Madonna Syndrome

Zoe Lewis:
I never thought I would be saying this, but being a free woman isn't all it's cracked up to be. Is that the rustle of taffeta I hear as the suffragettes turn in their graves? Possibly. My mother was a hippy who kept a pile of (dusty) books by Germaine Greer and Erica Jong by her bed (like every good feminist, she didn't see why she should do all the cleaning). She imbued me with the great values of choice, equality and sexual liberation. I fought with my older brother and won; at university I beat the rugby lads at drinking games. I was not to be messed with.

Now, nearly 37, those same values leave me feeling cold. I want love and children but they are nowhere to be seen. I feel like a UN inspector sent in to Iraq only to find that there never were any weapons of mass destruction. I was led to believe that women could “have it all” and, more to the point, that we wanted it all. To that end I have spent 20 years ruthlessly pursuing my dreams - to be a successful playwright. I have sacrificed all my womanly duties and laid it all at the altar of a career. And was it worth it? The answer has to be a resounding no.

Emphasis mine. Read the rest here. I would like to suggest that women only read this article.

Just to Share

Landon celebrated a birthday over the weekend. He spent an afternoon photographing planes at the airport with his Canon 40D. I took this photo while he was busy with his "work." :)

San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival 2009

We made a last-minute, whirlwind trip to San Antonio last week to see the film offerings at the SAICFF. The festival offers the largest cash prize in the US, so there were many competing semi-finalist films to watch. I saw Expelled for the first time and liked it (but had to leave 1/2 way through as I wanted to hear RC Sproul, Jr. speak), saw Fireproof for the first time, liked it but have a few reservations about it. Kirk Cameron, who starred in Fireproof (and who is much better in it than in his other films) visited and spoke at the festival, as well as the producers of Fireproof, Expelled, and Amazing Grace. I will hopefully write much more about the festival later on, but in summary for this post, it was a lot of fun and we are already anticipating returning in 2010.

Some pictures for your enjoyment, all taken by Landon.

Walking into the festival, held at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center.

Looking through the festival guide, trying to choose which movies to see.

Landon and Mom walking on their way to the festival.

Hunter doing... I don't know what. ;)

On the riverwalk.

Parker at the convention center.

Lexi and Parker outside of the Lila Cockrell theater .

On the riverwalk at the convention center.

Lexi and Ashley are caught coming up the escalator - deep in film discussion?

The Saturday evening awards ceremony was impressive. We have been attending this for 4 years out of 5 and it has definitely come a long way from it's beginnings.

Charlie Zahm leads in the National Anthem.

Ken Carpenter of Franklin Springs Family Media wins the best documentary award for The Terri Schiavo story (one of the best films presented at the festival, in my opinion).

Best of the festival offerings was the Von Trapp's (great grandchildren of the Captain and Maria) performance on Friday night and again at the awards ceremony on Saturday. Although I was constantly running into them at the festival and at our hotel, I somehow never got the courage to tell them I liked their version of Edelweiss much better than Christopher Plummer's. :)

From The Squalor of A Borrowed Stable

I had anticipated singing this in church since the beginning of advent - then at last, yesterday, we sang it during worship.

For Pride and Prejudice Fans:

This is hilarious. :)

Christmas Past

Another Christmas has come and gone. It seems that the older I get, the faster it comes around (and leaves again!) every year. :) There were parties, concerts, delicious holiday baking, and fun times shopping and gift planning with my family. There is always so much to do and see around Christmas that I always have the feeling when it's over that I forgot something. (It's weird, but it's the same feeling I get every time I leave a hotel, too!)
I received a bounty of good gifts this year, and I'm just not sure I deserved as much as I received. My family knows how much I love books and they gifted me with so many that I am in a quandary as to which I should read first:






I also received The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen ( a wonderful book full of her quotes) and Jane Austen: An Illustrated Treasury (perfect for an Austen book lover!)

Christmas on Main

On the first Saturday of this month, we spent a day with Sarah and Kathryn on Main Street, near their home. The street was decorated and beautiful, the weather cold, and we had a wonderful time walking around and looking at all of the Christmas decorations.

(above)The giant outdoor tree
(below) Street garland

(above) Kathryn scrunches her nose for the camera
(below) Lexi takes in a store's miniature Christmas village

(above) A scene from one of the displays
(below) The weather turned bitterly cold while we were still out; here we are attempting to warm ourselves up with hot cider (and poor Lexi was in short sleeves!)

(above and below) It isn't an outing with my niece if we don't pose her for pictures at some point. I placed her in front of the tree in different positions while Landon snapped away with his new Canon 40D.

(above) Kathryn and I cuddle against the cold wind

(below) Lights on Main

(above) A favorite cafe on Main

(below) Kathryn and her aunt Ashley look at lights

(above) Kathryn in a tunnel of lights

(below) Lexi finds an old camera in an antique store

all photos by Landon

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kathryn in November

photos by LTS

Post-Election Thoughts

and hope are offered here and here. My thoughts? God is sovereign and he rules and reigns over the affairs of men. He raises the nations, he tears them down. We may be subject to our new leader, but he is still subject to God, whether he knows it or not. It's been interesting to be a witness to history. This is something that will be told and wondered at for years to come. I only wish such a moment could have been made with a conservative leader. But it is done, the story is not over yet, and we don't know what God has in store for this nation. My greatest hope is that the church will wake up and begin to do the job it should have done long ago: aiding the helpless, poor, and weak. We left them to the well-meaning-but-hopelessly-inadequate mercy of government welfare programs and then we wondered why low-income citizens placed more hope in the government than they ever did in the church. For all the failings of various government welfare programs, they did do one thing the church didn't: offer help to hurting people. It is our failing we should heartily repent of. Had we shown people mercy and hope, had we ourselves implemented programs, then social compassion and mercy could, potentially, have been the church's powerful testimony to an unsaved world. As it is now, we have failed to show the love of God when he had shown us his greatest love and mercy. Our eyes having been opened, we should have lived out the compassion we had ourselves received.

One last thought: history alone will show the kind of leader President George W. Bush has been. For 8 years he lead this country, right or wrong, and he deserves our respect, which is being held from him by the very people who once believed enough in him to elect him twice. In the middle of media-influenced vitriol and spite towards the President, this tribute by former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer stands out as a testament to a leader who never backed down on something once he was convinced it was right. He begins:
I’ll miss President Bush’s moral clarity. The president’s critics hated his willingness to label things right or wrong, and the press used to bang me around for it, but history will show how right he was.

Shortly after 9/11, the president gave a speech in which he talked about the fight between good and evil, and that good would win. Afterward, I told him I thought he was being simplistic: “There are a lot of shades of gray in this war. I think it’s more nuanced.”

He looked at me and said, “If this isn’t good versus evil, what is?”

Then he reminded me that when Ronald Reagan went to Berlin, he called on Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” — not to put a gate in it or to remove some bricks. Mr. Reagan said to tear it all down.

Mr. Bush saw the presidency as the place to call the American people to big challenges — in morally clear terms. As his spokesman, I knew that many people would be uncomfortable with how easily he made such moral judgments. I also knew that many Americans welcomed his tough, direct and unambiguous moral clarity.

I’ll miss that direct talk. In the age of terrorism, the one thing we have to fear more than anything is moral relativism.
Read the rest here.

Finally, Campaign '08 Ends

Election day is nearly over (yes, I voted today!) and at long last we can breathe a sigh of relief to know that whatever the outcome tonight, tomorrow America can move on. Now that you've voted, I think it's time to sit back, relax, and enjoy some election day humor while the ballots are counted. Here, here, and here are good places to start.

Happy Election Day!

Ready to Live, Ready To Die

Gayle Williams was an aid worker who was martyred this week at the age of 34. She was described as someone who "always loved the Afghans and was dedicated to serving those who are disabled... She herself would not regret taking the risk of working in Afghanistan. She was where she wanted to be -- holding out a helping hand to those in need." The Taliban claimed responsibility for her death.

Yesterday I attended a women's luncheon at my church. Let me say that I attend a wonderful church which happens to be in a beautiful, wealthy area. Our struggles in the church are not such as dealing with poverty, but more of how to deal with wealth. There are some truly devoted people in my church who do use their wealth to advance God's kingdom, and then there are some who are there only because the church is close to where they live, and convenient to attend. So we have a variety of people at my church, but the most visible are the beautiful, wealthy ones.* All that to say, that I attend a "safe", church in a historic building, crammed full of people who have never been made to suffer for naming the name of Christ (and I am one, too), and yesterday we all attended a beautiful luncheon, each table decorated with fresh roses, places set in perfect order, gifts beside our plates, and delicious food and dessert to munch on while we heard a speaker talk about, of all things, mercy and hope.

What is my point? I don't know how to suffer for Christ because I've never been made to. Our speaker yesterday pointed out that we should never begrudge the happy days God gives us, that we have to deal with them like we do the bad days. God gives both. But you know, I feel so very strange to have it so easy here. I'm not asking for persecution, and in all honesty, I don't want it. But the rest of the world is dealing with suffering every day, and my greatest concerns are what to wear next, or if I should change jobs, or which friends to spend time with. I am happy and have a wonderful life right now, and praise God for such a gift. I'm not saying I never cry from emotional hurts or physical pain, but these things are never inflicted by others because I am a Christian, and that makes a lot of difference. I thought this statement from an article about Gayle Williams strikes the point I have been trying, in a very roundabout way, to make:

"When confronted by the stories of those who live their faith among people who hate them for it, I am inspired, saddened, thankful, and convicted all at once. The death and murder of Gayle Williams startles those at ease to reflection. The pervasive opposition in the lives of believing university students awakens even seasoned believers to their own apathy. How courageous is the believer who follows Christ among those who hurl insults and hostility? How treasured is the Bible that must be buried in the backyard for protection? How sacred is the faith of one who is willing to die for it?"

The author goes on to say:

"Mark Twain once said, 'Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect.' For those of us who live the faith we profess without challenge, trial, or risk, reflection may well be appropriate. Is it possible that we have so shut ourselves up in Christian circles that we have closed ourselves off from the unbelieving world and hence any chance of suffering for Christ? Is it possible that we are so at ease among the majority that we avoid venturing out as the minority among those who might hate or hurt us? Certainly we experience hostility and persecution indirectly; Bill Maher’s new film Religulous is one example among many. But how we are personally interacting with the angry, the lost, and the broken masses Jesus once wept over is another thing entirely. How effectively we live as 'the salt of the earth' that Jesus described depends on our place and posture within it. Surely salt that remains content within the shaker has lost its saltiness."

Read the article in it's entirety here, then reflect on your position as a Christian, and whether you are ready to live, suffer, or even die for the name of Christ.

*Let me say this also about my church: there is an active emphasis on reaching out to the urban areas surrounding the church and beyond, we also send out a great many missionaries, and we are beginning to see more ethnicity represented in the services. The leadership knows it's challenges and is attempting to respond accordingly. Not all people who attend are who's who or have enviable jobs, homes, wealth. We are beginning to see, and we do rejoice in, the variety of people who are coming in as a result of active service by church members in various urban areas.