Two events

Only a little over three weeks away is the first Wash for Life! So far, 33 states will be taking part in it, with 98 car washes scheduled on Sept. 16, according to the Wash for Life website (people are still signing up, though, so be sure to check in regularly for updates). Some details about the event are in a previous post. By the way, I got that photo of three cute kids from their site...


Besides Sept. 16, another date to keep in mind is Aug. 26, which is this Saturday. The current Face the Truth tour will be in Indianapolis, Indiana on that day. Here's the schedule.


Still doubt as to how much public education about this matter can do to move hearts? Check this out:

At the Abortion Clinic they told Dave and his girlfriend that their unborn child was "like a little ball." They lied. Dave and his girlfriend scheduled an abortion, and Dave agreed to pay for it.

Then he saw one of our signs in downtown Chicago, at Jackson Street and Lake Shore Drive. Dave saw the truth about abortion. And he couldn't go through with it—another baby saved by Face the Truth.

Golden girls

Here are interesting perspectives on living to be 100 years old. A group of five centenarian ladies shares some secrets...

When the body is healthy, the soul dances

Two days ago I ran into a friend and since it was shortly after lunch and neither of us had eaten yet, we decided to take our meal together. We ended up at Pancake House. By the way, that photo of the blueberry waffle isn't from Pancake House but from a website called Delicious Days.

So as I perused the menu and picked out a sandwich, I made a mental note to drop by the place again soon and have one of those delectable pancakes featured on the menu. While waiting for our orders (my companion ordered a taco salad), I suddenly remembered the half a dozen food blogs I had bookmarked for future posting. Now is the future.

That bookmarking happened over a week ago, when I felt like looking through brilliant photography and ended up at food blogs and sites that featured remarkable photos of -- what else? Food, food, food. Of course there were recipes but for someone who doesn't cook (such as myself) yet appreciates the pains that other people take in order to prepare sumptuous gastronomic delights, the pictures were the center of attention. Also, since I recently had experienced a boost to my appetite, setting my eyes on wonderful culinary creations took on new significance.

While going from one food blog to another, I felt tugs of envy toward these bloggers -- some of whom apparently got the chance to travel quite a lot. One was a Swede living in Tuscany; another was a Danish lady who wrote about her delightful vacation in France. A lot of these food bloggers are French and I've mixed up the different profiles already, but the fact that they live in France (Paris, Cote d'Azur...and other places that, to me, spell "getaway destination") makes me wistful. And their photos aren't bad! In fact, "not bad" is an understatement; never had I appreciated the porous beauty of bread until I came upon photos like theirs.


Then there's the Spanish illustrator from Madrid who just recently came back from a vacation "driving on Baltic roads for fifteen days." Her blog, Lobstersquad, features some recipes, too, as well as her artwork.

I think it was The Traveler's Lunchbox that I stumbled on first, and then from there it was one food trip after another (he's got a lot of links of other food blogs -- by country -- not to mention a cool photo gallery). That picture of the fig and prosciutto pizza you see on the left up there is from the photo gallery just mentioned.

(At this point, I would like to mention that I have grown famished from all this dwelling on food.)

I wonder if a lot of other people in the Philippines watch "Boy Meets Grill" which has chef Bobby Flay cooking up various dishes al fresco. I find the show remarkably engaging. I don't know if it's Bobby's way of talking about the ingredients, if it's the outdoorsy appeal of the set, or the choice of recipes. It could be the camera shots. But the chef sure makes whipping up those ingredients look easy -- and fun! But last night I chanced upon "Iron Chef America" where Bobby, I learned, is the defending champion, and he didn't look like he was having fun at all. Who would enjoy preparing meals under all that pressure anyway -- and with cameras documenting your every move?

I think this is enough talk about food! After hitting the "publish post" tab, I'm going to make myself a sandwich. But someday I'm going to learn how to much something with an exotic name like "seafood socca," which is this:

All about women

The future of female altruism
By Carolyn Moynihan

(Excerpt)

Women do, of course, have the right to work for pay and to compete in the job market without facing unfair discrimination. They have the right to a career in the professions. The defining of these principles was inevitable and good. But it is clear from today's anguished discussions about "work-life balance" that home life and, in particular, the care of children has suffered.

What is also becoming obvious is that the social work women once did as an extension of raising children is in crisis too. School teachers complain about the devaluing of their profession, and nurses must be recruited from developing countries to do the more menial tasks of theirs. The average amount of time spent on volunteer activities, according to a British survey, is four minutes a day.[1]

Are these problems the inevitable result of the expansion of careers for women, or are they only the consequence of the way those careers have been pursued?


Full article at MercatorNet

To be a burden is to be truly human

One of the things that's been on my mind more often lately is that when I'm old and grey, I really hope that I'll be humble and secure enough to accept assistance from others -- an arm to lean on as I step down a curb, hands to help me up from a chair, or even offers to change the light bulb of a ceiling fan when my joints are too unreliable to make the step-up-step-down routine. Being around the elderly helps provide me with foresight to consider such things these days.

That being said, here are excerpts from a London Times commentary that touches on the "I'll die when I want to" credo that some people seem to be developing:

I DISLIKE THE description “deeply offensive”: in a free society, open debate is bound to “deeply offend” someone, but we must still affirm our commitment to such open discourse. Yet the nationwide adverts for Jenni Murray’s recent TV polemic on assisted suicide came pretty near to the deplorable, if not the offensive. “I’ll die when I want to,” the words proclaimed, in giant letters.

A lacerating insult, in my view, to those who have lost family members or close friends through the grief of suicide. And a dreadful signal to the young, who we know are the most responsive to suggestions of suicide — the suicide rate among young men in Britain and Ireland has risen almost fivefold over the past two decades. God forfend that that catchphrase “I’ll die when I want to” should enter into the common language and aspirations of the culture.

But Murray’s “suicide pact” with two other friends — they pledge to assist each other to die if the circumstances arise — also involves another agenda. It is the mentality of a feminist generation who, “having fought so hard to become liberated and independent . . . are now being trapped into caring for dependent parents”, we are told. I’ll-die-when-I-want-to isn’t just about being spared terminal pain. It is also about being independent, “autonomous”, “liberated”, free from ever being a “burden” on anyone else: it is about being in control of one’s destiny at all times and in all ways.

Dear me. How pitiful to have lived for over half a century on this planet and not to have observed that the very core of being human is admitting of dependence upon others. There is such a thing as society, and we are all part of it. Our interdependence is part of our humanity, and indeed, our civilisation. Only an automaton is autonomous. We are all burdens upon each other at various cycles of our lives; but we grow in bearing one another’s burdens and draw enlightenment and wisdom from the experience.

Read To be a burden is to be truly human
By Mary Kenny