Be Not Idle

I made it. And, strangely enough, this is the FIRST year that I’ve been home by 5 pm, grades in, exams filed, and supplies put away. 

Three teachers retired, which has meant that two of my favourite hall-mates are leaving. Ruth gave me a Christmas tree for my classroom (yes, no one’s ever made a fuss about Christmas decorations in this public school) and let me rummage through her “garage sale” tables. I snagged a Michigan pennant from Mr. S. 

I won’t be teaching English next year, which is a blessing. There’s nothing quite like a literature lover trying to convince sophomores that Shakespeare is great and John Proctor wasn’t a stupid guy for choosing to die for the truth.  I try not to think about the writing aspect. I try to comfort myself that at least my students will be able to express their fact-challenged opinions with better grammar. 

I am going back on Monday to grab some books and start preparing lesson plans for next year. I’ll be teaching a brand-new class, plus revamping my current Spanish classes. I’m excited about it, actually.  

Baloney is flattery laid on so thick it cannot be true, and blarney is flattery so thin we love it. - Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.”— St. Jerome

Lately, the Devil has had to take a number. I am so swamped with work, and it just keeps getting deeper…

“What I find fascinating about the United States is that they began with a positive concept of secularism. This new people was composed of communities and people who had separated from state churches, and they wanted to have a secular state which would open possibilities for all the confessions and all the forms of religious expression. It was an expressly secular state, and it was directly opposed to a state-church. It was secular precisely out of love of religion, for the authenticity of religion, which could be lived only in freedom. Thus we find a state that’s expressly secular, but favorable to religion in order to give it authenticity.” - Pope Benedict, emphasis mine

I often read or hear people talking about the Separation of Church and State as if it were a way of clamping down on religious expression. I suppose some are ignorant of our history. But sometimes it’s obvious that they willfully ignore evidence that the Framers had no such intent. The Founding Fathers had experienced the European model of governments repressing all but state-approved expressions of religion.  

The Pope mentioned the new problems in American secularism. No doubt he’s aware of a tendency for secularists to cite Jefferson’s “wall between Church and State” as evidence that Americans shouldn’t allow their religious beliefs to enter the public square.

To the contrary, Jefferson was reassuring the Danbury Baptists (a religious minority) that their religious liberties were an immutable right.  According to their letter, the state of Connecticut granted ”religious privileges” to the Danbury Baptists and ”we enjoy (them) as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights.”

Jefferson wrote that ”…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” 

He said nothing about Americans being prohibited from acting on their beliefs or following their consciences in the public square.

I tried going to Roman Catholic Coffee and instead, I’m getting re-routed to something called the Cabin Cove, which seems to be a knitting website.  What gives? Has Dominic left the Church to start his own cult of crochet? Or is it something more sinister?

 Perhaps he’s been kidnapped by a group of needle-wielding neo-gnostic gnitters! If so, it’s time to let loose the albino assassin-monk…

This is a fun story about a Kettering University student who built a mini-tank with the help of his frat brothers. Its ammo includes paintballs, golf balls, and empty Red Bull cans!

The story (both written and video) are at the Flint Journal, here:

http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2008/04/post_moto _kid_death_story_here.html

It reminds me of the frat house at the University of Michigan that had the highest GPA in the Greek System, Phi Kappa Tau. Many of them were engineering students, and there was also David, the budding entrepreneur who started a perfume factory in the basement.  “Nerds” have fun hobbies.

If you ever traveled in Michigan, you’ve seen billboards for Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth. My favourite has a 3-dimensional Santa Claus standing on the edge of the platform, cheerily smiling at the cars backed up on I-75. 

As a kid, I was always intrigued by the promise of the World’s Largest Christmas Store. However, my parents weren’t ones for buying Christmas decorations. Somtimes we made our own (including Dad’s famous electric star). Sometimes we got them from neighbors who decided to winter in warmer climes. So it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I finally went to the huuuuge store - complete with visitor maps.  

It was the first of many trips to the CHRISTmas WONDERLAND. And yes, that capitalization was deliberate. Mr. Bronner’s store never lost its focus on Christ.  Outside the store is a permanent Nativity display, a replica of the Silent Night Memorial Chapel in Austria,  and lyrics of the carol ”Silent Night” in more than 200 languages (no, that’s not a typo!). There is also a sign displaying Bronner’s motto:

“Enjoy CHRISTmas, It’s HIS birthday; Enjoy Life, It’s HIS way.”

Although I never met Mr. Bronner, Sissy did once. When she lived in Flint, she used to visit Bronner’s often, and he was still working. He cared very deeply for his customers. He kept active with various charities, too. Last year he celebrated his 80th birthday with a fundraiser for the Frankenmuth City Beautification group, which maintains the gardens and park-like walks through the Bavarian-American town. 

May perpetual light shine on Wally Bronner.  

 An obituary is here:

 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5671369.html

Julia at Happy Catholic (see my blogroll) posted one of my Grandpa O’Rourke’s favourite jokes. Here’s another.

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Two Irish brothers, Pat and Mike, put their money together and bought a fine cow. She was a prodigious milker and always gave birth to twins.

“We’ll split it down the middle,” said Pat. “You choose which half you want.”

Now Mike was sly, so he said, “I choose the back half.”

Pat couldn’t go back on his word, but he soon regretted the bargain. He had to feed and water the front half, but Mike got the milk and the calves from the back half. Pat had to lead the front of the cow to pasture and into the barn, but Mike got the manure for fertilizer.

Finally Pat was fed up, so he went out one morning and killed the cow. Mike was furious and took his brother to court. The judge asked Pat, “Did you slaughter your brother’s cow without his consent?”

“No, Your Honor,” says Pat. “I killed my half. His half died.”