William Law wrote this:

"The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice. It is he who is most thankful to God, and who has a heart always ready to praise God. This is the perfection of all virtues. Joy in God and thankfulness to God is the highest perfection of a divine and holy life."

Hmm...I guess that it is maybe hardest to keep a thankful heart, rather than keep a well-checked off list of good qualities.

A dignified job?

Spending significant time with little children makes me realize that being dignified is not in the job description...that's maybe not the right word so I'll just go on. They take no regard of what I, their caretaker, am wearing, or doing or who I am talking to. No place or moment or phone call are sacred to toddlers.

How dignified it sounds to say: I'm a graphic designer or I'm a cosmotologist or even I'm a school principal. I'll bet nobody immediately associates incessant whining, and stuck-on food with those professions. I wonder if they ever have to excuse themselves and hang up in the middle of a good conversation because the background noise has hit a peak. I'll bet their relatives and friends don't get tired of them talking about dirty diapers and frustrating child sleeping habits. And I'm quite sure they would never have to change their shirt because human body fluids look really nasty to the average observer.

And most importantly, why aren't those who raise other people's children those 8 or 10 hours each day, while their parents make money, paid wages equal to those of a nurse? As I see it from the last 3 years of my own childcare, daycare providers, unless they just pop on Nickelodeon for the day and pop in several rounds of PopTarts, carry out a very similar job description except that a nurse generally deals in only ailing persons, which may have its advantages, prognosis-wise.

However, getting a up close and personal perspective in human nature....now you won't find a profession that offers that quite as clearly as raising kids. In fact, most of the world's woes come into focus with High-Definition clarity: crime in just about any part of the world or the mistreatent of any group. You name the problem, chances are it's rooted in childish behavior that was cute at 3 but isn't cute at 30 or 50. And honestly, human nature is just about as undignified as anything can be.

purple...not just for anyone

Tonight Priya looked at her new purple Snoopy toothbrush and noted, "Sam could use a purple toothbrush." (I read somewhere that you should open a new toothbrush after you've been sick and having recently had a cold, it seemed appropriate today.)

I told her, "Well, yes but Sam's is yellow."

She said, "But purple isn't okay for shirts for boys. Only for middle-aged men."

There you have it, IF you were looking for some fashion sense. And I can honestly say that I cannot recall discussing what shades of color are okay for what age bracket you are in.

A few weeks ago, I read this item in the news about some famous model who had recently had a baby. The article focused on how she got her gorgeous bode back. Her solution: some great cabbage soup recipe and two hours of exercise at the gym every day, five days a week.

Sometimes I just wonder if stories like this are published just for comic relief. Does anyone really ask a model how she stays in shape because they are waiting on the edge of their seat to follow in her footsteps? Maybe. Cabbage soup might be tasty on a cold day in November when one needs a good way to get rid of several cabbages or a bad cold, but as a regular diet? Maybe. I wonder how she has time to make a giant pot of cabbage soup for the week for herself and then three meals and seven snacks that her children (if she has ones old enough to eat real food) will eat. Maybe.

But the part of the story that I find most unreasonable is the two hours a day at the gym. That would be a great plan for all of us, however completely impractical. This in-shape chick must have trained her newborn to sleep through the night for one thing. Her maid or butler must take care of the laundry every day. And she must be on some powerful energy supplement to have the stamina to spend two hours sweating, squating, lifting and jogging in the gym.

I used to pity slightly or greatly overweight moms pushing their kids in carts around the grocery store or pushing their stroller down the sidewalk. That was before I had my own children. For a great number of us who do a lot of our own household chores, get up with our own children in the night and scarf down whatever is quickest at hand, that's the workout that fits best into our schedules. And as for cabbage soup, two hours of exercise a day is what it might take to get three meals of that through your system with the least amounts of odors and discomfort.