Things have been pretty hectic, both around the office and at home, which is unusual. Typically, the holiday week offers a chance to catch up on things and take it easy. Oh well. I'm not complaining. Clients are calling at the office, and I have kids at home who still think I'm halfway cool.
But I am using today's blog post as a "clearinghouse" of sorts. Over the past two weeks, I've been bookmarking various articles to bring to TDE readers' attention, but I haven't been able to. Today, I'm just spitting them out there, continuity of thought or content be damned.
It's not every day that you run across a title like this one: Alec Guinness and the Spanish Mystics. The actor, it would appear, was an Avila fan.
Since at least Democritus, atheists have been disproving the existence of God. This guy has a somewhat novel approach: "A Scientist managed to replicate religious experience with electromagnetic waves applied to different parts of the brain. He goes on to tell the world that this proves there is no God." Of course, there are over 20 well-known arguments for God's existence, and this one ("The argument from religious experience") isn't cited much, but no matter. This atheist has successfully undone thousands of years of theology. Way to dominate, dude.
Of all the late night hosts, I probably quote Jimmy Fallon the most. It turns out that he's Catholic, albeit of the semi-lapsed sort. But at least he lapsed for all the right reasons:
Do you still go to church?
Mr. FALLON: I don't go to ”“ I tried to go back. When I was out in L.A. and I was kind of struggling for a bit. I went to church for a while, but it's kind of, it's gotten gigantic now for me. It's like too”¦ There's a band. There's a band there now, and you got to, you have to hold hands with people through the whole Mass now, and I don't like doing that. You know, I mean, it used to be the shaking hands piece was the only time you touched each other.
Jimmy, I feel your pain! I really, really do. I attend weekday Masses and see the people go through gyrations to get ahold of one another during the Lord's Prayer ("Here, grab my foot! I can reach, kinda, ow f***, I think I pulled something, but we gotta (grunt). . . . gotta touch"). It, I loathe. But come on, Jimmy. The Real Presence is the Real Presence, no matter how comical those of us in the pews. Come back.
And finally, watch for it: "Half of American Families are Below the Median." The headline is just a joke, but the government is making poverty level a moving target to reflect rising income levels. The reason: You always have to have at least a few people in poverty. At least a third, this article points out, preferably about one-half.
(The picture above, incidentally, is an old picture of my library. Since it was taken, I've added a few things, like about 150 books.)
