Haphazard Random Thoughts

We have a family joke that whenever Mom (that would be me) says, “I have a random thought,” everyone runs screaming, because it’s usually followed by, “… we should clean out the garage” or ” or some other maybe-not-too-pleasant thing that will happen since I am Mom and moms are all-powerful.  That’s not really how it works, but I love that my husband and kids enjoy making fun of me in a cute way.

So, I keep sharing articles and various other links on Facebook or (less often) Twitter, and then when I want to find them, I have to scroll back through my own feed to find them.  And my husband often (very often) shares articles via e-mail with me, and sometimes I get to them, and share them.  But it’s all haphazard.

The “haphazard” way I read and share online isn’t going to change, but there will be a post here every so often with a random assortment of links that have had me thinking and pondering, or that moved me in some way.

I don’t have a catchy name for this yet–thus, the “Haphazard Random Thoughts.”  But I want to get this started.   Any thoughts for a good name are welcome here.

So burdened last week with the news out of Harvard, and I was unbelievably glad when it was all over, saying prayers of thanksgiving at Mass & Adoration on Tuesday:

“Holy Hour in Reparation for Acts Committed Against the Eucharist”

and some follow-up:

“Describer of Planned Black Mass-Guess How He Died?” Elizabeth Scalia at The Anchoress. I was all set for this to be sad, and then it wasn’t.  Praise God.

“Satan: A Small Skirmish Won, but the Battle Goes On.” –Thomas MacDonald. “And while we do this, we must remember that the battleground of Satan is within us as well. As Solzhenitsyn wrote, the line separating good and evil passes right through every human heart. I’d rather not lose a single soul to Hell. Not one. Not even the soul of my worst enemy.”

“The Problem with Confidence” –David Brooks, The New York Times. Sometimes my husband e-mails me articles, and then when he tells me about them in person, and sends me back to my neglected in-box to read them, I know it must be very good.  This one was, and there is almost too much good to quote. “The person with the confidence mind-set is like the painfully self-conscious person at a dinner party who asks, “How am I coming across?” The person with an instrumentalist mind-set is serving a craft and asks “What does this specific job require?”

“Tolstoy and Miss Daisy,” Frank Bruni, The New York Times.  I cried at this one, and this was one I shared with my husband first, and then I forgot to share on Facebook and Twitter and to tag all my siblings and their kids.  “They were proof, these two, that a family can pass its painstakingly nurtured closeness down through the generations, and that there comes a moment when the values impressed on the youngest members of the brood — the values imposed on them, really — become the values they actually elect.”

“Running  Back from Hell” by Christine Fennessy, Runner’s World.  I read this in the paper version back when it arrived in our mailbox–Runner’s World is one of my favorite magazine subscriptions.  Many (not all) of the long articles in Runner’s World are top-notch.  This was one recent standout.  How running is helping soldiers manage and overcome PTSD.

And let’s throw in a recipe for good measure:

“Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp Bars” Deb Perlman, The Smitten Kitchen. Our garden is producing lots of rhubarb this years from ancient plants we inherited when we bought our old house 20 years ago. I am looking for new recipes to try. I adapted this from another recipe of hers (I didn’t want “crispy” bars in any way–just yummy) and we cannot stop eating this one.