I really don’t like being without my blogwatch for too long.

It makes me feel like less of a man.

Catholic Ragemonkey: How a ragemonkey became a Catholic. Moving post. Well worth your time. “It was the reality of suffering that brought me to the Church. Everything tells you suffering has no meaning. But through the fullness of Faith as transmitted by the Church, love shows itself in suffering. And love is the only solution to suffering. And only the Catholic Church knows what to make of suffering because she has held fast to her master.”

Diotima writes about marriage: “And this made me laugh outloud:

“‘Marriage is not supposed to make you happy. It is supposed to make you married,’ says Pittman. ‘When you are all the way in your marriage, you are free to do useful things, become a better person.’ A committed relationship allows you to drop pretenses and seductions, expose your weaknesses, be yourself–and know that you will be loved, warts and all. ‘A real relationship is the collision of my humanity and yours, in all its joy and limitations,’ says Real. ‘How partners handle that collision is what determines the quality of their relationship.’

“Okay, as refreshing as that is, I’m not sure it’s entirely right. Sure, there are a lot of things about marriage that can be good for you, being allowed to ‘drop pretense and seductions, expose your weaknesses, be yourself,’ whatever. But fundamentally, I think marriage is about submitting yourself to something larger than yourself, something to which you will remain committed even when it doesn’t seem to do anything for you, just because it’s the right thing to do. Oh well, I suppose it’s a better strategy to tell people that they should stay with their husband or wife because they’ll benefit from it than they should stay with their husband or wife because they promised to on their wedding day (of course, with the proliferation of “for as long as love lasts” vows, they may not even have done that).”

Interestingly, a friend wrote much the same kind of thing about marriage and “transparency” in response to my “mask of command” post.

When Will the Hurting Stop?: A justified response to my defense of superheroism: “I’ve seen too much that cannot be unseen.”