Seven Quick Takes: Volume 13

-- 1 --

I've been bored of my blog look for several months now, but I don't have the wherewithal to go professional nor the html. skills to do it myself.  So I'm fiddling around with the look of it.  And my perfectionist-in-the-non-necessities is coming out.

If I use a template, there are certain pre-ordained details I have to keep, and I end up wanting a mash-up of two or more styles, headers, or templates.  So this will probably be fiddled with for many, many more weeks.  Just a head's up.

-- 2 --

This video of the Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer is of her TED speech in favor of fan-supported arts (particularly music), but her message goes much deeper than a Kickstarter or record label controversy.

Watch the first ten minutes or so.

Or just read this:

Ms. Palmer (second wife of Neil Gaiman, the best-selling fantasy author) tells the story of when she made her way as a living statue, surviving off dollars donated into a black top hat.  As a street performer, she was allowed to make long, undivided eye contact with strangers in public.  Many of them were lonely people, people who had never been seen before.  She was the first person to ever really look at them.

Rude people driving by would shout, "Get a job!"  They were ignorant of the utter importance of the job she did have, just then, unable to fathom the pure, exposed intimacy between her and the object of her attention.

As professing Christians, why don't we have this kind of faith in our vocation; in choosing something that we love, and making our object to serve and touch others, the living tabernacles of Christ, having faith that God will take care of the rest?  And how often can we say we have really looked at someone?  Seen someone no one bothered to see before; and seen them as God sees them, full in themselves, without our own self-interests and assumptions clouding their beauty?

She goes on to talk of "the art of asking" and effectively grasps the heart of humility.

I don't know much about Ms. Palmer, but here, in its simplicity, she has touched the life of sainthood.  Well, minus the whole expose-herself-naked-to-a-crowd-and-let-them-sign-her; but she meant love and trust, even by that.  It's worth a watch.

-- 3 --

If you haven't seen this yet . . .

it's never too late to adopt a cardinal!

I'm praying for Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Bosnia during and for the upcoming papal conclave.  Click the words above to go to the site and have your Cardinal picked at random.  And by random I mean "by the Holy Spirit."

-- 4 --

From the latest issue of Dappled Things, Mary Queen of Angels 2012:

To the Child Who Asks 

by Sally Thomas 

Am I your favorite? you want to know.
And I say yes: As every breath I take's
My favorite breath.  If, say, you're eight, that makes
You my favorite eight-year-old.  Ditto
Ten, nine, seven, six, five, yada, zero.
You were my favorite series of summer earthquakes,
My favorite live-weight centered on the cervix,
My favorite sight unseen that year.  And so
You are my favorite child right now, because
You stand before me, asking that my heart
Declare, You first, you always.  And it's true.
It works this way.  Love's strange, elastic laws
Grant each child its undiluted part,
And that, my love, is what I offer you.

This needs to be shared.

-- 5 --

This also needs to be shared.  And--bonus points!--it ties in with #3.

I don't know what was the last step in the series of internet-rambles that led me to Jason Bach's comics, but God bless it.

In fairness, though, the Swiss Guards' uniforms are pretty flamboyant!  (Click to enlarge.)

-- 6 --

My very fashionable little sister has a blog now.  It's going to be about her adventures in style (always informed by dignity of the human person, of course).  I hope she keeps it up.  She's my fashion role model!

-- 7 --

Okay, you literary mamas, this one's for you.  If you haven't seen this series yet, allow me the pleasure of introducing you . . .

. . . to BabyLit.  Colors and counting primers using identifiable items and characters from the classics.  Oh so expensive, but oh so precious.  You know what they say, it's never too early to indoctrinate them with good literature.

Little Master Shakespeare.  That is all.

---

See more quick takes at Conversion Diary.