Exuberance and baptism

We had a baptizing at this morning's worship. This is the first trial run of the born again keyboard.

For mysterious cat reasons Claudette has come to prefer her water in a glass sitting next to the alter. Sweet Alex on the other hand prefers running water from the lavatory faucet. Of course one of the first rules that accompany computer ownership is that food and especially drink are to be avoided in the vicinity. The keyboard graveyard is proof of that wisdom. However this is shared space with its unique customs. Yes. the glass went over in the exuberance of the Claudette and Sweet Alex romp.

The young man who checked me out at the grocery yesterday has been in my thoughts since. His masculine exuberance infectious as we joked about how rapidly he could do the check out and my caution to not strip his "gears" with his response that he has "great gears." And you know he does! Watching these first few fall college football games I think it seems especially young men have the gears that mesh the body, spirit, the earth and its creatures. Surely the exuberance is the result.

But There seems to be a lot of unhappiness out there also. The study du jour cited on Huffington Post indicates women are becoming more and more unhappy. The predictable hopeful calls that feminism is a failure are all over the "news" in response. But perhaps if one seeks to know happiness the place to look is not so much theory and emotional biases but how the folks who seem happiest are living. (That's how I decided to take up pediatrics. I observed that the pediatricians were the happiest of my colleagues.)

An alarming note in the women's study is that women with children appear to be the most unhappy. My humble interpretation of this, if true and I question it is, points not to a failure of feminism but many years of promotion of cultural values which neither support nor value nurturing. Nurturing in the female in all warm blooded species is an organic imperative. When present in the male also it enhances flourishing of the species. I hasten to emphasize that it is not the nurturing that is failing it is how difficult it comes.

I commented to someone tho other day that I (shamelessly) consider our family to be decent folks who pretty much always strive the do "the right thing," which in our case includes being decent to others and attentive to their needs, even at our own expense at times. I am content that things work out for the best for the most when that is a commonly held value. I will even say if you want to find happy people look to those for whose "gears" mesh the body, spirit, and serving Earth's creature.

A video making the rounds but not played enough, in my estimation, is of the reaction of a young father to his daughter "a catch companion" when she tosses away a prize baseball just snatched out of the air. The embrace and show of love without a skipped beat brings tears to observers. The great majority of the commentary on the blogs suggests that though without much notice most of us do continue to resist the notion that happiness lies in unrestrained self-interest.

Though this has political impact, I was really struck most by the joy expressed by the author of a wonderful letter to the editor in yesterday's New York Times,

I think I will write more on my political blog, Talking Stick News. Give me time to get it up though.