1. The big takeaway from my history classes this week was the story of St. Patrick engaging in a battle of the miracles against the druids of Ireland, including a memorable incident where the chief druid levitated with the aid of devils, whereupon St. Patrick prayed and sent the guy plumetting to his death.

In short, St. Patrick shoots druids out of the sky with the power of prayer.

2. Stories of the miraculous, of God and the devil battling in the open, are as much a part of Catholicism as any other. Later day Christians tend to be rather ashamed of them, since it goes against the mainstream and exposes us to the ridicule of the world. Which I suspect is one reason why miracles don’t seem to be as prevalent today as they once were (another is that I think God knows that far too many of us would try to use them for YouTube clicks: the age of mass media is also the age in which miracles would be most dangerous to the miracle workers). But precisely because the mainstream world does love to debunk and sneer at the miraculous, much of the population is starved for it. Hence why so many people turn to witchcraft, ghost hunting, UFOs, and the like. Man naturally craves the miraculous, the supernatural, the marks of a world above his own, and if they find the Church to be squeamish about this sort of thing, they’ll go elsewhere.

3. This reminds me of a wonderful bit in one of the Father Brown stories (“The Man with Two Beards” to be precise) where one of the side characters is a girl with pretensions of being psychic. It’s noted that she likes Father Brown because even though he discourages her interest, he does so by taking it seriously rather than laughing at it.

4. As I’ve said before, I find the American Founding Fathers to be highly overrated as political thinkers. Though that’s rather like saying that I think Chuck Norris’s martial arts skills are probably exaggerated: I mean, they would almost have to be, right? Given that a not-insignificant number of Americans unironically grant them an authoritative weight just shy of the Bible, calling them overrated isn’t saying much.

Like Chuck Norris, it isn’t that they’re bad, it’s that they’re only human.

5. I happened to watch a video discussing this painting: The Bigger Splash:

This is the kind of painting I viscerally dislike. I can acknowledge that there is probably value to it, or even that it might be an excellent example of its type, but I hate this kind of thing; the stark, sterile modern look (I hate other kinds of modern art too, but this sort in particular). Something about it just clashes with my personality in an almost physical reaction.

6. New anime at the moment is Fly Me to the Moon, about a young man who meets a mysterious and super-cute girl (who may or may not be a moon goddess) who saves his life and then, when he asks her to go out with him, agrees on one condition: that he marries her. Which he agrees to (again, she is super-cute). The rest of the series, so far, is mostly something of a slice-of-life of them adjusting to being married; they are each fully committed to the relationship, but they’re also young and inexperienced, so there’s a lot of learning to do. And since they’re getting married on (maybe) an hour’s acquaintance, they’re not nearly comfortable enough for sexual intimacy, so their physical affection initially is just holding hands, slowly becoming more physical (“I had no idea girls were so warm and cuddly!”).

It’s very cute so far; I like the sweet young-married-couple dynamic, and it’s pretty funny, though very light on plot.

7. I’m a little surprised to find that ‘sweet romantic comedy’ is becoming my favorite anime genre.