On Marriage

These are crazy days we are living in. My dad used to spend quite a bit of time comparing our youth days in Brazil to the decadent days of the Roman Empire. If things have changed since, it has been in the direction he predicted. He made an early impression on me by stating that (I paraphrase the best I can):

"The problem is not that people are doing wrong things. People have always sinned. The problem is that today we attempt to call what is wrong, right."

And good old Flannery O'Connor, in her direct ways, comes to mind:

"The Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."

Everyone has dignity and is loved by God, and we should love and respect all people. This doesn't change the fact that marriage cannot be redefined, no matter what the Supreme Court decides in the end. This  USA Today interview by the Archbishop of San Francisco is eloquent.

Acreage for Sale

Perhaps the most telling of our acreage pictures I've dug lately is this one of Number Seven, on a spring day, pausing in the mudroom for a picture, smiling. And hands full of fresh-cut lilac.

We will miss this place for all of our days, and the memories of our life here will be food for conversation for many future evenings.

More acreage photos can be found in specific tags such as acreage life and garden.

Comic relief

First time posting from the iPhone's new blogger app...

Just had to share the laughter this morning in the car on the way to coop: the radio station was reporting on silly things said by people from other states about South Dakota... And a caller told the story of her young cousin's comment:

"Maybe if you guys would turn off these huge fans it wouldn't be so windy in South Dakota..."

I almost had to pull over, so hard we laughed.