dual personalities

This morning I am going to the airport to pick up daughter #2, DN and Katiebelle! They will be here for the weekend and will attend our 200th Birthday of Missouri Statehood party on Saturday. Also on Saturday is my DP’s second son’s re-scheduled wedding. How did this scheduling snafu happen you ask? Long story…but c’est la vie! This weekend is party central for both DPs.

This was an interesting article about raising children by Episcopalian Sam Bush. “God does not aim to quell our anxiety by offering us helpful tips or boosting our self-esteem.” Yes, but I do get tired of articles that go on about how hard everything is, including child-rearing. Everything is an excuse for anxiety. Of course, raising children is hard, especially in this iPhone-addicted age. But your children do not ultimately belong to you; they belong to God. Turn your worry and your cares over to Him. A lot of our modern problems are due to our trying to go it alone, with only “science” to help. Good luck with that. Be sure to watch the Parks and Recreation video–priceless Ron Swanson (who I have no doubt is a Calvinist.)

And I found this article to be quite compelling.

Happy birthday to Wendell Berry, who turns 87 today. It is also the birthday of Guy de Maupassant, the master of the short story. He wrote his own epitaph:  “I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing,” which should be a warning to us all. A toast to them both!

“Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.”

Robert Farrar Capon, “Between Noon and Three”