The ethics of an old man mowing
Walking home from work today I saw an old man mowing the lawn at a fundamentalist church.
The grounds must be at least half an acre and he was using a small mower to cut long, wet grass.
There is no way he would have got more than a third done before it was dark. The mower’s engine kept dying as he pushed it through the long grass.
I’m often contemplative while walking and this presented a few questions. (more…)
Ancient language goes modern
It’s rather ironic I learned about The Vatican’s web site from a blog named The Inquisitr 
I’m not surprised The Vatican has a web site; it’s just I had never thought about it before and had never visited.
As The Inquisitr reveals, a Latin section was only recently added.
I’ve never studied Latin and I was born just after the Second Vatican Council, so I never experienced a Latin Mass.
I can appreciate the value of Latin. From Roman times to the Industrial Revolution it was the universal language. (more…)
Phone tone rage (PTR)
A Kalgoorlie Miner columnist, Kitty Prodonovich, wrote today about “phone tone rage” (PTR).
It is quite amazing how the repetitive tones from an innocent little phone can incite so much anger and frustration, but they do. And it’s not just the phone rings; you can also have different sound for message alerts and other thing. One of the guys I work with has an extremely loud whistle every time he gets a text message, which fools me every time. And yes, it does bring out the PTR in me. I basically just want to smash his phone each time it whistles.
Kitty admits to variously having Barry Manilow singing Copacabana and WHAM’s “Wake me up before you go go” driving her friends and colleagues mad. (more…)
Religion
I admit that we lost contact with organised religion after the twins were born. It required a big effort to get the family to mass and the twins were a handful. Traditional denominations in Australia have lost members partly because they haven't been family friendly. As congregations grow older it's hard for parents to take young children to church in an environment where they have few peers. That's no reason though to forget or ignore one's faith. I came across a web site called the Catholic Show which reminds people that the church is a vibrant, growing, relevant organisation. With Kathleen attending a Catholic secondary school next year it's likely we'll become more involved in the local parish.
Papal curiosities
Full credit to The Age in Melbourne for running some interesting sidelines about the new Pope.
Who would ever have thought a former member of the Hitler Youth could become Pope? I’m one of those who think it’s irrelevant. Young Joseph did what he was told, was conscripted into the armed forces and riskily deserted.
One of the Pope’s cousins lives in Melbourne. In her story she says that Joseph’s elevation to Pope was “no surprise”.
Another oddity surrounds the registration by one speculative individual of the internet domain www.benedictXVI.com before the conclave. Fortunately he doesn’t plan to use it improperly.
Family photo
This is the first photo of the whole family since the day after the twins were born (December 17, 2003). It was taken at Our Lady of the Snows Church after Dude’s First Communion and Confirmation. We’re pictured with the Bishop of Sandhurst, Joe Grech.
