We woke up aboard our sailboat in the Tauranga Bridge Marina in New Zealand. My husband and I had arrived in NZ the previous December after sailing across the Pacific. We had no TV and rarely listened to the radio.
Where Were You on 9/11/2001?
Category Archives: Life and living
Murder for Money
“The discovery in 1828 that two drunken Irishmen had, within the space of a few months, committed sixteen murders in [Edinburgh], and had sold the bodies of all their victims to a leading anatomist for dissection, shocked the people of Scotland as no other series of crimes has ever done. . . . The city was in a state of constant terror. Children were told to keep off the streets, and families stayed indoors from long before sunset. At no time in living memory had Edinburgh’s locksmiths done such a roaring trade. Even tough laboring men took to coming home from work in groups rather than on their own. . . .” So writes Donald A. Low in The Regency Underworld.
In the early 1800’s, British surgical science was still in its infancy and, by law, only bodies of executed criminals could be used for dissection. The demand for research cadavers far outstripped the supply. To meet this need, “resurrectionists” illegally dug up freshly buried bodies out of cemeteries and sold them to anatomical schools, a practice known and condoned by surgeons.
In 1827, the unscrupulously enterprising William Burke and William Hare sold for dissection the corpse of a fellow lodger who had died of natural causes. Encouraged by the profit they made and the assurance by the anatomy school of more money for more corpses, they lured 16 more people to their deaths before they were discovered.
Does this MO sound familiar? It should.
Abortion proponents constantly assert that abortion is offered as a necessary service to women. However, the CMP video “Human Capital: Episode 3” shows abortionists making their procedure decisions according to orders for fetal organs.
Read the rest at BreakPoint Blog.
Cutting Out Body Parts: Anesthesia Drunkenness
I’ve been drunk for a week. Well, not actually drunk. I’ve been feeling drunk for a week.
Continue reading Cutting Out Body Parts: Anesthesia Drunkenness
Teachings of the Church Filtered Through Parents
We find out what we really believe when it’s time to teach it to our children.
Continue reading Teachings of the Church Filtered Through Parents
Trusting God’s Promises Leads to Depression Diagnosis
The women were coming and I would never be ready on time.
My children were still wee young things. It must have been the Holy Spirit’s leading that had caused me to successfully get a women’s Bible study up and running in my home. Those who know me well, know that thinking of, organizing, and following through on such plans is completely unlike me. Many times on Bible study day, I recall waking up in the morning, standing in my kitchen, and wondering how I would ever be ready on time. The perpetual pile of papers was always there to accuse me of being a homemaker failure. Taking care of my children and getting hot drinks ready for a group of women daunted me. And that was the extent of my responsibilities: faith life, husband, children, home. Nothing major, nothing extraordinary, and I was overwhelmed.
What is wrong with me? I often wondered.
Continue reading Trusting God’s Promises Leads to Depression Diagnosis
Speculation and Conjecture in Jane Austen’s Emma
Today I have the honor and privilege of having a guest post published for the Austen in August event being hosted at Lost Generation Reader.
One aspect of Jane Austen’s work that I absolutely love is that each novel differs from the others. In Northanger Abbey, Austen’s rebuts the Gothic Romance novel. Sense and Sensibility contains Austen’s response to the Romanticism of her age. Pride and Prejudice depicts love triumphant overcoming pride, prejudice, the social cast system, and embarrassing family members. In, Mansfield Park — Austen’s most theological work — she contrasts many things, one being the mere learning of Maria and Julia versus Fanny’s learning to develop true character. In Persuasion, we enjoy an ode to the Navy, the portrayal of Meritocracy, and a second chance at a love thought dead. Emma, the subject of this post, has been called Austen’s agrarian novel. And certainly an agrarian theme is present. However, a stronger theme is found within Emma: speculation and conjecture of neighbors’ motives. In spite of all the speculation and conjecture throughout, Austen shows that guessing correctly at another’s motives is a near-impossible task.
Mountain Rescue: Beowulf Lessons Remembered
Menacing, dangerous, and deadly are the themes surrounding green in the Old English epic poem Beowulf. Listening to J R R Tolkien’s The Hobbit on CD during our Tahoe road trip, conveyed the threatening nature of gloomy green as Bilbo and the dwarves traversed Mirkwood Forest for seemingly endless days. Literature depicts life. In the modern world it is still no light matter to embark on an apparently easy, short jaunt into the green landscaped wilderness.
Continue reading Mountain Rescue: Beowulf Lessons Remembered
#YesIStruggle with Depression, ADHD, and LackofSleep
(I got the hashtag wrong the first time around, so I’ve published a whole new post to make it right. Ha Ha Ha! How’s that for evidence of LackofSleep?)
I desired to write eloquently about my current struggles with trying to find the right ADHD medication as well as my difficulties with LackofSleep. All of which is putting me into a zombie-depressed state. Instead, I give you my twitter exchanges on the subject and the lovely empathy I received.
I should write about #ADHD and #LackofSleep, but I can't because ADHD and LackofSleep
— Ellen Mandeville (@EllenMandeville) June 29, 2014
@EllenMandeville no fun 🙁
— Doug Bursch (@fairlyspiritual) June 29, 2014
@EllenMandeville You've just written very expressively about #ADHD and #LackofSleep
— Darach Conneely (@ConneelyD) June 29, 2014
Those Seductive Suits — #StumblingBlock discussion on BreakPoint.org
The admonitions regarding “what should/should not women wear so as not to cause lust in men” have always struck me as misguided at best and damaging at worst. Last week The Salt Collective ran a satirical post on this issue. The ensuing debate in the comment section inspired my On Modesty bit of fiction, but I still couldn’t articulate my thoughts in plain prose. The discussion on Gina Dalfonzo’s post, Those Seductive Suits, at The BreakPoint Blog has come to my rescue.
Continue reading Those Seductive Suits — #StumblingBlock discussion on BreakPoint.org
On Modesty
Fiction inspired by the comment section of
When Suits Become a Stumbling Block: A Plea to My Brothers in Christ
They told me not to wear yoga pants,
–so I stopped wearing yoga pants.
They told me not to wear shorts,
–so I stopped wearing shorts.
They told me not to display myself in public,
–so I stopped running.
They told me not to show skin,
–so I stopped swimming.
They told me to not cause lust by what I wore
–so I dressed like a prepubescent girl.
And then I was raped by a pedophile.