“We can do no great things. Only small things with great love.” And this book is an enchanting, coherent account of what that means for the leisure hours of the average Christian. It may not make you blow up your TV. But it should leave you wanting to live a simple family life of small hospitality, music, sport and storytelling. It will show you how that life is only possible when prayer, primarily the Mass, is enthroned in the heart of the family. Best of all, it will convince you that the life is there for the taking. All you have to do is take it.
Since starting work last Friday, I’ve worked two regular days and three twenty-four hour days. And I’ve come to the following conclusion: It’s not that all of a sudden once you graduate from college, staying up all night makes you a wreck the next day. Think back and you’ll realize that that was at least as true then as now. It’s that after college, you spend that day on things that can’t be faked by a walking corpse.
Organic…dirt. The war is over, and David Suzuki has won.
Everyone knows that answer is merely ceremonial when the question was “Honey, do I look fat in this?” A few weeks ago, I realized that the same is true for: “Hey man, will I bother you if I practise bagpipes for a bit?”
Mortgage brokers enjoy giving potential borrowers tips on speedier repayment. The typical line goes like this: “If you only switch to bi-weekly payments, it’ll cost you about as much as an extra latte per week, [I believe the latte is a standard unit among bankers] and you’ll clear your debt five years earlier.” Needless to say, they don’t tell you this so you’ll get out of debt faster, but because it’ll make you more likely to get the mortgage. How so? They know you’ll do the following math, just far enough below full awareness to prevent your spying the trap.
25 yr mortgage / 5 yrs = 20% of the mortgage
5 yrs = 1 coffee/wk
So
1 coffee/wk = 20% of the mortgage
and
5 coffees/wk = 100% of the mortgage
Therefore, I can pay off my whole mortgage in zero years, and it’ll cost about $12.50 a week.
Well, where do I sign?
This was far too blessed to blog about in any serious way, so I won’t. But I WILL mention that for culture shock, there’s nothing like the Route 66 Diner chili cheese omelette on the way to the airport from a week of monastic dining. On the bright side, I now know what biliary colic feels like.
The first day of the Triduum. The last day of med school. And it’s finally stopped snowing. This is promising.
Really? I mean REALLY? It’s nearly May!
The other day, I stumbled into a small music store in search of an electronic metronome. The aging hippie behind the desk was only too happy to help:
Ditch: What’s the difference between these two?
Pitch: Well, this one’s twenty dollars, and that one’s seventy.
Ditch: I see. And what does that fifty dollars get me?
Pitch: Oh, this one’s much higher end… [Stares significantly over his small, round spectacles] …MUCH… Higher. End.
Ditch: Oh. And um… What’s higher-end about it?
Pitch: Well, for one thing, that one’s made in China, and this one’s from Thailand…or Japan or somewhere… Let’s see. Oh; China. Well, but it lets you mark beats…and…uh…
And that’s how I came to own one of these:
I even get to wind it.
“Well, see you later. I’m off to buy sheets.”
“You’re going to carry out unnecessary commerce on a Sunday?”
“Oh, no, it’s necessary. I gave up shopping for Lent.”
