Goodness! There's a lot of good stuff on the Internet today. I wish I had time to blog about it, but the best I can do is to offer this plate of today's web offerings. Enjoy!
Great assortment of icons by an original artist.
I'm bummed I missed this story earlier this week:
A mother's attentiveness early in life makes an important difference in tiny preemies' development, even through elementary school, according to a study published Monday.
Mike Aquilina takes apart the apocryphal gospels. Great quote at the end about the Church's efforts to separate the authentic from the reams and reams of pretend gospels at the beginning of the Christian age:
Father Stravinskas explained why: “Karl Rahner said that the Church, in deciding the canon, was like a mother at work in her apartment, and down below in the courtyard there could be 40 children screaming or crying – but she could hear the voice of her own and know it.”
Good review/discussion of Mansfield's Manliness. Excerpt:
There are people who look extremely manly, but are not. And people who don't look manly, but are. T.O., with his bulging muscles and chiseled torso, is a cartoon of exaggerated masculinity. On the football field, he certainly exhibits confidence in the face of risk. But because of his constant carping, his vanity and self-absorption, he is anything but manly.
Fred Rogers, with his silly puppets and cardigan sweaters, was at the opposite end of the spectrum from Russell Crowe, Jesse Ventura and The Arnold. But he was confident of his belief in the power of love, and he had the courage to extend respect and appreciation to all, despite the risk of ridicule. The moral force of Rogers this soft, gentle man was fearsome.
Indeed, a manly man can be a gentleman -- "a manly man with polish and perfection," Mansfield writes, gentle "out of policy, not weakness."
Bravery in battle is manly, but it's not necessary to make war to be manly. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was manly. So was Nelson Mandela. So, for that matter, was Jesus. In the face of physical risk and hostility, they demonstrated manliness by seeking peace.
