Saturday Night Mortification

1. The First Pointless Video:

Let's start this bit of blog mortification with a video. I took a road trip with a few of my sons, and the Aardvark was our ride. Enjoy, with music by The Verve:



Remember, If you take care of the Aardvark, she will take care of you!

2. Writer's Block, or Cramps:

I have not written much lately; rather, I have been writing a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, none of it can be published, especially not here. Another reason to not write so much is that the 'official' home school year has started, and I am trying to become more than just the principal of our home school. This year I am going to be more active in the formation of my high school children.

This will certainly cut into the navel-gazing time which has produced some of the entries which you have had to read over the past three years.


I was blessed with a few days off, and I spent some of that time praying and writing in front of the Blessed Sacrament. This was a tremendous grace, and has become something which I have lately grown to cherish more and more. Perhaps one day I shall have the same kind of love for Our Lord as that of the old man from Ars, who used to sit in the chapel every day. St. Jean-Marie Vianney asked him what he was doing, and he replied,

"I just look at Him, and He looks back at me."

But that's not what I came to talk about here. Yesterday, I had to be stuck somewhere for about two hours, so I took along a book to write down some serious bad poetry. Three things had been rattling around in my creative writing part of the brain, and I wanted to try to pin them down on paper, like a monarch butterfly or some other large insect, for all the world to see. One of the ideas was about a line from Pope John Paul II's encyclical Familiaris Consortio which applies to the role of the family in the modern world. Another idea was inspired by the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man who was part of the plot which brought that aircraft down over Lockerbie, Scotland; the poem would contrast the reception of the victims and the terrorist when they all returned to earth. The third idea had to do with an observation I made about social mobility in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Only one of these poems solidified enough to print, and here comes that mortification I warned you about. Of course, it is in the form of a 5-7-5 haiku:

Midlothian girls
desire metamorphosis
to Plano women

SMD
9.12.2009

3. The Green Belt - The Wall

Taekwon Do has been neglected this summer, mainly because this is the busy season for a pediatric anesthesiologist. Elective procedures are scheduled for when school is off, and those children who aren't planning a trip to the hospital find another way to get admitted - usually doing something stupid, or something involving monkey bars. I have missed many classes this summer. Therefore, when I have been able to make it to class, I have noticed the instructor shaking his head as he watches me muddle through 'Do San.' Invariably, the other Black Belt instructors will end up running through the pattern with me. I sweat a lot.

What I really need is to practice more, and time has become too valuable a commodity for me to spend it on Taekwon Do. This has brought me to an impasse: if I am to go on with Taekwon Do, I have to make a commitment to spend more time learning the patterns, the sparring, and the self defense moves. What I need is to make that internal commitment to devote more time and effort to this activity. This man featured in the video below had to face this same problem, and he gives me some hope and inspiration:




....the second pointless video.

Of course, some of the Noisykids have no problem finding time to practice for Taekwon Do. In fact, they are forging ahead into areas I shall never reach:



Breathing is an integral part to martial arts, especially Taekwon Do, and that is why the children are using noisemakers to ensure that they exhale at the proper moment of each move.

4. You Jane, Me Amused!

I am really enjoying Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I am reading these books because my wife and daughters are into them, including watching the movie versions which are available on DVD. It appears as if there are more movie versions of Pride and Prejudice than there are of Beau Geste. I am enjoying the book so much that if we are blessed with another child, I want to name him or her after my favorite character. If we have a boy, I shall name him FitzWilliam Darcy; if we have a girl, I shall name her Darcy FitzWilliam.

I hope we have a girl, because then her initials would be the same as those of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex: DFW.

Alas, we are not with child at this moment. I beg of you to storm Heaven with prayers that He will bless us with more children.

Thank you and good night.