Quoted in a letter to the editor in the latest Christian Century:
Things are set up as contraries that are not even in the same category… The opposite of radical is superficial; the opposite of liberal is stingy; the opposite of conservative is destructive. Thus I will describe myself as a radical conservative liberal.
…Beware of […]

I am doing my Getting Things Done weekly review that I do maybe once a month (so why do I still call it a weekly review?), and this was in my inbox. I have no idea how it got there. I think the man I now share my office with put it there.
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This is not […]

First, I recommend Gene Weingarten’s article about his experiment of reading and watching pundits for 24 hours straight. (Registration may be required)
Second, I share the following, which I did not write:
NEWSCASTER BOB: Good evening, and welcome to the news. A disturbing revelation tonight, as reports indicate the abusive treatment of prisoners in United States custody […]

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?” And I was looking down writing, and I said, “Yes.” And […]

In the car after dinner, playing hide and seek with the moon*
covering eyes
mun,
doo,
dee,
[skips four and five]
siss,
mennen,
eight,
nie,
ten,
nennen
tel
duh-dee
fuh-dee
fee!
[uncovers eyes, looks out window]
Deh is!
*Yes, I am serious. She brings the Cute.

I am on maternity leave! Woo-hoo!
——————
But there is a smattering of stuff I agreed to close the loop on, unless the baby comes sooner than that. So I’m not really done. But I am no longer going in to work.
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We have lots of Thanksgiving goodness in our fridge, none of which was cooked by us. […]

Little she-who-is is smiling to herself over her cereal and banana…
RM: What are you smiling at honey?
C: [pats her chest] The red thing under my bones.
RM: Your heart?
C: Yes. It pumps blood to my body but Jesus is there too.
RM: And that’s what you’re smiling about?
C: Yes.
Mr. RM: Tell Mommy about your leg.
RM: What, did […]

Here are some of my favorite words the divine miss M uses:

gah-gen: water (I don’t quite get that one but it’s cute)
duck: stuck (when she can’t get down from the chair)
dah-dah: MaDear
ah: yes (I actually think that’s “yeah”—I know, I know, but I say it all the time)
tiss: tissue
peep: anything that happens in her diaper
wah-woo: […]

Keith’s comment on the previous post was timely, since I was coming over here to post a few quotes I’ve run across recently:
“Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be. And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it.” –Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis
“We will […]

Last night after dinner, R went upstairs to get the window fans going because “It’s wicked hot in here.”
C: Mommy, what does ‘wicked hot’ mean?
RM: It’s just an expression.
C: That must be what witches’ brew is—wicked hot.
RM: C, that’s pretty good! Did you make that up?
C: No, Jesus told it to me. He’s so COOL […]

Staring quietly out the sliding glass door
RM: What are you doing?
C: Watching spring come.
——-
C: Those cut-up onions feel like smoke in my eyes.
——-
C: I don’t want us to have a baby anymore.
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There was a fourth one—and it was the best one—but I can’t remember it now. Durn mommy brain.

Act I: In Which Our Heroine is an Idiot.
At the breakfast table. RM eats the red Flintstones vitamins because little she-who-is doesn’t like them.
RM: The thing is, these red ones really do taste awful.
R: Yeah. You know, you could just swallow them.
Act II: Sometimes Rosey Grier Can’t Make It All Better.
RM (reading the daily report […]

Cary Tennis writes an advice column for Salon.com that is sometimes interesting. Two letters this week have dealt with writing. Today’s letter was from a person who says s/he is invigorated by writing but has a fear of being published. This is part of his reply:
Writing and publishing are two different things. They can be […]

My friend SC always has the best signature quotes in her e-mails. For a long time she always signed off with:
To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.  –Karl Barth
Here is her latest:
May God give you grace never to sell yourself short, grace to risk […]

I don’t normally post entire articles outright, but this was a good one from Anna Quindlen in Newsweek.
Write for Your Life
Wouldn’t all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost? Shouldn’t all of us leave a bit of that behind?
Jan. 22, 2007 issue […]

We come to a time when we realize that the faith we have inherited is inadequate for what we are facing… At such moments we have three choices. We can hold to our religious beliefs and deny our experience, we can hold to our experience and walk away from our religious tradition, or we can […]

Today is October 24, Take Back Your Time Day.
TAKE BACK YOUR TIME is a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment.Did you know…
We’re putting in longer hours on the job now than we did in […]