Hobbit-Sense at OneFreeGarden.com

Two posts in one week– amazing!  Thanks so much for bearing with me.  This one has been floating around in the forefront of my mind for about a week I think (and longer in the background) and I’m waiting for my company’s tech guy to call me back so I figured this was a good use of a bit of downtime.

There is a concept articulated very clearly in Catholic teaching that goes something like this: “Love the sinner, abhor the sin.”  There may well be other traditions that have this idea, but it seems to get discarded really quickly these days, by Christians of all stripes, including Catholics.  And it usually comes from misguided understanding of love.

Let me make a collectivised version of the argument:

God’s love is unconditional.  Therefore, we Christians are called to love unconditionally.  Unconditional love doesn’t stop because we don’t like something about the person.  In fact, people who make a big deal about other people’s choices in the name of Jesus often act in unloving ways.  So, when people single out things they think are wrong about people (individually or as groups), they’re not really loving them as they are.  So you can’t just separate sin and sinner and call that Christian charity.

The above argument is not without merit.  True enough, some people pound on sins, usually a few favorite vices, in a way that is basically devoid of any charity.  But the argument above has some serious issues.  One is that it misunderstands the entire point of abhoring sin and loving sinners, and the other is that it ends up destroying the very caritas or agape love it thinks it’s promoting.  And here’s why:

I have witnessed the effect of the anti-sin-abhorrence crowd in them, and any who follow it to its end invariably come to the same point:  they lose any sense of what makes a sin, and why it matters.  It is a very feel-good, teddy-bear faith to have a wishy-washy sense of “sin.”  Why?  Because when we reduce sin in this way, the only things that get called sins are either fairly obvious (like, say, murder) or very vague (“imposing on others,” for instance, or “hurting other people”), and everything else, including some very serious sins, become matters of opinion or, even worse, “personal preferences.”  No honesty discussion of morality happens when everything is prefaced by, “Well, this is what’s right for me.” But more importantly, there can be no true love without a strong concept of sin.

That may seem a little weird or backwards, but I am convinced that it’s true.  Why?  Because love doesn’t mean not seeing the flaws, even if a lovey-dovey couple goes through that phase.  When the honeymoon’s over, even the most rose-colored-glasses-wearing pair is going to realise that there are some things that seriously tick them off about each other.  A marriage doesn’t last because they decide that those aren’t really flaws– a marriage lasts because they decide that they love each other beyond those flaws, in spite of them, even.

If we go into Christian love blind to any flaws, we aren’t capable of actual Christian love.  I remember going to confession during Lent at my Catholic high school.  A girl in my math class had decided to pick on me a bit, and I’d finally had enough and started scoring her on her insults in a little scoreboard I made in a notebook called the “Bitch Olympics.”  It wasn’t particularly nasty, but it was somewhat effective, especially as the girl and her friends seemed to find it amusing.  Irony of ironies, we ended up on the same pew waiting for confession, and she said teasing me was on her confession list and I had to admit that the Bitch Olympics were on mine.

I got into the confessional, a nice dark one, with the kneeler and the screen, and even better, a priest I didn’t know at all.  He sounded old, with a withered strength to his voice.  I went through the usual- being mean to siblings, talking back to parents, and then I got to the Bitch Olympics, which certainly ranks among my most inventive sins.  Naturally, I detailed how she teased me, and how I knew it was wrong but did I mention she was teasing me?  And that I just didn’t like her?  The response I got was something like this:

Love isn’t a commandment because it’s easy.  It’s a commandment because it’s hard but it’s the right thing.  And Jesus commanded us to do it.  It doesn’t matter that you don’t like this girl, or that she’s mean to you.  You have to love her anyway.

I think when we take away the idea of sin, we are really robbing ourselves of the true virtue and commandment of love.  If we just accept the sins, downgrading them and acting like they don’t matter, we’re doing everyone involved a massive disservice.  It may seem like it’s no biggie, but think about two options a parent has when his child does something wrong– what about parents of kids who get involved in drugs or become promiscuous?  Who loves the child more, the “anything goes” parent, or the one who still loves his child despite these terrible deeds, and takes all the suffering that comes with it?

And while we’re talking about wayward children, if there isn’t any real sin beyond biggies or vague non-harm principles, why would Jesus bother to die for us?  I know it’s not what’s intended when people say you can’t separate sin and sinner, but the end result is that we actually denigrate the love of God for us.  Dying on a cross for perfect people isn’t nearly as heroic as dying for people who are pretty darn awful.  ”Blind love” that just ignores the things we don’t like doesn’t seem like real love at all.  I could keep going on and on trying to articulate it, but once again GK does it better:

Love means loving the unlovable, or it is no virtue at all. - GKC

Have a great week!

-Rosy

Those who know me personally know that my emails have a rotating signature feature, by which things that I add to the list are randomly selected to be my signature.  Normal-thinking people would use one signature or choose between a few with different contact information and leave it at that.  I, however, have over a hundred quotes that I like, be they funny, interesting, smart or inspirational.  So I thought that might be a good base for getting back into bloggerdom, to post one and a few brief thoughts about it every now and then, as a series called “Sage Sayings.”

Today’s quote:

“One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.” – GK Chesterton.

One of the great things about Chesterton is the multi-faceted depth of his writings.  Psalm 23 encapsulates the idea of the valley best– “yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”  Those who have any faith at all know the valleys – times of darkness.  But just as one caught in a pit can only look around himself or up, so too are the valleys opportunities for grace – one time when we can truly see what is above us.  It is good, of course, to persist in faith, but sometimes it is the struggles that help us best.  When climbing on one’s own, it is easy to see only the ground around us, or to see how far we’ve come.  In the valleys, I am reminded that no matter how high I climb, I always need to reach out my arms and ask to be lifted up.

The quote is actually from a mystery called “The Hammer of God,” and Fr. Brown is explaining to the guilty party how the murder occurred.  Without spoiling it, the peak the murderer found himself upon was both a physical height and a metaphysical one.  His anger was understandable, but his vengeance came from a self-made peak, a mountain of judging not only the victim as worse, but himself as better.  Just as the valley, while painful, can be a help to faith, a peak, while pleasant, is always a hindrance to it.  

There’s a motif in The Lord of the Rings of characters looking upwards, to the stars.  In Tolkien’s mythology, the stars preceded all, including day.  And if ever there were a novel of constant valleys, that were it.  I can’t help but think it is a good model.  If I’m honest with myself, about the state of the world (which is nothing new – we souls have always been more battleground than soldier) and my own sins, the peaks are only fabrications of my own ego.  But when I’ve known I’m in the valley, I’ve been able to look up and truly see the stars, not the path I’ve “created” (not really) or how far I’ve come (which passage has never been truly my own effort).  In short, when I’ve been knocked to my knees, I’ve been reminded that that’s where I belong to begin with — I am capable of seeing the great things, the high mountains and broad sky — a much better view than from my imaginary peaks, where all the truly wondrous things appear as no more than ants to be quashed.

Sorry for the great delay – been overwhelmed and had some technical issues.  But trying to get back – have faith and I will try to as well!

-the Rosy Gardener

Apologies to all for my “hiatus.”  I have not been sick all this time (thankfully).  Have however been rather busy at work, and felt very much a dry spell in terms of writing this.   I didn’t have any good excluse like Jen F. who runs these who actually never missed one even though between two of them she had a baby (congratulations, Jen!).  I do want this blog to work, so I hope to emulate her in the breadth of content and actually posting regularly.  Cheers, Jen.

1.  This Lent hasn’t “felt like” Lent for me, which is part of this whole non-posting-thing.  Lent has always been my favorite liturgical season, and Good Friday my favorite holy day, etc., but this Lent has seemed all wrong.  I have tried to give up meat and swearing, and been wilding more successful on the former than the latter.  I swore Ash Wednesday morning, and it’s felt downhill since then.  There was a work schedule snafu and I ended up ten minutes late for the 3.30 service at Church, and it was catered to kids (I love kids, but I don’t like when a service becomes a social event).  There was nothing solemn about it and it’s been driving me nuts.  I feel robbed of the beautiful darkness I’ve managed to experience in the last ten years, the solemnity, etc., and that’s a good part of why I think I haven’t been able to get out the first part of the Quixotic Catechesis, which I planned to be about the dark pit that drives Quijana to create Quixote.

2.  But you know what I’ve figured out?  Sometime in the last hour, when I firmly decided to post this, it struck me that this is my Lenten deprivation this year.  I have quietly read the beautiful reflections Eva’s written at Theology of Desire (which I encourage anyone to read, because they are lovely, Eva!)  and felt like I was missing something.  I “used to have Lents” like that (where I’d realise how great a sinner I was, or how loved I was, or feel again how wonderful Christ’s sacrifice is and how little I deserve it).  And this year I’m coasting along like nothing’s different or special about this time of year.  Perhaps I will expand on this in a post, but briefly put, I think perhaps this is God’s clue to me to recenter on him, a reminder that I don’t have to “feel it” but to trust Him.  I’m a lousy pray-er and I think he’s finally getting on my tail about it.  So I guess it’s not such a “bad” Lent after all – what a gift.

3.  On a funny note, we have a small menagerie here and this week our oldest pet, a slender black cat named Giselle, did something pretty funny.  My youngest sister left her mug on the table after dinner (why she used a giant mug for ice water can be categorised into the realm of “It’s my favorite” mysteries), and our dog drinks cat water all the time (I wonder if it tastes better?), so Giselle, who’s getting up there at 14 I think hopped up onto the dining room table and buried her head in M’s mug and only stopped to come up for air until there were a few ice chips in the bottom.  Luckily I little sister delivery services got my camera to me in time:

Giselle was really thirsty...

4.  The other part of working more is that I’m actually getting promoted!  This means a raise and also more hours (but flexible – less time running shifts but more checking in, inventory, standardising practices, etc.).  I’ll be a “senior” worker, so I’ll still be buying and get commission, but I’ll also have some managerial responsibilities.  I’ve only worked there since the end of January, so I’m proud of that.  I’m also glad to be helping two stores run smoothly, because I think my poor boss is totally overworked (she does well, but it can’t be good for her health).  

5.  The ‘biggest’ near catastrophe during my hiatus has been that I almost bought a car.  Now, when I finally came to my senses (and asked for my money and title back- eek!), the dealership offered a great deal, but I was so unnerved I turned it down (which, since I wanted a Toyota, Ford, or Nissan and somehow ended up test driving a PT Cruiser, I think was still a good decision).  Now I’m trying to decide what to do about my car – it’s 11 years old, but it only has 62300K on it and gets good mileage… but deals like now aren’t going to be around when I get back from Russia… back and forth, back and forth….

6.  It deserves more than a quicktake, but having been a bum about posting, I might as well stick it in.  This week’s news has had some unfortunate announcements, like the funding of embryonic stem cell research.  Briefly, I believe it’s wrong to create life (and yes, Bill Clinton, embryos are fertilised and, therefore, life) and then manipulate and destroy it for any ends, even noble ones like curing disease;  the ends don’t justify any means.  But rather than go off on it, I’m liking to a well-written WSJ op-ed on why funding ESCR isn’t depoliticising the issue.

7.  And finally, something Easter-oriented.  I don’t know who among you is familiar with the Ukrainian (and really pan-Slav, but begun in the Ukraine at the time of the pharoahs) dyed eggs, but I have finally gotten a clue about how to do them!  Every now and then, we go to the Ukrainian Catholic church in my old town and the parish is wonderful, and they always invite us to things like their picnic and also egg-dyeing.  Well, we went once in high school (and I think my family may have gone another time while I was in college) and basically, we were terrible at them!  It’s basically a batik process, where you use wax to preserve whatever you want to keep the color, and then dye from light to dark.  I think also having learned Photoshop helped, because you have to think in layers for that, too.  So, my first good egg:

From a pattern included in Luba's Ukrainian Easter Egg Decorating Kit

And then I scoured the internet for more patterns and info, and I found a great site by another Ukrainian Luba who’s been making these eggs (called pysanky (singular: pysanka)) for what must be her whole life.  She has patterns and advice up and lots of it.  I used one of her patterns (and her advice on revitalising dyes) to make this one:

Thank you to another Ukrainian Luba!

Not perfect, but I’m good with this sort of thing in general (once I get the hang of it) and I’ve also learned that artwork and crafts, atleast, don’t have to be perfect, so I’m happy with them (esp. the latest, which I made yesterday).  

So that is what I’ve been doing in my spare time this week… I think now that I have ‘figured out’ what’s up with Lent this year, I’ll be able to discipline myself more and get at Quixotic Catechesis.  Thanks so much for your patience with me.  

best,

-the Rosy Gardener

Hi folks – sorry about the delay on Quixotic 1. I meant to get it up yesterday, and then I was trying to get it up today, but I think I’m coming down with something (very tired and just can’t think – I am however a stellar napper at this stage in the game), so I’m going to try to sleep it off and get this up tomorrow. Again, really sorry. I just cannot put it together well – the ideas are there, but I’m not connecting them well and I’d rather be late than incoherent.

Also, just a note to all the Russian readers who have been commenting on the blog name – thank you! I have removed the “sponsored links” from your posts because I don’t want commercial links in comments, but I left the URL in the information you signed on for. I don’t feel comfortable having sponsored/commercial links in comments themselves, but have not removed them entirely. Links to personal blogs and websites is fine.

Again, sorry for the delay, and I hope you all are well.
-Rosy

I admit it, I really love some of the makeover shows on TV.  Not the ones that involve extensive plastic surgery, but ones that try to make a person over from the inside out.  There’s usually some point in the show where the person being made over finally starts to realise they have some intrinsic value (one a lot higher than their poor self-confidence reflects).  They then express their gratitude, and the hosts almost always tell them the same thing:  “You deserve it.”

Now, oftentimes the people are good folks who have been struggling in some area or are starting some new endeavor, and they really could use a new wardrobe.  They are often people about whom one could use the term “deserving.”  But the idea that one deserves a brand new, brand name wardrobe is, well, ridiculous.  They often have some (or even great) need for these things, but to declare that they deserve it… well, if they do, there are thousands, perhaps even millions, of others who do as well.  And if all those people deserve it, then all the others who do as well should be getting the same treatment –– which would be nearly impossible.  

Our culture is always telling people they deserve things –– the best, the most glamorous, the newest, etc.  The problem with this is twofold.  First is that it downplays the value of the things we really are owed.  When desert becomes about having nice things (and I have nothing against nice things), it distracts us from the things we really do deserve and need.  These are our human rights, respect for our inherent dignity, and our lives.  There’s nothing wrong with a new dress, a new car, or a new house, but by making them issues of desert, we give them emphasis they don’t deserve (they are only things, even if necessary ones) and it becomes easier to forget about the issues that really do matter.  How often material things have interfered with the needs of our brothers and sisters…

The other part of the problem is that it does away with true generosity.  If I deserve the new wardrobe, the hosts of the show are only giving what is owed me.  There’s no great merit in that, and no true generosity.  We do not say a man is generous for paying his employees;  they work, and he pays them as they deserve.  We say he is generous for volunteering his time, or donating to charity.  

Unfortunately, it seems like the idea of desert is creeping in everywhere.  I’ve seen it in schools, where people decide they deserved a certain grade, and have been wronged by a teacher.  I’ve seen it driving, where people don’t seem to think the rules apply to them.  There’s a new trend in parenting called “me time,” which goes beyond the need of people to recharge their batteries  to putting themselves before their children, or in the well-intentioned quest to buy a child everything he or she wants, because he “deserves the best.”  

But perhaps most sadly, I see it in religion.  Perhaps it is recoiling from the fire and brimstone, hell and damnation style of preaching so many were familiar with, or a few too many times being told they were going to hell.  I don’t really like being told I’m hellbound, and I don’t tell others they are, either.  However, a lot of us, myself included, find ourselves in this mindset that we deserve heaven because we make an effort, or we’re not as bad as other people, and in addition to being completely wrong (with a good dose of pride), we’re undermining the generosity of the cross.  If we deserve it, Christ’s sacrifice was no biggie.  Okay, it was painful, but if we deserve heaven then why did he even do it?  But if we really think about how much we need a savior, and just how bad we really are (easily closer to Hitler than Jesus on the spectrum of human behavior), then the gift becomes something to really be grateful for.  That is true generosity, and it’s amazing.  As we get closer to Lent, I’m going to try to be grateful that God doesn’t give me what I deserve, because hell isn’t where I want the last bus stop to be.

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Thanks for reading!  I’m currently thinking about a brief series I’m going to call the “Quixotic Catechesis.”  :D  Back soon I hope.. will definitely do another round of Quick Takes on Friday! 

-Rosy

There’s been a bit of hoopla in the news lately about Pope Benedict lifting the excommunication  of four bishops who are part of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which society was basically in schism for the past 20 years or so.  Shortly before he did this, one of the excommunicated bishops, Bishop Williamson gave an interview in which he denied the Holocaust (or Shoah).  And so when the Pope lifted the excommunication there was an immediate outcry about Williamson’s statements.

Now, I think there is a reason to have an outcry about people denying the Shoah.  My plans for law school are basically to focus on human rights abuses, and the issues I care most about are genocide and slavery.  To me, denying the sin of the Holocaust would be almost a second murder.  I am not, therefore, a big supporter of Williamson’s thoughts on the matter, or his shooting off his mouth.  But I do have some issues with the results of Benedict XVI’s lifting of the excommunication.  

Some have taken the opportunity to decry the act as implicit support of Williamson’s opinions.  Some have even called for the Pope’s resignation.  But it seems like the very same groups who criticise the Church for being “too dogmatic,” “unwelcoming,” “too strict,” etc., apparently don’t believe it when it comes to people they disagree with.  Any religion that has any “meat” to it (i.e. isn’t a “feel good” faith, but takes a moral stand) is going to alienate some people who don’t want to be told what to do.  But I think they’ve missed the whole point of church.

To put it plainly:  Church is for sinners.  In our circles of friends and associates, we decide who fits our standards.  We choose what we can handle in terms of other people.  Some of these choices are illegitimate (like those who won’t associate based on race, creed, color, class, etc.), and some are legitimate (people who exercise bad influences on us, with whom it is difficult to be happy or who try to domineer us, etc.)  

But Church (and I’m talking really about the whole Body of Christ) does two things we can’t do: 

1. It has standards none of us can reach all the time (and often most of the time);  
2. It will take all of us anyway (atleast where it’s really honest about what being Church means).  
   

Let’s be honest here:  come Sunday mornings (and a lot of other times during the week), Christians worship around the world is the largest deliberate gathering of sinners.  As I put it in my title, when we get together, we easily come together with more sin than a brothel on a busy night.

If you get the whole story, and not just what the sensationalist media reports, you’ll find out that another bishop of the SSPX told the pope that didn’t reflect them all, and put a gag order on Williamson.  You’ll also see that Williamson did apologise, and most recently has been told by Pope Benedict to repudiate his views.  But more importantly, Pope Benedict believes it is his mission to help heal the wounds within the Body of Christ, both within the Catholic Church and among the various Christian churches.  

Fr. Roger Landry, editor of The Anchor, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, puts it well:  

If the Pope behaved like a politician rather than a father, he probably would not have lifted the excommunications. It was a magnanimous, courageous move fraught with risks. First, many within the Church seem prone to view the possible return of the 1.5 million members of Society with as much enthusiasm as the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son for the homecoming of his wayward sibling. Benedict, however, has the perspective of the father in the parable, which is the only truly Christian frame of reference. 

(The full article:  Unity, Magnanimity and Lunacy.)

This is really the crux of it.  I know a lot of people feel rejected by Church because it tells people to go in the face of modern culture, to practice self-denial of our baser desires to live the fullness of the life God wishes for us.  But Christianity is also the only place that will really take everyone as he is and point to Christ as the “way up.”  I could keep “pontificating” but I think the late Pope John Paul II put well what the Body of Christ is really about in his Message for the 20th World Youth Day at Cologne:

Jesus is the Prince of peace: the source of forgiveness and reconciliation, who can make brothers and sisters of all the members of the human family.

…

Listening to Christ and worshipping Him leads us to make courageous choices, to take what are sometimes heroic decisions. Jesus is demanding, because He wishes our genuine happiness. He calls some to give up everything to follow Him in the priestly or consecrated life. Those who hear this invitation must not be afraid to say “yes” and to generously set about following Him as His disciples. But in addition to vocations to special forms of consecration there is also the specific vocation of all baptised Christians: that is also a vocation to that “high standard” of ordinary Christian living which is expressed in holiness.

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Thanks for reading.  Thoughts and comments always appreciated.

-the Rosy Gardener

Before I begin, I would like to ask for prayers for Catholic author and blogger Amy Welborn and her family.  Her husband Michael, also a Catholic blogger and author, passed away suddenly yesterday, and if you can spare a few moments to pray for Amy, her husband with the Lord, and their children, I have faith it will help them through this sad time.  I am including this here, rather than its own topic, out of no disrespect but because I imagine that since this blog is still very new and I think including it in a lengthier post will garner more readers than a small one  on its own.  I can’t profess to know Amy in any sense, but every time I’ve come across her work I’ve been glad of it.  Requiesca in pace Domini, Michael.

UPDATE:  Danielle Bean has set up a paypal button to collect donations.  If you feel moved and are able to donate money in addition to your prayers, she has more information on her website.

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Apologies for having gone quiet – I haven’t become frustrated with the blog or anything, I’ve just been busier than usual.  One of my coworkers is on vacation so I’ve been covering extra hours (which will help my rather pitiful bank account and thus help keep this blog online).  But I haven’t forgotten – I’ve just been too busy to figure out what to write and then to write it.  But I’m here now and I’ve come up with something finally, and it will follow shortly.

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Thanks to Foxfier for the bit of encouragement – I’m not bothered by the lack of comments-  I hope someday to have a nice steady group of a few more but I’m grateful to any at all who read, and I hope you find it worth your read.  Thanks also to Fr. Dalgleish and Eva David – I have begun watching your videos, Father, and I am adding your blog, Eva, to my RSS feed and probably a linkback soon (I need to figure out how to make the list longer).  I have also found A Dish of Orts through the Guttenberg Project and hope to start reading it soon.  

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If anyone has ideas for posts, please feel free to email me with them.  I am also glad to have guest-posts if it fits in with the general “themes” of this blog.  Anyway, now to write the post (hopefully) before running off to work.  Thanks to all.

-RG

Quick Takes Friday with Jen F!  (Check out my cool banner link to her site! Yes, I am abnormally proud of it….  woohoo!)

Hobbit Sense Edition 1!

(Quick takes are short notes that aren’t enough for a post on their own, but are worth posting.  Join the fun and do your own!)

1.   If you’re ever out and about in bad weather where there’s a prime parking spot available in an otherwise crowded lot, don’t take it.  This was the lesson of Tuesday.  I was so surprised I happily pulled into the first open spot at the bank– it just looked a little icy.  In reality, it was like a little pond – a layer of ice floating on top of a big puddle.  My sneakers took all night to dry out, and my pants took a while, too (I sloshed around up to my ankles a bit).  I guess everyone in warmer climates probably won’t have to worry about it, and everyone in colder climates probably knows better, but I’ve been spoiled by Virginia winters the last four years, so I think my common sense flew out my ear.

 2.  I feel kind of in-between things.  I was brought up to be mature, and I have received a lot of comments over the years that I am mature, but I guess I feel like a late bloomer in some ways, too.  But I’m thinking that perhaps I need this time right now, and am trying to get my act together.

3.  My mom has taken a liking to The Dog Whisperer, and I think it’s great.  Our dog is abnormally cute and very funny (he seriously knocks down pillows and snuggles – he’s a mini wiener), but he’s not exactly trained.. Let’s just say he gets excited and I break out the paper towels.  I’m hoping Mom’s new determination will prevent future occurences like this one:

Of course, I only hope that because I already have the photo….

4.  I can’t ever find enough pencils anywhere. And if I do, they aren’t sharpened or they have crappy erasers.  I know some people hate pencils, but I really like them.  I’m currently spying a whole cluster… I think I’m going to kidnap them and take them downstairs to the electric sharpener.  Oooh, I think I may have stashed some more under a doll’s skirt (nothing dirty – it was a quick solution that didn’t involve other people absconding with them).  

5.  Has anyone else seen the hilarious video of a little kid with about 8 frogs in his/her diaper?  

H/T to Matthew at CMR

6.  I wanted to include my respects to Fr. Neuhaus, who passed away yesterday (I believe).  I feel a bit badly about “squeezing” him in here, but I can’t do him justice without quoting extensively.  He wrote very eloquently on many subjects, including death.  The magazine First Things has republished his article “Born Towards Dying” online.  H/T to DarwinCatholic for the link to the article.

7. I have been giving myself a crash course in photoshop this year and it’s been a lot of fun.  But while I’m glad to be getting better at it, I miss being able to draw.. in fact, my favorite things, including the poster below, I hand drew and digitally colored. 

If I had a bunch of money, and Apple made a touchscreen computer, I’d so be there.  In a way, I think part of what bothers me is that I wish I had more skill as a artist (non-digital)… but I enjoy sketching and doing graphics, so I think that’s something to be grateful for.   

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Thanks for reading!  Would you consider adding Hobbit Sense at OneFreeGarden to your RSS feed?  (I recently realised it’s a great way to follow multiple blogs because it tells you when there’s an update!).  Also, I am familiarising myself with WordPress and I think I may have created a Member option now, but I’m not sure at all, so if you want you’re welcome to be one, but I’m going to leave non-registering open too (I hope I did anyway!) unless some random toll becomes a problem, which I don’t foresee.  Thanks for visiting!  

Hello there!  I can hardly believe I’m typing this.  This blog is Phase One of getting my website up and running. I have grand plans, but as with all plans, it’s best to start, and I can’t think of a better way to start than a blog (if largely because I don’t have to figure out Dreamweaver to get it running – thank you, WordPress!)

So, what is this blog going to be about?  Well, I should probably start out by saying I do not view this as a diary.  I don’t really thing writing the details of my life for all to see as a way to keep my personal life personal, and honestly, I don’t think most of you care.  And basically, I don’t care to share it.  Now, it may be that every now and then I do write about my life… but that is not the purpose of being here.

What is the purpose?  It’s easier to say what it’s inspired by, which is a quote from Lord of the Rings, Chapter 1: “The Tower of Cirith Ungol” of Book Six (in Return of the King), when Sam finds himself greatly dispairing at the possibility of journeying on without Frodo, carrying the Ring himself:

He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him; or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. Already the Ring tempted him, grnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dur. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.

In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.

So, this is my garden, and I the gardener. It is a small plot, and all that I need and I hope it may be all that I want. After the war, Sam went back to being a gardener, and replanted the Shire, and made green and growing things. I hope these posts may be little sparks of green in a barren land.  

This will likely involve faith (I’m Catholic, raised Latin Rite but really thinking of going Byzantine Rite (e.g. Ukrainian Catholic)), politics, common sense (or, hobbit sense), the arts (visual, performing), literature and language (I’m a grammar nerd), etc.  All views are welcome when presented civilly… and while an occasional swear wouldn’t bother me, I don’t want many (and not G-D or F).  In short, anything and everything is up for grabs, but civil discourse is a must. 

A preview of possible topics (i.e. ideas that have popped into my head):

• a weekly or biweekly Chesterton discussion
• a comparison of themes in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (I am NOT foolish enough to compare the works themselves, but I think they are both Christian works and also have a lot of shared themes)
• writing in general
• just why the Russian absurdists are so freakin’ awesome
• why clericalism is off the menu at the closed cafeteria (or, let’s draw from all areas, neither ignoring nor reifying the past)
• why the past has a lot to offer
• the value of traditions
• war, peace, the culture of violence
• absolute truth and shifting cultural norms
• the spiritual desert
• tv shows (time-and-soul-sucking, or worthwhile)
• classic movies (most of my favorites predate me, and several predate my parents)
• why I’m NOT the center of the universe
• the great rhetoric of our age (would you believe it’s on primetime?)
• Seven Quick Takes  (this is a weekly multi-blog thing started by Jen F. at Conversion Diary, which is a GREAT site)
• anything else I happen to think of

Anyone else notice this turned into a list to help me remember?  Maybe I’ll write about memory sometime… and my lack of a good one!

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One note is that I do not want real names used here. I will call everyone by username and even those who know me personally, please refrain from my given name and even from other screennames you know me as… I guess I just want this to be somewhat set apart from things. Nicknames are great, however, so if you come up with something shorter for “the Rosy Gardener” (perhaps TRG or Rosy?) then that’s great. 

Fair day,

the Rosy Gardener