The apocalypse began at the lake. Early in the week, Adrienne and I took Jimmy’s boy to the lake for an afternoon of noisy fun. We splashed in the warm brown water, and played bumper cars with inflatable rafts until we were dizzy. Jimmy’s boy found a great big patch of lakeweed and tried to get me to wear it for a hat. We sat on the dock to dry out afterwards, and he wanted to know the name... Read more
After the heat wave and then the rain, the garden was a mess. The tomatoes were coming along, though they needed to be pruned. The lettuce was better than I expected this late in the year, because I planted it in shade. That watermelon vine I planted was doing the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do, as usual. I have never successfully grown a watermelon, because watermelons are ornery. I have never even once had a watermelon... Read more
You may have already heard about a horrendous child abuse case that has been all over the news in my part of Northern Appalachia. In case you haven’t seen any news: at the end of last month, authorities raided a small house in rural Vinton County, Ohio, where they found and evacuated sixteen people, ranging in age from an 18-year-old disabled adult to two sets of toddler twins. All of these were victims of severe neglect and have been described... Read more
It felt as if hell had opened up to swallow the earth. The heat wave started over Monday evening, when the cat wouldn’t go to bed in her basement room because it was just too humid to sleep down there. I made her comfortable on the porch, and went to bed, and woke up in a fiery abyss. A heat dome had settled over nearly the whole United States, with Ohio, and my corner of Northern Appalachia, right... Read more
I was at Mass, by myself. It sometimes still hurts to go to Mass by myself, but I’m used to it. I always sit in the back and keep my phone in my lap in case I need to scroll to stave off a panic attack. Lately, I haven’t had to. I have, as you know if you read me regularly, been learning to be at peace with my life in Steubenville, going to the only parish that counts as... Read more
I just want to draw everyone’s attention to a very important series on the abuse at Franciscan University of Steubenville. I recently discovered that a Steubenville neighbor and a fellow Catholic, Lindsay Tsohantaridis, has been writing a series on the abuses committed by the TOR friars and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in town. This is the best rundown I have seen of the history of the spiritual and sexual abuse in Steubenville, starting with the Servants of Christ the... Read more
I’ve been thinking about Tradwives again. It’s been a miserable, hot week, and I’m cranky. Most of the month of June had temperatures that were below average, so I was out at the lake beach with Adrienne and Jimmy’s boy, weeding and fussing over the garden, hiking in the woods. I’d say it was the best June of my life. But for the last day or two, Ohio has been at the epicenter of a horrendous heat dome with heat indices... Read more
I met the man as Adrienne and I were running out of the house to run errands, before we had to pick up Michael from work. He was walking in front of the house with a group of people I didn’t know, and he slowed down when I came out. I thought he was just going to say “hello” and move on, but he stopped. “Hello! I’m just out here with my church, prayin’ over the neighborhood,” he said pleasantly.... Read more
Calumny is a mortal sin. Calumny is a serious sin against the fifth commandment. For my Protestant readers: Catholics break up Deuteronomy 5:6-21 into different chunks than you do, so our first commandment combines the rule against false gods and graven images into one commandment, and we break up the commandment against coveting your neighbor’s ox and coveting your neighbor’s wife into two separate ones. That means, by our numbering, the fifth commandment is your sixth, “thou shalt... Read more
I think of myself as an accomplished gardener, but I have never yet successfully grown a watermelon. A freshly picked, vine-ripened, organic watermelon is a treat so sublime I can’t possibly describe it. It’s nothing like the flavorless ovoids you get at the supermarket. Have you ever wondered why cartoon paintings of watermelons are red and green, instead of pink and green? It’s because, when you let a watermelon get totally ripe on the vine, the flesh inside is... Read more
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