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Showing posts from August, 2009

Reflecting on a legacy

I watched a special on CBS last about Edward Kennedy's remarkable life.  Here are the transcripts.  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/26/national/main5267991_page5.shtml This is amazing: After [Caroline's] wedding, Jackie wrote Ted a thank you letter - a token of gratitude for what he’d meant to all the Kennedys over the years. The letter read, "There have been 17 children besides your own - Bobby's, Pat's, Jack's and mine, for whom you have always been there. Every graduation, every big decision, every trouble, every sad and even every happy day. On you, the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared. Sick parents, lost children, desolate wives. You are a hero. Everyone is going to make it, because you are always there with your love. Jackie." As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, I am not sure I would have agreed with Sen. Kennedy on very much, but one thing is the same: compassion. By all accounts, he matured into a kind-h

Quotidian mysteries/a Latin lesson

I borrowed the title of a lecture that I'm reading from Kathleen Norris, the marvelous poet and Christian thinker. Here's the book's Google Page, where you can read more: http://books.google.com/books?id=ETnB8B93otEC&dq=Kathleen+Norris&printsec=frontcover&source=an&hl=en&ei=p1-MSp2gCIisMJ2V3JMO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=&f=false Honestly, I purchased this book to round out a cart for free shipping. What a wonderful accident (or instance of providence, I should say). Quotidian was one of those words on the fringes on my consciousness. I had heard of it, but wasn't quite sure what it meant... It does mean "everyday, repeated actions." It comes from the same Latin root/Old English as "quote," from the question "how many." Entomology aside, that's exactly what I've been thinking about lately. Perhaps, I should message the subtitle: "Laundry, Liturgy, and 'Wom