So much for Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus!

St. Peter is unable to Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus! as he denies he even knew of Him.








Peter then gets another chance after the resurrection of our Lord, and Jesus tells Peter to
Feed My Sheep

"The Ten Commandments" on Easter?

Why is this shown every Easter?

As an aside: I can't wait to see it in Blu-Ray!

State of the Franchise

Just in case you are wondering...

On Time Machines and the Forgiveness of Sins

We treat of the forgiveness of sins in two ways. First, how it is achieved and won. Second, how it is distributed and given to us. Christ has achieved it on the cross, it is true. But he has not distributed or given it on the cross. He has not won it in the supper or sacrament. There he has distributed and given it through the Word, as also in the gospel, where it is preached. He has won it once for all on the cross. But the distribution takes place continuously, before and after, from the beginning to the end of the world. For inasmuch as he had determined once to achieve it, it made no difference to him whether he distributed it before or after, through his Word, as can easily be proved from Scripture. But now there is neither need nor time to do so.

If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there. Nor must I hold to the suffering of Christ, as Dr. Karlstadt trifles, in knowledge or remembrance, for I will not find it there either. But I will find in the sacrament or gospel the word which distributes, presents, offers, and gives to me that forgiveness which was won on the cross. Therefore, Luther has rightly taught that whoever has a bad conscience from his sins should go to the sacrament and obtain comfort, not because of the bread and wine, not because of the body and blood of Christ, but because of the word which in the sacrament offers, presents, and gives the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for me. Is that not clear enough?

Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 40: Luther's works, vol. 40 : Church and Ministry II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (213–214). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Sweet Sixteen, Sour Sixteen

So UK pulled out the upset. Our biggest disappointment ("our" meaning Papa) was that Buford had the ball in the last five seconds. Two for fifteen (or some other abysmal showing)?! Then again, games are won--and lost--in a lot more than a few seconds. Kudos to the Wildcats! And better luck next year, Buckeyes (which is what you're getting used to hearing, isn't it? That's the sound of the knife coming out of Brutus's gut).

A Letter to Grandma and Grandpa E.

Virtual art for Grandma and Grandpa!

 Dear Grandma and Grandpa!

Hi! This is Paul. Mommy just read me the letter Grandma wrote on her blog and showed me the pictures. Thank you for the note and the pictures!

Dictated by Paul:
I miss you. Those are letters on there! "E" makes the "eh" sound. We write on the computer! We write on paper! We write with markers. We write with markers, Mama!

I want to Skype with Uncle Charles and Aunt Rachel and with Grandma and Grandpa, too. Yeah. I like to see you on there. I like to see myself! 

I did my letter lesson today, Grandma. I read the words "jam," "cat," and "bed." And we read "Ted." We read those four words. I like my letter lesson. Letter lessons are fun! I played with Sammy. I did fingerpaints [on Tuesday]. 

I want to bake something today. I want to bake cookies! I want to bake cookies, Grandma! [said at the screen]

I saw a map of China, Grandpa. That was good. Now I want to see a picture of Grandpa and Grandma! rrfghnmmw m [Paul typed those letters. He wanted to put letters in himself.]

This is how I lined up my cars, Grandma and Grandpa!

Bye-bye, Grandma and Grandpa! I love you! See you soon!


Love,


PAUL

XOXOXOXOXOXO

 P.S. Here's some morning views of the boys!

Right after getting up, before breakfast. Note the snow outside (ugh.). Note the two cuties we get to see every morning!

Paul playing with the ark.

"Sammy's on top of me, Mama!" Said, fortunately, with giggles.

Sammy REALLY wanted the camera. :D

What We're Reading

Recognize these three guys? A Pres, a Secretary of Defense, and
...a future VP!
Check this out: The Rumsfeld Papers is an interesting archival site
released in conjunction with Rumfeld's memoir Known and Unknown.
  

How To Teach a Two-Year-Old to Read

Tangible Items Needed:

Wooden alphabet puzzle (or another tactile alphabet appealing to toddlers)

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Magnetic dry erase board with marker and eraser

Magnetic letters (capital and lower case)

Blank note cards (to make letter cards and word cards)

Markers

Bob Books, Set 1 (optional)

Intangible Items Needed:

10-15 minutes of daily lesson time

Patience

Enthusiasm

An excited, precocious* toddler**
 
*"Precocious" defined loosely. Definitive characteristics of a precocious child: he breathes, eats, sleeps, bathrooms without extensive adult assistance. He seems excited about life, i.e. running laps around the living room, jumping on the bed, watching leaves blow on trees, listening to stories.

**A toddler is, by definition, a tangible creation. Yet I didn't want to get into some existential discussion of the differences between body and soul, so the toddler falls here under intangible. Because--let's face it--he's a lot harder to define and explain than, say, a marker. 

Directions:

1. First, start reading to the child at birth (or shortly thereafter. Like within the first week). One story before bed. One story at naptime(s). One story at 10:37. One story at whenever-you-trip-over-the-stuffed-bear-due-to-sleep-deprivation. Etcetera. Optional, but highly recommended as you wade through the post-partum fog--it'll snap you out of it, I promise!: Read The Well-Trained Mind.  



2. Stock the child's room, living room, kitchen, bathroom with books. Lots of books. Quality books, preferably older ones. Caldecott medal winners, Mother Goose, Beatrix Potter, A Child's Garden Book of Verse, Dr. Seuss. Encourage the child to read all the time. It helps if you limit TV. To less than half an hour a day (preferably none). And stock up on tape. Enthusiasm can be destructive (purposeful or unintentional).

3. Around the child's second birthday, get an wooden alphabet puzzle or some other tactile alphabet for the child to explore. Our P learned the alphabet in three weeks--because he kept bugging us to do his "letter puzzle" twenty times a day (one thing a parent can never say "no" to!). All kids are different, yada, yada, yada--I know all kids are not like P. Just remember that brain synapses are about 1000 times more numerous in the first three years of life than at any other time, so memorization is not only a novelty (re: FUN!) for little kids, it's highly possible.

4. With markers and cards, make letter cards. We made two sets; the first was for fun, making sure P knew both capital and lower case letters. ...

5. The second letter card set followed the directions from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, which is an awesome resource for any parent to use. It contains phonetics lessons broken down in very small pieces, with dialogue for the parent/teacher. It also contains additional materials to use, like a dry-erase board and magnetic letters. With the letter lessons, we sometimes combined two at once; we sometimes now take three days for one lesson. We might stop for a month or two if P's not picking up on putting letters together to read words. But he's reading sat, bat, cat, hat, bed, Ted, Nan (words found in The Bob Books)... and he'll be three in June.

YOUR KID CAN DO IT, TOO.

Flashback Tuesday

How fast they grow.

P, ever the dramatic, showing off during his 2nd trimester ultrasound.

S, ever the laid back, hanging out during his 2nd trimester ultrasound.

Boys, in January. I need to take some more pictures of them together before they change more. Again.

Weekend Rewind

Tired. So tired. Ergo, few words for this Rewind.

Friday. Sioux Falls. Seven hours. TVTVTVTVTVTVTVshoppinglunchclearancerack
grocerygrocerygroceryshoppingTVTVTVTVTVgroceryTVTVshopping. Result? No TV. Lots of groceries. Four tired Olsons. Home. TV found, purchased online. Years of waiting (old TV: 1995 27-inch Toshiba), six weeks of intense research on plasmasLCDsLEDssizespixelsinternetcapability, seven hours of foot shopping, three hours of online browsing and selecting=success. And if this is what buying a TV looks like, what does buying a car look like?!

Because TVs are really all about sports, which is code for really all about FOOTBALL. BTW, did you know the Packers won the Super Bowl?!

Saturday. Recovery. Playing. Eating. Another trip to Sioux Falls, this time to order carpet we've been waiting for for... almost five years. The blue shag is long gone; the concrete will be covered up very soon. !! Supper out. P introducing himself to Alicia, the cute, bubbly waitress.

Sunday. P and S baths in the AM; miraculously, we made it to church early. Yes, early. Fine service. Fine sermon about the Syrophoenecian woman. Me thinking I need to do more shameless begging. Naps in the PM. Skyping with the Ohio Elseas (Mr. and Mrs., otherwise known as "Uncle" and "Aunt"), in which we all laughed uproariously at P,S, and Papa doing laps around the living room and kitchen and laughing hysterically themselves, as only two wee ones and their Papa can do. Fine way to end a weekend!

Pictures to Ponder: Feminism

OR

ELEISON!

This website is loaded with good stuff!

Returning Spring

Papa took these pictures today of robins bird-bathing in front of our house. Winter is so silent here that when we hear the sound of birds singing outside we feel like cotton has been removed from our ears and shackles from our souls (okay, a little melodramatic). Suffice it to say we are thrilled that spring is inching its way northward, the snow in all of its compacted drift-ness is inching its way downward, and fluttering, feathered ones are returning back to our skies (and our doorsteps, as it were).



Wednesday of Invocabit Sermon: Jesus Christ is True God/Man

Memento Mori

Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or
"Remember you will die" - literally " [in the future] remember to die"...This finds ritual expression in the Catholic rites of Ash Wednesday when ashes are placed upon the worshipers' heads with the words "Remember Man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return."

The events in Japan influenced all our thoughts, as well as this sermon, we enter into Lent I.

Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent (Invocabit)

Sheet Music, musical setting and hymn text, with 2 stanzas by Martin Luther, at Open Hymnal Sources

Flashback Tuesday

During Lent 2005, Papa and I went with Sis to Ellis Island. That's Manhattan in the background. Fun and moving times! (And not just because Papa drove down the entire island from Connecticut into Battery Park!) Yay for America, family history, sightseeing, and pal-ing around with  my bestie twin!

Time.Change (S Walks).

Late Sunday afternoon, I thought: "Boy. This weekend rewind will be pretty short. Not  much has happened." But then stuff happened (and I remembered something else that did happen). So I'll just skip the non-events and go for the good stuff.

Friday and Saturday were pretty slow and uneventful. I'm still trying to recover from a sinus infection that does not want to go away (two weeks and counting!), so I've been quite unaccomplished. The boys, however, haven't. Been unaccomplished. That's a double negative. Aak. They are always their fun selves! See?

Sunday dawned bright (no! it was still dark!) and especially early. Since I changed our clocks at 8 p.m. on Saturday, I think we actually managed to avoid the typical fatigue Spring Forward brings. So we did the regular morning thing; breakfast in parts, changing clothes in parts, running around, constant chatter, renditions of "(This is ) The Feast," messes in the nether regions, clean-ups, smiles, hugs (you can plug in the person(s) responsible for the above). Then, after all the frantic activity, no pick-up. That is, no pick up from Papa, who, in his rightful focus on his flock, teaching Bible Class, and preparing for the Service of the Word, forgot to come home and pick up his wife and two sons. At 10:28, I realized this was this case, and began assembling the boys into coats and mittens (J did call at 10:29; he felt horrible), and I packed said munchkins tandem into the heavy-duty, one-kid stroller, surrounded with a thick, double-sewn fleece blanket, then pulled the sun-visor top over them, pulled on my gloves, threw on the backpack, pulled down my shades and hit.the.sidewalk. Hey! It was fourteen degrees, bright sun, little wind. Not a bad way to get ready for and get to church!

Of course, I felt pretty proud of myself. Until we got to church in time for the sermon hymn ("Take these they our life/Goods, fame, child, and wife") and the sermon (on Jesus being, erm, tempted in the wilderness. You know, without any food or comfort. With the devil reminding Him of how bad He had it. While Jesus knew His Father had left Him there. Alone.). Then I remembered how cushy my life is and how easy I have it. A few years ago I heard that Madagasy people will get up at 3 a.m. to walk miles to church and sit in the dark to sing hymns until the service starts. This is impressive and puts me to shame. But even this pales in comparison to what Jesus did for us. Ouchy but Good (that IS with a capital "G") reminders.

The afternoon flew by. By late afternoon, the boys had awoken and were playing/screeching around the house. I changed S and felt his gums, and--WOW! The top two teeth had broken through! It's only been over four months since the first two popped out! I'll post pictures as soon as the camera can actually capture them. We had a lovely dinner, and as P, Papa, and I finished up, I took a squirming S out of his high chair and put him on the floor, let go, and. . . he stood there. And stood there. And stood there. He's started to make grunting noises when he wants to do something, and that's what he did. Like, "I wanna walk!" But he didn't. He sat down on his little rump and started eating a magnet. I thought, "It won't be long."

Then he crawled over by Papa and stood by his chair. I took a bite of sirloin (mmmmmmmmmmm!) and Papa said, "Hey! He just took a few steps!" Sure enough, S took a few steps from Papa's chair to the corner chair all by himself! I didn't see it because the table blocked my view, and of course, we couldn't get S to do it again right away. But now there's no turning back.  He walks, and will walk, and will continue to walk, God willing. Time = change.

We took a drive after bath time and enjoyed the lingering daylight and beautiful sunset. We also saw at least one hundred deer on and around the Monument grounds. Awesome! A terrific way to end the weekend.

Cheer-i-O!

Scriptures tell us that man shall not live by bread alone. Sometimes, though, I think S could--with the little oat circle variety, that is.

Pray for All the World

Video of President Harrison on the Earthquake/Tsunami

How you can help

Before/After images

Crazy Heart Love

Jeff Bridges and Robert Duvall rock. ROCK. So does good country music. And fishing. And old friends. Sad story, tough story--spoiler alert: one part where a young kid gets lost gives parents of young kids like us nightmares--but very well made.

Weekend Meditations

The following is an excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Life Together". Next week will continue his excursus on Meditation.

It might be asked, Why is a special time needed for this since we meditate already during the common devotion?

This is the answer. The period of personal meditation is to be devoted to the Scriptures, private prayer, and intercession, and it has no other purpose. There is not occasion here for spiritual experiments. But for these three things there must be time, for God Himself requires them of us. Even if initially meditation means nothing but this one thing, that we are performing a service that we owe to God, it would still be sufficient.

The time of meditation does not let us down into the void and abyss of loneliness; it lets us be alone with the Word. And in so doing it gives us solid ground on which to stand and clear directions as to the steps we must take.

Whereas in our devotions together we read long consecutive passages, in our personal meditation we confine ourselves to a brief selected text, which possibly may not be changed for a whole week. If in our reading of the Scriptures together we are led into the whole length and breadth of the Bible, here we go into the unfathomable depths of a particular sentence and word. Both are equally necessary, "that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" (Eph. 3:18).

Ash Wednesday
9 March 2011
Rev. Jon C. Olson

Think of all the billions of people that God has created. Then think about how intimately concerned He is with each and every one of us. The Lord individually created you and everything you have. He has given you your body and soul your eyes and ears and all your other body parts. He has given you your ability to think, and your ability touch, taste, smell, see and hear. And He still takes care of your ability to do all these things. YOU, are what He created. Everything that you have comes from God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And not only that, God also defends you against all danger to body and soul. He guards and protects you individually from all sorts of evil. Why is God this way? Because of His fatherly mercy and goodness. That’s it! There is no other reason than ONLY because of His fatherly divine mercy and goodness!

And what do you and I often times do in response to what God has freely given to us? We are not satisfied being the human being He’s created. There is always something more that we want to get or something less that we want to get rid of. We all want more control over our lives, more decision making power in what happens to us. To control our own destiny! Ultimately what we want is to fear, love, and trust in ourselves above all things. So much for the Father Who created us and still preserves us. We are so curved in on and focused on what we want which makes each of us like unto our own little idols or gods. A GOD UNTO YOURSELF! And so, just like Adam and Eve, we run around pretending to be like God making ourselves gods. And once God’s word catches up to us and accuses us as the phonies and frauds, we end up running away and hiding from God! We don’t want the Lord to find us because He’ll know what we are up to. Deep down even we all know that He already knows what we are up to. So we stay away from Him and His Word of judgment and condemnation. Because if He does find us out…well…our little game of charades might come to an end.

So the Lord sends a pastor. We’ll call him Pastor Joel. Pastor Joel comes to you with the Lord’s words. So when you hear Joel speaking—you are hearing the Lord Himself through the words He speaks on behalf of the Lord. Through these words from God you are then in a face to face confrontation with the Lord and what He wants, as Joel speaks the Lord’s words to you.

Pastor Joel doesn’t mess around. No small talk or compliments to be exchanged. No talk about the weather today. He goes right to the heart of the matter. And what’s that? Your relationship with the Lord. Or, probably better said–the Lord’s relationship with you! This catches all sinners off their guard.

When the Lord says “Return to me,” He means “repent!” Turn from your sinful idolatry of self. Turn away from your wicked ways of doing and thinking. Repent of your self—seeking self-centered—ness. Turn off from the path you were heading down and take the fork in the road, the Road Less Travelled. For the path you and I often times head down is the often travelled road to damnation. Now it’s time to go a different way. To chart a new course—the path of salvation. That is what God means when He says, “Return to me with all your heart.” Only a new heart, a clean heart is able to confess with all its heart: “I’m a filthy, rotten, sinner, corrupt to the core. I have sinned against you Lord. I have done what is evil in your sight. I have lived only for myself. I have not loved you Lord, or my neighbor as I should. I really only love myself. I’m so, so self-absorbed with my desires and my control. I deserve nothing but your temporal and eternal punishment.”

That’s so true. Finally, the truth comes out. It’s about time. The Lord has shined the lamp of His Word into the light of our darkness. We are sinners. And what we deserve from the Lord frightens the you know what out of us. We’re scared …
But now we come to the biggest question, the biggest issue in your life, both now and forever. It’s the eternal life or death question. Who do you turn to? What will God do with you, His creature that has rebelled; His creature that runs away and hides; will He damn you as you deserve? Only if YOU insist on it.

But the Lord’s most deep and abiding desire is to hand out His “mercy.” God does not want to give you what you deserve. That Old Testament Prophet, Pastor Joel emphatically proclaims to you this day: “Return to the LORD your God.” the Father Almighty the maker of heaven and earth! He who created you waits with His arms wide open! “Return! Repent!” Why? Because the Lord, “is gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger. Abounding in steadfast love.”

The Lord isn’t who we and most people think! All along we believe falsely about Him. We are fearful that He was only out to get you. That He couldn’t wait to get in your face and give you a piece of His mind for not doing this or that or for doing this or that whatever followed with a quick and decisive giving you precisely what you deserve. But none of that with the Lord! He’s overflowing with love for you! The very person He created.

The Lord’s quick and decisive action for most of you took place when your pastor splashed some water on your head and spoke the name of the Triune God over you. God’s greatest desire is “mercy” not condemnation. And God doesn’t just wind you up like a doll at baptism and then let you on your own. He sticks with you—His creature—through thick and thin. He’s in this relationship with you for the long haul. See there, on the cross? Jesus hangs for your sins. See there on the Altar? Jesus comes to you for your sins. He remains faithful. Ever—faithful. Forever—faithful. Just as He’s promised.

But what about God’s anger and His judgment? Where did all that go? Well, it didn’t just disappear. It is still there. And if YOU are not on the receiving end of damnation for your sin, who got stuck with it?

The answer is: JESUS. Who took on our human flesh? Was conceived and born without sin, of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary Jesus: YOUR suffering Servant. Who willingly endured all of God’s damning wrath as he hung suspended between heaven and earth! Stapled to the Tree of Calvary!

It is difficult to think of the crucifixion that way. Jesus damned? Jesus condemned? Yes. Absolutely. Because He who knew no sin was made to be sin as He was numbered with the common criminals. There at Calvary—He carried all your sin. The world’s sin. In His body. He made satisfaction and answered for all of it. He left none out. Laid upon Him were the iniquities of the world! And when all your sin was heaped on Jesus, God’s Ten Commandments came thundering down upon Him and judged Jesus, saying: “You must die! You Who are full of sin, You are cursed – damned!”

And in a way not of this world there is GREAT JOY because of this! God the Father damns Jesus as the “greatest thief, murderer, adulterer, robber, desecrator, blasphemer, idolator, foul mouth, gossiper, etc, that there has ever been anywhere in the world.” Jesus clothed and wrapped Himself in your sin on the Cross. It all belongs to Him. Your sin is His. He took it away from you so that the Law of God would attack and kills Him instead of you, as your substitute.

And since all your sin is laid on Him—it is no longer on you! Jesus dies—He is damned—as the guilty one—with all your sin! And so, for Jesus’ sake, you are forgiven; absolved from all your sin and set free from all its damnation. Jesus has done the salvation job! All for YOU.

So, “return to the LORD your God.” Why? “Because He is gracious and compassionate. He is slow to anger. And He abounds (overflows) with love.” That’s Who Jesus is and what Jesus does. The Good Friday Jesus dies for you. The Good Friday Jesus sheds His sacrificial Blood on the Cross in order to answer for all your sin and its damnation. The Good Friday Jesus who says to you this Ash Wednesday the beginning of Lent: “Eat and drink. Do you see that bread? It’s my Body. Do you see that cup? It’s my Blood. The Good Friday Body and Blood that answered for all your sin.”

What a great way to kick of Lent! What a God! The complete opposite of what you would expect. Mercy! Total and complete forgiveness, life and salvation in Christ through Jesus body and blood. For sinners only! That’s for YOU and for ME!

Return to the LORD your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding is in love.
In the Name of Jesus.

Day of Ashes

"By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread,

until you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

For you are dust,

and to dust you shall return."

~ Genesis 3:19

This Lamb is Christ, the soul's great friend,

The Lamb of God, our Savior,

Whom God the Father chose to send

To gain for us His favor.

"Go forth, My Son," the Father said,

"And free My children from their dread

Of guilt and condemnation.

The wrath and stripes are hard to bear,

But by Your passion they will share

The fruit of Your salvation."

~LSB #438, Vs. 2

Making Identity

And you thought I was just a TOY...I'm YOU!

So sit down and don't read this if you're easily grossed out. How's that for an intro! :D (Thanks to Rebekah for bringing this to our attention on CSPP!)

In "A New Way to Be Mad," an Atlantic article from 2000, Carl Elliott writes about acrotomophilia, a disorder/desire for amputation. Yes, amputation. Elliott's article is fascinating, not least because he takes the discussion farther than the physical ramifications--bleeeech!--into psychology and cultural analysis. Ultimately, he notices how the human body itself has become an identity-creating sphere, even to the point of people cutting off limbs to attain what they see as their "real" identities.

What it suggests is that an identity can be built around a desire. The person you have become may be a consequence of the things you desire.

...
And to be honest, haven't surgeons made the human body fair game? You can pay a surgeon to suck fat from your thighs, lengthen your penis, augment your breasts, redesign your labia, even (if you are a performance artist) implant silicone horns in your forehead or split your tongue like a lizard's. Why not amputate a limb?

I'd expand a bit further. Why not engage in lots of premarital coitus because sex with numerous partners defines your identity? Why not abort your child because a child does NOT define your identity? Why not carry someone (or sometwo) else's child as a surrogate because giving others the gift of father/motherhood by using your body as a (as Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban put it) "gestational carrier" defines your identity?

Elliott's analysis shows that with the aid of modern science, not much of anything is off-limits if people can explain their desires as a form of identity creation--or get doctors to sign off on their desires as a recognized form of psychosis.

In each case the true self is the one produced by medical science.

At first I was inclined to think of this language as a literal description. Maybe some people really did feel as if they had found their true selves on Prozac. Maybe they really did feel incomplete without cosmetic surgery. Later on, however, I came to think of the descriptions less as literal than as expressions of an ambivalent moral ideal—a struggle between the impulse toward self-improvement and the impulse to be true to oneself. Not that I can see no difference between a middle-aged man rubbing Rogaine on his head every morning and a man whose discomfort in his own body is so all-consuming that he begins to think of suicide. But we shouldn't be surprised when any of these people, healthy or sick, use phrases like "becoming myself" and "I was incomplete" and "the way I really am" to describe what they feel, because the language of identity and selfhood surrounds us. It is built into our morality, our literature, our political philosophy, our therapeutic sensibility, even our popular culture. This is the way we talk now. This is the way we think. This is even the way we sell cars and tennis shoes. We talk of self-discovery, self-realization, self-expression, self-actualization, self-invention, self-knowledge, self-betrayal, and self-absorption. It should be no great revelation that the vocabulary of the self feels like a natural way to describe our longings, our obsessions, and our psychopathologies.

Of course, it's no great leap to see that all of this "vocabulary of the self" echoes our culture of self-idolatry, and self-idolatry is--quite literally, in so many forms--self-destructive.

It puts a whole new meaning into the words, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

Flashback Tuesday

P @ 9 months: Because sometimes, there's just nowhere else to sit.