Why would I start a blog? Well...it began with a search for dutch oven cooking. Before I knew it a link for a blog appeared and I thought there might be some good recipes there...not even kinda. But I did find a hecka funny guy who called himself East Coast Eddie. Several hours later I finished with all his posts for the last two years. Did I have other things to do with my day??? Uhh, yehhhhh. I'll define myself as a bit "long in the tooth" and not completely computer literate. Nevertheless, I can see where this is a great forum to journal, vent, speculate etc. As Farm Boy and the kids are way past being interested in listening to me it seems like a good place to put my various ramblings.
I'll start with an article that Los Angeles Time writer Gregory Rodrigues wrote 9/12/07 discussing the questions and doubts Mother Teresa had about the existence of God. I don't know anyone who hasn't, on some occasion, questioned why...the wars, diseases, starvation, man's general inhumanity to man. And why "if there is a God" does he allow these things to happen? It's hard to see bad things happen and not look for someone to blame. Why not God? In reality I think we're usually the victims of our own poor choices, other people's mistakes or natural events/diasters i.e. hurricanes, droughts etc. He doesn't make things happen to make us miserable, it just "happens". I think Mother Teresa's frustrations with having to deal with the consquences are perfectly natural. The fact that she journaled those frustrations gave her an outlet and a way to deal with the emotions that accompanied them and let her get on with dealing with the reality of the situations that she worked in. Was she a perfect person, did she ever have doubts, was her faith perfect?? I loved the paragraph that Mr. Rodrigues wrote about ...
"In a time when the notion of goodness has been thoroughly watered down, as politeness is mistaken for kindness, certainty passes for faith, ethics for spirituality and middle class mores for saintliness, it's good to be reminded that saints are complex human beings who more often than not defy convention."
I'm not a Catholic. So the whole process where they cannonize? someone is beyond me, I do know a lot of good people tho, who strive to make a difference in their homes, in their communities and I think we all need to step up our game. Mere politeness needs not be passed off as kindness (and yeah, some folks are really good at this) but conversely our efforts need not be examined under a microscope and critiqued day in and day out. If we all strived to be better people, do a good deed for the day, or just in general left whatever we were dealing with in better shape than we found it...maybe we wouldn't have to look to Mother Teresa for an example.
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