The upcoming Election

I'm sure everyone is drowning in conflicting ads about which person to vote for or which prop is the right one to go through and become law. I won't add to your stress by giving my opinion on who to vote for or what is the right prop to choose. I can only suggest to do what I have been doing and research and verify some of the facts. I have found what might be true one place is not true where I live. Here is an example. We have all heard the ads about prop 8 and how it will or will not effect education. So I did a bit of research. The two things that got me to thinking something was not right was when they said in Massachusetts kids in second grade will be taught about marriage and on the opposite end the superintendent from the L A unified school district said that its not taught at all. What I found is this, different states and cities for that matter have different ways of doing things, it's not a across the board type of deal. In the city of Burbank family type classes are not taught till high school, the same with the Los Angeles school district. So if you really want to know how to vote, do lots of research, then let your heart, your conscience and maybe some prayer lead you in the right direction.

We are not alone

These are very scary times we are all in right now, the economy on a downward spiral, drastic weather changes, a change in leadership, all very scary things happening at once. I'm sure many us are going through many stressful things in our own lives, money, work or lack thereof, but if you noticed at the beginning I said "we all" meaning you are not the only one going through these hard times. The only way we will get through all this is faith in God and trust in our friends and family. Be a rock for someone, be the one to give them strength and you can be sure that you will realize that we are not alone.

The Olympic Spirit

I want to first take this moment before I began my blog topic by apologizing for the recent lack of posts. To be honest nothing has motivated me to post or draw anything, until today. I don't think it's fair to you or myself to force myself to write something or draw something unless I feel committed to it. The Olympic Spirit, what does that mean, is it about a protester trying to snatch the Olympic Torch from someone, who has probably waited all their lives for this one moment, or is it a political leader exposing how his country is not going to attend because of who is sponsoring the games this year.No, that is not the Olympic Spirit, and though the cause may be justified the Olympics are not a political venue. This is suppose to be where all the nations check their attitudes and animosities at the door and as the advertisements say "where the World comes together". I don't care how right or just the cause, the Olympics need to be above all that. I can't began to tell you how infuriated I was when I would see over and over again protesters trying to yank the Olympic Torch from some innocent runners hand. Its so contrary to what they are advocating, they are using a venue that promotes peace and unity to further their own political agenda of social justice. China certainly does have social justice issues to correct, but this is so not the way or venue to promote this. Lets keep the Olympic Spirit as it was meant to be Peace and unity for the World.

Would it really matter?

I was reading an article the other day in regards to the DaVinci Code and what a controversy it made because of the ideas that it put forth, being that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had a child. The other thing was it questioned Jesus' divinity, which if I remember correctly was never done in the book. When I read the book, which I enjoyed very much it made me think, if Jesus did have a family what effect does it have on my faith. I found that to me it made no difference at all. I found that if those facts were ever proven to me it just made the idea of "Family" that much more of a powerful idea. I mean even if he did have a family, he still did all the things we know him for, his ministry, his miracles, and finally his dying on the cross, which makes his own personal sacrifice that much more important! I can't speak for anyone else but myself but if anything my faith was made even stronger. In the end it comes down to one fact, he sacrificed himself on a cross for our sins so we may have a new life. So would it really matter if he was married and had a child, not at all!

The Journey Begins

Today is a momentous day in our families lives, our son Michael is graduating from High School. Now begins his journey on the path of life. It can be scary, it can be exciting it can be any number of things for different people. It is sort of like stepping out of childhood and into adulthood. Now is a time to increase ones learning towards a career or simply going straight into a job. The choices seem endless, but as we all know we all go through it and survive. It's also a transition for us as parents as well, our children become more independent and maybe not needing us as much as before and maybe even moving out or going to a college out of state. So we as parents also go through a lot of emotional changes. All in all it's an exciting time and no amount of words can express how proud of my son that I am. I hope you will join me in wishing him well and keeping him in your prayers because now truly The Journey Begins.

Be Still...Be Quiet....Be With God.

Have you ever just sat still for a minute and just listened to the sounds around you, did you say something like, " I didn't know we had songbirds in that tree" We miss so much when we rush and run all around. It's the same way with our relationship with God. We are so intent on our destination that we miss how we even got there or what we even saw. Sometimes we think if we do lots of things in our Parish we are doing a good thing, but it's important to remember that we also need to be served and to do that we need to be still... be quite... and be with God. Take just twenty minutes and sit still and be quiet and don't try to actually listen to anything just sit and let things come to you and appreciate all you hear or smell, even that noisy leaf blower, imagine if you were deaf and could not hear it, so count your blessings and remember, be still... be quiet... and be with God.

Rosebud

Now for those of you who have never seen Citizen Kane and don't want the end spoiled, please by pass this entry. The other day I came into the later half of the movie Citizen Kane, I had always heard of it but just never caught it on amc. I can now see why it was so popular, the movie is of the highest order. What I was struck by was the end of the movie, everyone is trying to find out the importance of the Kane's last words "rosebud" and I believe unless you have watched the entire movie you won't understand the significance of his last words. I did a little research into it and found like the word the answer was simple. It was the only happy memory he had of his childhood and playing with his sled in the snow. In the final scene somewhat similar to the final scene in the first Indiana Jones movie you see this wide shot of a massive warehouse with what seems like miles and miles of crates of things kane had collected over the years, the warehouse is just massive! Then as the camera comes in closer you see a man tossing things into the furnace of things that could not be sold at auction and their in the furnace is tossed his sled whose name was rosebud. So at the very end of this man who had virtually everything and I mean everything, his last words were of the only thing that gave him happiness in this world, the sled from his childhood. That really got me to thinking about what is really important in life. It's not the collecting of "things" or even "wealth" because these are only like a band-aid and their happiness if any is only temporary. I think their is a real lesson here in that it's the simpler things in life that are more valuable and more dear to us than all the wealth in the world.