What Do Parents Wish For?

That is to say are they looking forward to the future or gazing fondly at the past?

8. Parents are more likely to long for an earlier time in their lives: Fact

One of the poll question that asks people whether if they could, would they rather go back in time or forward into the future. Parents are 12.5% more likely to choose going back in time. Non-parents are 30% more likely to say they’d rather go into the future. This could be interpreted a couple ways: Perhaps parents wish they could go back to their early 20s or high school. Or maybe they wish they could go back to an earlier era altogether, when family life seemed more idyllic.

My mother, God rest her soul, led a, to say the least, challenging life from her youngest days on. But late in life she confided to me that what she longed for the most was those days when her house was full of her children.



I was amazed since I remember those days as being stressed for her–to the point that I wondered how she kept her sanity. Fast forward to the present: what is my fondest memory? My little girls excitedly rushing to open the front door to greet me coming home from work: "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" You can't buy that with any amount of money.



So for my money, that is what parents are thinking about: the days when their children were driving them crazy while at the same time making precious memories:

Non-parents have “better” lives according to worldly measures:

…except for one thing: they aren’t as happy as people with kids.  File under “the last shall be first” and other gospel paradoxes.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

RJN R.I.P.

I was saddened to hear of Father Neuhaus's passing yesterday morning. When such important people pass on, it seems as if we are orphaned. Yet, they themselves were saddened by the passing of the great men of the generation they looked up to. So it remains for us to stand tall for those who look up to us. Here's a poem for the occasion:

RJN R.I.P.:

Death
like forest canopies
cathedrals and Roman columns
makes us feel small
makes us recall
that God alone perdures.

(Via Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor.)

Whale 'success story' questioned

This story brought back memories of going to Point Loma to watch the twice-yearly migrations:

Whale 'success story' questioned: "The eastern Pacific gray whale may not have recovered to its pre-hunting level, as has been believed."

(Via BBC News.)