Drama Unfolds Here...

Only Boring People Get Bored.

2009-09-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

I find that when I am not involved in something, be it school, a show, or just some kind of project, I get very depressed. It seems that I always need to be doing something or at least have a group of people to keep my mind off the fact that I'm not doing anything. I'm realizing this now because I'm taking of time from school to save money for the wedding. The Fiance has left so of course I'm upset about that. Also, I seemed to have lost some friends along the way that I didn't even realize had left. People I slowly sifted out of my life because I knew they were not leading me down a very good path. And yet I miss them. I miss the company most of all. I've also been living alone for the last month and a half, which gets INCREDIBLY lonely. When I was living in "The Mad House" with 3 other psychotic girls, I thought that it would be very nice to live alone. Not to have anyone get mad at you for leaving a crumb on the counter or leaving your shoes upstairs or blinking too many times. At first it was fun. Now its just depressing. Anyone who shows any interest in spending time with me, I cling too. That's how desperate I'm getting. I am NOT that person. I am just very VERY bored. I should be excited about planning a wedding and dress shopping and cake tasting but its all tastes very bitter when you can't afford it. Hence no school, hence no classes, hence no theater, hence no people, hence depression. I SHOULD NOT be feeling like this because I should be able to think of something clever and entertaining to do but I am having "entertainers" block. I should probably get a third job or something. I don't like being around "work people" because their lives are actually depressing and it makes me feel like a selfish idiot for feeling crappy. I should right a Requiem or an Opera or something. Too bad I don't have a piano...
I expect things to get much worse before they get better.

Damsels in Distress

2009-08-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a friend recently about problems she was having with her boyfriend. After ranting for a while she got very quiet and started to tear up a little bit.
"Its my fault," she said, "I am expecting way to much out of him. I have suddenly developed this 'damsel in distress' complex. No body does that anymore, who does that? I can't have these expectations that he's going to fight for me like some *expletive* dude in some *expletive* fairy tale."

It was a very interesting point this young lady brought up, and the more I began thinking about it the more it occurred to me that all of us ladies have a small "D.I.D." complex. Maybe it is because we've been fed fairy tales all of our lives that this wonderful man is going to ride in, fight and kill if he has to, and sweep us off our feet. Its ridiculous to believe that this could ever happen in real life.
Maybe.

The D.I.D. complex doesn't necessarily call for such extremes but the expectation that someone would find you worthy enough to fight for is incredibly attracting. I think that it is a reflection of something greater. Several years ago we saw a cultural phenomenon with the movie, Titanic. Horrible inaccuracies aside, women were flocking to the theaters to see this movie over AND over again. I, of course, wasn't allowed to see it but I watched it a couple years ago while doing a show about The Titanic just to see why everyone was freaking out so much. Yes, Leonardo was cute, but really ladies, come ON! Then it occurred to me that it was the character himself that was so appealing to women. They had been reintroduced to a savior. Someone that loved a woman and would do anything for her, including dying for her. This type of character had gone into hiding for quite some time, replaced by a Don Juan, I don't give a crap, I just want that woman and that woman and that woman.
The character in Titanic reflected a very Christ-like character, be it on a very small level but still there. He was a man that sacrificed his life so that another could live. I'm not saying that every woman just wants a man to die a terrible death, though some might. They want a Christ-like love.

The problem with women is that they love fiercely and more often than not in this culture they can't find a man to be compatible with, therefore women will find other things to be their outlet. It may be their career, their children, addictions to sex or drugs, pretty much anything to share that love. Sometimes it can get a little scary, maybe a little "Fatal Attraction" but it all comes from a desire to need and be needed. Its what really separates us from men. Not saying at all that men do not love as fiercely as women, that would be very wrong of me to say. Woman have a very deep need to be needed, which men have too but just on a different level. We find now that men especially young adult men have lost the art of romance and challenge and fighting for a woman. It all comes a little to easy for them now. We have all gotten very very lazy. Women make it easy to be caught, going to bars, wearing skimpy clothing and standing with 10 or 12 different napkins with their numbers written on it. Even playing "hard to get" has been lost. Men no longer have to prove themselves to a woman.

Concerning the issue above, that dear young lady found herself with a young man and they had been dating for a few months but she felt like he no longer had to earn her affections but could just demand them. He probably felt that he already had the girl, what else did he have to do? This is a hole that the dating, engaged and even married man falls into all too easily. The hard part is over, getting her to date you, marry you, you've got that locked down. Unfortunately for you, women aren't satisfied with that. It is very easy to slip into the mind set that women are needy and that they are never satisfied, but love should never be satisfied. It is a hunger and it is a thirst that we need but that isn't always satisfied. God's thirst for us is never satisfied and will always be demanding more. I see men thirsting for it as well. They try to find satisfaction in becoming a serial dater, dating more than one woman, or just sleeping around. The depth of a relationship, married or otherwise, runs very deep. Our love for each other is a reflection of God's love for us. Too often its put on the back burner while career, friends, social activities etc. are given the front seat.

While almost every woman loves to love intensely, some would say dramatically, the "normal" man is terrified of that, especially when it comes to a wife. This intensity can terrify a man especially when it isn't "kept in check." I'm not quite sure why this is, maybe the demands and expectations of our culture. Women will bend and brake to this expectation in order to be loved and wanted at all. Women have been given the gift of fierce love and without it we could not survive. It is that love that allows us women to even think about bearing and bringing children into this world, to fulfill this wonderful covenant we have with God. A man to whom that deep love has been given, is a very lucky man. Any man who has been so deeply loved by a woman will tell you so. That love deserves to be nurtured, fought for, and earned. Its incredible how a woman will love you if you fight for her love, but unfortunately women have become cold and hard because no one is fighting on either side. Women aren't demanding it and men are running away from it when they do.

It is a strange fact that while women are without doubt the most lovable objects in the world, yet it is on a man that the greatest and most enduring passions are given.

A great many women go through life without ever having been loved by any man.

I very much doubt if any man ever went their entire lives without having been adored by some women.

Feminine Wiles

2009-02-27T21:03:00.000-08:00

I was having an interesting conversation with my younger sister the other day, she is 16, about femininity and how she thinks women should act. I was very surprised and a little shocked when she told me that she agreed with women who used their sexuality to get what they wanted from men. Her defense for this was that women had been used for hundreds of years for sex and therefore it was appropriate and right for them to turn the tables on men and use sex against them or for their own benefits. After I picked my jaw off the floor, and decided NOT to call the principle of her school demanding to know what they were teaching, I realized I didn't quite know where to begin with my sister. I wonder if I had somehow failed as the eldest to teach proper feminine etiquette or...something. My sisters had never seen me strutting around the house in short shorts and halter tops. I had only recently begun to wear 2 piece swimsuits with a 6 foot towl wrapped around me. It frightend me, ever so slightly, that this was how my sister viewed things. Unfortunately I saw that this was how most women viewed sex and sexuality, as a game. The art, power and beauty of femininity had been lost somewhere throughout the years, yes, but now it had been lost to even "good Catholic girls." I would most definitely not call my self an expert in these matters but wouldn't say that I am completely incompetent. I began to understand the power of my own feminity when I started dating my boyfriend about 8 months ago. He once said, "Erin before I met you I didn't quite understand why men, a long time ago, used to make such a fuss over seeing women's ankles. Now I get it."
I'm pretty sure what he was refering to was how rarely I exposed my legs and never wore scantely clad outfits even in the summer time. I realized then that I wasn't trying to attract attention, I was even trying to avoid it, and yet I was holding my boyfriend by a string wrapped around my pinky finger. That was never my intention at all. Still, I possesed a great power that I hadn't been previously made aware of.
Women don't understand any more the strength and force they possess by just being women. They have lost the mystery. They just lay it all out there for men to come sniffing around like dogs so they can put them on leashes. I used to love watching scenes in classic movies where a woman, modestly dressed, would make men fall over or run into a pole or spill their beer just by walking down the street. There was always a grace and elegance she carried with her and possessed that has been replaced by booty shorts and a "shirt" that resembles women's lingerie.
I wouldn't really know where to begin in recovering the lost art of femininity. It needs to start with the young women. I cannot stress enough to the young girls that I talk to about the importance of being womanly and that there is nothing wrong or weak about it. Women have more power than they realize and its time to rediscover it.

Obama Nation

2008-11-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

In this 2008 Presidential race, America has been witness to one of the most staunchly pro-abortion candidates in years and now he is in fact our president. Here is a quote from the man himself on this issue:

"There will always be people, many of goodwill, who do not share my view on the issue of choice. On this fundamental issue, I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield." - Obama

There is so much overwhelming irony in Barack Obama's position on abortion. First of all, if anyone hasn't noticed. Obama is in fact an African American man. An African American man states that he will fight hand in hand with Planned Parenthood to protect this fundamental issue, being the right for a woman to choose to slaughter her unborn child. The founder and and leader of Planned Parenthood and abortion revolution is Margaret Sanger. Indeed if she were alive today she and Barak Obama would be the best of friends, fighting ceaselessly to protect this beautiful right. Let us see what dear Margaret has to say about the abortion issue:

"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." -Sanger

Oh dear. Seems to me that Maggie appears to be a bit of a racist. What exactly is she saying here? Not sure...well here's another:

"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."

Would you like a few more?

"We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population."

"Birth control: to create a race of thoroughbreds."

"Those least fit to carry on the race are increasing most rapidly. … Funds that should be

used to raise the standard of our civilization are diverted to maintenance of those who

should never have been born."

If indeed Pres. Obama is fighting for the same ideals of Planned Parenthood like he undeniably states it seems to me that he is fighting for the elimination of his own race. I find this a little disturbing considering it was a great percentage of his race that got him elected.

This can't possibly be what Obama wants, after all, "no one is pro-abortion." Indeed no. After all, abortion is the only right that the liberals think every woman should have but the thing that they all wish didn't exist. No body WANTS to have an abortion...but everyone should have the right to have one should they choose.

"I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby" -Obama

No, no one should be punished with a horrible thing like a baby. So, tonight when Barak has the nanny tuck in his dear little daughters they will be told stories of values and morals that they should uphold and reflect. Maybe they will even be shown pictures of a partial birth abortion.

"On an issue like partial birth abortion, I strongly believe that the state can properly restrict late-term abortions. I have said so repeatedly. All I've said is we should have a provision to protect the health of the mother, and many of the bills that came before me didn't have that." - Obama

Ladies and Gentlemen, your new president;

Q: What is your view on the decision on partial-birth abortion and your reaction to most of the public agreeing with the court's holding?

A: I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make these decisions. They don't make them casually. And I trust women to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy. And I think that's where most Americans are. Now, when you describe a specific procedure that accounts for less than 1% of the abortions that take place, then naturally, people get concerned, and I think legitimately so. But the broader issue here is: Do women have the right to make these profoundly difficult decisions? And I trust them to do it. There is a broader issue: Can we move past some of the debates around which we disagree and can we start talking about the things we do agree on? Reducing teen pregnancy; making it less likely for women to find themselves in these circumstances. ''

I know, I know...

2008-04-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

I have had almost no time to write or breathe for that matter.

A lot of things have been happening in my life between shows and school and work. I have done three shows this semester and each one has been so amazing.
The season started out with Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I was lucky enough to be cast as Emily Webb, a role I was reluctant about at first. I read this play in 9th grade at Trinity so my opinions of it were, obviously, tainted. I asked that if at all possible, I not be cast at all so of course, I got the lead. After working on this show for a couple of weeks, I started to really enjoy it and by the end was very upset that it was over.

The second show I did has probably been my favorite show I have ever done and it was Man of La Mancha. I was blessed enough to also be cast as the lead in this one as well as the role of Aldonza. This is truly, truly a remarkable show. At first I was hesitant because Aldonza is a whore... yes, a genuine whore. I didn't know how I felt about portraying myself that way. Also there is a very violent rape scene that involved me and 5 other guys. I worked extensively with my director and even though it was a very hard scene to get through, I felt very safe. I honestly feel that this has been the best show I have ever done. I got incredible feed back from it and requests from several directors who came and saw the show. I also had the remarkable privilege to meet Mr. Dan Rodden, an equity actor from Chicago that was hired to play Don Quixote. He was such a joy to work with and truly a remarkable actor. I still keep in contact with him and we remain very very good friends.

Even before La Mancha ended I started my 3rd show, Dancing at Lughnasa; an Irish Catholic play about 5 poor sisters. It was a hard transistion to move from La Mancha, which was incredible, to a pretty slow paced show about Irish women. I went from playing a prostitute to a 40 year old irish catholic school teacher. What a leap! It was a challenge that I took on willingly and had a lot of fun with. This show did not do as well as La Mancha and was not really for college student audiences but I did enjoy it. We closed this weekend and it was rather sad because it was my last show at Normandale.

After La Mancah ended I decided to take a risk and audition at The Chanhassen Dinner theater. They are an incredibly exclusive theater and so when I got even a call back I was very surprised. A week later I got a call offering me the lead in their mainstage production of the musical, SWING. I was completely in shock and still am. It is going to be an incredibly tough process with only one day off a week and 8 shows per week but I am so so excited for it!

I have been working hard to maintain a 3.8 GPA which has only been a struggle due to so many other outside commitments. I have really enjoyed all the classes I am taking especially my Drama in Literature class. I get to read and write about plays all week... who wouldn't like that!
Now that I have a little more down time for a while, I will work very hard to write in here more often because I have quite a few things to say that I haven't had time before to rant about!

Things dont always turn out...

2007-08-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Like you thought that they would!

But i love surprises...most of the time.

oh the french

2007-06-20T13:02:00.001-07:00

I was reading "The Narnian," biography of C.S. Lewis and there's this story of how a very young Lewis (or Jacksie) approached his father and said,

"Father, I am prejudice against the french."

When his father asked him why, he said,

"I dont know, that's why its prejudice."

I thought that was funny.... and i quite agree.

What's the matter with kids today?

2007-06-02T11:27:00.001-07:00

I was in the check out aisle of Target when i looked over and saw the latest PEOPLE magazine with a cute, precious, freckled red head on the cover. She had big, blue, doe eyes and a toothy grin. The picture next to that one was a picture taken 9 years later of a tanned, bleached blonde haired bimbo in the front seat of her car with her eyes closed, looking sick from obvious liquor and drug use. I was looking at Lindsay Lohan...obviously. I picked up the magazine and set it next to the bread, shoes, and shampoo I was buying (oh only at Target!)
I have a guilty secret; I am absolutly fascinated by Lindsay Lohan. Not because she's an actress or some what good looking or even that I am a gossip whore but because she is the Barbie doll representitive of the generation we are living in and surrounded by. She makes us ask the question, "what is wrong with these kids today??"
Truly, what is it about this young culture that makes them so utterly self destructive?
I go on to read the article and it tells me about her constant drug and alchohol use and her late night partying with outstanding memebers of the community like Paris Hilton and Mischa Barton. These girls will not stop until they are arrested for DUIs or put into rehab (which they will leave 2 weeks later.)
Of course I am appalled by this kind of behavior but also curious.
What would make a beautiful even slightly talented, america- adored girl, destroy herself?
Is this generation stained by something from the very beggining?
Do we sense the violence of our generation, a generation of "those who survived" and who did not die by their mother's "choice?"
I'm not talking just about Hollywood, the breeding ground for immorality and self-destructiveness, but of all of those who don't make it into the papers or magazines.
This generation has a serious problem.
Before people thought it was because they thought they were immortal...but that isn't the case.
They are reminded every day that they are not.
In fact they know how mortal they really are because every day they are consciously trying to kill themselves.

BUT WHY????

How do we raise good children in a disease infested generation, a generation that is told that they must drink themselves to death and then they will be happy?

It is a generation of such overwhelming violence and gangs and suicide.

What does this generation know about themselves that makes them this way? What do they sense?
Are we programmed to do this?

It makes me think first about the violence that was brought into this generation, not by those living in it but those before it and a little event called Roe vs Wade.

We are a culture of choice and only exist because your mother chose NOT to kill you.

Think about those aborted; your friends, your neighbors, your cousins and even your future spouse.

We are the ones who SURVIVED the culture of death.

Maybe thats why we are killing ourselves.

Down down down the rabbit hole....

2007-04-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"

Thank you, Alice, yes it is a puzzle.
For most of my life I have defined myself by other people or what other people have done to me.
I'm sorry I cant commit to a relationship today, i had a sick childhood!
Silly, silly Alice.We can't let the things that are done TO us to determine who we are. Its sounds so simple and should be easily executed.

Not quite.

After all,how easy is it to become a victim? Very easy actually. I've done it most of my life without much effort.And I was miserable.
It was easier for me to stay down after I was pushed by someone else than to actually pick myself up with my own free will, brush myself off and move on.
It takes strength of character and strength of spirit to get off that pavement. No one else is going to do it for you and thats a fact. It's so easy to say, "Well i was hurt, i have a right to...*fill in the blank ladies*"
No body learned anything from Mr. Easy.
The reality is, you determine how long you want to lie there. You determine how far you fall if you are pushed again. You learn to put your arms out in front of you and to catch yourself.Face it, you fell. We all do. But mommy isnt here any more to pick you up and kiss the boo-boos.
You control your own healing process by your WANT to be healed. I know some of us don't want to be because we like to wallow in our self pity. Wallowing should be left for shallow lakes on summer nights, not as a life practice.
It's time to come to grips with reality. Sacrifice and suffering are a part of life. You need to embrace it, carry it and take yourself down from it when it is finished.You are not alone in this walk to Calvary. But you must want it.
Other wise you have no one to blame but yourself.

"But then, shall I never get any older than I am now? That'll be a comfort, one way -- never to be an old woman -- but then -- always to have lessons to learn!"

Two steps forward, one step back...

2007-04-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

I think I've gotten to place where everything is "alright."
I am really happy to be here because these last few weeks have been hell!

I've never considered myself the "crying" type unless the situation absolutley calls for some tear-age.
I like to stock up just in case something REALLY sad happens and then I have plenty!

I've been crying a lot lately. For no apparent reason really, just standing around at home by myself and I just hit the deck!
I guess I've been given the 'gift of tears' but i really wish it came with a receipt!

You really don't know how much maturing needs to be done in your life til God makes you suffer.
Then you know!

That's all for now!

Not letting school interfere with my education!!

2007-02-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

This semester I decided to take a logic class because it takes care of my math credit and it sounded very intersting. It is symbolic logic, sort of like math using symbols and doing proofs using these symbols etc. So I opened my book to start my homework when I read the first quote of the book:

"At present wives, just as much as prosititutes, live by the sale of their sexual charms; and even in temporary free relations the man is usually expected to bear all the joint expenses. The result is that there is a sordid entanglement of money with sex, and that women's motives not infrequently have a mercenary element. Sex, even when blessed by the Church, ought not to be a profession...." Betrand Russell (so called founder of symbolic logic)

Now imagine my surprise when I thought I would be taking a MATH like class and instead am taking Feminazi's 101! It get's even worse as the text goes on. He (yes the writer of this books is a man) wants to show what a logical argument might look like:

A) Getting married is something, that someday, I would like to do.

B) I hope you enjoy being abused! Whenever you consider marriage I think you should go to a crowded shopping center on a Friday night, and notice all the snarling.

B is obviously making inferences from shopping- center experiences to marriage in general, and then to A's intended involvement. A rather compelte (but by no meands the only possible) expansion of reasoning follows.... and he goes on to mock marriage even more.

To put this in perspective for you so you understand why this is so frustrating, it would be like opening your geology book and the first quote being a pro-choice rant. It has nothing to do with what we are learning. It is a constant, obnoxious theme throughout the ENTIRE book from beginning to end.

I really don't know how I am going to handle this year... pray for my sanity and self control!

A response to J.J. Thompson

2006-12-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my "philosophy" teacher, Bob (his name has been changed for his protection), decided that he wanted start a fiery debate or at least spark some kind of life in a very bored, very uninterested class who apparently thought that Aristotle was just too hard. He therefore presented us with the issue of abortion. To give us an argument from the pro-choice side he gave us an article written by J.J. Thompson. Here is the main bulk of the argument to give you just a little taste of what I was up against as the only pro-life person in the room:

"... I propose, then, that we grant that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception. How does the argument go from here? Something like this, I take it. Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body; everyone would grant that. But surely a person's right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mother's right to decide what happens in and to her body, and so outweighs it. So the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed.
It sounds plausible. But now let me ask you to imagine this. You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnaped you, and last night the violinist's circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, "Look, we're sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you—we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist now is plugged into you. To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, it's only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you.
Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation? No doubt it would be very nice of you if you did, a great kindness. But do you have to accede to it? What if it were not nine months, but nine years? Or longer still? What if the director of the hospital says, "Tough luck, I agree, but you've now got to stay in bed, with the violinist plugged into you, for the rest of your life. Because remember this. All persons have a right to life, and violinists are persons. Granted you have a right to decide what happens in and to your body, but a person's right to life outweighs your right to decide what happens in and to your body. So you cannot ever be unplugged from him." I imagine you would regard this as outrageous,[2] which suggests that something really is wrong with that plausible-sounding argument I mentioned a moment ago."

Now at first glance this analogy seems quite compelling and unique. I mean, no one would say that you are morally obligated to stay hooked up to a random stranger for the rest of your life. So Ms. Thompson is asking us to "check our moral compasses" when thinking about the pro-choice side. It would of course be very nice if you stayed hooked up to a violinist, analogous to a fetus, which she grants is in fact a person, but you are not morally required to do so. Therefore a woman, "hooked up" to an unwanted human inside her body, is not morally obligated to stay "hooked up" to it. Killing, is after all, not wrong when you are defending your own right to life, so are the situations between an unwanted pregnancy and an unwanted violinist parallel? No, they are not.
There are very large differences between being hooked up to the violinist and pregnancy. Being artificially attached to a violinist is not the same as an unborn fetus (which Thompson grants is a person) being connected to a mother. Pregnancy is a natural state. Women become pregnant all the time, it's how we survive. Being artificially attached to a violinist is not natural and frankly you don't see it very often. Removing oneself from the violinist is very different than having an abortion. In the violinist case, when you disconnect, you are withholding treatment and as a result, allowing the violinist to die, but there is no direct killing. Abortion is quite different because abortion is an active removal of a life. Someone has to perform the abortion by removing a living fetus piece by piece from the mother or inserting a chemical that would burn the fetus alive and cause the mother to prematurely deliver a dead child. If Thompson grants that a fetus is a person and persons feel pain, she has to grant that a fetus feels pain. I think our opinion concerning the violinist would be very different if she asked us to cut him up into little pieces in order to escape. Her analogy fails because it does not take into account that removing oneself from a tube and removing a growing life from ones body are two very different methods therefore not analogous.
Thompson's analogy fails again by trying to appeal to our sympathy, or lack thereof, towards the violinist. In that analogy, the man you are hooked up to is a total stranger. According to Thompson you do not have a moral obligation to keep him alive and inconvenience yourself in such an extreme way. It is very different in the case of a pregnant woman. What if she woke up and found herself "hooked up" to her child in the same way she was hooked up to the violinist? Does not a mother have a moral obligation to her children despite inconvenience? According to Thompson's analogy it would be ridiculous for a mother to be obligated to inconvenience herself for the sake of her own child. It equates a woman's relationship to a stranger to a mother's relationship with her own child. Thompson questions us further and asks, what if we were connected to the violinist for the rest of our lives, paralleling that to a mother connected to unwanted children for the rest of her life. If this is true and a mother has no obligation to her child while in the womb, she has no obligation to children outside the womb. Therefore if it is permissable to unhook yourself from the stranger violinist then it is permissable to unhook yourself from you children if they are in fact equal. No one would say that it is permissable for a mother to neglect her children because they inconvenience her therefore Thompson's argument fails again.

"Bob's" response to my response to the article, from what I can read;
"This is very nice discussion of Thompson. I think she CAN respond to your worries but i believe you have drawn out some very nasty consequences of the view. On the other hand , consider that Thompson thinks that though it might not be obligatory to carry the pregnancy to term, it MIGHT be indecent not to do so. As she points out, why do we think that this is less serious a charge? Also remember that this presupposes that the fetus is a person. This isn't really true (at least i think thats what he wrote.) Also note that the simple right to life (something) doesn't work against her criticisms. You ceased to invoke a.... ( I can't read the rest)

Thank you Bob.... apparently Thompson can respond...but fails to address it in her argument.

Apparently Jennifer Marie wants a post!

2006-11-13T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here it is darling!!

Now, what to blog?

My new obsession is Dante's La Vita Nuova.
The passion and love of Dante for the beautiful, and possibly imaginary, Beatrice.

Now ladies and gentlemen, my favorite quote.....

Ego Dominus Tuus
Vide Cor Meum
Joyful Love appeared to me, in his hands he held my heart and in his arms,
my lady lay asleep, wrapped in a veil
He awoke her then,
trembling and obedient she ate that burning heart out of his hand.
Weeping i saw Him then depart from me.

Although you can't really get the full meaning or the full passion or idea he was trying to present or express because obviously he wrote it in Italian, the images are the same.
Even in English the language is beautiful.

In the beginning the reader knows that Beatrice is now dead. This gives Dante the liscence to make her into Divine Love. It also makes the reader wonder if Beatrice was even real or just an image. The Summa was "published" the same year Dante claims he first saw Beatrice at age 9 (a symbolic number and consistently used throughout the entire book) so it gives us reason to doubt whether or not she truly existed.

Either way the images are incredible and you can't help but giggle at Dante the entire time. Men obvioulsy haven't evolved much when it comes to passion and infatuation.
Its kind of cute...kind of ridiculous!

so there is my post!

and we strike the PULISH POST button like it was Amy Klobuchar's big fat nose!

I find you so very repulsive.

2006-09-21T11:11:00.001-07:00

Let's cover and issue here ladies and gentlemen, a very sensitive issue...

Let us talk about PORNOGRAPHY

I know, strange and uncomfortable issue.
Why do you think that is?
If it is so natural for a young boy to type in a website and view naked ladies to his hearts content, why do we never really address it? Why is it never really talked about? why is it done in secret?

Why is it a problem?

Why is it a very VERY BIG problem?

Why, that is a lovely question!
Lets take this step by step shall we? The word is greek. Porne- means captive woman, harlot or slave. Graphos- means writting or drawing.
So if we put the two together what to we get? A depiction or description of the activities of whores..........pleasant!

Ok, ok, so the word itself isnt so nice, but i mean, COMEON! who is it hurting honestly!
Well, little boy, you are hurting yourself. You are filling your head with impure images. Images of something that was once sacred, now perverted for your own sexual pleasure.
The problem with pornography is not that it shows too much. Its that it shows too little.
It doesnt show you the dignity of the woman (or man...no judgements here!) you are looking at. It doesnt show you that woman as a young girl, playing with her barbies or sleeping in her crib with her little pigtails, sucking her thumb or sitting on her mommy's lap. You dont see those things. You see an object for pleasure. Something to look at. You dont see someones daughter or sister or niece or grandaughter. All you see are fantasies.
Now your mind works ONLY in fantasies. These images arent real. They are stories. They pervert your sense of reality. You will no longer know what a real and beautiful relationship looks like. Your expectations for your spouse are much to high. You compare her to a fantasy that is not a reality.
The other problem with a fantasy-life is now you have created a monster. A monster that cannot be satisfied. Your expectations for your spouse are too high, you turn to someone else. You go from woman to woman (or man) trying to fulfill your fantasy. Soon your options begin to run out. What do you have to turn to now? more pictures, more movies? How about the little girl sitting on the floor playing with her dolls.
Sick?
Why yes, yes it is. You have become very, very sick. Who would hurt a child? Who would think of a child in that way?!
Well why not...the actress in that movie last night was once that child.
Your lust cannot be stopped. In your mind that little girl becomes nothing more than another object.
You dont believe me do you?
Ask a rapist, a murderer, a child molestor if they were ever involved in hard core porn. Youd be surprised how many say they were.
What happens is that you are desensitized.
Pornography which was once seen as shocking, taboo illegal or repulsive though still arousing, in time came to be acceptable and comonplace. Pornography disturbes the fragile bonds of family and marriage. It destroys you. It destroys healthy love, real love. it degrades women so that women are no longer people, but cattle.
Ever heard of child pornography?
Disgusting right? Vulgar, Immoral, un-ethical and just plain wrong.
Funny, thats how they used to describe pornography in general.

Pornography is dangerous and wrong.

It hurts not only you but those it depicts. It destroys you slowly till you are nothing but a desire. Everything else no longer matters.
Your family doesnt matter.
Your children dont matter.

What happens to that child that finds daddys magazine under the bed?
Who looks through it, not knowing what it is?
Wondering, why her dad has pictures of women that arent her mother.

you explain to her why you do what you do.

go ahead.

then tell her that she might be able to make a great living doing that one day.

Courage

2006-03-18T15:17:00.000-08:00

I am here. Fear not. Can you really trust me? I am a God of Power, as well as a Man of Love, so human and yet so divine.
Just trust. I cannot, and will not fail you. All is well.
Courage.
Many are praying for you both.
Listen, listen, I am your Lord. Before me there is none other. Just trust Me in everything. Help is here all the time.
The difficult way is nearly over, but you have learnt in it lessons you could learn in no other way. "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force."
Wrest from Me, by firm and simple trust and persistent prayer, the treasures of my kingdom.
Such wonderful things are coming to you, Joy-peace-assurance-security-health-happines-laughter.
Claim big, really big things now. Remember, nothing is too big. Satisfy the longing of My heart to give. Blessing, abundant blessing on you both, now and always.Peace.

I left my heart in the principal's office

2006-03-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

Last friday we had adoration at school, we do so every first friday of the month.
I can always expect something to happen to me while in adoration. My mind is quiet and the people around me are quiet and thats when my souls likes to scream at me. During this particular adoration it hadnt even been 5 minutes before my heart began to stur and i suddenly started to cry which isnt THAT un-usual but these were different tears. I cant really describe them but suddenly in the back of my mind i suddenly heard very distinclty, "Go talk to mr. Ferdinandt," (our head of the upper school or principal.) It was so strange that i just decided to ignore it and not pay attention to something so ridiculous. But as i sat there and prayed the voice just kept nagging me and nagging me till i absolutly had to go downstairs and talk to him. When i asked the secretary she said he was in a meeting and that i could leave him a message if i wanted. I said fine and gave up on that endevour dismissing it for insanity. When i got back to the chapel, i suddenly became freezing. I was shaking so hard and i couldnt figure out why. I looked around at the other people in the chapel, and no one seemed to notice the temperature drop. i went another period of the school day in the adoration chapel and i couldnt shake the freezing feeling. Finally fourth period came around and just as i was walking into mrs. spears' very long very boring finance class, mr. ferdinandt came up behind me and asked if i still needed to talk to him. Now this would have been the best time just to back out and say "oh no, im fine, its nothing, im just crazy!" but i suddenly became freezing again and the voice was screaming, "talk to him you ignorant fool!" So i went downstairs with him to his office and sat opposite him while he sat in his desk. Coming into the room i had absolutly no idea what i was going to say to him or how i was going to explane the strange desire to talk to him. So i just sat down with an open mind and allowed him to speak first. He looked right at me and asked,"What is it, Erin?"
At that moment i broke down crying and began to spill my entire life story out to him. Every problem that had been eating away at me for years i began to confess to my highschool principal. I couldnt beleive how even his demeanor helped me. His just sitting there and listening, without any kind of bias or judgment or even his own issues to talk to me about was just the thing i needed. I desperatly needed to talk to someone who didnt have their own problems and who wasnt going to unload them on me when I needed help. I have never told an adult the things i told him before and it was very hard at first but before i knew it i was telling him everything. Everything he said to me after my outburst was exactly what i needed to hear. He suggested that i speak to someome, like a 'psychiotrist' i guess, and that he would happily pay for it and my parents wouldnt need to know because i am 18. I never ever thought of speaking to someone professional about my 'issues' but now that he suggests it, it sounds like the best thing to do and it can only help. He would talk to some of the people he trusted, who were reliable and most likely catholic so they wouldnt try to brain wash me and tell me i need to be sexually active in order to be healthy...( i dont know if that actuall happens but you get the idea)
So, anyway, i never ever thought i would be sitting down with my highschool principal discussing my deepest secrets with him. It really goes to show what kind of school Providence is. It truly has been providential in my life and is truly, truly a blessing, and i really hope to come back and teach someday or send my kids there.
im not quite ready to leave it...but at the same time i am.
Taking it day by day i guess!

I am a feminist?

2006-02-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

The word feminism comes from the word feminine, certain unique characteristics attributed to women. But when you look at women today, they aren’t quite feminine.In fact, Women aren’t women at all anymore.Radical feminism has managed to annihilate all that which makes us who we were created to be. Male and female He created them. Women have fought so hard to make themselves equal to men, when in fact; men and women are not equal at all. We are complementary.We fulfill each other. One was created for the other.If we were equal, we could not exist together as partners, as mates to complete one another. We were both given qualities and natures that accent each other and complement each other.When we eliminate certain natures and gifts that were given to us by God, we set ourselves up for ultimate failure. -We see actually that (to quote our dear Mr. Lasseter,) God’s final creation was his first intention. What was God’s final creation? WOMEN. -Women are the only creatures than can fulfill God’s Covenant. -Unfortunately today we don’t see women as true women anymore.Our society looks at mothers as weak, subordinate and unable to control their own lives. -So we also see so many single mothers today, who "don’t need no baby's daddy."-Marriages are crumbling because those involved have sought to use each other by sterilizing the other. -Sex is selfish and used only to benefit oneself. A lot of times if children are created as a result of a sex they are immediately destroyed, sometimes even if the couple is married.-Men no longer protect women or their dignity. Chivalry has become almost extinct. -- -Men do not respect women, they are taught to be predators and look at women only as sexual objects. -If men are not hunting after women, they are whining after them. -They are completely unmasculine, sissy and unable to defend themselves or others.So what do we do? How do we fix this?The answer is for us women to be women! We must protect our gifts given to us by God. We must be feminine and be what we were created to be. Who better to look at for an example at true feminity but the ultimate perfect women...The Virgin Mary.Mary is a model for all women. From the time Mary is immaculately conceived she shows the feminine attribute of openness and willingness to do God’s work. She reveals to women the unique feminine characteristic of receptivity to life and fruitfulness. Mary said ‘yes’ to God and conceived Jesus. With her ‘yes’ she becomes the new Eve, the woman God first intended. She said yes when Eve said no. Mary then becomes the model of true womanhood and true femininity.
Through out the old and new testament “Fruitfulness” and “fertility” are re-occurring themes. God first Commanded Adam and Eve to be “fruitful’ and multiply, it was his covenant with mankind. Fruitfulness and fertility are constant gifts and blessings given by God to his chosen people as a fulfillment of his covenant with us. Only women are fertile and only women can bear fruit, we fulfill God’s promise. What greater gift could we ask for?
Unfortunately today we see that radical feminism demoralizes and undermines true femininity by rejecting what is unique only to women, fertility. Our society now sees child bearing as a curse and an obstacle to the pursuit of SELF. Children get in the way of our careers and our excessive life styles. Fertility and life are being destroyed and it is being done through contraception and abortion.
Contraception takes away a woman’s God given gift of fertility and turns her into merely an object for sexual pleasure. Abortion takes away the life of a child given by God. Through abortion a woman is cruelly violated, a life is being torn from her womb, and she must live the rest of her life knowing deep down inside that she took the life of her own child. After Roe vs. Wade, statistics showed that suicide rates in women started to increase dramatically. There was an increase in rape cases and also a dramatic increase in pornography. There is no respect for human life and the dignity of women any more. Women are seen as cattle simply to be used merely for pleasure without worry of pregnancy. This is what radical feminism is fighting for. In an article written by Anne Mercedes Maloney PhD, professor of philosophy at the college of Saint Catherine’s she said:
The path to liberation, according to radical feminism, is to make women as much like men as possible. Thus the move toward contraception, which tells women they cannot be equal to men unless they chemically or surgically alter their bodies to be more like male bodies. The implication is that the female body needs fixing. Women can walk away from sexual encounters as easily as men. Thus, once again, the male model is offered as the paradigm. And when the contraception fails (as all forms do), the social culture offers a woman the "choice" to have her body surgically invaded and her unborn child torn from her womb so that she will not have to lose out in the public, competitive world--the male world. The road to freedom, equality, dignity, says the contraceptive and abortive culture to young women, is to stop acting like a woman, and start acting like a man. Above all else, the culture adds, do not expect the world to respect what is distinctively female about you....The feminist movement is no longer about the rights of women that men had, but it is now about turning women into men. Feminism has become exactly what women were fighting against in the first place. We see not only are women rejecting their true nature and gifts but men do so as well. Men are to protect women, protect God’s fulfillment of His covenant to mankind. Men do not do so any more. Many husbands encourage their wives to take birth control, pumping her full of chemicals so that he can be satisfied without the obligation to children.We also see this with Pornography.A man no longer sees women as a beautiful creation of God’s design, but a creature merely to be used for his own self-gratification. And once he is done, he moves on to the next fantasy as easily flipping a page or typing in a web address. Our beloved Pope John Paul II said of pornography that it does not show too much, but it shows too little. It does not show the true dignity of a woman, merely her body.

So, what do we do? What needs to be done? We need a new feminism, one that embraces and ultimately encourages true femininity. What is true femininity? -Femininity is being a mother, having openness to life, to love. - It is being modest; it is respecting your feminine body. Not only in dress but also in speech and action- it is being receptive to life, open to the love of husband and the love of God.- Men, stand up for women…for the love of God, BE A MAN!!! Do not be a pig.-Women, Feminism-- is being a WOMAN not a MAN!!!This is true empowerment of women. It is being the beautiful loving and unique creature God created to be the paragon of creation. THIS is feminism.