by Dan Masterton
Pardon the absence from the normal Thursday fun these last two weeks -- lots of things are happening here in my little family, and updates should be coming soon!
In the meantime, let's get back to some Thursday links to populate your end-of-week reading list...
In the meantime, let's get back to some Thursday links to populate your end-of-week reading list...
The timing of this year's Catholic Appeal certainly wasn't optimal, as the clerical sex abuse crisis continued with incomplete disclosure and incomplete accountability from our Church. Non-profit groups depend completely on charitable giving, so it's not really an option to forego planned giving campaigns like this that keep the wheels turning for the Church's many outreaches. However, it doesn't mean that it should unfold ho-hum just the same way it does every other year. A dear friend of mine was rightly agitated by the manner of this year's appeal and wrote eloquently about her experience from the pews as she attended Mass.
"UN: No screen time for babies; only 1 hour for kids under 5" by The Associated Press
I am home with my 2-year-old most of the time, and screens are a constant battle. Any screen anywhere anytime will captivate her and steal her attention. Shedd Aquarium with tank after tank of fascinating sea creatures? Nah, I'll just noodle on these educational tablets instead. Shelves and toy chests full of books and playthings? Nah, I'll look above it all to the TV. Enjoying my self-driven playtime with this toy I picked? Nah, I'd rather sabotage the call you just received on your phone. I try to be very diligent. We used to allow her one episode of a show per day, plus whatever residual TV watching she might do during the two hours or so that we might park it in front of the TV; now, we've gotten her a tablet with interactive apps that we can limit to 30 minutes total to replace that one episode per day. We also wrap our day up by cuddling with one episode of TV at the end of the evening. Yet here, the WHO recommendation is even tighter than that. It's going to be some serious uphill sledding for millennial parents as we grapple with the long tentacles of technology while raising kids."The Relentlessness of Modern Parenting" by Claire Cain Miller via NYTimes
On a related note, this NYTimes article from the winter has a deeper dive into the changing trends of parenting and how parents these days try to navigate the mess of decisions. A longer read, but full of intrigue.
Catholics stink at feasting but are weirdly good at fasting. Did you know after forty austere days of sacrifice for Lent, we're supposed to feast for FIFTY days of Easter!? We're not so observant of this, and Jess Kimmet has some goods to make our Easters feaster. You may also enjoy this archival post of the old TRH on Easter from a few years back!As a journalism nut, I love to see religious beat writers digging up fun stuff from the world of religion, religiosity, and religious practice. To apply journalism to the world of religion is to educate ourselves on the modern expression of human spirituality. Probably the best guy going at this is America Magazine's Mike O'Loughlin. So this press release was a wonderfully welcome bit of news that will hopefully spur plenty of links for me to share here. Way to go, team!
* * *
Finally, our most recent series on how normal Catholics can/should/ought to be wrapped a few weeks ago, and I just wanted to reshare my piece from our series. As a few of my friends move and tackle adult logistics and evaluate and reevaluate career choices and transitions, it continues to ring true to me that it's quite the puzzle for millennials to tackle in 2019 and beyond. I enjoyed trying to articulate my discerned rationales for taking the various plunges of my adult life. Check it out!
No comments:
Post a Comment