I got it. Right here. You're not alo

Some stories speak for themselves.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/high-tide-and-turn/2013/may/8/disabled-woman-who-was-almost-forced-abort-deliver/

No, not those kind of boys. Little boys--the kind that are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. I grew up with seven of them--yes, that's right, SEVEN BROTHERS. (They even made a movie about us, but left me and my sisters out. Anyways ...)

As I say, I grew up with seven boys, and while there are certain moments upon which I do not look back with glee (boys punch way harder than girls, you know) there are far more which were delightful (I rather doubt seven sisters would have been quite as up from Robin Hood and Kind Arthur style dueling with poplar sticks as my brothers always were). I suspect my parents felt the same--indeed, I've always had rather the impression that, looking at their handling of the male and female elements of the family, they didn't quite know what to do with us girls by comparison.

Which is why, when I read the original piece on which the article below is commenting, I was probably as much amused as shocked. Three boys. Golly Moses. Cry me a river. Maybe they should move to some country where males are appreciated more?

But as the author of piece observes, this is really no joke. There's a mistake in thinking that we can determine who our children are; and in "Albert Garland's" piece we see just how perverted that desire to determine the identity of our offspring can become.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/my-wife-is-expecting-twins-and-i-am-not-happy-about-it-huffpos-jawdropper

Anthony Esolen has an interesting piece up on Public Discourse. Although its title refers to the boy scouts, most of the article is actually an extended meditation on boyhood and fatherhood--not exactly an Altcatholicah topic, admittedly! But there were a few sentences that caught my eye, largely because they complement (or perhaps simply repeat) something that I've long thought about in the context of femininity.

"A friend of the same sex is an image of myself, an alter ego. He echoes my voice.

"But the spouse is no alter ego. The spouse complements my voice. The man to the woman and the woman to the man are suggestions on earth of the totaliter aliter, the wholly other."

My roommates and I were having a discussion on this very fact not too long ago. All of us being, well, women, we naturally started by wondering bemusedly about some of the ways that men do and see things differently. (OK, "wondering bemusedly" is probably a euphemism for ... you get the picture.) But the conversation quickly turned in the Esolen direction. I've lived with seven brothers my whole life, and masculinity still manages to surprise me; my roommates also have brothers, and they've experienced the same thing. But that's part of the point, is it not? Where would be the virtue in a relationship that involved two people exactly alike? And forget virtue--what would be the point of marriage if the two people involved were (speaking psychologically now, and forgetting about the rest of it) exactly alike? Where would be the mystery, the fun, the surprise, the adventure?

Read the whole Esolen piece here.

I don't mean to denigrate the Mommy Blog debate by any means--in fact, as a blogger and someone who knows a lot of young mothers (and has a mother herself--if you can fathom that!), I find the intersection of questions the phenomenon presents fascinating. But there are questions and motherhood, and questions about motherhood; and some questions--such as "When does a mother have the LEGAL right to stay home and educate her children," seem to be more pressing, or perhaps more basic than others, as the matter of the Romeike family illustrates.

In case you haven't read about it already (and in order of decreasing reputability):

National Review

Townhall

Whitehouse.gov

The Pope surprised the world again, first by washing the feet of women in the Holy Thursday tradition, secondly by washing the feet of...hold your breath...a *Muslim* woman.

Paging the writers and readers of AltCatholicah and AltMuslimah. This moment was made for us!

There is a great need for the Muslim and the Catholic global community to come closer together, and women are increasingly at the forefront of those efforts. We are the peacemakers, the humanizers, the true progressives of the world.

This beautiful action of our new Holy Father was almost like paying homage to that reality. Let us pray that this is a glimpse of a future where our two faiths move closer together and not father apart.

One article about the foot-washing surprise suggested that, "Catholic traditionalists are likely to be riled by the inclusion of women in the ceremony because of the belief that all of Jesus’ disciples were male."

To that I say: rile on, Pope Francis.

Earlier this week one of my friends posted yet another fascinating article on a liberated married women who has chosen--quite explicably, as it happens--to stay home. Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that I don't have a dog in that particular fight, the back-and-forth our culture is having on in continues to fascinate me. Are we really returning, willingly, to an age when it's OK--not permitted, but actually socially acceptable--for a woman to stay home if she wants to?

So as I was reading Cordileon's comments on the current marriage case before the Supreme Court, the oddity of our modern situation hit me with double force. We American women are doing something so reactionary that it curls our grandmothers' hair: we're giving up the right to work that we won in the 1960s. At the same time, we Americans are (our at least, our highest court is) contemplating positively codifying a social relationship that no Western society has ever dreamed of elevating so high.

Where are we going? I don't ask that in outrage or fear, but simply in puzzlement. What will our country look like in fifty years?

And I wonder, if the one-home-one-at-work arrangement in marriage once again becomes the norm--who will stay home?

I thought nuns were unhappy and oppressed by the male hierarchy?

International Women's Day is a time to be grateful for women's achievements and unique contributions to society. It is also a timely reminder for us to stand up against injustice against our sisters throughout the world. Here's one example:

Alma walks the streets of Olongapo City in the Philippines, near a U.S. military base. She goes into bars and looks for young Filipinas who are hired to work as waitresses but are often forced into prostitution by their employers to serve the visiting American customers. Alma can spot prostituted girls all too easily, because she’s been one.

Read the full article here.