England and parts east

I'm heading out to England, France (well, Paris), and Austria this summer with my friend Kerri and her friend Angie and maybe some other people. Any must-see suggestions for our intrepid group of travelers?

Juxtaposition

The other night I was watching the news at the gym, and there were two big stories:

1) The gunman in Virginia
2) The Supreme Court decision to uphold a partial birth abortion ban

The focus in reporting on the first was on the madness of this kid who somehow thought that he had the right to determine who was fit to live.

The focus in reporting on the second was on the madness of groups who said that killing a child--oh, wait, fetus--halfway delivered should not happen.

Most of the people I heard talking about the court case were upset, saying that this could lead to further bans. And one person said something like, "Well, this just means the fetus will have to be dismembered inside the mother, which is dangerous for the patient."

The difference between what happened at Virginia Tech and what happens in clinics across the country must be that life experience grants you the right to expect that there are safe environments in which people will not kill you. Which explains why we value our elderly so much, right? The cumulation of life experience?

In the reporting on the Supreme Court decision, some people were expressing concerns over having women required to view ultrasounds or learn more about the abortion process before going through with it. Isn't that a championing of uninformed choice? Or the right to choose what a somebody tells you to choose? Are they afraid that the women might think, "That looks like a baby...a human baby. I can't kill it!"

If that's so, given what happened last Monday, they don't have grounds to get too concerned.

Greater is He

After another horrific event, the usual shock is setting in amongst my fellow Americans. The usual rounds of "How could somebody do this?" are beginning.

It's possibly more horrific that some of us, myself included, are jaded to all this. I expect war, and tragedy, and murder. Some people believe in the basic goodness of people, in the face of evidence like this. Like Anne Frank, they believe that people are good even when they are faced with evil in one of its most purely obvious forms. I, on the other hand, often believe in the overwhelming power of the wickedness of people, even in the face of God.

I believe in the Fall. I'm surrounded by its evidence, and I don't have to look to a campus in Virginia for that evidence. I see it in my preference for the comfort of solitude over the messiness of community. I see it in my quick scorn for those who cross me, even accidentally. I see it in the way I judge my self-worth by others. I see it in my readiness to cede ground to the devil--in a land increasingly devoted to the pursuit of what feels right at the time, what's another school shooting? Can't we expect that's going to happen more and more?

It is only the sustaining hand of God, I say, that keeps me from doing just what that student did today. And although I don't know where it ranks alongside mass murder, I know the casual hatred for others I feel spring up in my heart all too often is called murder, and it is odious in the sight of God.

I know it is by the Lord's mercy we are not consumed. I am not surprised when I witness, in myself or others, the evidence that we need every bit of that mercy.

This is what amazes me--that in the face of all the evil in the world, and even in His people, He has not consumed us. "His compassions fail not. They are new every morning." Great is His faithfulness.

Wickedness shows us we need drastic measures to be saved.

Christ shows us there is a God who is willing to take those measures to save us.

How could something like this tragedy happen? How could it not, on this side of heaven? But remember and believe: this side is not all there is.

Wait, what?

One of the many convenient features of the Consumers Energy website: reporting a power outage.

It's been a very revealing two weeks

In the past two weeks, I learned/relearned:

• I can write a plot outline and follow it through to completion
• Critiques from others can be useful
• Critiques from others do not have to be taken as ultimate truth
• I would love to write and be paid for it--not millions of dollars by any means, just enough so all I would have to do to support myself was write
• I can be a glory hog...gotta watch out for this one

And I learned all this writing and posting fanfiction. Who says it's just a silly hobby? (Oh, wait, I know who.... But I learned I don't have to be ruled by critiques OR critics, and so I choose not to be.)

Another thing I learned, on a different note, is that there is at least one real person out there with the last name of Wronski. Anyone else recognize the significance of this last name?