Poetry Monday

The Frog
by Hilaire Belloc

Be kind and tender to the Frog,

And do not call him names,

As 'Slimy skin' or 'Polly-wog,'

Or likewise 'Ugly James,'

Or 'Gap-a-grin,' or 'Toad-gone-wrong,'

Or, 'Bill Bandy-knees.'

The Frog is justly sensitive

To epithets like these.

No animal will more repay

A treatment king and fair,

At least so lonely people say

Who keep a frog (and by the way,

They are extremely rare).

Oh! My!

What I'm reading...

I've been reading alot of articles from the ChesterBelloc Mandate blog to help me form my own Catholic conscience which is sadly warped by a life lived in modern day USA and not say....Merry Olde England of Chaucer's day. I admit I'm fussed with things at my local "faith community". We use to have a parish but no more. Our priest announced at mass that we had set the record in the diocese and possibly the whole Unites States for the most mass schedule changes in two years. Wow, I'm so proud. He would also like to start a liturgical dance troupe. Can you imagine St. Thomas Becket asking King Henry II if his daughters would like to join the new liturgical dance troupe at Canterbury Cathedral?? Me neither.
Here are some of the articles I've been reading How to Form a Catholic Mind
The Home as Spiritual Defense
Seven Keys to a Christian Home
Chesterton, Belloc and the Academy

WWCT?

What would Chesterton think? Of the times? Of today's Church? I only wish he were here to say. But I'll assume he would tell me now to read Belloc for history and economics and himself for entertainment. I will read Belloc but I'll read GK for guidance as well and first up is The Napoleon of Notting Hill. I read this book on a camping trip recently and was delighted with it. I think it perfectly sums up the two side of GKC-- the slightly cynical, mostly jovial King and the idealistic, myopic young "Napoleon" who wants to re-instate the Middle ages. I would like to, also. I believe civilization peaked in the 13th century give or take a few decades. I can't replicate a scholastic education, I haven't the know-how for one thing and these times call for something different. What that something is for my family I am trying to develop. That it will center around Latin, the liturgical year and Medieval history is my beginning premise. I've run these ideas past my son, Sam, who just finished his first year of college. I wanted his input on whether this was just hiding our collective heads in the sand and I would be making my boys incapable of moving on to the "real" world. He said he didn't think so. "Keep them innocent as long as you can, Mom." I want them to know that once the world had morals even if it always had sinners, to have an idea of what we lost so that we at least know how disordered things are now and aren't like the frog on the stove becoming inured to hot water and slowly boiling to death.