Yeah, I know....

It's been way too long since I've blogged here. Here's a list of my excuses, in no particular order:
• it's summer and I've been busy
• I've been spending my free time reading and writing elsehwere
• I've not really had anything that I wanted to write about recently.
• I'm still not sure if I've painted myself into a corner with this blog, which originally had a very limited focus.

Anyway, as noted, I have been writing, albeit not here. I wrote a feature article on the centenary of Frida Kahlo's birth that got published. (yay me!) And I've been doing a lot of journaling, mostly about cognitive distortions (of which I seemingly have many). So, hopefully I've redeemed myself somewhat and you won't take away my blogging credentials.

So, what else of interest has been going on? On July 22 we celebrated the feast day of St. Mary Magdelene at our church. For years, this has been an opportunity for the women of the parish to take a strong leadership role. I was skeptical this year when they decided to celebrate with a priest officiating, rather than a woman. We agreed on this decision because the feast fell on a Sunday this year, so we celebrated it during the usual 10am mass — which offered an opportunity for more people in the parish to become familiar with MM's story. And women played a strong role in the mass, so all said and done, it was really nice. Just different. I wonder what Delle would have thought of the big change this year. And I'm hopeful that next year, we'll return to our usual form -- with a woman at the helm and I will once again be able to participate in the multi-generational "consecration" of the bread.

I've also found myself pondering questions of empathy and healing lately. I'm wondering to what degree does empathy play a part in a person's healing? Does "feeling" the pain of another make you a more effective healer, or is more detachment what is required? Or are these just different approaches, inherent to the healer's gifts/traits/personality and neither is more effective? And if you are the empathic sort, I'd love to hear stories about how to protect yourself from becoming overwhelmed. I have several friends in healing professions. Some have described becoming "the machine" to get their job done, while others have told of crying while giving an elderly person in pain a massage. This intrigues me, as I often wonder if I'm too empathic for my own good.

Yeah, I know, this is a rather rambling post, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling again. Thanks for indulging me.

Dem bones

Well, I had to suffer through Matt Lauer this morning claiming that if Jesus' bones have been discovered — as is being claimed by director James Cameron — that "this will change everything." He seemed to be insinuating that all of Christianity would be disproved in an instant. Glib bastard.
So, James Cameron is claiming that the ossuary that was discovered contains the bones of both Jesus and Mary Magdelene. Now THAT I would find exciting. And oh, the bones of "Judah, son of Jesua." Yeppers. Their child. Which would mean that Jesus and Mary were indeed married. Lovers. Wow.
He is claiming DNA evidence. From what I understand, there is evidence of DNA on the Shroud of Turin, so, if that matches the bones, then we have a positive genetic id on Jesus.
Of course, I am taking this all with one huge grain of salt, because Cameron is hyping this for the release of his documentary. As far as I can tell, he's hoping on the DaVinci Code bandwagon, nothing more.
Not sure what I think of this yet. I'll have to get back to you all on this one. For now it looks like a lot of smoke and mirrors.