Life isn't a love-in

I recently rented an old movie that I just love, "Yours, Mine and Ours". It's a funny but touching film about a widow and a widower who start dating before they know that together they have 18 children. Yes, they fall in love and end up married, despite the initial cold reception from each other's kids. And, as the title suggests, they end up expecting their own child.

But my favorite part is the night they head to the hospital for the birth. The oldest daughter is desperate for advice about the boy who is pressuring her to have sex. The boy has told her that she is ridiculous and old-fashioned, and that "all the girls are doing it".

The father's advice is right-on:

The same idiots were passing the same rumors when I was your age. But if all the girls did it how come I always ended up with the girls who didn't?

I've got a message for him...you tell him THIS is what it's all about...THIS is the real happening. If you want to know what love is all about, take a look around you...take a good look at your mother. It's giving life that counts. Until you're ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud.

Life isn't a love-in - it's the dishes, and the orthodontist, and the shoe repairman, and ground round instead of roast beef. And I'll tell you something else - it isn't going to bed with a man that proves you're in love with him. It's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful, everyday world with him that counts.

And that's the truth.

Live and learn

Hello from sunny Orange County, California!

I'm here on a business trip. And I'm proud to say that I did the packing thing correctly this time, unlike my last trip - small bag with just the clothes and accessories I need, only two pairs of shoes (including the ones I wore on the plane). I even have enough room in that small bag to bring home any items I happen to buy at one of the fabulous malls in the area. My suitcase is actually lighter than my laptop bag!

The only thing I would change about what I brought on this trip is my shoes. I forgot that the airport inspectors are still paying very close attention to shoes. The inspector managing my line yesterday suggested since my shoes had heels I should probably take them off. Well, mine were lace-up boots so that was a challenge.

So next time I'll wear shoes that are easy to slip off and back on. Um, and socks that you cannot see my toes through.

Hot Topic - Embryonic Stem Cell Research

You will hear a lot about "stem cell research" between now and the presidential election, because President Bush has refused to allow federal funds to pay for it.

As with many political hot topics, you have to read wide and deep to get beyond the spin to actual facts. Consider this - how often do you hear this topic referred to as "embryonic" stem cell research? Almost never. That's because its proponents want you to ignore the one fact that makes this such a hotly-debated issue - in order to obtain embryonic stem cells an unborn child must be destroyed.

Dr. Kelly Hollowell of Science Ministries makes some excellent points in her Commentary "The Exploitation of Nancy Reagan".

LOTR Update

Fifteen hours on cassette tape, listening in the car during every five minute commute to/from the office, plus the occasional longer trip. Took two weeks to finish.

And where are we? Frodo and Sam in a boat, continuing their journey...which will take two more books! I have it on good authority that the ring is finally destroyed in the third book, so I was tempted to skip the second.

But no, I went to the library and got "The Two Towers" on tape. Only 12 tapes this time.

I'm not enthralled, just committed to finishing what I started.

Tonight's insomnia is brought to you by...

...crickets.

I have a sleep mask for when I want to stay in bed past sunrise. But what I really need right now is a pair of earplugs.

It seems like they are right outside my window. And I'm on the second floor!

Wait...did it stop? Ahhhh.

Nitey nite.

Marriage advice from someone who made it

Over the past week I have heard former President Ronald Reagan described as everything from a saint who saved the world to a demon murderer from hell. Where does the truth lie? Where it does for all of us human beings - somewhere in between. I could give you my opinion on Reagan, but it would be biased because I am a conservative Republican who believes that the world would be a much different (and worse) place had Reagan not been elected president (there I go giving you my opinion...oops).

The opinion of Reagan as a politician may be diverse, but there was one thing about him that appeared to be universally accepted and even (by those of us who believe in marriage) admired. After 52 years of marriage, his wife was still thoroughly in love with and devoted to him.

What makes a marriage stand the test of time? Here's part of the answer. This is some of the advice Reagan gave to his son Michael on the occasion of his marriage (from the book "Reagan, A Life in Letters"):

"Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three a.m., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears."

"Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear."

"There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps."

And there is no greater happiness for a woman than to be loved, honored and cherished by a such a man.

Poor Jennifer Lopez. She may have fame and beauty and riches, but she will never be one-tenth as happy as Nancy Reagan was (even if she does stay married for more than a year this time around).

LOTR Update

So I found the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on tape at the library. Fifteen tapes to be exact. I just started tape 9, which is amazing since I am only listening in the car. But I've had to make several longer car trips than usual in the last week.

To listen to a book on tape or CD may or may not be a pleasure. It has to be an interesting book, PLUS it has to be read by someone whose voice you enjoy. And yet there is something more. A couple months ago I listened to the latest Sean Hannity book ("Deliver Us From Evil"). The book was interesting, but I did not enjoy the tape. Sean is a radio host with a nice voice, but he's not an actor, and the reading seemed dull and almost monotone.

But the actor reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" is great. Very British, and he does all manner of voices (which he has to since there seem to be hundreds of characters in this book). So far I haven't been bored listening, except during the very long descriptions of the journey Frodo and his friends are taking. When they are not being chased by black riders, that is.

Frodo has just recovered from the attack where he was stabbed by the black rider, and he found his friends Gandolf and Bilbo again. And they have met the Elf queen. The black riders seem to have perished in the raging river, so they are safe for the moment.

Where do they go next?

Sorry, you stupid cat

It was too big to be a squirrel, too fast to be a possum, too orange to be anything but a cat. A fat orange cat, sort of like Garfield.

And it darted onto a busy street at twilight, at the exact moment and speed to make it half way across before it met my front tire (and my back tire a second later). I braked but couldn't stop in time.

I have been driving for 28 years, so it was bound to happen sometime. I thought I hit a little squirrel once, but I saw it running into the woods from my rear view mirror. That squirrel must have had the best timing ever.

Poor family will miss their cat. I wish I had. Stupid cat.

(A note to you new drivers out there. When this happens there is nothing to do but hit the brakes. If you swerve instead you might save the cat but lose control and hit a tree or another car or a person.)

Gotta Get the Led (Zeppelin) Out

Despite my depressing entry of yesterday, I did have quite a few laughs over the weekend.

I bought "School of Rock" on DVD, having never seen it. I usually don't purchase a movie unless I've seen it and know I will enjoy watching it multiple times. I learned that lesson the hard way when I bought "Dumb and Dumber" on VHS several years ago.

But I had heard nothing but good things about "School of Rock", and I wasn't disappointed. What a funny movie! Jack Black is hysterical...like a cross between John Belushi and Jack Nicholson. Jack Black proves that God has a special purpose for everyone. If a fat loser with body odor can make it to leading man status in Hollywood, there's hope for us all.

And even though I was never into hard rock, I am thinking of buying the soundtrack. Actually, I'm hoping that playing "Math is a Wonderful Thing" will finally get "Immigrant Song" out of my head.