November 14, 2014 – Momentary Lapse Of Sanity

An intolerant woman wrote in to ‘Ask Amy’ complaining about her sister Wendy. Amy responded with the following fistful of shame.

Dear Amy:

Every Fall, my sister, cousins and a cousin’s sister-in-law have a weekend shopping excursion in our home city. We stay in a hotel, treat ourselves, shop for your children and go out for lunches and dinners. It is a great time to reconnect.

I have a sister “Wendy,” whom we do not invite. She is offended to the point of tears when she finds we have not invited her. My two sisters and I are very close in age, but Wendy hasn’t been as close to this set of cousins as my sister and I have been through the years.

We are all married stay-at-home moms. Wendy is a divorced, working mom with one young child.

There are several reasons we do not include her. We know she doesn’t have very much money for such an outing. She also does not have many of the same interests as we do. We’re all very active churchgoers, while she only sporadically attends services. Plain and simple, she does not really fit in with us anymore.

She takes it very personally, and last year even came over to my home unannounced crying about it, which upset my children and caused my husband to threaten to call the police if she did not leave.

Now she barely speaks to me and has told our relatives that I am a horrible person (even though I’ve helped her).

How can we get her to understand that she should perhaps find another set of friends whose lives and interests align more closely with hers? -SAD SISTER

Dear Sad:

First, let’s establish that I agree with your sister: You are a horrible person.

Obviously, you can do whatever you want and associate with—or exclude—whomever you want, but you don’t get to do this and also blame the person you are excluding for not “fitting in.”

The only way your sister would ever fit in would be fore you to make room for her. You are unwilling to do that, and that is your choice.

But her being upset is completely justified, and you’ll just have to live with that. Perhaps this is something you could ponder from your church pew, because despite your regular attendance, you don’t seem to have learned much.

November 14, 2014 facetioussoup aka MLWA

Gabriel Hudelson’s Veterans Day Thanks & Please

Gabriel Hudelson

3 hrs · Edited ·

A few days back was Veterans Day. In thinking about American veterans, I’m left wanting to say two things- “thank you,” and “please.”

Thank you for all the pain and the sacrifice, all the things you’ve endured, for giving your then for our now. Thank you for the sleepless nights and the heartbreak and the haunting memories.

And please. If I may ask it, please make one more sacrifice for us. Please endure the pain of reliving those memories so that those memories may not be forgotten. Please tell us your stories. Please etch the lessons forged into your soul by the hell-fires of war into the minds of your children and your grandchildren. Please make this one last sacrifice.

Because we want to hear. We need to hear.

In saying “thank you,” I don’t mean a cursory tip-of-the-hat that makes me feel like a better American. I don’t mean some jingoistic “everything America does is perfect” blind endorsement.

I mean that I am grateful for your commitment and your sacrifice, and I mean that I don’t want you to pass away in obscurity, ignored by the nation for which you died, and I mean that I don’t want your memories and your messages to follow you to the grave, and I mean that the regrets that you have are regrets that we can learn from, and the mistakes you made are mistakes we can avoid, and the sins of the past can be forgiven in Christ, but the lessons of the past do no good if they are not taught to the people of the present, and the passions and hopes and dreams that led you into the face of death are passions and hopes and dreams that should quicken our pulse, and the cheers of victory you shouted are cheers that can and should echo in the hearts of those, like me, who have lived in a time where there’s always war and never victory, and the heroism you showed is an example that strikes fire in the heart and sends sparks into the eyes of every boy who hears of it.

And we need more boys with fire in their eyes.

Thank you. We needed you. We still need you.

We need our history. We need our legacy. A generation of Americans is growing up today isolated from everything that made America what she is. We have no history, and so we have no future.

The Israelites wrote down their tales of valor; David’s mighty men had their deeds inscribed into the heritage of their people.

For too long I haven’t taken things like Veterans Day seriously. I say this to my shame. When I see others pouring themselves into the lives of the dying generations, and when I see the joy it brings to those precious and disappearing forefathers of mine, I am convicted. I am inspired.

I pray for God’s Grace, that I may be the kind of person who says “thank you.” And who then sits down to listen.

“Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.” – Deuteronomy 32:7

‪#‎VeteransDay‬