7 Takes To Life

Homeschool Advice, News Overload, Prolife Pardons, Screen Time, Davos Subversions, Casting Out Demons, Psalm of the Week, Read the Comments

File: I Am the Pro-Life Generation (32554959541).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Happy Friday to all who celebrate. I’ve got a few takes scattered around here.

One

My girls are finishing up their midterms today. I should have known they were this week, but, well, I forgot. Fortunately, my offspring did not and are working very hard, though they are all stressed.

For a brief minute when I had a gaggle of kids in elementary school and one or two in Junior High or whatever you call it, I thought, someday I’ll be a person who goes around telling other people how to homeschool. I won’t like it, but I’ll do it, because that’s how these things go. Now that I have three high schoolers and three college kids, soon to be two high schoolers, three college kids with one graduated and one married off I have absolutely no advice to offer to anyone. Who knows how this is done. Nobody knows.

Two

Is anyone else a little bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of news over the last week? Despite what it might seem like, I am not actually *that* online. After posting in the morning, I don’t have very much time to look at the internet until the evening when I try to think about what I will write about for the next day. The evening scroll is usually adequate for the task. Read an article or two, look at some tweets, eat some cheese, and think either shallow or deep thoughts, depending on the occasion. But every evening this week, I couldn’t keep up. No amount of scrolling or article skimming was sufficient for as I was reading about one item, a torrent of newer items crushed me. Like, I was diligently reading about President Trump pardoning pro-life people for praying and protesting outside of abortion clinics only to be interrupted by a lot of the news that the JFK, RFK, and MLK files had all been declassified. Plus, now that lawsuits are mounting up, I am wondering at what moment it will be time to admit defeat, that I am just not able to read all the news.

Three

Today is the March for Life in DC. I have seen murmurings on Twitter that there might be another effort to Defund Planned Parenthood. Every year this seems to be discussed to no avail, but, you know, the Vibe is shifting, so maybe there will finally be enough desire and will to make it happen.

Also, perhaps you saw this little clip guaranteed to make the heart melt. This person was in prison for, according to the Biden administration, trying to block access to an abortion “clinic.” I have read that she wasn’t trying to do that but was trying to talk to people going into the “clinic” and was also praying. I’m not sure who is right. Anyway, President Trump pardoned her and here she is, reunited with her family (click the pick to go watch it and then come back here):

Four

Here’s a horrible old clip of Tim Cook talking about how he has to sometimes limit his screen time:

It’s a little bit funny because he’s being interviewed by Nora O’Donnell, who apparently just lost her job yesterday. I don’t watch television so I don’t know anything about that, but in this clip, I do love how she gets to the salient point. Wait, what?! Tim Cook is suggesting we put down the iPhone? Is it possible that he also has phone addiction problems?

Then he says something that I hate very much, and I quote, “We made the phone not so that you would use it all the time, we made the phone to make your life better. But for me, my simple rule is, if I’m looking at the device more than I’m looking into someone’s eyes, I’m doing the wrong thing!” He smiles brightly and I want to scream into the void.

Paging Greta Thunberg, HOW DARE YOU! Honestly, they make a device that is designed to rob me of my attention, my soul, my mind, my heart, my relationship to myself, the world, and God and then I’m the one that’s doing the wrong thing? Oh no no. Don’t say that.

To endure the last ten years of staggering through life trying not to be devoured by the iPhone and all its adjacent soul-sucking apps and then being told by its maker that I just need to not be devoured is a bit rich. Just try harder guys. I know the technology is designed to keep it glued to your hand like it’s your soul, but if you try really hard to put it down, maybe you won’t die.

Of all the lawsuits going on right now, can’t we sue all these companies for what they’ve done to us?

Five

While I am waiting to find out who took the life of John F Kennedy, I have been distracted by this awful clip. Here is a smug person explaining how, pretty soon, the Pope will capitulate to Davos’ LGBTQ ideology (click the pick to go watch it):

A few years ago, she explains, there were seventy countries that GLAAD was pressuring to accept gay marriage and now there are only sixty. And it’s fine, ya’ll, “nobody is perfect on their path to progress” but you just have to keep doing the best that you can.

What’s so funny about this is that it’s on Twitter. Does this person think we can’t hear her? Laughing about subverting an “institution” that has been around “as long as humankind.” Also, what was that weird thing she said? “We are really dark up here.” What is she talking about?

Six

On the opposite end of the spectrum, here is a good pastor doing exactly the right thing when the person who has presented himself for holy Baptism claims not to believe in Jesus, but to actually be Jesus (click the pick to go to Twitter to watch what happens):

Apparently a lot of people are complaining that his pastor should never have been on the verge of baptizing someone so confused about the identity of Jesus, and that may be the case, but also, from experience, I have often seen people say they want to be baptized, go through all the classes and prep, get baptized, and then a few weeks later apostatize. It is hard to imagine that this pastor didn’t meet with this person at all. I’m sure he did and I bet that he got basically sane answers and, whatever qualms he might have had, had to believe the man because he said he believed.

My favorite part, though, is where the pastor prays for any possible demons to go away. That is the best prayer. Needs to be prayed way more often than it is. Seriously, find a church where the pastor can pray like that on the fly, that’s all I’m saying.

Seven

In the middle of the week, when I was trying to imbibe the fire hose of news, I stopped and listened to this piece of music that I love so much. It’s a glorious setting, in case you have never heard it, of a most glorious passage of Scripture, Psalm 127:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

This is the second time in a row that I’m ending with a Psalm of the Week instead of the Tweet of the Day or whatever. It might be the will of God to get me off of Twitter and onto more interesting subjects. More probably, it is a gentle nudge that I shouldn’t make rules for myself because I’m too apt to break them.

Anyway, I have to rush along because there are children who need papers read and exams proctored. Have a lovely day! There is a short Read The Comments episode just below for all of you wonderful paid subscribers.