You Missed a Spot (grumble, grumble)

As you read this remember that anything in purple --reminds us that the reverse is also true!

Some people like to grumble and some people like to grumble a lot! Have you noticed that grumblers sometimes get grumblier during the holidays (Holy-days)?

It’s the old, “You missed a spot” syndrome. It is glossed over that 99.9% of something is great but that one spot sticks out and ruins everything. That’s what news broadcasts are based on. We don’t hear about the hundreds of thousands of kids who went to school today with their homework done, who behaved, and got an A on the spelling test. We hear about the one kid who shot his teacher.

Remember this advise* -

"10% of the people will love what you do - no matter what you do.
10% of the people will hate what you do- no matter what you do.
And the other 80% often aren't paying attention. At least half of them wouldn't know the difference if there were a trained baboon doing your job.”

Though some people will be supportive no matter what, some people will look for the spot you missed on the newly painted wall no matter what.
The thing is that grumbling can bring a community down (remember "community" includes your school .... family.... a group of friends). Think for a moment about those who are often easy target for grumblers:

• a co-worker
• a student
• a teacher
• administration
• neighbors
• your pastor
• a bishop
• or even a pope!
  

The constant tearing down can only damage us.
Look what happened to Saint John of the Cross (notice the saint part) whose community grumbled against him and treated him most sorely.

A room full of people each stating just one thing that they don’t like about someone can leave the whole group with the impression that everyone is in agreement that they do not like that person. It is like a warped form of guilt by association! All of a sudden a bad humor spreads and bad humors are generally hard to put out.

Many people have done things I do not like. I am trying to remember to say to myself, "So what?" Usually it is a matter of people simply not choosing my way. Does that make someone a bad leader, teacher, student, friend (etc.) or unfit for a job ? No. It makes them different from me.

Maybe it would be a good idea to run these questions through our minds:
Is what they did evil?
Is what they did eternally damaging to the soul?

I would think that, in most cases, we should give the person a break. Some day when we make a decision, make a statement or take on a project, that displeases -- because a decision had to be made and we did not make it in another's favor . . . . . hopefully they will cut us a break, too.

H/T to Adam's Ale for his post on grumbling! Many of his words are here verbatim. MANY have been expanded upon or changed completely. His post was an amazing writing prompt for me. Thank you, Father! Check out his blog -- you will definitely be bookmarking it!


Here is quick, funny look at grumblers with an attitude! (PLUS - it uses one of my classes' vocabulary words)

December 2, 1980

Tim’s El Salvador Blog remembers the four North American churchwomen — Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Cleveland Lay Mission Team Member Jean Donovan — who were martyred on December 2, 1980.

Hindsight Should Be 20/20

Roger says it's a modern wonder. A Modern Wonder? I'm not sure that that is the terminology I would use, says Antony, of Antony's Attic. Perhaps a modern travesty? Antony has posted something that gets right to the point. No matter the reasons . . . No matter that many of us believed we were justly "retaliating" six years ago . . .the scene has unfolded quite differently than many of us thought possible. Here are Roger's reflections (via Antony's Attic). The bolding is my emphasis.

18 Saudis do an amazing job of pirating Airliners, crashing them into New York skyscrapers, taking them down along with some 3,000 people. The Bush government reacts by attacking not the terrorist movements behind the violence but two independent nations.

Six years later we have 30,000 killed and seriously wounded American men and women, not counting a roughly similar number of independent contractors whom we have hired to assist in the invasions. The numbers of Afghans and Iraqis killed and maimed make these numbers seem like nothing in comparison. A few people in government have bullied us into doing a terrible thing.

And, they neither see nor seem to want to find a way of leading us out of the situation.

I don’t get it.

Me neither, Roger.
Hindsight should be 20/20. We can't change the past but we have to do the right thing now. I don't understand why some Americans think we are doing the right thing.

Here is another blogger's take on our situation:

September 11th…

Now it’s a double tragedy. Thousands upon thousands of people are dead for no reason at all. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11th and yet we “had” to invade that country for some bizarre reason known only to this administration and the war profiteering Halliburton. The good will received by the United States from foreign countries was squandered and Americans were stabbed in the back with a presidential, imperial power grab that was all excused in the name of security, freedom, and patriotism when it really was the suppression of dissent and debate. But reality has finally trumped ideology. The miserable state of affairs in Iraq and the wasted lives of our soldiers, have proven that the Wal-Mart-itzation of war, and incompetence do not magically bring democracy to the world. Nor do they avenge the people we lost on September 11th. The toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan was the opportunity to go after the ones who attacked us and the ones who gave the terrorists shelter but valuable resources and personnel were diverted to the neocon dream war of Iraq and the operation was unfinished. The killers including Bin Ladin got away and religious extremists are back to threaten the region.

Remember those killed on September 11th and remember how their horrific deaths were used by greedy power mongers to do terrible things at home and abroad.

Dare to ponder an even darker scenario? Maybe we should, just for the sake of honestly and earnestly searching out truth.

Robert David Steele Vivas says:
"I am forced to conclude that 9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen as a pretext for war Steele was the second-ranking civilian (GS-14) in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988-1992. Steele is a former clandestine services case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Change the Game

The Pope is in support of the "Change the Game" initiative, which seeks to encourage parents & children to put aside toys that portray or mimic violent weapons.

I was so happy to see this post over at Evangelical-Catholic. I am so tired of feeling alone in saying to my 7 year old son's friends, "No guns in my house!" OR "I don't care if it is a pretend gun, do NOT point it at me!"
My son goes to a Catholic school that is fairly conservative but play guns are in most of his friends' homes.
Many parents say to me -- "Boys will make guns out of a stick or their fingers. It is in their nature."

Those kinds of "guns" do not bother me as much. I have noticed that "guns" in those make-believe games morph into any number of other make believe things with regular frequency.

I am ashamed of our culture's marketing of weapons as toys. This strkes me as a horrible thing for adults to do or allow.



Here's Zenit's write-up of the story:

Date: 2007-01-22
Pope Urges Youth to "Change the Game"
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 22, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI gave his public support to the Change the Game project, an initiative that asks children to put toy weapons aside.

"I am pleased with this initiative and I would like to extend the appeal: Let's protect children from the spread of violence!" the Pope said on Sunday when greeting crowds gathered to pray the Angelus.

The project, which began in Leece, Italy, sponsors campaigns to "disarm" children of their violent play things. Since it began, Change the Game has collected some 4,500 toy weapons.

With the help of the civil authorities of Leece, Vito Patti, known as the Magician Fracasso, organized a month-long "disarmament" campaign that ended Jan. 6.

When Benedict XVI received Magician Fracasso in a private audience, the magician gave the Holy Father 12 toy weapons collected during the campaign.

The Change the Game project is now being promoted in other European cities.

You can find some links to websites that sell classical toys at Coffee and Diapers.

Love One Another

The greatest commandment is to love one another as Jesus loved us. Holy Scripture says it over and over again, "We should love one another."

But aren't we, generally speaking, already doing that except in where war and violence are present? Don't we, practically speaking, love one another?

Did you answer yes? Hmmmmm...... whoa, back! Just framing the question using words like, "generally speaking," "except in cases," and "practically speaking," paves the way to faulty thinking. Faulty because it leads us to believe that we're following the great commandment to love.

BUT! It is not enough to love "generally," or "practically" or even "except in extreme cases." We have to love unconditionally, all the time and in all situations and circumstances!

Having said that, we recognize how much in need we are of the Savior. But it isn't enough just to gaze with loving eyes at the infant in the manger; we must also raise our eyes to the ever-present crucifix, the sign of our salvation. It is by Christ's suffering that we see what loving one another really entails, not "generally speaking," or "practically speaking," or "most of the time," but always and everywhere just like Jesus.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen His glory!

- by Donna Nelson, OCDS (drn3rd at hughes dot net) edited by Soutenus