Friday Links and Such

Here's a few things from the week to make your Friday evening at little more interesting - that is, if your Friday evenings are as exciting as mine are and you spend them in your jammies, watching TV and surfing.

If you're somewhere near Central Texas on October 1-2, there's a fantastic adoption conference in Austin, hosted by Together for Adoption. The Livesays will be there, as will Dr. Karyn Purvis and many, many others. And I will too - at least I'm hoping so. Missy says I should be, so I'm tryin'.

Danielle Bean has an op-ed on Sarah Palin and feminism in The Washington Post that is definitely worth a read. No surprise there: most everything Danielle writes is worth checking out, including her blog.

Kristen at Rage against the Minivan asked this week "what does it mean to be white?" and got lots of interesting answers.

I have a new favorite quote that I found at Amy Block's website: "Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world when He could do something about it ... but I'm afraid He might ask me the same question." How great is that?!

New favorite blog? Father Stephen's. Just make sure you have at least 15-20 minutes before you start to read his daily post: it will take you that long to read and then meditate on it. Wonderful stuff. Here's a great quote from today's post: "Christ has promised that we would have life “more abundant.” By this is not meant that we will be rich or have more material things (for these are not the true life). But the Kingdom is an endless abundance that enters our heart and world, shattering the narrowness of opaque minds and opening to us the fullness of life in Christ." [emphasis added]

Another favorite quote, this one stolen from Simcha Fisher. It's by St. Therese of Liseiux. "Why should we defend ourselves when we are misunderstood and misjudged? Let us leave that aside. Let us not say anything. It is so sweet to let others judge us in any way they like. O blessed silence, which gives so much peace to the soul!" I needed to read that this week - oh, my, did I need to read it! And Simcha's post in which she uses that: it's another must-read. It's about whether Mary would have worn pants. No, really, it is, and it's about so much more than that at the same time. Read! Read!

Finally, a sad local story: Murder by the Book assistant manager David Thompson died suddenly this week at the age of 38. You can read about his storybook-like courtship and marriage of his wife, McKenna Jordan, here. It's a fitting story for two people in love with good books - but oh-so-sad in retrospect, as his lovely wife is now a widow at just 27. Great sympathy to her and to all of David's family and friends. May his memory be eternal!

I guess since I got to seven, this almost qualifies as a "7 Quick Takes Friday", as hosted by Jennifer Fulwiler. You can check out all of this week's entries at her blog. Maybe next time I'll be motivated enough to go grab the graphic and list my post there.