Yesterday at work I had two elderly gentlemen sit at one of my tables. The one gentleman was somewhat friendly, but his friend was obviously never spanked as a child. This particular man had sat for less than two minutes during a busy Thursday night before I arrived to take the drink order and yet he demanded "Where's the drinks at I'll get 'em my self!". I'll be right back sir... So I fetch the drinks, post-haste, and on my way back to the table Grumpy is at the buffet line where the dinner rolls had just run out and were being replenished and yet, he thought it best to let everyone know that he wanted dinner rolls by banging on the empty tray right there at the buffet! I could not believe this guy's lack of manners or understanding at such a busy time of day! Worse yet, this guy probably wont tip very well if at all! (Sorry, but that's a big deal to us servers) You know what? This guy sounded like a challenge. Alright Grumpy. I'll play your game and kill you with kindness. See if you can stiff me then! Even though he continued to be as grim and gruff as before throughout the meal, I bit my tongue (and the quick witticisms in my head) and kept smiling while trying my best to deliver as good a service possible. When they were ready to leave it was Grumpy, and not his friendly companion, who handed me 20%! (Silent victory) So, even when something seems almost impossible all we have to do is try that much harder and things will work out for the better. Keep up the fight TradCats!
Oh Sleepover, oh Sleepover, You are a cherished thing,
That sends young hearts flying like bird upon the wing,
If someone doth ask why, the reason is apparent-
For "sleep" is just a code-word, to fool the guileless parent.
Instead of sleep there are other, better things that take place-
Such as putting a marker message on some sleeping innocent's face!
Oh, but it is just light-heartedness, or maybe too much candy-
Soda at outrageous hours can sometimes come in handy!
For there are times when sleep indeed doth threaten to occur,
But the mighty sugar rush rushes out to vanquish her!
Axis and Allies, Monopoly, Stratego and Parcheesi,
Intense games such as these can make the strongest hearts turn queasy.
And for the very brave a midnight snack is a delight,
The way all freeze when sound is heard is such a splendid sight!
And then, for fun and relaxation of the mind
Makeovers are just the right way to pass the time!
When games run out, it may just be a blessing in disguise,
For then turns are taken, ghoulish stories to devise!
There's always singing (not too loud!) and chatting in the dark,
That is the last that happens, and it ends the long night's lark,
For one by one the sleepy ones go dropping off like flies,
The last not long before the first hints of a sunrise.
Oh, Sleepover, oh Sleepover, you are the best of things,
Such things as you are the envy of cabbages and kings.
Ok I am now able to finish typing it up. This is a poem I wrote awhile ago 02/15/08.
This is about when you were young and every thing is adventures and big. tell me what y'all think.
there lies an ancient shattered hall.
Are these the halls of ancient kings,
with jeweled, crowns and golden rings.
or are these the halls of dwarves of old,
With weapons fierce, and hoards of gold.
Or are these the houses of elven lords,
who are rich with song, and poetic words!
but perhaps, these are the dungeons that of evil wreak;
Where creatures of evil, and darkness sleep.
(sigh) Really its not but stone from houses old,
none weapons beautiful, or treasured gold.
I wrote this 02/15/08, So its probably, not very good =/.
I just found out Conrad and Erin, were married Saturday, and Ines wrote a very pretty piece; which reminded me of a piece I wrote almost 2 years ago. It is very bad, but I thought I'd post it, to contribute to such a celebratory occasion. ( haha now you can see how bad I was =P)
God bless you, Mr. and Mrs. Conrad.
The road was bleak, and dreary
the sky was cloudy gray
But I was jovial as ever, as I went upon my way.
Not all the rain, and cold, and wind could make me sad this day;
for I am getting married, to the love of my life today.
Her Dress, will be silken white, my tux will be black, not gray;
And I'll be the happiest man alive, as I walk down the aisle today.
So it seems like much of feminism’s talk about women making an important “contribution to society” is based on the following line of reasoning:
Women must do important work.
Work men do is important.
Therefore, women must do men’s work.
So let’s break this down a little, starting with the first premise:
“Women must do important work.”
Yes, I agree with the feminist position here: women MUST do important work. Every woman was created by God to accomplish some part of His plan for society. However, unlike the feminists, I do not define this “contribution to society” as “anything usually done by men.” I think the main (notice I said “main”, not “full”) contribution to society God is looking for from women is through creating a happy home atmosphere, and raising responsible, mature sons and daughters. Society is made up of human beings, and in order to have a well-adjusted, pleasant society to live in, we need firstly well-adjusted, pleasant people. Good mothers are what make that happen. It seems the feminists forget this…
Secondly,
“Work men do is important.”
Why thank you, Captain Obvious-yes it seems men ARE somewhat useful. 
But wait! I just complimented men-if I was a feminist, wouldn’t that be a form of heresy?! Haha, I digress…anyways- behind this statement, there’s usually contempt of domestic work (making a home, raising children, etc.) in play. Since I already went into the importance of domestic work in the previous paragraph, I will not go into it again here.
Thus,
“Women must do men’s work.”
This is a fallacy and completely false. It logically “works” only if one thinks that men’s work is the ONLY option as far as “important things to do” goes. Once you realize that there are lots of important things to do besides “man’s work” (like say, “woman’s work”) then the conclusion can no longer follow from the premises given.
So there you go. Improper Concept of Feminine Societal Contribution: Refuted
Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.
The word-painting gives a truly magnificent picture of the solemn beauty of a Requiem Mass, with the music sung by a schola cantorum of one member.
To see
velvet garments in mournful black,
gently swaying back and forth;
like the swinging of the pendulum, that keeps time on us all,
draped over old Father Time himself.
With every solemn genuflection
of his shaking frame,
there was a sort of tired plea
for mercy on the departed soul.
While gently and steadily, like the moon-hung tide,
did Sam's voice ebb and flow
with the solemn tones of the mass.
Solemn and quiet sat the black draped coffin,
silently listening to the mournful prayers
made by the priest's shaking voice;
and then to the steady reply,
in its gently chanted, solemn tones.
So silently stood I,
as the mournful asperges
wept its blessed tears over the quiet coffin.
While the thurifer silently breathed over it
his incensed breath, to give escort
to the soul, as she slowly walked down the aisle,
to be united, for all eternity,
with her heavenly Bridegroom.
Then solemnly did the coffin follow Christ
to its resting place;
till He comes again.
Accompanying this was Sam's steady voice
that seemed to follow
the coffin as it left the Church.
Then all was silent;
except the Altar boy's small button,
brushing against the pole of Christ's cross;
Which did sound as an iron bell's pean,
mournfully ringing in the distance.
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all your hard work and dedication, your comments, sarcasm, and for getting the word out about our blog! We have officially hit the 1000 mark on the hit counter (I think I know where about 500 of that came from... =P) and that was only in a few weeks time! Now's not the time to relax however, since we only have 5 followers. We need to encourage more people to not only visit our site, but to join as well. That way they can be kept up to date on the latest posts and information we provide as well as a real show of support. Please let all your friends and family know about our site and encourage them to join! It's still free!!! =) My heart-felt gratitude to those of you who already joined! Also, my most humble thanks to my fellow contributors and co-administrator, love you all!
Viva Christo Rey!
Whether the Woman is Less Intelligent than the Man:
Objection 1: It would seem that the woman is less intelligent than the man, since we see more intellectual accomplishments being done by men. Almost all the greatest books, and ideas have been made by men, and women have made very few discoveries and rarely achieve much in the intellectual sphere.
Objection 2: Also, in everyday situations, women more frequently use emotion to guide their actions, while men more often use reason. This leads to women making erroneous decisions. If the woman were truly intelligent, she would use her intelligence to make her decisions and thus, avoid mistakes. Since she does not, therefore, she is less intelligent.
Objection 3: And again, the woman is more frequently and easily overcome by an excess of emotion. Since emotion clouds judgement, and bad judgement is a sign of unintelligence, therefore the woman is not as intelligent as the man.
On the contrary, I answer that:
The woman is no more or less intelligent than the man. Intelligence is a gift of God and is distributed widely among both of the genders. One woman can be much more intelligent than many men, just as one man can be much more intelligent than many women. It is a matter of distribution, not attribute of gender.
Reply to Objection 1: It is indeed true than many more men have achieved public acknowledgment for the works they have made, but that does not of necessity prove that women are less gifted, simply because they have not been acknowledged the same way. It is the usual tendency of women to turn their energies inward, towards the immediate circle of their home and family, and displays of intelligence performed there are only seen by the people involved. This of necessity makes it hard for women’s works to be publicly acclaimed, and is the root cause of the seeming silence of history on the woman’s accomplishments.
Reply to Objection 2: It is true that the woman more often uses emotions, rather than intelligence to make a decision, but this is a sign of weakness on the part of the particular woman, not a proof affecting the entire gender. If she overcomes this weakness, she is then able to use reason when making decisions, just as a man could. It is also true that many men also use emotion when making decisions, and can fall into the same errors.
Reply to Objection 3: This follows from the reply to Objection 2. The weakness of emotion overcoming reason affects both genders, although it is true that women are more often affected this way.
What's up ya'll?!? (How's that for a little Cali-Midwest hybrid slang?) I'm Gloria and I'm the newest contributer to this blog and will now assault your mind with subliminal messages!!! Haha...kidding...I will be writing mostly about (well, against, actually) feminism and the role of women, but who knows...I might also write about any other aspect of being a Trad, (like, say...peanuts...) if the mood strikes me. Now, before I go: ahem...
Last Thursday started up just like any other day. Wake up at 10:30 and get ready for work at the restaurant by 12. I am a server at a Steakhouse not far from where I live and this week I had more hours during the day shift which meant that I would be there for both the lunch rush and Senior's Hour, both of them good times for making money. It didn't take long for me to realize a dangerous pattern forming though. For whatever reason, people were not tipping! I would get a dollar or two here or there but the majority of customers would leave huge messes and nothing to compensate for my hard work. As far as I could tell I was not doing anything different. Still smiling, joking with customers, and providing quick service and yet after 4 hours of work all I had to show for it was $20. Ouch! Before I left for the day I remarked to a fellow server that "I'm not doing this out of charity here!" I was not in the best of moods.
Friday morning as I made my morning offering: Oh my Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings... my heart sank. Had I not made this same offering the day before? My remark from the previous day raced through my mind. "I'm not doing this out of charity"... I thought about this. What if I could do my work out of charity? My job's very name is server, so why not take joy in doing that? Concentrate on the work more than the suffering and do my job for love of my neighbor, whoever they may be, and trust God to take care of my bills. I decided to try my best.
Needless to say, Friday was one of my best days ever. Sure there were issues that needed to be resolved, but if not, then where is the love? Thursday reminded me that if all your actions are not guided by love of Him, that it will show in your daily actions and will affect how your day will go. I'm not saying that there will not still be bad days ahead, but at least now my heart and mind are in the right place so I can accept them when He so chooses.
1. Pride goeth before a fall.
This is shown in many characters. Clearest of all is, of course, Anakin/Darth Vader. His pride in his Force-strength leads him to defy his superiors consistently, leading to his eventual downfall and the very thing he sought to avoid - the death of Padmé.
Second is Obi-Wan. He insists, against the direct order of the Jedi Council, on training Anakin. And (in Paul Harvey tone) you know the rest of the story. This could also be taken under the second heading:
2. "Bad decisions suck - for a very long time."
(The brilliant quote is courtesy of a dear friend.) It is exemplified, (or can we say defined?) again quite obviously, by the beautiful but unfortunate Padmé Amidala, whose life seems to be a series of bad decisions. (Perhaps this is why fourteen-year-olds shouldn't be Queens, although this one's bad decisions are mainly a result of her naiveté, which is proven by her listening to very bad advisors, a.k.a. Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine.)
Her first bad decision is moving for the vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum, leaving the way clear for Palpatine to take power and starting the chain of events that lead to the downfall of the entire Republic.
Her second is the decision to marry Anakin, an immature lad six years younger than herself who has an exceedingly clear superiority complex. (Okay, so maybe we can't control who we fall in love with, but she coulda had a little more sense than to marry him.)
Having married Anakin, she makes the third and necessarily final bad decision: she follows him to Mustafar... and he, finding Obi-Wan had come with her, immediately assumes she knew this and kills her, (albeit "accidentally".)
The penchant for bad decisions apparently is inherited by her son Luke. His bad decision - leaving Yoda on Dagobah to attempt a futile rescue of his friends at Cloud City. He's luckier than his lovely mother, however; he only loses a hand, and, learning from his mistake, he goes back to Yoda, completes his studies and ends up destroying the Empire.
*************
I know there are a million more, but I can't come up with anything right now... my mind went blank! So just two for now... and more later!
I just re-watched The Phantom Menace, and realized yet again that George Lucas was a genius, if only for inventing Obi Wan's sense of humor. Gosh, he cracks me up! Anyone who hasn't watched that series had a deprived childhood. If I were Lucia I would discuss some philosophical point connected to aforementioned humor, but since I'm me it'll take some thinking... I may get back to you on that... or not. Deal with it. :P Well, since this post is starting to look pointless, I'll shut up now. Have a nice life.
Yo,
Ro
At the 7th hour on the 7th day of the 7th month of this year my little nephew, Timothy John, was born. This beautiful child, who also happened to weigh 7 lbs 12 oz, received the jackpot of graces yesterday afternoon in the little town of Philadelphia, PA. The sacrament of baptism was performed by newly ordained Fr. Boyle in the very simple, but beautiful traditional rite. After some initial fidgeting during the exorcism he calmly and proudly accepted the rest of the ceremony. It almost seemed like the little tyke, who decided not to wait for the scheduled delivery date by two weeks, was chewing at the bit (or his fingers) to enter the Church. Instead of complaining about the water temperature he jumped in surprise and gave a look that said "Why didn't you warn me?". May he always keep his beautiful little soul spotless and may every day bring him closer to God than the one before. God bless you Timothy John!
Aslan makes a great figurehead for the TradCats blog, being a type of Christ and therefore an excellent Trad Cat; but here is yet another "tradcat", of my own design, similar to Maria's below. Thanks to Jude Emblem for the picture.
I found out yesterday morning that three friends of mine in Texas - not Jam Sessioners, but very close friends of many of the Jammers - were in a terrible head-on collision a few days ago. The oldest girl had both ankles so badly broken that they had to be set by surgery, but couldn't even be given morphine because the surgery was the next morning; so she passed one night in agony, poor creature. Her brother, a quiet, brilliant young musician, had his knees badly bruised and a slight concussion and could remember nothing of the morning before the accident. (My father, a psychiatrist and neurologist, tells me this is normal and that the memory will probably return pretty soon, though, so no worries there.) Their little sister, a child of ten, was hit worst - ruptured spleen and small intestine, damaged livers, punctured colon, and a broken collarbone. The poor little one could eat or drink nothing for three days, because the doctors didn't know whether surgery was even possible. From the account of the friend that gave me the news, she suffered heroically. Let me give it to you in his own words.It is a pitiful, heart-moving sight to see her lie there in her hospital bed, very quiet, except the occasional "my stomach hurts", or " I wish I could drink." She's only 10 years old, very innocent little girl; I can't help but think, why her...
God works in strange ways to show us how small we are. My reaction, after the shock of horror, was a feeling of selfishness. My best friend left for India early yesterday morning - we said our farewells the night before - and though I couldn't cry then, I was thinking I'd be really miserable that day. And then, having woken up early and been hit by this news, I thought, "and I thought I had it hard? Wow, I'm selfish." I had to echo my friend's wondering, "Why this innocent child -- why not me?"
Some relief came instantly, as in an email sent an hour later the same friend told me that Maryanna, the older girl, is in much less pain; Carl, her brother, is also much better; and little Marycatherine is at least stable, if far from well.
Please pray that they all recover, and, as always, that God's Will be done.
The beauty of the internet is that people who live hundreds of miles apart, as my blog-partner Jude Emblem and I do, can post about the same things on the same site as if we lived next door to each other.
I suppose it's like the Church, a little bit. The Mystical Body is like a spiritual internet, (linking souls rather than bodies, of course!) And as on the internet, people we don't know and may never meet are likely to read our work and, God granting, be bettered by it; in the same way, in the Mystical Body (I quote from the speech of a newly-ordained SSPX priest who was with us on Sunday for his first Solemn High Mass), our prayers and actions, our correspondence with grace, (or lack of it), can help or harm people we don't know exist.
It's an interesting thought, actually. May our posts, then - be they poetry or prose, discussing matters of doctrine or of everyday life - help much and harm little, bring many smiles and many good thoughts to our readers... God bless, and let us keep up the Good Fight.
Viva Cristo Rey.
Thanks for taking the time to read our blog! Here at TradCats we look forward to writing about the everyday events, issues, and concerns that ordinary Traditional Catholic youth face in today's modern world. Whether you know it or not it is how we act in our everyday lives that will impact those around us more than you will ever know. Hopefully we can share some of our experiences through this site and in that small way we support one another along the road to Calvary. Thanks again and please feel free to comment!