'cause we're gonna be all right

 Ack. So I'm a bad blogger. Maybe the heat's gotten to me. Or perhaps I'm just lazy.


I feel sometimes when I'm starting to write that I've got something itching right under my skin, trying to get out, and it's hard to actually figure out what that itch means. Some days, a lot of days, I don't even try.

In any case, thoughts about things.

1. Around the PA area, two unrelated but parallel events: The NCAA handed down sanctions to Penn State and Msgnr. William Lynn was convicted of child endangerment and sentenced to three to six years in prison. People in power, covering their asses and harming others in the meantime.
I've no stake in the Penn State part, except that I wonder how much this will affect the community at large, as this article points out.
As for Monsignor Lynn, well. Every time I try to write, or even think about the abuse cases in the Church, it comes out something like this: aofujasjdakjdhfajsdhRAGE. I became Catholic in part because of the social teachings of the Church: the preferential option for the poor, the belief in human dignity and the common good. I believe in those things, strongly. And between this and the Vatican's attack on the nuns, my hope just starts to dwindle.
Sigh.

2.On the shootings in Colorado:
It's about Guns, Not About Satan

Sort of related, but not really: my friend Logan wrote a book called Reborn on the Fourth of July, a discussion about pacifism, just war, and the military. (I haven't read it yet, but I know Logan, and it should be good.)

3. And because the world is depressing, and I have too much on my mind, have a cat:

 (Note that she is sleeping on top of my copy of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Lit cat!)

these heroic happy dead

Have some ee cummings for the fourth of July.

"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

But, sure, the sky is big, I said

Happy Canada Day to all you Canadians!

So I haven't posted in almost a month. Really, really bad blogger.

I went camping in Maine a couple of weeks ago with my parents and spent a lot of time climbing over rocks and hanging out in Acadia. We also went sea kayaking.

Here are a couple of pictures.

 A view from the rocks:


















Sunset after kayaking:

I was also in my cousin Carolyn's wedding. Here's a picture of me with her brother's kids, the flower boys:

I'm reading a couple of books right now, so I hope to post some book thoughts soon.