Time and Talent: What am I Doing Here, and Why?

Posted on January 27, 2021 by Brian H. Gill

I found a few resources for my next “Dr. Faustus” post this morning and afternoon, and got some writing done. Then it was time for my hour at the Eucharistic Adoration chapel.

That was, I think, an hour well-spent. But I’d been on a roll with the writing, and I don’t think that will happen again in the time I’ve got before supper.

I’d been reading about stewardship during my ‘chapel’ hour, so that’s more or less what I’ll write about here. But mostly about vocations. My vocation, specifically. And I don’t mean a job or career.

Vocations, in the Catholic sense, are what each of us does that will matter in the long run. In my dialect of English, Catholics who say “vocation” in this context generally mean being a priest, monk or nun. But I’ve got a vocation, too. We all do.

“VOCATION: The calling or destiny we have in this life and hereafter. God has created the human person to love and serve him; the fulfillment of this vocation is eternal happiness (1, 358, 1700). Christ calls the faithful to the perfection of holiness (825). The vocation of the laity consists in seeking the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will (898). Priestly and religious vocations are dedicated to the service of the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation (cf. 873; 931).”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, Glossary)

Using What I’ve Got

I’m human, so wanting God is written into my heart. (Catechism, 27)

Metaphorically.

That sort of writing is real, but it’s not the sort that shows up in MRI scans.

I figure that loving and serving God won’t happen if I don’t know God, and know about God.

Happily, I can learn about God by paying attention to what the Church says: and to myself, folks around me and this marvel-filled universe we live in. (Catechism, 26-43)

Also happily, my talents — the kit I was issued — includes off-the-chart language skills and a knack for remembering and correlating idea. That’s not bragging.

Like I said: it’s the kit I was issued. All I did was decide to develop some skills that are possible with those aptitudes.

Using my knack for noticing and writing seems like a way I can support the common good. Which is a good idea. (Catechism, 1878-1889, 1936-1937)

Noticing God’s Universe

I figure paying attention to the wonders and beauty surrounding us makes sense.

It’s also fun. At least it’s fun for me. And it’s one way I can learn about God: by noticing what God is making, and what we’re learning.

Humanity’s continuing efforts to understand how this universe works is a good idea. Within reason. (Catechism, 2292-2295)

But it’s not humanity’s end game:

“BEATIFIC VISION: The contemplation of God in heavenly glory, a gift of God which is a constitutive element of the happiness (or beatitude) of heaven (1028, 1720).”

“HAPPINESS: Joy and beatitude over receiving the fulfillment of our vocation as creatures: a sharing in the divine nature and the vision of God. God put us into the world to know, love, and serve him, and so come to the happiness of paradise (1720).”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, Glossary)

I’ve talked about this before:

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Another Tuesday: Faustus, Focus, Prayer and Routine

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Brian H. Gill

Today’s been like most Tuesdays, apart from how it hasn’t been.

I’m not always working on a “Dr. Faustus” post, for example.

That took most of the afternoon. As usual, I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. Or as little as I’d feared.

Also as usual, my Faustus focus has been a bit broad. The last part I wrote was mostly about the Dionysus and Pentheus story.

Like Faust, Pentheus really should have known better. Pwyll, too, and that’s not quite another topic.

I figure my ‘Faustus’ series would be much more linear — and shorter — if I stuck to a well-defined outline. But I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

And I figure if I don’t enjoy writing something, expecting someone else to enjoy reading it makes no sense at all.

The ‘mostly routine’ part of my day so far included my morning prayers. Which I remembered while it was still morning. I’ve still got two Divine Mercy chaplets to do, maybe right after I finish this.

I talked about prayer earlier this month. (January 6, 2021)

Another ‘mostly routine’ thing today was chatting, digitally, with number one daughter. That’s becoming a daily item, one I enjoy.

But none of my evening routines will happen if I don’t get this journal entry done.

So next I’ll do the usual links to allegedly-related posts, and then it’s time or prayers.

That makes it sound like I pray a lot. Which I don’t think I do, and that’s yet another topic.

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Dawn of My Daily Journal, Continued

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Brian H. Gill

If you’re back for more of “A Catholic Citizen in America:” thank you!

These daily ‘journal’ posts are something new. I started talking about them last Saturday. (January 23, 2021)

Then I got distracted, which is par for the course and almost another topic.

Today I’ll say what I’d planned to say then.

Adjusting Focus

John Tenniel's Alice and the Knitting Sheep, Alice Through the Looking-Glass.“Following Catholic beliefs and practices in America: one man’s experience” is “A Catholic Citizen in America’s” description tag.

But I’ve discussed science and history, health and holidays: not how I hold my hands when I pray or what I do during Mass.

What’s science, of all things, got to do with “following Catholic beliefs and practices”?!

Plenty, and that’s yet another topic:

But my posts were, for the most part, focused more on science, history, or whatever else had caught my attention. And not so much about me and how my faith affects what I do each day.

Which is where these ‘journal’ posts come in.

And that reminds me.

If you pick journal from my Categories drop-down menu in the sidebar — you’ll get the usual title link, date posted and the first few dozen words.

Anyway, I’ll keep these daily journal posts focused more on me and less on everything else. That’s my plan, at any rate.

Mostly Routine

Dragon playing a video game.Which brings me to what I’ve done today.

Let’s see. I woke up — which is always a good thing, and yet again another topic — and did my usual ‘first thing after rebooting brain’ prayer. Then I ate breakfast and didn’t get much done before lunch.

Pretty much routine.

Wait a minute. I left something out. I also went through my (routine) morning prayers. Which I occasionally forget about until well into the afternoon. Or evening.

But today I remembered them.

This afternoon was mostly chatting with number one daughter, then researching and writing the current “Dr. Faustus” post. After which came supper, reading part of a chapter in a mystery novel and now writing this post.

I’ve got another set of prayers — two Divine Mercy chaplets — to do before the day’s out.

Maybe the ‘Catholic’ angle of those prayers is obvious. Or maybe not. Either way, I pray because I think it’s a good idea. Sort of the spiritual equivalent of flossing my teeth, which sounds weird. Never mind.

But my faith’s engaged while researching and writing, too. And that’s still more topics.

Somewhat-related stuff:

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People Who Need People — and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Brian H. Gill

A song from the Sixties has been on my brain’s Top 40 Golden Oldie Earworm list for the last week or so:

“People,
People who need people,
Are the luckiest people in the world….”
(“People;” Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill (1964))

That started me thinking. Are people who need people lucky? Should they be lucky? Just what is luck, anyway? And for that matter, are there any people who don’t need people?

Thoroughly answering any one of those questions would take a book. A whole lot of books, more likely.

I’m trying to keep these ‘journal’ entries short, so thorough is out, superficial is in.

Human, Yes — All Alike, No

I’m not one of those folks who likes getting together with a few hundred close personal friends every other day or so.

Don’t get me wrong. I like people just fine.

But trying to have a coherent conversation with a varying number of people, while sorting other conversations into categories like ‘ignore,’ ‘engage later,’ ‘engage now’ and ‘switch to other group’ ???

That is not my idea of a good time.

And I’m certainly not someone who starts going through social withdrawal after maybe three days without at least a few hours in a crowded room.

But I’m human. We’re social critters. “Needing people” comes with the territory.

I can sympathize with folks who really do need people: people who are physically close, not ‘close’ only in a virtual sense. I’m also willing to accept that not everyone is like me. For which we should all be thankful. And that’s another topic.

That said, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions haven’t cut into my social life all that much.

Before ‘social distancing’ — a poorly-chosen phrase, and that’s yet another topic — started becoming a cliche, most of my social life was online.

It still is.

If I thought that online communities were “pretend communities” and folks weren’t real people when they connect with each other through post-industrial tech —

Well, I don’t. And I’m pretty sure that I’m a real person, even when I socialize online.

I’ve talked about that, and other seemingly-obvious stuff, before:

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Another Daily Journal: Masking the Unmasked

Posted on January 23, 2021 by Brian H. Gill

I never wear a face mask while at my desk. Make that almost never. I did this morning — Saturday, January 23, 2021 — while taking that picture. △

And I wore one I’d had at the hospital while taking a picture for “Back from the Hospital: The Masked Minnesotan Rides Again.”

I took that other picture September 2, the day I got back from the hospital. ▷

But I didn’t finish the post I’d taken it for until October 5, 2020.

Taking the picture and getting it ready for posting took maybe 10 minutes, tops. Writing the post took about a month.

Partly because it’s one of those where I talk about the main topic — whatever that is — plus the science, history and occasional weirdness behind the topic. Or around it, as the case may be.

And partly because I’d been really sick. But not from COVID-19. I’d been experiencing an old-fashioned staph/strep/cellulitis infection. (October 5, 2020)

The face mask I’m wearing in today’s photo is from Sauk Centre’s Walmart. And that brings me to one of the two things I was going to talk about today.

The Masked Minnesotan, Unmasked! (or) Common Sense Strikes Again!

This household does much, but not all, of its shopping at the local Walmart.

That could mean we’re witless pawns of Big Store, mindless minions of a megalomaniacal mastermind — or folks living with a limited budget.

I think it’s the ‘limited budget’ thing.

But if the ‘Big Store’ conspiracy theory was right, I’d be a mindless minion: so what would I know?

Oddly enough, I haven’t seen the ‘Walmart will destroy us all’ response to a company offering communities stable employment and affordable products presented as a conspiracy theory. Not that I’ve seen.

Walmart as a dire threat to downtown business, yes. A fear of Walmart destroying businesses by attracting new customers into town identified as a conspiracy theory, no.

Moving on.

I had a few things to pick up in Walmart yesterday, was parked and in the store before I realized that I’d forgotten to bring a face mask along. Dummkopf!

Walmart has a face mask policy — which probably has its own entourage of conspiracy theories, and I’m not going to wade back into that.

Anyway, there I was. No mask. Unwilling to go home, get one and return. Which would have made sense.

Instead, I rearranged my coat into a sort of oversized neck gaiter: went to the employee tasked with watching the entrance and told her this was her chance for telling me to leave.

Instead, she handed me a face mask. The one I’m wearing in this morning’s photo.

So I thanked her, re-rearranged my coat into its normal configuration, put on the face mask and finished my errand.

I figure that free face masks explains a good fraction of the masked Walmart customers. But, since a great many have been wearing other varieties, certainly not all.

I haven’t been keeping track, but it’s been quite a few weeks now that the vast majority of folks in Walmart have been wearing face masks. Which I take as a sign that common sense eventually prevails.

Or maybe it’s proof that the Illuminati-Pixie-Walmart overlords have enslaved us all. By making us wear face masks. No, I do not think so. I really do not think so.

Moving on again.

Dawn of My Daily Journal

John Tenniel's Alice and the Knitting Sheep, Alice Through the Looking-Glass.I’ve had a ‘journal’ category for this blog since October of 2019.

As the category’s description says, ‘journal’ posts are “… more about me, less about (almost) everything else.”

That’s the idea, anyway.

Fast-forward to earlier this month.

The news was, as usual, full of election-themed sound and fury, topped off by their view of the January 6 U.S. Capitol incident.

Meanwhile, some dude’s Ottawa dorm room project had grown into an “underground newspaper” and was reporting that THEY ARRESTED THE POPE!!! The story included the usual trimmings: sex, crime and The Vatican Suppressing The Truth.

And enough folks were taking the guff seriously to warrant a ‘lets get real’ CNA piece.

I talked about that on January 11, 2021:

Maybe repeating the post’s clarifications is in order:

  • Pope Francis wasn’t arrested
  • The Vatican wasn’t blacked out
  • Military officers and/or the FBI haven’t put the Pope in a secret prison

And, seriously: the Illuminati are not really a front for the Leprechaun-Pixie cabal.

There is no Leprechaun-Pixie cabal. Seriously.

Of course, if I was a mindless minion of the Leprechaun-Pixie cabal, disguised as one of the Illuminati disguised as some guy living in central Minnesota — that’s what I would say!!

Which is why I occasionally discuss conspiracy theories, but don’t consistently spend time trying to show that they’re a bit silly. I suspect that no amount of garlic and wooden stakes will stop some conspiracy theories, once they get rolling. And that’s another topic.

Anyway, I had something to say each day after that “The Pope Wasn’t Arrested…” thing.

I’ll soon have done a dozen daily posts. I think this is the eleventh.

What’s Ahead? Good Question

John Tenniel's chessboard landscape for 'Through the Looking-Glass.' (1872)

Some of my entries, like yesterday’s, are probably far from being a normal ‘journal’ post.

But this is my journal.

I’m more likely to talk about current events in the context of natural law and ancient history — and how that affects me — than I am to perorate on the proliferation of pepperoni pizza.

Today’s started out being about yesterday’s ‘mask’ experience and now it’s here.

Tomorrow’s? I’ve no idea where that will go.

A couple more things, and I’ll be getting coffee and start (again) on the next “Faustus” post.

First, if you’re looking for more of these ‘journal’ entries : pick journal from my Categories drop-down menu in the sidebar. You’ll get the usual thing: title link, date posted and the first few dozen words.

Second:

“Jabberwocky”

“‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe….”
(Jabberwocky,” Lewis Carroll (1871) via Wikipedia)

Third, the usual somewhat-related posts:

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