Living in the real world, Seven Quick Takes edition

Marc has written a lovely reflection on man as a world-creator; specifically, he writes about the home as a world. He does a fine job of dissecting the assumptions that lie behind the modern eagerness to refer to the earth or the universe as “the real world,” dismissing the reality of the human spaces we live in. Do read the piece; it’s shorter than most of Marc’s posts, and well worth the read.

Marc’s post, although only tangentially related, reminds me of a pet peeve of mine. I attended a very small Catholic college, with student life policies that were—to be fair, more lenient than some other small Catholic college—but still somewhat restrictive. Almost without exception, when someone (student or local or someone’s family member) wanted to criticize the student life policies, or complain about the small-community social dynamics and drama, they would say dismissively, “just wait until you get into the REAL world” or “but this isn’t REAL life.”

More recently, I’ve seen this criticism made of online activities, where people say they are quitting facebook or stepping back from an online community because “I need to pay more attention to real life.“

I’ve even caught myself doing it, from an entirely different angle, looking at the aspirations and obsessions of people living in a small circle of work-drink-crash-work, with all of the social inwardness and drama that comes with that lifestyle, and thinking, “but, that stuff isn’t real. Not like raising children or getting involved in things that really enrich the larger community and future generations. That life looks so small.” The amazing thing is that I can drift into this way of thinking even though I am self-consciously aware that my life, orbiting as it does around my three children, my work, and my online interests, is liable to raise the same criticism: it looks so small, so insular. The world I live in isn’t the real world.

But it is. All of it. In the home, in the workplace, online, with my family, in a small college or on the street…it’s all real. You have a real capacity to do good, and a real capacity to do evil. You can work on your self, and work to build up the people around you…or you can be self-destructive and harmful to others. Your actions and words have meaning, whether you are on Facebook or a streetcar.

It’s all real life.

Mother’s Day is this Sunday. A few weeks ago, my younger son brought home a little sack on a string around his neck, which he wore for two days (though, he informed me seriously, the teacher said not to wear it to bed). Inside was a little seed, germinating in his body heat. I’m pretty touched by the thought of being given something that germinated next to my sweet son’s heart (and that he’s been tending for weeks now). I’m not sure whether anything else could top that level of thoughtfulness. Kudos to Mrs. H for rocking the mother’s day craft/gift for Kindergarten!

Last week I mentioned the kidnapped girls of Nigeria. Now that the situation has gained international attention and garnered offers of help from the US and other powers, there’s little we can do from where we are but pray. This blogger is encouraging people to pick the name of a girl in particular to pray for.

If you’re not sure what to say or how to pray for these girls, the people at Pray More Novenas are beginning a novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots next week. You can sign up for daily reminders here. This is a really lovely devotion, and one that would be appropriate on behalf of those poor girls in bondage.

Simcha’s most recent post is a good reminder for all of us, on those days when you feel like the Worst Parent Ever because you’ve not managed to birth perfect, sinless children.

Randomly, I want to say how much I love this:

Yesterday I got an email from someone who was apparently forced to read my blog and was scandalized by it. I say forced, because that is the only reason that I can come up with on why someone would read a blog that they find to be scandalizing. If I came across a blog that I found scandalized me, I would stop.reading.that.blog. So clearly someone is using my blog as a means to torture good Catholic women.

The lesson here is that Catholics are opposed to torture, so if you’re torturing someone by forcing them to read Leticia’s blog, you should stop.