Memoirous

 Stay and fight or leave, it’s not possible to do nothing   I started this series of essays as a critique/review of the recent film, Women Talking based upon the book by the Canadian author Miriam Toews about an isolated old-school Mennonite Colony is a remote area in South America. In the film we’re not sure where the action is taking place. Suffice it to say, the women didn’t either. They have no road map, no knowledge of the language of the region, nor practical skills outside of husbandry. Of the three options, during a round of voting, stay and do nothing is ruled out, so the conversations revolve around stay and fight or leave. Contemplating this conundrum, I was reminded of Sister Corita. Sister Corita 1918-1986 was a member of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, a teaching order. She taught at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. This posh area of LA is not the first place one thinks of for a convent and Catholic college, tucked into the Holl...

Discerning and Defining a Calling A calling might be described as a “still, small voice” out of the whirlwind that despite the noise and chaos centers us. For Moses it was a burning bush, for Gideon a fleece. It is a sign or even an audible voice or our self-conscious/conscience guiding us onto a path we might not necessarily have chosen for ourselves. In fact, it might be counter-intuitive, against our best interests. Calling is the niggling feeling that something is right/not right. Some have confused “first love,” the euphoric adrenaline accompanying a new positive experience with calling. Calling is what gets us through the hard times, the dark nights, the hours of nitpicking a neighborhood child’s hair, of giving up one’s bed at 1 a.m. for a homeless person, for making sammies when one’s friends are out there getting great jobs and earning big bucks. It is understanding that this small, unobserved act of kindness is important if only for the person on the receiving end. It is ...