  How easily we forget we're talking to real people with real feelings.  How easily we let our emotions get the better of us because we can't see the expressions in others who come across our words.  How easily we are offended where no offense is intended, and how easily we snipe back in anger at someone whose only offense was not being able to reveal the fullness of their humanity through words that are one-dimensional.  

Pope Benedict XVI was right to bring the virtue of Charity to the forefront of his speech.  

2.  Bear Witness to your faith!    Not only is our dear Papa directing us to practice virtue, but to recall our baptismal OBLIGATION to spread the good news!  If we're online, even if our primary purpose is not Catholicism, even if we're in a secular venue, by every word, every "demeanor", we become a representative of the Church.  We bear witness not just through direct evangelization and preaching, but through how we behave when we are online.  We can get into disagreements, certainly, but if we remember charity and react with patience, we'll win far more souls than we would in beating someone over the head with some doctrinal issue (about which it's entirely conceivable we might be explaining incorrectly).   Humility is key. 

And in case you're wondering....yeah.  I feel pretty well condemned right now.  

I'm thinking that the ONLY reason the Holy Father issued this statement is because my blog must have been reported to him and he felt he'd better crack down IMMEDIATELY.  

I'm sorry, dear Papa.  I'll try hard to do better, and hit "save" instead of "publish".  

*

The Lonliness of Techno-Isolation

I read a great article from National Catholic Register this weekend, and it does give food for thought:

The loneliness of modernity is the loneliness of Babel.

Its foundation is a breakdown of the means by which people enter into each others’ lives in a meaningful way, a replacement of genuine communication with superficial substitutes. Whether it is the substitution of “open relationships” for marriage or the substitution of “family TV” for time spent together, the effect is the same: The existentialist nightmare pictured in Sartre’s “No Exit” has come to pass.

We live and breathe and move through life surrounded by other people and yet remain in lonely isolation.

Perhaps the greatest culprits are the World Wide Web and the cellular phone. I have walked in on enough MSN chat conversations and looked at enough tweets and posts to know that for the most part, Internet “communication” is well described by Macbeth’s epithet: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Only perhaps without the fury.

Read the entire article. My guess is that you'll agree with some points and not with others.

Technology is a good thing, but it's no substitute. I'm amazed by the people I've met via blogging, and the connections I'm making in other social networks, but I grew up without this stuff. For me, it's not a real connection unless we meet in person. Maybe the connection comes close, and certainly, there are people who are pen-pals for years, so in that case, I'd argue a real human connection.

But for most of us, our internet "friends" are superficial. They fulfill a need in some way, or, if they don't, they're gone and forgotten.

Harsh, isn't it?

It's not the way we're designed. We are made in the image of God, designed for intimacy, our society built upon something solid, not the intangible and fragile universe of computer components. When we type, real people just like us read the words, and when we read the words of others, often they have a very real impact upon us. Flamers hurt us on two levels; both because they suffer from so much hatred that it exudes from their fingertips when they can hide behind an alias or ISP, and because their words are things we'd never want to experience in real life...and yet...we do. The words in writing, I'd argue, are even WORSE than in person because we'd never hear them in person even if we knew they were there, hiding behind the eyes of our interlocutors.

But there's a problem with this social interface; it isn't real. Yes, those of us who have a certain balance in our lives recognize the humanity of others, but I'll still be the first to admit that I've spouted off online where I would have held my tongue in real life. And in that, I've realized the de-humanizing aspect of the internet, and have tried to take care not to take it too personally when someone ruffles my feathers.

It's not always intended, but it happens.

Maybe that's one of the reasons I went to Ohio last summer; because it wasn't sufficient to "know" people via internet, but for real. To connect in real life, for that friendship can only be fulfilled if we can look at each other, if we can speak in person, if we can embrace, and carry our friendship from the keyboard into reality.

Sure, the keyboard connections continue, but they have much more depth now that we know each other.

It is a deprivation to connect...but not complete the connection.

One of the things that concerns me about the abundance of internet socialization is what it is doing to our youth. They spend their days texting people they may never have met...and may never meet. And they don't have the discernment skills to know if they SHOULD take steps to meet those others. They have their most "meaningful" conversations via an iphone which completely disconnects them from emotion or valid intimacy.

And adults who should know better fall into the same trap (lest someone think I'm picking on teens. I'm not.)

Social networking is a tool, not a way of life. If we focus only on our fragile online connections, we'd be lost.

There has to be a balance.

In my own experience, I've experienced some wonderful friendships, and those that are real, and involve real connections, continue to grow. Those that do not fall away. It's not to say that the people at the other end are less worthy of friendship! I only wish I could meet all the wonderful people with whom I've connected online!

But the reality is this; we all have to tend the relationships around us, too.

Today I was invited to a Super Bowl party at a friend's house. We haven't "hung out" for a long time, and I turned it down tonight not because I didn't want to spend time with them, but because I have laryngitis. (It doesn't make a lot of sense to go hang out with friends and sit there silently when of course, we WANT to chatter up a storm. Which I would do in spite of my vocal problem!)

Instead, I spent some time online, here and there connected to people I've never met, commenting on the Super Bowl and the attendant commercials. Yes, it was fun. But a real connection with dear friends would have been better.

Again, we have to have a balance; online networking is great, but we have to make sure we foster our friendships in real life, too.

And as the article says, we have to be willing to be disconnected from ALL of it; to experience solitude in the honest sense of the word, and in that, know ourselves, and know the God who made us.

If we're not taking that time, then no friendships in the world are going to help us.
Ultimately, in all of our social connections, we're looking for God. But if we don't take the time to seek Him in solitude as well as through others, we'll miss Him entirely.

Let us not let technology run our lives, and let us not redefine friendship according to the definitions assigned by social networking, but rather, by our inherent design that demands real personal interaction fueled by knowledge of who we are in relation to God.