Wild Tangents
Marc talks about life in Nashville, life as a Catholic and life as a geek.

What was I doing on 9/11? It doesn’t matter.  Many, many others were dying. Let’s take a moment to pray for those who lost their lives, for their families who miss them and for those who survived.

As I watch the news coverage today of the memorial events and repeats of the footage of this day seven years ago, I get angry. I admit that for a while my heart fills with rage. I feel the need for revenge. For this reason I am so glad that Father Seraphim Beshoner posted an interesting Tweet this morning.

on the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, wondering if today’s Gospel takes on special meaning

Let’s go ahead and take a look at this scripture.

27 “But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.

30 Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.

31 And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return;  and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.

36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;

38 give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

(Saint Luke 6:27-38 – RSV-CE)

Thank you father for giving me perspective!

Now don’t get me wrong, I do not believe we are to turn our backs on our enemies to make it easier for them to shoot us. We should never forget what happened seven years ago. I do however think we as a nation need to pursue our national security with right intentions that don’t include hatred or revenge. I also feel we as individuals need to be more loving of our enemies.  We always talk about how powerful prayer is.  Let’s apply that to our enemies and see how powerful it can be. Let’s put our prayers where our mouth is. I think we’ll be surprised.  So let’s forgive for our enemies, pray for our enemies. Let’s pray for peace, not only in the world but also in the hearts of anyone that are filled with anger, hatred and revenge.

Let’s try a test of the pingPressFm plugin. Cross your fingers….

My good friend Paul Camarata, host of the SaintCast recorded this song for his 100th episode. Now there’s a video for it. It’s a real riot….

“Zosimus“, that kills me every time……

So Lindsey at Theogeo started it with a story about mid-town Memphis at the wee hours of the morning and a video of BeeGees doing Jive Talkin’. Then Ginger posted her own video clip from Saturday Night Fever.

Well, here’s my pick for feel good disco music for the afternoon. Debbie Harry is so punk rock!

But I can’t really end it there. Speaking of punk rock, let’s see some faux disco from Johnny Rotten himself.

I LOVE the glasses..

Well, it seems a winter storm has rolled through this part of the country. We decided to come back to Memphis early and it looks like that was the right thing to do. Here’s some pictures of what was dumped here.

Outside shot form my office window.

Another shot form the office window. I wasn’t sure how they would turn out, so I took two.

This is our back patio. You can see the bottom of the bike wheel is under the snow.

Another one from the back patio. You can see the fold-up chair and flip flop covered in snow.

Another one of the flip flop and the door step. It seems the snow has piled up against the wall and door.

This is the weird one. This is the staircase in the covered breezeway. You can see the snow piled up pretty heavily on the top step.

Another shot of the whole staircase.

Just a clue to the BBC, only deacons, priests and bishops are “ordained” in the Catholic Church. In this article, they clearly say that Blessed Alphonsa of Kerala was “ordained”. But what happens when a religious brother or sister becomes such is not referred to as “ordained”, but rather as taking a “profession of vows”.

She persisted with her religious vocation despite serious health problems, and in 1928, she was ordained, taking the name Sister Alphonsa.

[From BBC NEWS | South Asia | Vatican to canonise Indian woman]

Now while I am sure that no one from the BBC would stoop so low as to use the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the Oxford dictionary requires an account to look up words. So I’ll use MW instead. They define “ordain” as:

1: to invest officially (as by the laying on of hands) with ministerial or priestly authority

[From ordain - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary]

Other wise this was great article, until it got an agenda.

Indian Christians have been accused by hardline Hindu nationalists of “forced conversions” – especially among low-caste and tribal peoples.

They are also accused of making conversion to Christianity a condition for receiving treatment at medical centres they run.

[From BBC NEWS | South Asia | Vatican to canonise Indian woman]

UM…OK….While I don’t know if this may or may not be happening, I’m not sure what it has to do with the subject of this story. And, if it is happening, it is deplorable and what Christ wanted out of us. Our Blessed Lord offered the woman at the well the water of life before she converted, not after.

Just before lunch time today my mom called me with the sad news that my aunt Annette Malone passed away today. My mother was a single mom who worked hard to provide for herself and me. My aunts really lent a helping hand to here in raising me, so I am closer to them than most men probably are to their aunts.

But the kindness and generosity of my “Aunt Nett” didn’t stop with me or her family. She loved everyone she met with the same smile and generosity she would extend to her own flesh and blood. She always put others needs above her own.

My Aunt Nett suffered from Purpura almost her whole adult life, but she never let it get her down. She charged forth and lived her life to the fullest. She especially never let this disease stop her from helping other people. When it started to hurt, she just pushed herself harder.

Most importantly my Aunt Nett was a woman of great faith. Even with all the adversity she faced in her life, she never lost her faith. She loved God and went to church every Sunday.

So to say she exemplified the Christian virtues of Faith Hope and Charity is an understatement. She is an example wold could follow right to Heaven. I want to see my Aunt Net again, so now I have one more reason to “finish the race” as Saint Paul tells us. But now we also have one more helper in that could of witnesses. With surety in my heart, I know that my Aunt Nett is also Saint Nett.

So what you may not know yet is that I got an iPhone yesterday. That was precipitated by being at a customer site that didn’t provide internet access. There were a number of research items I needed to do on the internet that I couldn’t because of the lack of connectivity from my laptop. That’s how I justified it anyway.

So one of the cool features of this little gadget is the ability to add custom ringtones to your contacts. The ringtones can be song clips and they can be different for each contact. So I set a ringtone for calls from my wife Suzette to be “Lovesong”, by The Cure. I tweeted about it later and got at least one response from Tupelo Rob with what he had set as his ringtone for his wife Kristen. That got me to thinking that this might be an interesting topic for discussion. So I put it out to you all, what would your custom ringtone be for your spouse or significant other?