Gloria Ferris

Tina tagged me for this one. The meme is five weird habits. Rules are…

…The Rules: The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You have been tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

Here goes!

1. I love peanut butter and mayonnaise, really miracle whip sandwiches.
2. I never tell anyone about a dream I had the night before until I have eaten breakfast because if you retell dreams without eating breakfast they won’t come true. My aunt instilled this rule in my psyche and I have now instilled it in my daughters.
3. I can’t sleep with my blankets tucked in at the bottom of the bed because my feet can’t breathe.
4. I can’t sleep with a light on or open closet doors.
5. I have never reread a book in my life. I think this must be kind of weird because of the number of people who say that such and such is their favorite book and they have read it ___ times.

This is a work in progress. Living as I have these past 23 years, mother of two, spouse of whatever, I’m having trouble defining “weird.” My “customary” is most other peoples’ “bizarre” or “freaky.” I don’t want to think about it too much now. I may slide quickly into a clinical depresssion, and then, where are we?

I’ll tag some more people later. Trying to tag people may also start the slide into depression because I am not very good at this sort of thing.

Okay, here it goes. I tag Daniella, Jill,Steve,Roger, and Jeff.

I sent the trusty Tim to scout a lecture at Gesu Tuesday night by Father Donald Dunson, recently returned from East Africa. Father Dunson is the hero of one of our most respected and venerable friends, so I sent Tim out to see why. He came back changed, and with Tim, that has the potential to be problematic and unpredictable. I’m glad I sent him.

Father Dunson speaks on behalf of a portion of humanity not usually in our newspapers or on our televisions and therefore not in our consciousness: The people of East Africa, terrorized these past 19 years by “The Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA) in Uganda and the Sudan. Father Dunson’s affirmation: “There is no such thing as ‘disposable people.’”

Snippets from an incredible, eye-opening 1-hour talk:

“food is reverenced here”…”largest neglected human catastrophe”…”no food security”…25,000 children abducted and pressed into the military service…”the dark story of gender bias”…girls used as sex slaves and given as trophies to commanders…89% of those who escape the LRA have HIV…the kids who know death intimately…TB and HIV rampant through the generations…a monstrous maldistribution of resources…Sam died because he was too poor to live…

We all need to hear more from Father Dunson and how he views the human connection and the need for global solidarity. He’s a local boy who’s gained a world perspective. He knows “we live in a complex web of realities.” He tries to bring them into balance and alignment. He tells us we have much to learn from East Africa–things just are not right, and we live in a troubled world. I agree. His stories help put things around here into perspective right quickly.

It’s only a question of scale.