Dopes Raise Bratz

Matthew Mehan (aka Downto) at Down to the Piraeus recently had a controversial post on bad parenting styles in which he dubbed parents of a particular style, "Dopes".

Just this week, my kindergarten-aged daughter received a birthday invitation to a Bratz-themed birthday party for one of her classmates. I repeat, this is for kindergarteners; five year olds turning six. A kindergarten at a Catholic parish school, mind you.

If you are setting the bar this low for your child at such an early age, why not plan ahead and rather than paying into a pre-paid college tuition, use the money for some thing she might really need? Does the Betty Ford clinic accept advance bookings? How about the Whitman-Walker clinic?

Idolatry

Last week I was on retreat at the Longlea Conference Center near Culpeper, VA. One meme that the priest touched on a few times had to do with trying to discover our primary fault. He attacked this from many angles, but at one point he rhetorically asked:

Q: What is our idol?

A: The thing that distracts us in our prayer.

While there are many things that distract me in my prayer, I'd have to say that they all point back to me, me, me and "me" is spelled with a capital P for Pride.

Ringo Starr: Super Hero

The kindly drummer will become an “evil-battling, earth-saving (though reluctant) superhero with a great sense of rhythm”

Go, Richie, go!

This Must Be How God Sees Us

Even though we know we are screwed up and sinful, deep down we really feel that we are virtuous. To paraphrase Uncle Screwtape, we feel that we've built up quite a reserve for ourselves because we have allowed ourselves to be converted.

An American Idol audition is really a metaphor for this. Take the guy who is so awful that even Paula Abdul can't help spitting her drink out in laughter. He really is horrendous and couldn't carry a tune in a wheel barrow, but he really, really thinks that he is not just good, but good enough to be the winner. This must be the way that we appear to God when we think about all the "good" we do. Fortunately, though, He is gentler in his reproaches than Simon Cowell.