Why I Love “Daredevil”

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catholicism, christianity, daredevil, g.k. chesterton, marvel, marvel's daredevil, religion, story dynamics, writing

Lately, I’ve been watching Daredevil on a free trial of Netflix that I was forced to get in order to complete a different class. I might as well milk it for all it’s worth while I’ve got it.

It’s pretty different, watching Netflix shows. They tend to be written much more tightly and be more hard-hitting than TV shows. Since it’s sort of a “view at your own discretion” situation, they can also deal with things that most channels would shy away from discussing.

I love the way Daredevil is written. The dialogue is tight and loaded. Not a single word is wasted. Each character has a distinct voice, or even multiple voices–Matt has his “lawyer” voice, which is reasoned and comes across as almost stilted but very well put-together; his “informal” voice–his natural way of talking; and his “Daredevil” voice, which is much more terse than either of the others. The very choice of words builds into the characters.

At one point, Matt asks Karen if she believes; she replies that she doesn’t. In return, she asks him if he does. He replies “Catholic.” The reply is so textured, so many-faceted, not least because of his word choice.

It implies so much. Matt sees his faith as part of who he is, fundamentally; to him, it’s the thing that motivates him to take a stand and not back down; to get up again when he gets knocked down. It’s both a motivation and an example. For him, his faith is something concrete.

But it’s not just part of Matt’s identity that his word choice hints at.

It implies that Matt also believes that it doesn’t just matter that you believe; your exact beliefs matter too. That’s rather an unpopular opinion to hold in these days of watered-down Christianity, where hounded Christians greet any fellow Christian of any denomination as a friend in a world that seems to hate their guts. But that’s just a symptom–a welcome one, though–of a bigger problem.

A lot of people seem to think that it doesn’t matter what you believe, just that you do. Still more appear to be of the opinion that you can believe whatever you like, so long as you follow the nebulous call of “the right thing”–but no one seems to quite know what the right thing is.

But you see… people with all their beliefs laid out clearly on the table do.

The modern school of thought on “the right thing” grows out of a set of damaging beliefs from religions that people don’t dare to call out individually. And thus, they water down beliefs that common thought understands to be hurtful. Christianity gets watered down right along with them, even though it shouldn’t.

As a result, we get a series of feel-good philosophies that are, once you’ve lived them out for a while, hollow and dingy, and when they don’t feel fulfilled people just move on and try the next one, or they throw their hopes into exercise or yoga or things that have much more potential for harm.

That is not what religion is meant to be.

Let me repeat myself: that is not what religion is meant to be!

Religion is hard-hitting. It doesn’t pull its punches. As G.K. Chesterton once said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Either you believe it all, or you put your faith in nothing. It’s as simple as that.

Personally, I believe that there is God and the devil. I believe in Heaven and Hell; I believe in the Bible, and I believe in the Savior. I can’t compromise. This is, as it is for Matt Murdoch, part of who I am.

I won’t apologize (as in, say I’m sorry.) But I will apologize (as in, live out my faith for everyone to see, and defend it if it’s attacked.)

Another thing about the zeitgeist; anything is permissible as long as “it’s just who I am!” Well, this is just who I am. Are you offended?

If you are, I recommend that you look really closely at the reasons why.

(I also recommend that you watch Daredevil. There’s some language, and it’s very violent, graphic and even gory in parts, but it’s also a very good show, both writing and morality-wise.)

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

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Ummm… a little help here? Please?

Tags

alex/connor, c.s. forester, captain america: the first avenger, catholic culture, christian fiction, christianity, colorblind, dee henderson, horatio hornblower, irene hannon, john flanagan, louisa may alcott, marvel, novels, ranger's apprentice, romance, star wars, the clone wars

I just realized that I’m in deep, probably in over my head, in hotter water than I guessed before, probably because they turned the temperature up while I was in it.

I’ve been a shipper ever since I picked up one of my mom’s romance novels. Marcus/Shari. Dave/Kate. I could go on (thank you, Dee Henderson!)

Then I went through a stage where I didn’t like romance at all. I think I was just bored with sexual tension, whatever they call it these days… anyway, I thought everyone was just being stupid. I didn’t have time for that sort of thing. I was in high school.

And now… I’m shipping again. I think it started slow, with Obi-Wan/Siri–Siriwan, as it’s often called. I thought I was a Obitine (Obi-Wan/Satine) shipper, but then I realized, nope, Siriwan to the core. They’re a better contrast and they fit together better. (Though I think the whole arc with Satine back in Season Two was excellently done and very much in character for Obi-Wan, which is sadly a thing–there’s a whole subgenre of Out-Of-Character Syndrome dedicated to Obi-Wan shippings.) And then came Steve and Peggy (how could I not love these two?! His crush on her was just so precious.), and Pepperony (I probably love that ship name way too much…) I also ship Halt/Pauline and Horace/Evanlyn. Though for some reason, I don’t ship Will/Alyss much, but that’s probably because I haven’t finished reading the series yet. (I think the Will/Alyss angle was a bit rushed in the first book, to be honest.)

I also (maybe?) ship Horatio/duty or Horatio/his ship.

(That was a very sad attempt at a joke. I’m sorry. I will refrain from joking again throughout the rest of this post.)

And now, for the first time, I’m trying to write a ship of my own.

What am I getting myself into?!

I know I can’t write romance. I am no good at writing romance. I could not write romance to save my life. Apart from the casual background Pepperony, I always end up writing Siriwan more platonic. (Which works well, because as well as being the adorable lovebirds we know they are, they’re also BFFs 4 life!)

It’ll be fun, I said. Back it up with suspense and action and you’ll be fine, I said. What are you so worried about?! I said.

I. Am. Toast.

I’m so scared I’m going to mess it up. I love these two, I really do, but… I don’t know if I can write them in a relationship. I’ve tried writing background romance before and it never felt right. I can write about two people who are already in love, who love each other very much–that’s easy. But two people falling in love?

That’s outside my experience. And I frankly don’t know where to start. (No, stop thinking about setting me up on dates. And, for that matter, please do not diagnose me, even in the privacy of your minds, as asexual–I think that I’m just waiting for the right partner. In fact, please don’t diagnose me at all. I don’t like being diagnosed. Even if having a legit ADHD diagnosis would make college easier–much easier… Or anything, really. I don’t need it, honestly. I can handle this. Let’s save it for people who actually need it, please.)

I know how my parents show that they love each other. That’s easy. But I’m not sure how to show people falling in love.

I guess that, looking back, it’s all up to Louisa May Alcott: writing romantic love is nearly impossible if you’ve been single all your life, and either totally understated or overstated, depending on who is doing the reading.

I noticed a few things about my romance reading habits, too:

1. It had to be by one of a specific few authors (mostly Dee Henderson and Irene Hannon.)
2. I couldn’t sit through a novel that was all romance, either. It had to have suspense or action/adventure in it, too.
3. Never could stand so-called “sexual tension”, for some reason. If there was physical attraction, it couldn’t be just lust. And I much preferred the people who fell in love with others because of their personalities.

I suppose I just need help. Even if I knew the answer to this riddle, I’d need help.

So this is a shoutout: Can I get a couple of beta readers to help me write the scenes with Alex/Connor in them? Because if you’d read those scenes for me and help me out, I’d be in your debt forever.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless.

P.S. Umm, I probably don’t have to say this, but… CHRISTIAN FICTION FOREVER!!! (Sorry, just felt like shouting it from the rooftops… and yes, this is Christian near-future sci-fi/action/psychological thriller/suspense. It’s not preachy, though. Christian in atmosphere, no reading between the lines required 🙂 )

TCWT: What’s normal?

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authors, baroness emma orczy, bbc sherlock, brian jacques, captain america: the first avenger, catholic culture, catholicism, christian fiction, christianity, creative writing, dee henderson, disney, dynamic characters, editing, editor, fantasy, frozen, generations, invented religions, jorge luis borges, living life with passion, loyalties, macguffins, magic realism, marvel, novels, o'malley series, paranormal, redwall, religious themes, roman catholic, sherlock holmes, sir arthur conan doyle, spiritual, star wars, story dynamics, story tools, supernatural, t.h. white, the avengers, the scarlet pimpernel, the sword in the stone, uncommon heroes series, urban fantasy, world building, writing

I thought that I would not be doing TCWT again. I’m almost too old to do it. But I decided to come back at least one last time. So, here you go.

The prompt was “What do you think is commonly done well in literature? Done poorly?” I think it depends on the author and genre as much as anything else. Some things are well-done in one genre and horrific in another, or okay in one and marvelous in another.

Religious themes. A character’s religion, how they practice it, if they really live their faith, if they even practice what they preach at all, is a marvelous tool in character development whether you are religious or not. I have never been able to understand why some people neglect it. A character’s beliefs, including their religious persuasion, tells us quite a bit about that character. (This is why, if someone leaves the religion space on their character sheet blank, I often have headcanons about their beliefs.) Some books where this is done well: Dee Henderson’s “Uncommon Heroes” and “O’Malley” series (among the only romance I actually read). Living what you preach is a sign of sincerity, honesty, and sometimes even of courage. Often, it takes courage to say more than “non-denominational” on your forms, and the thing is, these characters don’t overtly try to convert others. It is the way they live that makes others think, “Wow. I wish I had what they have.” A book where this is done poorly: Many books (sadly) in the Christian fiction genre. (Oftentimes, Christian fiction is like romance; you have to be extremely choosy to find the good stuff.)

Religious themes in general: If a character actually lives what they preach, then religious themes in the plot itself are generally a given. Normally, you won’t run into actual angels or demons “on-set”, but the forces of evil vs. the good guys will probably happen. I very much prefer the sort of stories with a fallible main character, who falls and fails and then gets up again and apologizes for it (or, sometimes, doesn’t apologize and then sees the error of his ways.) Everything else just feels like another Christian fiction forgettable Mary Sue.

I also like to see slightly-different versions of real-world religions in stories (such as the world where Christianity developed slightly different, though all the teachings are still the same, the practices are different; some practices never evolved, while some that don’t exist in the real world did.)

Magic Realism. Now and again, I love a good story with spiritual/supernatural themes in the magical realism style, where it’s all strongly realist and then seamlessly in comes a bit of the supernatural. I love it when the plot twist throws me off, but when I look back into the rest of the book, I can see how it was subtly setting it up the whole time. Sadly, many “paranormal” stories tend to be “paranormal” throughout, without any magic realism. For me, it’s not urban fantasy if they don’t have the urban before they have the fantasy. Otherwise, it’s just fantasy.

A few notes on urban fantasy: I have read a couple of very good dystopian/urban fantasy novels where the story was very well-written. One of the biggest shockers, in my opinion, is when something that’s out of our normal experience happens and the characters treat it like a normal occurrence, because in their world, it is normal.

Items with character and/or significance. Now and again, there will be a MacGuffin that really ties everything together; it doesn’t even matter what the MacGuffin is, it is the significance that goes along with it. For instance, in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, it was Padme’s charm that Anakin gave her when they were both very young. (I swear, Attack of the Clones would have been so much better if at some point, Padme had slipped the japor snippet out of the collar of her dress and said quietly, “I still have the amulet you gave me.” I would be shipping Anidala so much harder than I do now, trust me.) In my novel Loyalties, it is the multi-generational hand-me-down amulet, the symbol of a master’s care for his apprentice, which is worn hidden in the French braid across the back of an apprentice’s head (or, alternatively, depending on the circumstances, hung on its ribbon around their neck,) that ties the generations together, as it is passed down from Rynnar to Winter (who tries, upon his leaving active service as a Ranger, to return it, but Rynnar refuses to accept it), and later from Winter to his apprentice Elían, and is constantly there to remind Winter of Rynnar, even in Rynnar’s absence, during the first book. (I’m certainly praying to the Muse that I end up doing it right.)

Martin the Warrior’s sword, in the Redwall series, is a recurring object that serves to both tie the series together, and to remind everyone of Redwall’s first Champion. Another example would be Sir Percy Blakeney’s “pimpernel” signet ring in the Scarlet Pimpernel books (which, though not recurring, was key to the first book–was that a spoiler? I hope not…)

Items that get left behind. In my opinion, many authors these days tend to forget about this. Things get broken and left behind. Things are not overly important, and things should not be overly important to the characters. For instance, someone can and will lose their arrows or throwing knives (which, believe it or not, is a loss that was, in the past, a very hard one, since both were very valuable, especially arrows, which were hard and time-consuming to make by hand and thereby expensive. There will be times when someone rips their shirt or goes swimming and loses it. For some reason, authors these days seem too often to ignore these instances.

On the other hand, a character losing something with sentimental value can be a very emotional moment. It can be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Or it can illustrate that at this point, the character doesn’t even care any more, or is just grateful that they got out of there alive. Martin the Warrior loses his father’s sword, which Tsarmina snaps in half, pushing him into vowing vengeance on the wildcat, as it was the only thing he had left to remember Luke by. Someone’s horse dies, and it’s a very emotional moment. Beaumont the hound in The Sword in the Stone (book, not the movie.)

Or, someone escapes a burning building to find that they left their old notebook behind. When the other character offers sympathy, the first just says, “It’s all right. It was only a notebook. I’m just glad we both got out alive.” Or even, “I don’t need it any more,” illustrating a dynamic moment in a character’s journey. Moments like these are a tool that is sometimes sadly neglected. People tend to forget that in a prior era, people would attach value to things using a different methodology than we do today. They would keep things because they were valuable or hard to replace, not because of sentiment, quite so much. In realistic historical fantasy, this is sometimes a stumbling block, though not always. (Kristoff losing his sleigh in Frozen could have been done so much better. At least they weren’t afraid to have people lose their gear in the movie.)

Use of small cues. This is a big one. Some people nowadays seem to want everything to be blatantly obvious and to avoid the search for small meanings and symbolism. This is the reason why some people hate character movies and characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi; they don’t see anything past the not-really-action of the movies or the character’s quiet, unassuming exterior. Forsaking dynamic characters for the sake of flash, some people end up creating Mary Sues.

However, I believe there are authors out there who do this really well (Brian Sanderson, Liam? I think I got that impression,) using small character cues, such as a slight movement, a nervous habit (such as fiddling with one’s sleeves) that recurs throughout the book, and tiny facial expressions that are left open for the readers to interpret to subtly build well-rounded, fleshed-out, dynamic characters. After a while, the reader becomes familiar with a repeated movement (“oh, Halt’s up to something; there’s the eyebrow!” “He’s reaching for his cuffs, even though he’s wearing a short-sleeved shirt. Poor kid.”) and learns to associate it with certain moods or actions. After a while, if you’ve seen The First Avenger, you get to recognize Steve Rogers’ nervous half-smile and distinguish it from his awkward smile, his stage smile, and the genuine article in Avengers. (Did anyone else notice how eerily similar Coulson’s non-offensive “I’m not a threat or even important to the plot at all; take no notice of me” half-smile is to Steve’s awkward smile? Since we know Steve better than we know Coulson, this tiny little fact, whether intentional brilliance on the part of Joss Whedon and whatsisname who plays Coulson or happy serendipity, tells us loads about Coulson as a character.)

Excessive stage drama queens. Basically, some characters just draw attention to themselves when they shouldn’t, detracting from the plot and being blatantly obvious (“don’t be obvious!”–>Moriarty’s best advice ever!), so much so that it’s sickening. This is just annoying. If it fits into the plot and the character, all well and good; it works! (This is why we actually can like Tony Stark.) But if not, then… then what’s the point? Seriously. All you have is an over-made-up actor who can’t even recite his lines properly. BORING. *shoots the wall* Sickening.

For me, most of what annoys me is blatantly obvious or lacking when it should be there. Of course, my pet peeves will be different from other people’s, but I think that all authors should try to improve their work based around these issues.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this listing of things I think are well-done but could be improved in fiction, thanks for reading and God bless you, as always, and don’t forget to drop by the other blogs on the chain through the rest of January! 😉

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5^th – http://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

6^th – http://jasperlindell.blogspot.com/

7^th – https://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/ (you are here) and http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/ (this would be Rosalie; I still need to read her post so now I’m done with mine I’m heading over to do that.)

8^th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

9^th – https://ramblingsofaravis.wordpress.com/

10^th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

11^th – http://kirabudge.weebly.com/

12^th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

13^th – http://maralaurey.wordpress.com/

14^th – http://dynamicramblings.wordpress.com/

15^th – http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/

16^th – https://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/  

17^th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.com/

18^th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

19^th – https://gallopingfree.wordpress.com/

20^th – http://www.alwaysopinionatedgirl.wordpress.com/

21^st – https://deborahrocheleau.wordpress.com/

22^nd – http://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/

23^rd – https://clockworkdesires.wordpress.com/

24^th – https://introspectioncreative.wordpress.com/

25^th – http://wanderinginablur.blogspot.com/

26^th – https://anotefromthenerd.wordpress.com/

27^th – http://randommorbidinsanity.blogspot.com

28^th – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

29^th – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.)

(Hey, look! Rosalie and I share a day! Awesome. ^_^)

Superhero Sunday: In the end, you will always kneel.

Tags

awesomeness beyond awesome, catholic culture, catholicism, christianity, david foster wallace, humor, religion, roman catholic, superhero sunday, the avengers, theology

Yes, I did borrow Proverbs31teen‘s theme. Heehee. I promise I’ll put it back when I’m done with it. ;-P

Well, if I may, I shall direct you to a certain evening in Stuttgart…

The point I am hoping to make with this, other than Why in Midgard is Loki speaking English in Germany?! Why not just German with English subtitles!?, is the quote “In the end, you will always kneel.” and the old man’s response, “Not to men such as you.” It’s a brilliant piece of dialogue, if you think about it.

As David Foster Wallace noted in his “Kenyon Commencement Speech,” everyone has to worship something, be it power or kindness or wealth or in the context of religion. All we have to choose is what to worship, since we have no choice but to define what is important in our lives. In the end, we will always kneel. The question is, to what? Wallace goes on to state that choosing religion is a fair choice, since “pretty much everything else will eat you alive.” I say that that’s because being worshiped is for God only, and when things don’t follow the natural order, they tend to become twisted and perverted.

(This is why I love Captain America: )

And look what happens later in the movie! Loki tries to take over as a self-proclaimed god.

And… gets himself whopped.

I don’t know about you, but God uses men as his tools, so I think that’s pretty much a divine intervention. 😛

The Best Blogging Buddies Award

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authors, awards, bbc sherlock, blogging, c.s. lewis, catholic culture, christianity, chronicles of narnia, diamond, disney, dreamworks, frozen, guitar, j.r.r. tolkien, lord of the rings, madeleine l'engle, music, owl city, rise of the guardians, star wars, the last battle, the lion king, thomas jefferson, writer, writing

Hey, there’s not actually a picture for this one? Hmmm… 😛

Instead, you can enjoy looking at my beloved dog (who passed away a few years ago… :’-( )

HEEEEEERRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE’S DIAMOND!

Okay, so Miko over at The Legendary Miko nominated me for this one. Thank you so much! 🙂

And apparently, this is a new award, and I’m the third recipient in the chain! Exciting! 😀

Okay, now to review the rules…

1) You must make a post to show your award on your main blog.

2) You must tag the person who nominated you in your post.

3) You must nominate all of your best buddies, and those whom you want to become best buddies with, who, to your knowledge, have not been nominated, for this award.

4) You must ask your buddies at least 15 questions on your post.

5) You must answer all of the questions your buddies ask you. On your post.

On to the questions!

1) What is your favorite TV show? I’m Sherlocked. No more to say. 😛

2) First song that pops into your head right now? “Fireflies” by Owl City. (My sister is a big fan.)

3) What are three guilty pleasures of yours? Fanfiction (technically), hot cocoa (I can’t often seem to actually finish a full mug), and reading C.S. Lewis when I’m supposed to be reading Faulkner (honestly, I need to find a new short story!)

4) Chipotle, Subway, Taco Bell, or McDonald’s? I’m going with Subway. I’ve never been to Taco Bell, and I’ve only ever had a hot cocoa at McDonalds. I got tired of Subway back in January, but that’s that. It’s been a while.

5) What is one thing that not many know about you? Well, Iris was surprised to learn that I play guitar. Other than that, I don’t advertise that I write much, except online. Since that’s the exception, though, and everyone here knows that I write, I don’t think anyone on here knows that I like to carve toy daggers out of wood. (I should post some pictures of them some time…)

6) If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor? Fictional or real-life? Well, for fictional characters, I’d love to have Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon as my mentor, though it would also be awesome to be mentored by Doctor John Watson. 😉 And real life mentors… Thomas Jefferson and my history professor at the private college I used to attend. *sniffle*

7) If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to? Ironic, I just got this question on another blog award… If I could really change my name, I’d like to change my universe as well… does that count? 😛

8) Where’s Waldo? Up in a tree. He’s in time-out and I won’t let him down… Never mind. 😛 (Who’s Waldo?)

9) What is your ideal boyfriend/girlfriend? Yikes. What a question… My ideal boyfriend will be a Christian, chivalrous, and kind. Other than that, well, I suppose I’ll have to wait to meet him. 😉

10) What color socks are you wearing? At the moment? No socks. Soon? Probably tan or gray. Wool is the best!

11) Blue or Black pens? Both! You see, I write with blue pens on even-numbered days, and black ones on the odd… Just kidding. I like to write with black and then do the primary edits in blue before typing everything up, tweaking as I go. (I like to print final drafts in purple. Unfortunately they don’t let you do that in college. :-S )

12) What’s the best book you ever read? The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. Runners up: Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet, Tolkien’s Smith of Wooton Major and Leaf by Niggle, and Lewis’ Space Trilogy. (Just finished them and I’m in heaven!!! I should totally review them!!!)

13) What would you choose to be your last meal? I don’t care what it would be, so long as it wasn’t cream of wheat, and was with friends.

14) If you were given the option to choose your death, how would you die? I would prefer to die defending my friends and/or my country. (Though I doubt that’s exactly what you wanted…) I wouldn’t care about the nonsense “go out in a blaze of glory” so long as I was doing that. (I’m not Eowyn, in case you were under the delusion that I am. 😛 )

15) What is one thing you wish you’d never heard/learned? Certain non-canon couples… Ugh. (That’s not the only thing I wish I’d never heard about, but you only asked for one! ;-P)

Here we go with my questions:

1. If society was clipped up Divergent-style and you had to pick a faction, which of these factions would you choose: Truth Seekers (scholars, archaeologists and explorers), Protectors (military and police forces), Aristocracy (leaders and rulers), or Underworld (spies, black-ops units)?
2. Are you more like Sherlock or Mycroft Holmes? (Be honest and objective! :-P)
3. For the library aficionados, what book do you not own that you would like to read again?
4. If you could re-write any pop culture catchphrase, which one would you re-write and what would it mean in its new form? 😉
5. What’s your number one underdeveloped character in a published work? (I mean, who is your favorite character that you wish the author had developed more?)
6. Frozen or Rise of the Guardians? Why?
7. Tangled or Brave? Why?
8. Do you prefer birdwatching or stargazing? Why?
9. Favorite Lion King character and song!
10. When you’re about to leave the house, what’s the first thing you grab?
11. Do you prefer the forest, mountains, or ocean?
12. Do you sing in the shower?
13. Gardening or fiber crafts (sewing, knitting, embroidery, crochet) or sports? Favorite sport?
14. Do you have a particular official spot where you hang out with friends? (Mine was the library in my hometown. Now it looks like being Barnes&Noble, since it’s close to the university…)
15. Apples, oranges, grapes, or strawberries?

And now, I hereby nominate (in no particular order):

Iris, partly because she’s awesome and partly because I miss her.

Sarahtps, because awesome lists and fun photography. 😉

Proverbs31teen, because of Superhero Sundays. 😀 (She was the one who REALLY got me started on the Avengers!)

IcedMocha34, because she’s awesome and totally deserves it. 🙂

Roo, because I know her on Nanowrimo and she’s awesome. 😉

Superseaturtle (well, that’s what I know her as… ;-P) because she welcomed me to the Lego Star Wars Gallery, which is where I got my start on the web, and because she’s doing Nano this year–yay!

Andrew, whom I also know from Nano. 😛

FrenziedMythology, again from Nano, better known as Gandalf or the Panda of Awesomeness. 😛

C.N. Goodhue, aka Cedric of Chessington, who I first knew on the Lego Star Wars Creations gallery and who I’ve been having some trouble staying in contact with… :-S

Truthwillwin1. All of us need a bit more political incorrectness in our lives. 😉

Robyn Hoode, because… well, Minions for one thing. ;-P I just got nominated by her for another award, too. 😛

Professor V.J. Duke, for punchiness and dadblamery.

Sheikah, for her beautiful artwork.

Coruscantbookshelf (aka Rosalie), because she got me started blogging in the first place. 😉

Erin of Laughing at Live Dragons (we have to differentiate here, for obvious reasons. 😛 )

Eric, because Lord of the Rings! *happy sigh*

Wow. That’s a lot of people. 😛 But I was restricted on the other one by the fact that I couldn’t nominate boys for it. 😛 (It says “Sisterhood” right in the award name! 😛 )

Anyway, thanks for reading, congrats to the nominees, and God Bless! 😉

Richard Dawkins: Social Darwinist, Generation 2.0

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anecdotes, catholic culture, catholocism, charles darwin, charles dickens, christianity, controversy, evolution, gnosticism, hypocrisy, inspirational, pro-life, religion, richard dawkins, roman catholic, social darwinism

To say that reading this article was a shock to me, would be the understatement of the decade. I could not believe what I was reading.

Social Darwinism, which all compassionate people hoped was dead, is alive and well, it would seem.

But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t know what sort of reading background is normal for my dear readers, but maybe you’re not all sure what Social Darwinism is.

Social Darwinism is the savagery that Hitler used for an excuse when he had millions of Jews, gypsies, vagrants, the mentally ill, all kinds of other innocent people, and anyone who tried to protect or hide them slaughtered in what he termed “The Final Solution,” but which history better remembers as the Holocaust.

Basically, Social Darwinism examines the theory of evolution, which states that natural selection will gradually winnow out those in a population who are unfit to live. In the wild, weak animals never last very long, and sick ones are the first to be picked off by predators. This results in the strongest animals surviving to reproduce. This is all well and good–in the wild.

However, Social Darwinism takes the idea that natural selection is a good thing to the extreme. Social Darwinism states that inferior human beings deserve to die as well. And, as dystopian novels are constantly reminding us, the human condition is such that no human being is inferior, and certainly that no human being is “worthless”!

From Social Darwinism springs the idea (much abjured especially by Charles Dickens in his work, specifically in A Christmas Carol) that we should not help the poor; that they are “unfit to live”, and we should just let them die. I don’t know about you, my fair readers, but this idea with its blatant disregard for human life and lack of belief in the value of all life horrifies me. After all, sometimes conditions are horribly unfair. They hit a man or woman when he or she is down, while seeming to reward those who cheat. For instance, even though my dad has every reason to be employed, we were forced to rely on our savings for a year while he was unemployed. (He’s a very competent computer security and risk management expert. He could have prevented one security breach at a company he worked for if the people in charge had actually listened to him. Forgive me for not giving better credentials, but Internet privacy and safety and all that.) Life has a way of knocking people down when they don’t deserve it. And people, contrary to all expectation, have a way of getting up again.

If you are all for Social Security and wellfare and that sort of thing, let me tell you… Apparently Richard Dawkins… isn’t?

Because it seems Richard Dawkins thinks that giving birth to a baby with Downs Syndrome or another mental health issue is “immoral.” According to him, we should abort all such pregnancies. (I find this especially frightening and horrifying, as such a belief was trademark of one of my–fortunately fictional–totalitarian governments which was depicted in Angels’ Reflections, and which, realistically speaking, would be a likely component of the totalitarian governments of the future. For more information about Angels’ Reflections, visit my Novels page.) From there, it’s just one step away from the concentration, and eventually death, camps.

To me, this is barbarism of the worst kind. To kill a child for merely having a genetic disorder is savagery, in my mind. Mr. Dawkins even called it “civilized.” Yes, if you want the worst of the Roman Empire. Yes, if you want to live in Sparta–which, by all accounts, was a very brutal city. One of the worst human “instincts”–the one of which we should be most ashamed–seems to be that at every level in history, we tend to slaughter our young.

In ancient times, in many cultures, including the ones now considered to be the root of most modern cultures, a baby that was perceived as “weak” was left exposed to the elements to die.

When Herod was afraid of being replaced on his throne, what did he do? The Slaughter of the Innocents.

Children killed in hospitals and death camps alike in Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

Gender-specific abortions, targeting (guess what?) mainly unborn baby girls.

And now, abortions targeting those children who are mentally ill or who have a genetic disorder that isn’t always nearly as debilitating as we are told.

Do we see a pattern here?

It seems Richard Dawkins has an interesting brand of “morality”. (Man, it’s hard not to make ad-hominem attacks when something this odious comes out… I’m trying. Possibly not succeeding. But trying.)

Let’s take this out even further, shall we?

Is there one person currently living on this earth who has never told a lie? Not even a little “white lie”? Not even a lie of omission?

Is there one person who has not been tempted to steal or embezzle at times?

Is there one person who has never been tempted to use violence, whether on others or himself or herself?

Wait, wait, wait. Those are all things that can leave you behind in the “grand” scheme of things. (Like, say, if you were registered in The Hunger Games.) Let’s talk in language Social Darwinists would understand.

Is there one human being in this world who has never made a bad business decision?

Is there one person who has never, ever made a mistake? (From a strictly amoral viewpoint.)

Is there one person who has not had to have their life saved in some way?

Also, how should we measure who deserves to live and who deserves to be aborted? Should we determine it by the righteousness of the individual? Righteous people don’t always do things that are for the amoral “good” of people in general. Should we reward those who put themselves ahead of others, or vice versa? Should we reward those who are physically strong, or those who are intellectual and intelligent? The two don’t always go together. There have been intellectuals with bad health, and strong people with bad health, and strong people who were also intellectual. (This is a big, glaring problem with moral relativism, FYI.) There are simply too many variables to measure.

And all this was before I saw his Twitter feed. (The link is at the bottom of the article I linked you to above.) Really, Mr. Dawkins? “Dislikes pretentious obscurantism”? (Well, I agree, Gnosticism was a gnarly heresy, but does it really justify hard-core materialism?) “Treats all religions with good-humored ridicule”? I’ve seen and heard some of your ridicule before, and in places it was anything but good-humored. And even if it was good-humored, it was violently–yes, I’m using that word–violently anti-religion. Dare I say, in places you were even as bitter towards religion as I am currently bitter and outraged at your inane Twitter logic.

Basically, what I’m getting at here is that, on some level or other, every human being alive today is unfit for survival. Every last person alive has known failure. I’m sure that at this point Mr. Dawkins would say, “We’re only talking about eliminating those least fit to live!” To which I would have to answer, “Who are we to say who deserves to live and die? We are mere grains of sand in a vast dune, mere moments in the ocean of time. To use the Christians’ imagery, we are mere dust. Who are we to say that one of our number deserves death when, perhaps on another level, we equally deserve death?”

We are mere dust, mere creation. But we were shaped by the hand of God, and thus though we are equal in guilt, we are also all equal in destiny. Autistic children have been known to be incredibly bright. Children who, all the doctors prophesied, would be no better than vegetables, have grown up and thrived. Inspiring stories can be found everywhere. I’m certain that our scientist friend would object that “The plural of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data’!” But truly, there would not be so many instances of excellence, found in the strangest of places, if there was not some “divine spark” to be found in all men, women, and children, making all men, women and children worthy to have at least their lives and dignity respected?

Shout me down for comparing Dawkins’ philosophy to Hitler’s. I’m just calling it like I see it. But I can not be silent when I hear about this horrid fiasco going on with our educated scientist friend.

Survival of the fittest is a horrible philosophy, Mr. Dawkins, when applied to the “real world” of humanity and politics. I hope you realize that soon.

Disclaimer: The author apologizes for any bruised toes caused by this article. She does not, however, apologize for presenting her views, though she admits to being a mere human idiot (despite having a high IQ and better grades than most of her classmates,) and thus parts of this post may be inaccurate or misrepresented. She would also like to point out that this is not, technically, any kind of personal attack, especially as the words “is going to hell” did not appear in conjunction with anyone’s name, in keeping with the general theme of nonjudgmental-ness, and she opposes the principles or philosophy proposed by the victim subject of this post. She would also like it if her readers were to research the origins of the theory of evolution and the history of Social Darwinism–if they dare. 😛

I’M STUCK IN THE DARK AGES AND PROUD OF IT! X-P Hey, that should be a badge… 😛

Thanks for reading, and may God Bless you, whether you believe in Him or not! 😀

Pirates and Writers and Bedsocks, Oh My!: The Sunshine Award

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a tale of two cities, arthur ransome, award, baroness emma orczy, bbc merlin, bbc sherlock, being christian, bible, blogging, brian jacques, c.s. lewis, castaways of the flying dutchman, catholic culture, charles dickens, christianity, college, doctor who, g.a. henty, humor, insanity, j.r.r. tolkien, john flanagan, lord of the rings, madeleine l'engle, randomness, ranger's apprentice, redwall, robert louis stevenson, roman catholic, sherlock holmes, sir arthur conan doyle, small rants, space trilogy, star trek, star wars, swallows and amazons, the chronicles of narnia, the scarlet pimpernel, time quintet, treasure island, who framed roger rabbit

I hope you are having a bright and happy day. Because this is a bright and happy picture. And I finally figured out how to insert a picture into a post without downloading it onto my computer! Yay me!

Anyway, Proverbs31teen has awarded me with the Sunshine Blog Award. Which is rather unexpected, ’cause the only award I’ve ever received before was the Liebster. (Four or five times, now. I’ve lost count. :-P) For this one, the rules are rather simple. Five facts about you, answering five questions, setting up five more questions, and nominating five other bloggers. From what I can tell, you don’t have to really nominate people with a certain number or less or more than a certain number of followers for this one, so this should be much easier. *crosses fingers, hoping she didn’t just jinx herself*

First of all, the five facts:

1. I snarked above, but unless your computer is not functioning correctly you probably can’t see it. MWAHAHAHAHAH.
2. Apparently my sense of humor is somewhat impaired; my dad thinks Who Framed Roger Rabbit is hilarious and I don’t even find it remotely funny. (All joking aside, if you don’t want your childhood permanently ruined and your innocence prematurely stolen, do not watch that movie! It is evil incarnate!)
3. Hot dogs, bratwurst, and fish fillets all taste different when eaten on a bun. Which raises the question, how much of the taste of your hot dog is the actual hot dog, and how much of it is the disgusting stuff they bake into the bun (and in the hot dog, too, if you bought the cheap ones)?
4. Apparently you have to send your information into this college’s website several times before it accepts you… *sigh*
5. As you can probably tell, my life is defined by job searching and college prep at this point.

And now, to answer the five questions…

1. You’ve got one day left of your life. What would you want to do? I think I would like to go to Mass with all my friends, and maybe meet a few of the people I know on the Internet whom I’ve never met in real life, and spend the rest of the day with my family.
2. Pirates or ninjas, and why? I’m told this is a “thing” now… I’m going with Sherlock on this one. Pirates, I think. Mainly because I mostly don’t know about ninjas, except that they make really popular Halloween costumes, and my only experience of ninjas is really from “Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu” (GO ZANE!), which is probably kind of sad, come to think of it… Besides, on the side of the pirates, I’m a big fan of Robert Louis Stevenson.
3. If you were turned into one of the Avengers, which one would you be most like? Some people I’ve talked to said Captain America. Others said Bruce Banner. I have never seen the Avengers movie, so I don’t really know.
4. What are your top three favorite Bible characters, and why? Oooh, John the Baptist, Moses, and Paul. (Our Lord TOTALLY goes without saying! And the actual apostles!!!) I’m sticking with more “secondary” characters, though, because, well, these people didn’t get much hype compared to the main players. Anyway, all three of them were amazing men who were rather outspoken but very courageous, and each had a message to get out. Moses is awesome because he’s a prefigurement of Christ, John got beheaded for telling Herod “no, you can’t marry your brother’s wife!” (and he also was preparing the world for Christ’s coming!), and Paul was a tireless preacher of the Gospel. (What is it with me and people who were beheaded? *smacks head against wall* Smooth, Erin, real smooth…)
5. (I’m going to be evil, too) What is your favorite book? Do you mean right-now-favorite, long-time favorites, or all-time favorites? (I have a lot…) Of course, the Bible goes without saying. 😉 For all-time favorites (drum roll, please!) it’s a tie between C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle and Lord of the Rings. I love The Last Battle for its beauty, apocalyptic feel, the resonances with the Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse, which is a totally better name in my opinion!) For shortness’ sake, though, I normally just say “LOTR FOREVAR!” and leave it at that. Probably ’cause LotR has about ten times as many pages… Long-time favorites? All the Sherlock Holmes books, Baroness Emma Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel and its sequels (and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, because I can’t very well forget Sydney Carton when we’re in the French Revolution, can I?!),  Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons books, Brian Jacques’ Redwall (and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, which probably would top this list if I were seriously counting,) C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy and Chronicles of Narnia (in fact, anything by Lewis), Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet (I think that I like Madeleine L’Engle’s stuff because it reminded me of Lewis, and I have always loved Lewis), and the works of G.A. Henty (though sometimes I just want to re-write the endings because it would have been TOTALLY better with a different happily-ever-after GAH!). For my right-now-absolute-favorite? John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series. (YAY GILAN! AND HALT! AND WILL!!!) What can I say? I couldn’t live without books…

Finally, for my five questions:

1. If you had to choose between the Doctor, Sherlock, Merlin, Luke Skywalker, Matthias, Jim Hawkins, and Sir Percy Blakeney to go on an unexpected and otherwise completely unpredictable adventure with, who would you choose?
2. Who would you be more likely to say “You’re weird!” (complete with exclamation point) to: Obi-Wan, Anakin, Sherlock, Watson, the Doctor, Merlin, or Halt? (If you would be most likely to say “You’re weird!” to Halt, then you have my undying respect. Either you are very brave, or just plain crazy.)
3. Do you wear socks to sleep in? (You’d better bet your fluffy bedsocks you do, young’un, wot?!)
4. What is the best plot you’ve ever had that originated in a dream? (Yes, a sleeping dream. Daydreams don’t qualify. Sorry, Sir Percy.)
5. Have you ever been to Boston in the fall?

And now, I hereby wish to nominate:

Iris, because she’s awesome and encouraging and clever and reckless and everything a best friend forever should be!

Liam, because I couldn’t hit him with any Liebster awards. >:-D (If you were wondering about exactly how many times I’ve received the Liebster award, now, it’s four.)

Rachel Carrerra, because her work is amazing!

Shiekiah, because she deserves it and has written amazing stuff and draws amazing art and I really wanted to say thank-you-for-the-awesome-Bound-to-the-Flame-commissions 😉

Coruscantbookshelf (aka Rosalie), because she got me started blogging in the first place. 🙂

Thanks for reading this post all the way to the end. Thanks for nominating me, Proverbs31teen! Have a great day, everyone, and God Bless!

A Big Thank You Goes Out To All My Supportive Readers!

Tags

catholocism, christianity, conservatives, controversy, humor, liberal, media bias, moral issues, politics, religion, roman catholic, support, thank you, things not permitted in "polite conversation", visibility

5 likes. 3 follows.

[Update: It is now up to 7 likes. Yay! ^_^]

And this from a blog that normally takes days to get more than one like to a post, let alone comments.

Dare I say, wow?

I really should not be so surprised by this, really. Every time I post on something that people are passionate about, such as religion, the Constitution, and moral and controversial issues, it’s always the same. The world is listening. Erin takes the world by storm. ;-P

The funny thing is, the media says that “no one agrees with the conservative viewpoint”!

What a sell-out! Maybe it’s only the conventional media that disagrees with the conservative viewpoint! 😛

But then, maybe it’s just based on visibility and who shows up where and we’re not seeing the whole picture and the people who disagree with me just don’t want to take the time to comment and tell me so and most conservatives, Catholics, other Christians, and amazing people who you talk to on your blog just like blogging anyway??? 😛

Maybe.

I don’t know.

The point is, every time I post on a controversial or tacit issue, one that’s not considered kosher in “polite conversation” (nyah! :-P), I am completely blown away by the response.

Thanks for caring, y’all. You keep me going. Thank you for supporting me in my feeble attempts to fight the good fight. Keep on praying for me, as I’m praying for you.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

Ash Wednesday and Detox

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c.s. lewis, candles, catholic culture, christianity, kyriale, lent, mass, purple, religion, roman catholic, rose

WARNING! This post contains thoughts on a religious institution, several C.S. Lewis quotes, and excessive religious sentiment! Read at your own risk!

Well, since it’s Ash Wednesday, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on that. Bear in mind, I don’t often post about religion, I mostly post about my worldview, which just happens to include my religion. (FYI, I’m Roman Catholic and proud of it! :-D) I don’t know why it is that I don’t post much about religion in general, unless it’s the general attitude that some people have that one should never discuss religion or politics in public, and if there’s anything that’s public, the Internet definitely counts. Personally, I think that attitude is stupid. After all, there is such a thing as courteous disagreement. 😉 Besides, it says somewhere in the New Testament (sorry, but I’ve always been bad with verse numbers) that God detests lukewarm people as a class (though He loves the individuals, He doesn’t like that they sit on the fence! Which makes me wonder… why do they do that? Isn’t it uncomfortable?!)

First of all, though I mostly write fantasy, my books are all Christian fiction. I classify them as fantasy, but they are also defined by my religious beliefs. It all comes about very organically; I’m enthusiastic about what I believe in, so I put in the assumptions and mind-set of a Christian worldview. Fantasy by choice; Christian fiction organically. 😉 C.S. Lewis once said,

The sword flashes because the warrior is desperately defending himself, not because he is waving it about in the air to make it flash.

Oh, how much I love quoting Lewis… He also said,

I would not be converted to Buddhism by a book about Buddhism, but by the Buddhist assumptions in all the other books.

So this is kind of sneaky, but in my opinion it’s a good kind of sneaky. ;-P Though, I should also note, if you’re not Christian and don’t want to be converted to Christianity, you’re not likely to be converted by my humble work. People can be excessively dogged that way. (Though if everyone else is doing it, they’ll do it too. Funny how that works…)

The second point I want to make is mainly directed at the Christians among my readers. 🙂 I go to the Traditional Latin Mass, which is slightly different from the Novus Ordo in its approach to Lent. We’re not so much focused on Mardi Gras and that one last fling before Lent, and we tend to ease in more gently (which is scientifically proven to get better results. Hey! Why in the world did I not think to post on this before?! Gah. Better late than never…) We call the first three Sundays before Lent “Septuagaesima” (“Seventy Days”: A reference to number of days before Easter, though it’s not entirely accurate;) “Sexigaesima” (which has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with the number six; “sex” is “six” in Latin. Hence, “Sixty Days”;) and “Quinquagaesima” (“Fifty Days.”) I just love the way they have these nice long words in Latin, don’t you?! … *silence* *crickets chirp*

Anyway, during that time, the Gloria is omitted from the Kyriale (the ordinary of the Mass, basically the prayers they say every single time you’re at Mass, in contrast to the Introit and other special prayers, and the readings) just like in Lent, the vestments and altar cloths are purple (the liturgical color associated with Lent), and the homilies and sermons are all about Lent, with helpful suggestions on penitence.

So, for the last three Sundays, we’ve been hearing ideas for Lent. One of the best ones I’ve heard this year is that our penitences should both be positive (as in, adding something to our daily regimen) and negative (taking something away, or “giving up.”) For instance, we may choose to add in some extra prayers each day, and give up chocolate for Lent. (No, I am not telling you what I’m giving up. It kind of defeats the purpose. “When you fast, wash your face, and smile,” Jesus said. I think that’s from the New American Version, though. I dislike that translation, it doesn’t have the same elegance of language as the Douai-Rheims version does. 😉 ) Another suggestion was that we should choose one of our greatest faults to work on and eliminate.

Finally, in closing, I should note that Lent is like having a detox. There are so many negative things in society today, and Lent helps us purge our systems of them. Personally, I highly encourage fasting (which is also healthful if you do it right! Two for the price of one!) and praying the Stations of the Cross (or Way of the Cross, if you prefer,) on Fridays in Lent. Saying a daily Rosary is something I have yet to conquer, for some reason, but I’d like to try.

Expect more posts on Lent and spiritual detox on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent (PINK! YAY! I LOVE PINK! Err… rose. :-P), Passion Sunday (which is the Fifth Sunday,) Palm Sunday (which you should know already ;-P), and all through Holy Week. I’ll try to get out a virtual Easter card for you all, too. 😉 Please post suggestions for good E-cards and whatnot in the comments. Also, I downloaded my novel Bound to the Flame on a USB stick, so to maintain you in your fasting and abstinence, new chapters will be posted every few days!!! 😀

Thank you so much for reading, and God Bless! Everyone who read all the way to the bottom gets a virtual candle to light in church! (If you want me to light a real candle for you at my church, please comment and request it! Of course, if I get a whole bunch of people who want me to light one for them, I may have to light one candle for multiple people, due to budget constraints… ;-P)

Thanks again, y’all are a wonderful crowd! 😀 Again, God Bless you and have a wonderful, fruitful and blessed Lent!!!

I’m Alive!

Tags

bbc sherlock, catholic culture, catholocism, christianity, complete epicness, homeschool culture, iris, march for life, march for life 2014, national shrine of the immaculate conception, notre dame indiana, sacred heart church, star wars

Hello, continuous readers and newcomers to my blog! No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. However, a different (and only slightly less astounding) thing has occurred: I only thought about Star Wars three times in the past week.

No, really. Really.

But, to catch you all up; I attended the March for Life in Washington, DC, and if you have not checked out their Twitterfest with the hashtag #whywemarch, then by all means, DO SO! Virtual cookies and bonus points (not to mention visits and likes on your blog!) to those who do so and then comment! I don’t have social media but all you people out there who do, get out and shout out! Here’s my first shoutout: To Erin of Laughing at Live Dragons! Unfortunately, I did not see her at the March this year, but I did see the Santorums, the Duggars were there too! And then there was an entire spirit squad, no less!!!

It was cold, but fun. I made the stupid mistake of wearing dress shoes instead of boots. Iris was smarter. (But she always wears her boots anyway, so she don’t count. ;-P She wanted to wear her combat boots, but her mom wouldn’t let her. :’-( )

We went to the March with seven boys and three girls from another Latin Mass parish, and (including us) seven girls and three boys from our parish. Add in three deacons and an Italian priest and you have unbelievably awesome chaos!!! We rode in three vehicles: The Deacon Buggy, Eagle One (the girls’ van), and Donkey Zero (the boys’ transport.) Note from Sgt. Sprite: The boys’ van was aptly named. Lots of them were donkeys. And they all had crushes on Elsa, of Frozen fame. *shudders* I was tortured for all the trip by songs from Frozen and merciless teasing about not having seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame or The Little Mermaid. (By no means am I normal. Huff. I still question how people could take thirty minutes just to decide to freaking go to bed! Taking twenty minutes to decide what to order at a restaurant, on the other hand…) It took us two very full days and about three more hours to get there; it snowed on Monday night, so we wound up going an extra few hours to get to Richmond, where we were staying. We rode a charter bus into D.C. and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for an hour, not nearly enough time, in my opinion. Iris bought two post cards, and I tucked them in my purse. I lost them that afternoon. :’-( She’s mad at me for “apologizing too much” and “having tardiphobia.” (That’s the fear of being late, for those who were wondering.) We lost her hunter-orange stocking cap at the Smithsonian; if anyone has visited the Smithsonian recently and found a hand-knitted neon orange hat somewhere, yep, that belongs to Iris. You’re welcome to whatever bugs and/or dandruff are left on it. (Just kidding! :-P) I am officially tired of Subway and all cheap pizza. And the second shout-out goes to the housekeeper for the FSSP priests of St. Joseph’s in Richmond. That was the most delicious beef stew EVER!!!! 😀

On Thursday, we visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The artwork (especially the murals) was incredible. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to touch the murals/statues/other artwork, and I am a very tactile person. *sob* Then we visited the Holocaust Museum. It was much more intense than I had expected, and I had a hissy fit at one of the boys who was joking around right after we had to rush through the last exhibit due to time concerns. This is one of my favorite all time quotes; I have to thank my history teacher for introducing me to it, even though I can’t remember who to attribute it to. The reason why we need a Holocaust Museum in the United States, which did not take part in the horror, is:

The recuperative power of innocence in a liberal society

Which basically means that the reason why we need the memorial is because otherwise, due to our own complacent stupidity, we’ll forget, because our society is a free society (aka, “liberal.” This has nothing to do with Republican vs. Democrat. It just means free.) That’s my deep thought for the day.

We went to the house of a lady who had offered to let us use her house to shower up for showers and while we waited in line, someone turned on the TV. They started watching Duck Dynasty (which I had never seen before, or even heard of) and I said, “Bored!” (Sherlock quotes for the win!) and worked on my knitting instead. (Don’t judge. I really was bored. But the endings were sweet…) Anyway, I got ten merit points for being bored with the show. Teehee. I took a very cold shower.

After sightseeing, we ate out at the China Buffet (I don’t remember where it was. Yummy food, though. Almost as good as the beef stew!), where we got merit points for trying new things. I tried sushi. The stuff which was made with fake crab wasn’t that bad, but the salmon stuff just tasted odd. I didn’t have a gag reflex problem, though. And I also tried oysters. MMMM! We tried to talk our Youth Group coordinator to try calamari (read: adorable baby octopus, heehee), and she almost did, but she had all this drama with bringing it to her mouth, and when she finally popped it in it shot out again! Like a bullet. Like the sound of Father’s former ringtone. (Which was a machine gun and bombs before he changed it to some demented music from Psycho.) And I have the photos to prove it.

When we headed back out for Omaha, Iris and I (who had sat in the VERY BACK of the van before) switched out our seat assignments and rode towards the front. We played lots of games and had a sing-off (which was FUN! :-D) Iris proved to be the champion of a game which has the point of making “it” laugh, and she was “it” and only laughed THREE TIMES among the many games we played. I replied “Get Sherlock” at one point and had to say that to everything. It got me farther than before, but I still cracked up. People teased me about Moriarty wanting to marry me, and I said “No way! I’m probably way taller than he is!” (I’m taller than Ewan McGregor, for crying out loud!!! Why are most British actors so short???!)

We stopped in Notre Dame, IN and visited the Church of the Sacred Heart. More subdued than the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, but just as beautiful. The ceiling murals were the best part, and their high altar was amazing.

We stayed in the most iffy motel I’ve ever seen on the way back. Breakfast was blah and the shower had poor pressure. One of our room doors was 1) frozen shut, and 2) had a broken handle. Another one smelled like smoke, so we switched on that one. Who wants to smell tobacco all night? Eugh. But at least we could lock our doors, and there was no balcony door to become loose and begin to break away from the wall. (That was at the second hotel we stayed at, fyi. Since there was a connecting door that led to one of the boys’ rooms, the girls in that room traded assignments with the other guys. Also, that was the same time I had my first temper tantrum. Everyone forgot ENTIRELY about my brother!!! He had stayed in his room to go to the bathroom and he had NO IDEA where we were meeting! I wound up crying, but that was partly low blood sugar and sleep deprivation… I’m still embarrassed about it though. Though I think I WAS JUSTIFIED!!!)

Anyway, we arrived safely back home at 9:10 p.m. central time. The St. Francis youth group still had an hour and a half to go, though… I feel sorry for them.

We did get in some good prayer time and soul food, though. We went to Mass every day, Confessions on Thursday, and had a full Rosary (three sets of mysteries!) a day.

All in all, it was a good trip, and my first big adventure since 2008. Hope you’ll forgive me for dropping off the ether, and also hoping that you’ve enjoyed my story! Thanks for reading, as always, and may God Bless you! Have a better than awesome day!