Rosie came with me to run errands. We run errands in a car now. For the first nine and a half years of her life, she was bundled onto the bus, but we’ve had a car for six weeks. I am getting used to driving. “Can we try to go through the bank drive thru?” Rosie asked. I’d been nervous about driving through because maneuverability was the reason I failed the driving test the first time. I still tend... Read more
It hasn’t been a very good twenty-four hours. Our menacing neighbor has been harassing us again– letting her enormous barking German Shepherd out to urinate on our lawn when Rosie comes out to play in her sandbox, then screaming curses and imprecations at us when we look up at the dog. She’s been calling Rosie and me four-letter euphemisms for a prostitute and luridly speculating aloud about what kind of services we provide. She’s pasted obscene messages to... Read more
I must admit I had about two weeks feeling exceptionally shaky since the Father Morrier indictment last month. I am very far from the epicenter of most of the abuse that went on at that school– I was only spiritually and emotionally abused by the Charismatic Renewal and Franciscan University. I didn’t suffer half of what many have suffered. Still, being stuck out here, so close to where so many dreadful things happened, estranged from most of my family because... Read more
I don’t know exactly how the kerfuffle started on Catholic Twitter. I think someone had an innocent question about vocations. And then multiple priests were informing people that the best and highest vocation is objectively the Roman Catholic priesthood. Nothing else held a candle to that. The rest of us were all right, but they were best of all. Other Catholics objected to this. The debate went on for some time. I sometimes wonder how nasty God would have to be,... Read more
Here’s an earth day post, for you. The other day I saw the beautiful Shirley Raines on Twitter, building a toilet. Raines is the founder of Beauty 2 the Streetz, a charity that provides hygeine, haircuts, makeovers and meals for the homeless on Skid Row in Los Angeles. She photographs and makes short videos of her projects as proof that she’s putting all the donations she receives to good use, and to raise awareness about homelessness in America. Usually... Read more
I’ve had a car for a month now. The Neighborhood Trolley is my first car ever, and I’m thirty-six. I have lived without one since I was twenty-one in Steubenville, which is a small enough town we’re lucky to have a bus system at all. The bus is only a bit bigger than a handicap-access van, it comes about once every hour, and all the routes are done by six in the evening, so having a chronic illness and... Read more
I watched the video of the police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant. I didn’t really mean to, I’m not saying you should, it just came across my news feed and I pressed “play.” And now I feel like I have to talk about it briefly, because so many people say this officer was justified because Ma’Khia was fighting with a knife. The video footage began about ten seconds before the shooting. You can see that the officer already has his... Read more
I heard the verdict on the radio this afternoon. Derek Chauvin, the police officer who crushed the life out of George Floyd in nine and a half agonizing minutes, has been found guilty of murder. The country is erupting in celebration, which is a grim thing. We are so used to miscarriage of justice that we applaud when one white supremacist is served a ration of justice. We are so used to this being done with impunity that we worried... Read more
There’s been so much horror going on in my hometown lately that I haven’t had time to comment on horror going on elsewhere. Among other things, there’s the trial of Derek Chauvin, who squeezed the life out of George Floyd while the whole country watched last summer. We’re all waiting for the verdict to come back right now. And I have so many things different things about that that I want to say, but hardly know how to phrase them. I... Read more
Hello everybody, I have gotten a new influx of followers on social media in the last week or two, and I’ve also got a new post at The Catholic Herald which you might not have seen if you just follow the blog and don’t follow me on social media. So I’m writing a brief post where everyone will see it. At the Catholic Herald I am honored to share a brief memoir about my experience of Franciscan University... Read more
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