Out of the mouths of babes and Tim Russert

Well, Russert does sort of have a kind of jowl-y, boppy-cheeked babyishness to his face!

Anyway…in a little blurb he threw out to the Catholic News Services, Russert speaks one of the most important messages – perhaps the most important message – of our time.

Russert said. “Who are our children? How do we get into their hearts and minds,” Russert asked, “to get them to see the value of our values?” In dealing with his own son, Luke, Russert added that he tells him, “You are always, always loved, but you are never entitled.”

You are always loved, but you are never entitled.

We don’t always know, when we are speaking, how profound our utterances may be. I wonder if Russert knows just what a huge statement he has made – one that may well be in conflict with his own ideology – because it is profound on many levels, emotionally, spiritually, materially – even politically.

You are always loved, but you are never entitled.

I like that. Good for Russert.

And out of the mouth of a true babe, young Miss Gnat, daughter of the great James Lileks, gives me my other piece of Lectio Divina for today:

This morning she was painting, and what had been a portrait of her and her friend turned into a self-portrait, with the friend morphed into a house. And then she said something that’s stayed with me all day:

“All of my mistakes are giving me ideas.”

Mr. Lileks ruminates, “You can turn that one around in your head all day long. All your life, for that matter.”

Indeed.