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Notes from Greencastle
Jul. 25, 2008
Surprinsing Foreign Language Helps; Miraculous Corn
I'm such a traitor. I started this article ("Surprising Foreign Language Helps") right here in *this blog*, and I've gone and finished it and posted it over at my new blog. It was kind of a toss-up as to where to put it, honestly. If you're a homeschooler who is intimidated by the whole foreign language thing, please go take a look, even if my other blog usually isn't your thing.
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In castle news: Miraculous Corn. That is to say, corn that was:
1) Planted late.
2) Planted by a six-year-old with no supervision.
3) Came from the remainders of an old seed packet, way too few plants to give us the appropriate stand-size for proper pollination, says my gardening book.
4) Was knocked over twice by big storms, and *continued to grow* sideways.
But I prayed for corn, and corn we got. Jesus really does indulge us around here. Longest ear was only about six inches long, but our kindergartener is more than satisfied. Got two "dinners" out of it so far, if by "dinner" we mean "each child was served a homegrown corn-shaped food object with at least a few edible kernels on it, and no bugs."
Big news, we're thrilled.
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Jul. 23, 2008
Which Latin pronunciation?
Anyone want to weigh in on the choice of Latin pronunciations?
Mr. Boy's textbook he wants to start is classical, but of course church stuff uses ecclesiastical pronunciation. (We don't go to the local Latin Mass regularly, but will probably take a field trip or two once we get any good at this. Our parish uses a smattering of Latin here and there, and in the Agnus Dei every week.)
Trying to decide whether to learn both intentionally, or just adopt one for school purposes and wing it on the other on an as-needed basis.
Any advice welcome.
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Report cards are in the mail! Next year's curricula are more or less mapped out, depending on how industrious I feel -- what I have in place now as a rough draft is good enough for paperwork purposes. Process gets quicker every year, though I'll admit I've been pre-planning for months in my head, and did a little on-paper planning during vacation earlier this summer.
--> A homeschooling-dad friend asked me if I found all the planning for homeschooling to be difficult. Apparently his wife is not a natural planner (so she tells me). No, I answered, planning school is not my problem. It's the actual doing of it that gets me every time ;-).
[That said, report cards testify that we did get quite a lot done -- did very well in some areas. Still a little behind on math from where I think we ought to be, but all in all I think the year went well enough.]
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Jul. 18, 2008
Book review is up on the other blog. Summary: not for children, but interesting book for history buffs who can read critically.
Over here on the homeschooling front, progress reports are completed but not mailed. Did get a box of free books (thank you generous donors) in the mail for another homeschooling friend. I so completely love, love, love media mail.
I head over to Las Vegas for my younger sister's wedding middle of next month (SuperHusband and kids stay here - have you looked at airfares lately?), with the nieces coming for a week or so just before. So the to-do list still presses: clean house, plan niece's visit, write up and send in '08-'09 curriculum plans, confirm babysitters for my absence, and do some blogging-in-advance so that I stay on schedule.* That should keep me busy.
Baby is calling to be rescued from nap. Must run. Have a good weekend.
*Having deadlines seems to be working so far. I might try to institute some here, too. |
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Jul. 11, 2008
The New Blog is Up
Riparians at the Gate. The title is a play on words, not especially deep though I could give you a list of possible allusions if you are unable to fabricate any of your own. Difficult to come up with a blog title that, when you put it into Google, doesn't return someone else's blog. Header image FYI is from the SuperHusbands treasure-trove of stock photography, this one pulled from his trip to Winchester some time ago.
The structures of justice entry I've been promising here since last December is now up over there. Scroll down, I put it up last week. (My apologies for not telling you here sooner.) I've reposted the whole living wage series from here over there so that it is in one place, and you can click on the 'living wage' category to see it all at once.
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Here at the castle we're in between times. Need to get year-end report cards written up and mailed in, and would like to do a little housecleaning before my nieces arrive at the end of the month. Will resume school as soon as I'm satisfied with those two to-do items, and also as soon as I order the next round of math work books. Oh and I need to write up next year's course of study, put some packages in the mail, and I wouldn't mind getting to the pool a couple times as well. Normal life I guess.
PS: Thank you to whoever has been praying for me. My prayer life is much improved. Please keep up the good work. |
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Jun. 30, 2008
Cheesewax candles & other reports
Sale the other day on cheese wrapped in wax. Children saved the wax (who could resist), Mr. Boy was the leader in candle-making. Rolled out his portion of wax, put a length of cotton yarn in the center, closed up the wax around it. Candle is obviously not very hard -- doesn't require a candlestick holder because you can smush the wax into the surface on which it rests to make a broad, flat, very stable and sticky base. And they work!
A variety of incidents have SuperHusband and I thinking about homeschooling lately. A realization we had last night was just how much homeschooling lends itself to what I (borrowing the word) refer to as intellectual 'conversation' -- the working of the brain to choose, to interact, to reflect, to create, and so forth. This is true even when we are doing the same sorts of activities that are done in traditional schools.
I think about something like watching a movie (educational or not -- both occur in schools, mine and the public ones), which is an activity we think of as 'passive'. When Mr. Boy watches an educational program, he runs in and out of the room, reporting to me all the interesting facts. Not something a child in a classroom can do without causing a disruption. If there's a show on, my kids have the choice to watch it or not -- they can, and often do, choose to get up and go something else, either in the same room or elsewhere. I try to imagine a classroom where the teacher has put on a film at the end of the day (something edifying and supportive of the curriculum, but not strictly necessary) and a student gets up and says, "I'm going out for a nature walk now," or even "Can I go down the hall to the art room and work on my drawing instead?"
It is a very rare institutional school (public or private) that can give this type of autonomy to the students (Montessori as I have read about it -- no personal experience -- comes to mind, and the Albany Free School is another, if I have the name correct on the latter.). I'm finding that all this deciding is good for the kids. They come up with all kinds of ideas, like the cheesewax candles, and they actually get to try their ideas and learn from that experience -- from both the intellectual process and the physical process. It is starting to show, and we are very happy with it.
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In other news, I accidentally joined the Legion of Mary a few weeks ago, as an auxillary member. A eucharistic miracle of sorts. So far it seems to be sticking, though getting me to actually say the rosary every day (as opposed to thinking what a good idea it would be for me to do so) is miraculous in itself. I do not exaggerate here; those who know me best will vouch for my complete incompetence in these sorts of feats. Last night, for example, I managed to finally remember to pray only by a weird series of events that had me finishing the last lines at 11:59.
I am not very good at this, either. I seem to be always have a set of dreaded mysteries. At first it was the sorrowful mysteries, because I just wasn't feeling penitential and *did not* want to dwell on sorrowful thoughts. Today I found I'd gotten rather sick of the joyful mysteries -- too cheerful happy happy for me, who was thinking not about the mystery of the Finding of Jesus, but rather the mystery of the Losing of Jesus. And then in an effort to focus my thoughts (always wandering, always, always) I thought I'd gaze at the little images next to each mystery. Which led me to noticing that in my particular prayer booklet, Mary is wearing the same pink and blue outfit for some twelve years or so, Annunciation through Finding. No fading or stains, either. More and more I understand why evangelicals go in for loud music with waving-of-hands and live band up front as a primary form of worship -- kind of drowns out some of the distractions.
Anyhow, that's the news at the castle.
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Jun. 25, 2008
the rules around our house
A few years ago, someone on the delphi NFP discussion forum posted a thread about the "rules around your house". Participants posted lists of their house rules. Mine included "No sitting on the baby's head".
Now need to add a rule, this one inspired by the same child who gave us that other rule, though the incident involves a different baby:
No tying things to the baby.
Funny thing is, rules like this are almost always needed on days when everything is going well. If the two children involved hadn't been getting along so well today, there never would have been any getting of babies to submit to the tying-on.
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Jun. 16, 2008
Field Trip: Corkscrew Swamp and Ave Maria town
Took a field trip to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary last week - highly recommended. Lovely area, very helpful educational signs, and the boardwalk trail takes you through a variety of landscapes. The boardwalk is very stroller (and wheelchair, it seemed to me) accessible -- so much so that there is a fleet of umbrella strollers and wheelchairs available to borrow (no additional charge) if you have someone along who isn't up to the walk. The visitors' center has an interesting educational 'film', once you get use to the unusual format.
Can't recommend it enough. Take a look at the link for photos.
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Also made a side trip to Ave Maria town for lunch afterwards -- we hadn't realized it was so close, until we saw the sign and decided to investigate. Interesting place. From a distance the church looks rather like a silo turned on its side, or perhaps some kind of massive manufacturing plant. Up close though, it evokes the feeling of a European cathedral. Say, what Frank Lloyd Wright might have designed if he'd been taller and more catholic.
All controversies about the community aside, the oratory deserves an award for silence. Very prayerful. The kind of atmosphere which makes any church more beautiful. |
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Jun. 4, 2008
Living the Distracted Life
So the other week we to a demonstration for homeschoolers put on by the local SCA group. It's a possibility that we will even succumb to become SCA'er ourself: friendly people, fellow history nuts, a handful of other homeschoolers and people with kids our kids age, and activities that the whole family would find interesting. Kind of neat to find an activity that everyone in the family can go and participate in at the same time.
But here's the point of my post: So I went to the SCA event. Which caused me to go to the SCA website. Whch caused me to suddenly take a detour in my goofing-off hours to learn Old French. As I mentioned to friends the other day, *it seemed like the right thing to do at the time*.
Meanwhile an internet acquaintance laments that her husband wants her (a stay-at-home mom to young children) to take up some intellectually stimulating, "improving" hobbies. Learn Latin, read theology, things like that. I want to tell him, "Noooo! Don't do it! No no no!!!!" If you have a perfectly good housewife, do not, repeat do not, ruin it all by getting her started compulsively learning ancient languages and entering into Great Discourses. Dinner will never be on time again, and you will be very, very sorry.
On the other hand, last year this time my obscure language of sudden-obsession was Latin. And I am pleased to report that I have actually made progress. My course of study consisted of 1) Checking out all the Latin books at our public library, skimming through most of them and even doing a couple lessons, in a manic learn-Latin orgy. 2) Listening to part of a very dry free-bin-rescue tape on classical Latin pronunciation. 3) Detouring into a brief study Occitan, which I quickly fought off. 4) Coming to my senses. Probably only cost us a couple weeks of productivity.
Since then, though, I have made a point of reading the Latin bits in my Daily Roman Missal, when I go to read the day's mass readings. Unless very tired, I read the Latin first, then check the English underneath second. And I realized this morning that lately I haven't much needed to really read the English. Very exciting. Not going to be counted in the ranks of the great scholars any year soon, but it's nice to be getting somewhere.
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May. 22, 2008
Assorted castle news
School: Picking up speed again, now that FHC and dance recital madness are past. Mr. Boy is wrecking my plan to get two children's use out of his Math-U-See workbook, as we fell upon a pair of chapters where he needed to do all the worksheets, and then some, to get a handle on his assignments. Usually he does just two or three of the six-per-chapter available, and is ready to move on. Luckily the test booklet remains untouched -- LP loves a nice shiny workbook to fill. And she doesn't mind making her own worksheets, so we can manage.
Mystery Ailment: Consensus du jour is "weird muscle thing". Very good. If that doesn't pan out, there is still a certain quarter of the medical professionals collection that wants to rule out MS more definitively, but for the moment that plan is on hold. Did confirm no peripheral nerve damage, so the limb police are officially dispersed. Weird muscle thing suits me fine.
Internet Madness: A real-life homeschooling friend of mine asked me to make her up a list of the library books that we use in our homeschool. I figured as long as I was making a list for her, I might as well make it for the entire universe. So when I get that little project going, I'll post a link here. Will happen before fall, when her family goes back to school.
Was having real doubts about my decision to get back to blogging with more intensity, when probably what I ought to be doing is quitting it altogether. Not like the world really needs another amateur catholic blogger. Then I happened to read the holy father's prayer intention, as posted over at Beggar for Love:
General Intention: That Christians, may use literature, art, and the media to greater advantage to favor a culture that defends and promotes the values and the human person.
So I saw that, and thought, well I guess that settles it. The pope himself is practically asking me to do it, right?
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May. 19, 2008
Blog Transition Update - happy change of plans
Good news -- regular readers here don't have to relocate. The bulk of the blog will remain public. As sporadically updated as ever, but still there for your viewing pleasure.
If you've been kicked off my homeschoolblogger "friends" list, don't panic. I still love you. I've put your blog down in my general links section.
If you are a real-life personal friend, remember that you need to log in to homeschoolblogger to see the top secret posts where I gossip about the excluded majority private section of the blog.
[For those not on homeschoolblogger yet, I tested and it is no problem to set up a userid and placeholder-blog. Remember to tell me your userid so I can let you in.]
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The new blog is under construction. Posting there begins the beginning of July, and will be four posts a month on pre-planned topics. The living wage discussion is moving there, and I'll also be adding history topics (which I haven't done here before, but have long wanted to do). There will be education topics in the rotation as well, and the fourth week a month will be book reviews on books related to those topics (history books are the line-up to begin with.) I'll post links here when the topics over there fall into the scope of this blog.
Right now nothing much is happening on either blog, as I do assorted internet housekeeping. And a certain amount of real-life housekeeping, too.
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May. 12, 2008
Going Private
I'm in the process of re-organizing my blogging life. Here's what's going on:
This blog (Notes from Greencastle) is going to be private, for family & personal friends only. ("Personal friend" includes the requirement that either I or the SuperHusband have met you in person at least once.) It will be for photos, garden updates, weather report, school updates, mystery ailment, etc. Things my grandmother & I might talk about. I will continue to neglect it. Probably more neglected, even, than usual.
The new blog (title not yet finalized), which I post here as soon as it is all pulled together, will be a once-weekly post covering a rotating series of topics on economic issues, history, and education (not strictly homeschooling) The new blog is slated to go live the first Friday of July. I'll pre-post some of the relevant background posts from this blog between now and then, so that if you have been "following" ("coaxing" seems more accurate) the living wage series, for example, the whole thing will be on the site FYI.
[For those who are concerned . . . I'm going with a host that allows time-delay on the posts, so that I can do my writing ahead of time. Better suited to my on-again off-again writing schedule.]
What to do?
A. If you meet the "friends and family" requirement AND you are actually interested in seeing the pared-back greencastle content, you need to do two things:
1) Register with homeschoolblogger. This will cause you to get a couple announcements from the homeschoolblogger people a week, so if that is a problem for you, plan ahead and use an e-mail address that can cope with that. I haven't gotten any spam, btw. Just the "homeschool minute" weekly newsletter.
2) E-mail me, and let me know your homeschoolblogger userID. I'll add you to the list of people who have access to the private blog. Note: Don't forget to let me know who you are IRL! Phone & snail mail, telegram, stopping me after church, etc, all work too.
(Note: Tina, you don't have to do anything, you are already set up.)
B. If you are one of my regular readers but don't meet the friends-and-family requirement, come over to my new blog. I'll post the location before this one goes private, or leave me a comment here and I will e-mail you the address. If you are currently linked in my sidebar as a "homeschoolblogger friend" and would like to have your site listed in the links at my new blog, let me know that, too. I don't know how much traffic the new blog will generate, but it will be a more public corner of the internet. (So, you might or might not want your blog listed there.)
That's the news for now.
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May. 8, 2008
Excuse of the Week
You can blame Ruth at Wheelie Catholic for my most recent absence. In addition to being a person whose blog belongs on my sidebar, she is also the one who told me (and all her other readers) about the Catholic Writer's Conference, being held by the Catholic Writer's Guild.
So I've gone abandoned all my faithful readers yet again, this time in order to:
-Make a perfectly nice marketing lady want to throttle me and all my friends for our persistent anonymity
-Add about 3,000 pages of notes on all the things I need to fix on my would-be novel
-Learn that I have an adverb problem.
Honestly I've been learning a ton, and am very glad to have happened upon the event. In a double miracle, a friend of mine lent me two spare children this week, thereby keeping mine occupied so I could goof off on the computer for hours on end.
I would have linked here, but I didn't even find out about it until the very last minute. If they hold another one, I would strongly recommend attending. Rather than be sore at me, you can purchase the e-book, which will contain all the proceedings, from the writer's guild website (above).
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Regularly scheduled blogging will resume soon. With the usual meaning "soon" as that word is used on this blog. Meanwhile go check out Ruth's blog if you've never been there, or haven't been this week. She did not abandon her readers, and has a slew of good stuff right now.
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Apr. 24, 2008
Heroic Virtue
One of the advantages of reading the lives of the saints is that you begin to know heroic virtue when you see it. It came to my attention the other day that a dear of friend of mine had been busy being just that type of hero. I knew she had been going through some miserable trials, but I hadn't known just how self-sacrificially she had faced up to them.
(I won't embarrass her by sharing details, and any case, you can almost never explain these things properly.)
Real heroism, by definition, comes at great personal cost. And you hate to see your friends suffering. But it was the most beautiful privilege, to have gotten that little glimpse into her life, and thereby been a witness to unquestionable saintliness, right there in a beloved friend. All the more moving because my friend is like me, an ordinary Christian who has her share of weaknesses and personal struggles. If she can answer this call, then maybe when my time comes, there is hope for me, too.
Just cried with joy all through mass Sunday (having forgotten to bring kleenex, ahem), thinking about the beautiful example she had set for her friends and family, and the miracle of how Christ is willing to work through us in this way.
Lovely stuff. I was one grateful lady in the pews. Read the lives of the saints.
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Apr. 24, 2008
more explaining
Quick explanation for my absence -- mystery ailment's been giving me a little trouble. Seems to be re-improving though. I ought to make a special entry category called "excuses for not blogging".
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Mar. 30, 2008
Thomas
Been waiting a long time for today's Gospel, because it's one about which I feel rather strongly. Here are the two things I've been wanting to say, one of them new to me this morning, the other has been stewing for a long time, both built on one point.
The thing that I've never heard anyone focus on before* , is that St. Thomas had specific requirements for his belief. "Unless I see the mark of the nails . . ." His doubt was not a refusal to believe -- it was a rational skepticism. And once he had the evidence he needed, he believed wholeheartedly.
In apologetics -- all the work of explaining the catholic faith to others -- it usually seems to me that the person who is asking me questions doesn't have Thomas's willingness to believe. I need to remember to ask the question: What evidence would be enough for you, to convince you the claims of the catholic church were true?
Feelings of doubt: A lot of us who do believe in Christ, and in the claims of the catholic church, are prone to feeling of doubt all the same. And Thomas is such a great model for us, because he knew what he needed to believe, and he could be content with that. Each of us has reasons we believe -- good solid reasons based on hard-won knowledge and experience, I should hope. And when those feelings of doubt come, we can go back, again and again, and remember what it took for us to believe, and let it be enough for us to keep believing.
*perhaps due to my limited experience -- forgive me now for unknowingly repeating what someone else has said much better elsewhere |
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Jan. 15, 2008
Pre-Primary Reality Check
Quick reminder: Anyone who will publicly admit that they think torture is acceptable, is a person you do not want in your nation's government.
Here's a link to a newspaper article that sums up who is admitting to what. Turns out your choices are limited, and probably not who you really want as the next President. But, as much as we make jokes about the IRS, or the nation's various economic policies, or its bureaucratic inefficiencies, we are only speaking *figuratively* when we describe them with the word "torturous". Actually torturing people is quite different.
I linked the article, because it was fairly difficult to find a straightforward comparison of the candidates on this issue, which apparently isn't yet being treated as an "issue". Finding out a candidate's stance on abortion is a little more straightforward; if you've been living in a cave and haven't the time to google now, at this late date, you can take a look at the comparison chart found at sclife.org. Narrows you down even more, sorry to say.
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So what will happen if you vote for a non-torturing, non-aborting candidate, and as a result the Republican party falls apart, and the Democrats win the general election with one of their legion of ardently pro-abortion candidates? Aside from the obvious silver linings (um, did you agree with the Republicans about everything?), here's what will happen: The Republicans might catch on that they shouldn't torture people.
"Ho ho ho!" they will say. "Yes, it's true we can propose all the crazy tax schemes and border plans we want, and still get elected, but turns out, not only do we have to be opposed to abortion, we have to oppose torture, too!." Sure, not perfectly. Maybe, the 2012 Republican candidates will be only *pretending* to oppose abortion and torture. But even that would be quite an improvement over shamelessly admitting to supporting those two evils.
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Don't be a case of "Reward for A, hope for B". Just last century -- just five years ago, even -- everybody *knew* torture was wrong. As a culture, we mocked and scorned those who, in the past, had considered it acceptable. This is our first presidential election since our culture fell apart on this issue. It is absolutely imperative that our politicians get the message, now, that "okay-with-torture" means political death.
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Jan. 2, 2008
An ox or an ass?
It may have been unwitting, but the music selection at our parish for yesterday's solemnity hit the nail on the head. During holy communion the song was "What Child Is This?" One of my favorite Christmas carols, but yesterday, transformed for me.
There we were, asking as we processed about to receive, and knelt to adore, the Real Presence: "Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?"
Naturally the song does not pause and give us time to decide, which am I -- ox or ass? -- but goes on to answer the question of why He's there with us. Bit of a double whammy. I took the hint, enlightened, warned, and consoled. In all, a very motherly way to get a message across.
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Jan. 1, 2008
Resolved
A certain parent has observed that no matter how much the 2nd grader may have learned about the battle of Thermopylae, there was no one involved called the GRECRME. And, by the way, that math book looks a tad lonely. The corner public school, meanwhile, is home six hours a day, 180 days a year, to many happy, well-adjusted Children Who Know How to Spell.
Mr. Boy and I can take a hint. 2008 will be the Year We Get Our Act Together. Because we do not -- do not, do not, do not -- want to have to be out of the house at 7:20 am. If we're going to have to do the less-exciting stuff, at least let us do it at a civilized hour.
Trouble is, it's just so hard to put down a perfectly good history book in order to go Practice Things. Or to make a child put down a perfectly good history book, in order to go supervise the Practicing of Things. But we will do it. Because the alternative involves sitting at desks way too much, and doing other people's worksheets, and all kinds of dreaded fates, including going hours at a time without ever picking up a wooden sword or running out to chase squirrels real quick, I'll be back in just a minute, I promise.
So we will do it. We will learn to spell. And to say our math facts. And to use punctuation and spaces and to write left-to-right and top-to-bottom, every time. We will do it. We must.
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Dec. 13, 2007
Hope
Something I discovered unintentionally, and with some concern: An effective way to see where one's hope is placed, is to see what disappoints.
--> Concern, because it showed I was putting my hope in things I ought to have known better than to trust in, by now. I suppose this is not unlike my slowness-to-learn in other areas, such as the years it took me to realize dinner must be served, every night. You would think this sort of thing would be obvious, but some of us are slow this way.
This morning's first reading offers a correction:
I, the Lord your God, I am holding you by the right hand; I tell you, "Do not be afraid, I will help you."
And then continues with a funny consolation:
Do not be afraid, Jacob, poor worm, Israel, puny mite. I will help you -- it is the Lord who speaks -- the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.
This is good. Compared to the kind of help that sometimes get offered, the sort that goes, "If you would just ____________, then God would . . ." Yes, well, I don't just ________. I need the poor worm and puny mite kind of help, thank you very much.
The other thing I was thinking about this morning is the psalm (which I am too lazy busy to look up right now) that goes along the lines of, "Some trust in chariots and horses, we trust in the Lord".
Something that had always bothered me about the psalms in this genre, is that the Lord doesn't always come through and defeat the enemy's chariots and horses. You can trust in the Lord and still get trampled. And then this morning I realized that the promise isn't that you will get what chariots and horses have to offer -- you will get what the Lord has to offer. Which, in the end, is the peace and happiness and joy and comfort of an eternity spent in the presence of God; but, in the meantime, yes there may be some amount of trampling in the process of getting there.
But not to worry; any trampling is a temporary inconvenience, on the way to something much much better. Miserable while it is happening -- our Lord gives the example of how to manage, with not only prayer but a certain amount of weeping and pleading and sweating of blood -- but in the end, yes the Lord will redeem us, and even we of the wormy and mite-like persuasion can trust in Him.
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On an very indirectly related note, I feel the need to observe: PBS's Curious George show has been a really good friend to me.
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Dec. 2, 2007
Found my Reading Level
Naturally I had to do like all the other hot catholic bloggers, and go quick read Spe Salvi. Okay, not quick. I'm about halfway through.
(And no, I don't aspire to be a hot catholic blogger, so, everything's fine. When you are a purely recreational catholic blogger, it can take you a week or more to read the new encyclical -- you can even have doubts about how to spell "encyclical", and it's okay.)
I think I must have hit on the mysterious "reading level" that everyone always wants to know about. People mostly ask that about my children ("What is your son's reading level?"), though once I had a Barnes & Noble employee gush over my purchase of a Wall Street Journal, on account of that newspaper being written at a twelfth grade reading level. Being a person who had graduated high school, I was really quite relieved to have passed that assessment.
So if anyone asks me now about my Reading Level, I can tell them it's officially at the Lay Faithful level. The pope wrote me (and a billion of my closest friends) a letter, and I can read it. I have to pay attention -- it's a bit more elevated than Jeeves and Wooster, which has been my other reading of late -- but as long as I am actually thinking about what I am reading, it all makes sense.
And, I might add, it is really, really good. Poor SuperHusband, I kept interrupting him last night to say, "You would love this! Oh you should read this! Oh this part is so good!" It's going something like the answers to the final exam (essay-type) of a class I would have loved to take, and might have even done pretty well in, if only I could have kept up with all the reading. Church Fathers, Lives of Saints, Economic Theory, French Revolution, and much, much more, all in one great package - a whopper of a class.
Not, as I say, a class in which I would have actually excelled. I am person who knows what Karl Marx thought and taught, more or less, but have never personally read much more than an excerpt or two of the man's writings. But I've never let this shortcoming keep me from pondering economic theory, so the whole little study of how the hope of Communism compares to the hope of Christianity has me going "Yes! Yes!"
--> Somehow I have resisted breaking into impious cheering for the Holy Father. But a few earnest prayers of thanks and "Please let this man live to write the third installment," most definitely.
All that to say, it's good reading. Nice and meaty, but still readable. Helps to be widely read, but I stand as proof that you don't have to have actually read the Great Books, only the general summaries of those Great Books. (A knowledge of the New Testament and a fearlessness about Greek word study, yes, you need that, too. But if you listen at Mass every week, you should have that by now.)
And it's good, by the way, not merely in the sense of "keeps the intellect amused", but because it really hammers home the very Good News. So, encouraging stuff.
***
Reminds me, by the way, that next up in the Living Wage discussion is going to be a look at the concept of "structures of justice". Nothing down on paper yet, though, so don't hold your breath.
In mystery ailment news: No news is no news. Orthopedist looks at blood work, takes x-ray, shakes head. More investigating to follow in ensuing weeks. Meanwhile, children are getting quite good at doing the dishes.
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