#he also said it’s a mix of the better parts of profit taker and exploiter

[kartyr]

2 things I’m really looking forward to in Warframe next year:

1. Infested Liches/nemeses

2. The unnamed (narmer?) orb mother

[stevedonnellyfaith-blog]

The Value of Keepsakes (Post 103) 8-26-15

                        I spent a good part of the last 48 hours in an angry stew. My progress on writing was ground to a screeching halt by a virus on the new laptop I bought for my job search. I think I vaguely remember purchasing an Anti-virus disc as part of the package, but I don't believe I ever installed the software and I expect that it has now been lost in the move. Usually, Nicholas, my IT guy handles problems like this for me but he began the first five classes of his college career yesterday, so I haven't asked for his help out of respect for what he is trying to accomplish. Usually I would switch to Pam's old laptop as a back-up, but Natalie informed me that it no longer recharges so that plan was out. It is quite a frustrating situation, especially, as I only use the laptop at home for the newsletter so there is no real reason for me to expect to get infected. Natalie and Stephen both use the laptop as well so I should have made the effort to protect my device; there is nothing so frustrating as to look over both shoulders in search of a culprit to blame while only discovering your own visage in a mirror staring back from every possible vantage.

Of most concern to me was the idea that I might have let Natalie down with respect to the pictures that I have been saving for her. Usually Pam was the picture taker in our family, but I have made more of a point of collecting family images since Pam became ill. Because Pam was adopted as a child, she had very few baby pictures and she was sensitive about it. My mom had given us albums of pictures from my childhood and a good sized box of my "better" efforts from grade school. I don't go through my albums or keepsake box very often, maybe once every several years, but when I do, I usually find certain pictures or items that remind me of happy times long ago. The memory thread to other items and pictures is lost to me, though. If it is a piece of homework completed for a teacher long forgotten, I usually discard the paper and whittle down my collection still further. Someday, after I am gone, the box will probably go straight into a rubbish bin, although Natalie may go through it piece by piece. I leave that choice to her. An old puck from an Ohio State hockey tournament long since played might become a paperweight on her desk or it might roll right into the trash truck however she so chooses. The thought of losing a cache of pictures of her that I had saved in no other place just bothered me. Finally, I successfully transferred them to a back-up drive today during my lunch hour and felt much better.

Natalie shares my broad but not limitless sentimentality while Stephen would horde everything he has ever touched. By contrast Nicholas and Abby are both more sensible than the other three of us. Because they packed up the family house in Brentwood, it will be interesting to see what made the cut. I had set aside boxes for them that included too much of their school work and other stuff, not knowing what memories were tied up in which pieces of paper and which toys, clothing items and curios from their childhood. Nicholas admitted that he tried to sift through some of the boxes in Pam's and my closet unsuccessfully. He said that he associated too many of the items in some of the boxes with happier times so opening the memories randomly was like occasionally being punched in the face. They were on a tight deadline and just couldn't afford the distraction. I was pleased, in a way, by his reaction; in at least some cases I must have saved the right stuff.

Abby is a tougher nut to crack with regard to sentimentality. I got her a couple of music boxes for her birthday the other day that turned out to be dud gifts. I had always remembered the music boxes that my grandfather had given my mother for Christmas and birthdays. They were in no ways useful to her, but they fascinated us as children. I remember pulling out her dresser drawers in increments to form a staircase so that I could reach the fragile ones that were stored beyond my grasp - they made furniture quite a bit sturdier in those days. I guess my burglary was a comical mix of Mission Impossible and the Nutcracker Suite. That kind of exploit must happen a lot with kids as my antics could have been from any number of the plots from the television show Rugrats. Of course, we surely broke a few of Mom's keepsakes, but she does still have quite a few things still that I remember being stored up high back in the days of my indoor clandestine Lara Croft-like archaeological expeditions.

Natalie told me that she wants music boxes for her next birthday so I may have gifted my wrong daughter. She is attracted to the same items that I also appreciate, so my cache of keepsakes may not all end up decorating a landfill or thrift shop. In the end, I expect, all my stuff will all eventually be discarded down to the last puck as mementos are sifted by successive generations of varying tastes. I have not collected Bugatti's.

 Words can sift down as well. What my grandfather wrote in his newspaper evokes emotion in me because I knew the man. What I write might interest some of my grandchildren, but others will collect stamps, baseball cards or whatever innovative pastime replaces those tried and true favorites. Whatever they consider my legacy to be, their interest in me will be voluntary. My goal remains to pray for my children and grandchildren beside my wife in heaven. The keepsakes serve as reminders only of where I have been, without real intrinsic value in themselves. I chuckle to myself at the dreams of wealth that I once entertained. Stephen told me the other day that he hopes to buy a Tesla and a motorcycle one day. I now have an understanding that the riches that await even the person in the very last seat at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb are well beyond the imaginings of Bill Gates or the richest Saudi oil Sheikh.

 The Wedding Feast makes me think of the subject about which I originally intended to write. Because I have come to discern some of the value of the Eucharist, I now possess only the greatest pity for the many modern people who are leaving the Church about hard sayings that they refuse to understand. John 6:66 describes for us that even in the presence of Jesus himself, many 1st century Christians chose to abandon the Bread of Life. No one knows whether any of them would likely have stood with The modern Church in the face of the debates over abortion, same sex marriage or contraception, but they couldn't abide by the idea of the Real Presence even as the Living Word declaimed the doctrine to their very ears. Others have left the fold over the centuries chasing various other fads, trinkets and heresies. Many continue to leave over a selection of worldly issues that misunderstand the very essence of Christianity . We are not of this world, but were made for the next.

Not all those leaving The Church are leaving because Catholicism is too conservative. Unfortunately, for instance, one of Pam's relatives is an active dissenter against Pope Francis because the man who sits in Peter's chair is not a fan of unbridled capitalism. I pray for Pam's relative and don't really I understand or share that point of view. Certainly, like Francis I prefer capitalism to socialism which is always atheistic, corrupt and exploitative. With regard to Francis' statements about capitalism tending towards enslaving and exploiting people, I wholly agree. Once Americans became capitalist only and ceased being Christians except on dress-up days, then pornography, prostitution and abortion slipped the leash and greater proportions of men and women began to generate wealth without regard to how many souls are being eviscerated for the sake of healthy balance sheets. 

Pornography is now a multi-billion dollar industry, drug cartels dominate whole Latin American countries, and baby parts are bought and sold as a commodity, but profits are good. I plan to continue to listen to what Pope Francis says as well as the Bishops who most clearly articulate opposition to the most spiritually corrosive aspects of our society. Bishop Barber is a good one, but I will be especially pleased to see Pope Francis shaking the hand of Archbishop Chaput in Philadelphia. Also please encourage your Protestant friends to support Rev Franklin Graham's efforts to facilitate a Christian renewal in America.   We need it.