An expanse of cleared ground where an involuntary vision occurs to a person when awake

Close your eyes with me for a moment. Wait, that won’t work, then how are you going to read? Alright, relax and clear you mind. Imagine you are a novice farmer who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice that you are supposed to construct a baseball diamond in your corn field. You live in rural Iowa with your significant other and our young daughter. Your deceased father loved baseball, the Chicago White Sox, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was banned from baseball for his part in throwing the 1919 World Series. From what you can remember, your father always seemed "worn down" by life. And sometimes, though your upbeat hippie attitude convinces you otherwise, you feel a little “worn down” too.

While walking through the cornfield one day, you hear a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come." You imagine a baseball field in our cornfield as if seeing a miraculous vision. Your significant other is skeptical but their free spirit motivates them to tell you to follow our vision. You work on the field for the next couple of days, hoping to find out what will happen. Neighbors stop along the road to watch and heckle as you plow under the corn, the life-blood of your farm. You wait all year to see whatever happens, but nothing happens, leaving you a little dejected. One night the next summer, several deceased ballplayers from the 1919 White Sox team begin practicing and playing on the field. They appear to come from the corn edging the outfield and leave the same way. Soon after, you are told by your brother-in-law that unless you get rid of the baseball field and return it to farmland, you will go bankrupt.

You hear the voice again, which prompts you to contact 1960s author Terence Mann, who had once written about the golden days of baseball. He wrote that as a child he dreamed of playing for the Dodgers on Ebbets Field. You go to Boston to find Terence and bring him to a Red Sox game, which you envisioned in a dream one night. At the game, you see a message on the scoreboard telling you to find a 1920s ballplayer named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham. While taking Terrence home, you come to release that he saw the same message and is prompted to join you on your voyage. All the while you are fielding calls from your significant other about when you will return.

You and Terence travel to Chisholm, Minnesota, Moonlight's hometown, to find him. The first place you check is the office of the local paper, but one of the researchers there tells you he's been dead since 1972. A confused Terence and you return to our motel room, wondering how to find Moonlight. You decide to go out for a walk. During the walk, you discover that you have somehow been transported back in time to 1972. You quickly find Moonlight, who has been working as a doctor since his brief time in the major leagues. When you ask why he left baseball for medicine, Graham answers that he'd rather save lives as a medical doctor than scrounge through the minor leagues again.

When you come back to the real world, you and Terence return to Iowa. On your way, you pick up a young hitchhiker. After a brief discussion of how the man is trying to find a way to play professional baseball, the young man introduces himself as Archie Graham - the young Moonlight. The three of you return to the farm, where Moonlight begins to play with the other ghosts. More baseball players have appeared in your absence, and Moonlight is having a great time playing, while also being razzed by the veteran players about his youth and enthusiasm.

During an argument between you and your brother-in-law, who is forcing you to lease the property before it's too late, your daughter falls off the bleachers. Your daughter appears to be not breathing. Moonlight quickly runs to help, but hesitates to leave the baseball field. He does step off the field, instantly becoming the old doctor you met in Chisholm. Graham recognizes that your daughter is choking, and holding her steady and pounding her on the upper back, caused her to cough up the piece of hot dog that had blocked her airway. You realize that Graham's decision means he cannot return to the field as his younger self, and apologize to the doctor. Moonlight assures you that it's alright, and thanks you for his chance. He walks out into the ball field toward the cornfield, the players now addressing Graham with subdued, respectful voices. Terence and your daughter persuade your brother-in-law that tourists will pay admission to see the magic of this field to bring back memories of the game.

At the end of the day, the players head for the cornstalks in the outfield. Just before vanishing, Shoeless Joe asks Terence if he will come with them. You angrily demand to know why you can't go. Terence persuades you that you have to stay behind to take care of your family. After saying goodbye, Terence walks into the cornstalks and disappears.

Shoeless Joe then tells you, "If you build it, HE will come", and glances toward a player near home plate in catcher's equipment. The player removes his mask, and you recognize your father as a young man. At your significant other’s urging, you introduce your father to his granddaughter, catching yourself before telling her who he is. As your father is heading toward the outfield, to leave with the rest of the players, you ask your father to play catch, finally calling him "Dad", as father and son choke back tears. As you play catch, a long line of cars begin approaching the baseball field - people coming to watch the game.

Most of you should have caught on by now, but if you didn’t…this is the story of the movie “Field of Dreams”. That movie is one of my top five sports movies. I was reading the news online as I usually do and came across something that shocked and surprised me. The property that the movie was filmed on, a farm in Dyersville, Iowa, is up for sale. The 193-acre farm where Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones filmed 1989's "Field of Dreams" has been listed for sale by its owners after over a century of family ownership and the Des Moines Register reports that the asking price for the whole lot is $5.4 million. Real estate agents can often get hyperbolic when talking about a "one-of-a-kind" property, but I don't think anyone will dispute that label on this listing. Sure, it would make for a good-sized mortgage, but it'd also get you the big farmhouse, the baseball diamond that Universal cut out of the corn, a few more farm buildings and about 65,000 tourists a year willing to buy your T-shirts and postcards. Head on over to SellFieldofDreamsMovieSite.com if you want to see all the real particulars (square footage, barn amenities, etc.) and put an offer together before I do.

If there’s ever been a “dream house” in my life, this would be it (no pun intended). I have already solicited funds from my brother and a friend, as well as drawing out plans for my new office…the Global Headquarters of The Elder Statesman. Feel free to email me with donations to the cause and I will be sure to set aside an overnight for you and a guest. Meals will not be included, but the unparalleled Country Junction restaurant is nearby. Entertainment includes sports, baseball mostly, and a vague yet suggestive voice in the sky. US dollars only please.

Objectifying woman

I was going to do a very insightful and well-worded piece about the British Prime Minister’s race. It was going to be full of comparisons to US politics and jokes at the Brit’s expense (hung parliament, hehe). But, let’s face it…who really gives a rat’s ass about what is going on in British politics. As long as they are still our bitches and the “special relationship” continues, then why worry or discuss it at all. Frankly, no one has really been talking about it, except to mention how short their election season is and how convoluted their process is if no one gets a majority (like they did this election). Regardless, the farce of politics in Britain is over and they have a new PM, so no one will have anything else to say about it till he actually does something with his office (and if you know British PM’s, they don’t use their office much). Instead of a dry boring post about British politics, I decided to focus on something more important…THE LADIES!

The world of the internet has brought two very important events concerning woman to my laptop – sultry photos of the Miss USA contestants and this year’s Maxim Hot 100. We’ll start with Miss USA. I don’t follow the pageant world in any shape or form, but when the big ones roll around like Miss USA and Miss America I will TiVo them and pick the best parts to watch (swimsuit competition anyone?). I like to compare my ratings with the ratings the judges give to test if my judgment of beauty meets pageant standards…more often than not, it doesn’t. But, I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder and though I may find someone extremely attractive, there are definitely others who don’t. No matter how you slice it, though, all these contestants do fit into a mold, a range, a demographic that would be considered “beautiful”…otherwise, what the hell are they doing in a pageant to begin with? Going along that line of thinking, you would expect these beautiful women to do whatever it takes to win the competition. That means when the pageant says, “Let’s do some ‘racy’ photos of the contestants to spice things up,” then the girls are going to go along with it. And they did.

The Miss USA contest is under fire for posting racy lingerie photos of its current crop of contestants. In a bedroom-inspired, black-and-white shoot, the 51 models lounge about in open button-downs and suggestive under-things. Miss South Carolina, Rachel Law, poses in a white corset top, while Bethany Gerber as Miss Kansas wears nothing but a men's dress shirt barely held in place. The sexy pics are displayed on the Miss USA website's contestant’s page, which is meant to introduce this year's hopefuls. It's a pretty big departure from the traditional method of introducing beauty pageant contenders (though I think now that all introductions should start with a picture of you in your underwear). Pageant officials have been fielding angry phone calls from people upset with the “overly seductive” nature of the new photos. But the folks behind the show see nothing wrong with a little bedroom-wear in the name of art. Lark-Marie Anton, VP of marketing and PR for Miss Universe (with a name like that, what else are you going to do), called the photos "tasteful," explaining, "Each contestant felt beautiful, sexy, and relevant. We are in the business of beauty, and the contestants who compete for the title of Miss USA are not afraid to be sexy." Though I am a pretty conservative man, I am also a man, and seeing women in any level of undress is fine with me, but this goes further than that. I have to agree with the Miss Universe organization and their defense of these photos. You can really see, in some of the contestants’ faces and body language, that these women were empowered by this shoot. Most of them do not get to do photo shoots like this in protection of their reputation. Letting them have this ability to take charge of themselves, their bodies, and their raw sexuality (or lack of it, if you check some of the photos, they look downright scared to be in the situation they are in) is a gift to them and speaks highly of what the pageant is trying to do for women across the globe. So often we ridicule beautiful women because we don’t believe that they have anything to offer but something pretty to look at. Most of these girls are aspiring or successful in their careers, they are well spoken and intelligent, and, yes, they do look good in just about anything. That isn’t always the case, but it is a common case in the pageant world. So why are we freaking out about this? Let them do what they want…it is a pageant for crying out loud and has little bearing on real life. Besides, just imagine what more liberal countries like France, Japan, and Brazil do with their contestant photographs…need I say more.

That was just fluff to make this post a little longer, but now we are going to get to the more important issue. Maxim Magazine’s “Hot 100” has been released. The annual "Hot 100" list came out on Monday being billed by Maxim as "The definitive list of the world's most beautiful women." The annual contest is a fierce competition between actresses, models, singers, reality-TV stars, and even the girlfriends of celebrities covering the A-list to the D-list. Now, I don’t agree it is a definitive list because it doesn’t include the “girl next door” or “the secretary from my office” who often times garners more “hot” appeal than celebs due to them being in your sphere of influence. I do agree that it contains the hottest of the “it” crowd, though I often disagree with their ranking. For instance, this year pop singer Katy Perry beat out the likes of Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker and “Avatar” star Zoe Saldana for the number one spot on the list. Calling this Perry's "supernova moment," in the Hot 100 issue of the magazine, Maxim's Editor-in-Chief Joe Levy explained Perry's appeal as more than just about her looks: "It's that feeling you get when you suddenly realize that the smartest, funniest, coolest girl you know also happens to be the best looking and a pretty good skateboarder, too." I’ve had moments like that before, trust me, but the thing is…I don’t know that’s who Katy Perry is; I have to trust what the magazine tells me. All I really know of Katy Perry is a couple of toe tapping songs and a Proactiv acne solution commercial.

So how can I find her “hot”? I was watching The Office the other night and it was the episode where they were trying to decide if Hilary Swank was hot or not. They divided into factions based on how they perceived hotness and argued all day about it. They remained at a stalemate until Michael walked in, asked what was going on, and summarily declared her hot. It’s all in perception. For instance…Zoe Saldana, who placed third this year after Katy Perry and Brooklyn Decker, respectively, would not fall in my top ten. She may not fall in my top twenty or thirty. The magazine describes her as “scorchingly sexy” though I see it as more of a fizzle. That’s just me; I don’t find her “hot”. In fact, every year I go through the Maxim Hot 100 and pick out ten or more who don’t really fit in my “hot” category. So to be definitive, like for example the dictionary (which carries definitions), something should not be arguable. So Maxim’s claim of “the definitive list of the world’s most beautiful women” should be changed to the “arguable list of the world’s most beautiful women”. I will posit this for your consideration…I draw a difference between “hot” and “beautiful”. Beautiful contains all those intangible qualities that draw you to people. A beautiful woman will stimulate your intellect as well as your loins (see Coming to America). A hot woman, a hot chick, to me is that physical attractiveness that draws your eyes but may not draw anything else. You lust for hot woman…you fall in love with beautiful woman. To me, there is a huge difference.

Back to the list…last year's winner, "House's" Olivia Wilde, placed 20th on this year's list, which includes newcomers like "Modern Family's" Sofia Vergara (#47) and Ke$ha (#56, I believe it is pronounced Ke-dollar sign-ha), as well as regulars like Britney Spears (#54), Scarlett Johansson (#14), and Angelina Jolie (#38). Here are the ladies who round out this year's Top 10, and what Maxim had to say about their attributes (my comments, if any, will be in parenthesis):
1. Katy Perry: "[She's] the hottest woman alive because she's sexy and because she's talented. But more important, because she's the best friend you suddenly realize you've loved your whole life." (Attractive, yes, but perhaps I will get to know her first before we call each other “best friends”)
2. Brooklyn Decker: This model and 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model is married to tennis star Andy Roddick. Says Maxim: "We think it's time to crown a new world supermodel...Let's go, Brooklyn!" (Sure, pick the reportedly flawless white chick as the new world supermodel…racist)
3. Zoe Saldana: "The scorchingly sexy "Avatar" star had dudes the world over learning to say 'Damn, she's hot,' in perfect Na'vi." (I didn’t see that damn movie and don’t have any desire to learn a fake language)
4. Blake Lively: "Gossip Girl's breakout bombshell was destined for stardom. Born in LA, she started acting at 11 and grew into the ultimate California girl." (I know little of her except the few shots I see in the Gossip Girl commercials that are on during The Simpsons)
5. Megan Fox: "A sex symbol for the ages, Megan's sultry looks hit every red-blooded guy right in the gut." (I’ve been gut-punched before and what I feel when I see Megan Fox feels nothing like that and occurs somewhere south of my gut)
6. Rihanna: "This Barbadian beauty hit a rough patch last year, but after her fourth album went platinum, she proved she can fight back, hard. Please don't stop the music." (Her hair always looks so ridiculous I don’t know what to say about the rest of her)
7. Elisabetta Canalis: The Italian TV presenter is best known in the States for dating George Clooney. Says Maxim: "Whether or not she's still George Clooney's girlfriend, this bellissima Italian will always have a place in our hearts." (I’m not short on love for beautiful Italian women, especially if they can cook)
8. Olivia Munn: This model and actress is best known for hosting G4's nerdfest "Attack of the Show!" She first made Maxim's list in 2008 at No. 99. Maxim adds: "She sure doesn't look like any tech geeks we know." (She’d move up on my list…she’s funny, smart, and looks pretty good dressed up as Wonder Woman)
9. Kim Kardashian: "Keep your eyes glued to Kim's Twitter page, where the recently single reality goddess is known to post sexy bikini shots of herself. Thank you, modern technology!" (She would not have made my list on the simple fact that her relevance to any part of daily life is nonexistent…what a waste of a top ten spot)
10. Marisa Miller: The Victoria's Secret Angel held the top spot on Maxim's list in 2008, and the editors seem to think her hotness is making a comeback: "All hail the return of the great American supermodel!" (Much like Brooklyn, it is hard to find a bad picture of her, but does that really mean she deserves to be on any list?)

Spirituality for Everyday Life

I was going to continue my analysis of Catholic eschatology this week, but decided to change my mind. Last week I talked about Hell and logically following that would be a discussion of Purgatory, but there is something new in my spiritual life that I’d like to talk about. After seeing an interview on the Colbert Report about a month ago, I asked for this author’s book for my birthday and my parents got it for me. The book is titled The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin, S.J., and it is a discussion of Ignatian Spirituality and how it can be applied to almost anything in life. The S.J. after the author’s name stands for Society of Jesus which is formal name of the brotherhood of the Jesuits. After only reading this book for a week I have already had two distinct positive spiritual events. One happened just a few nights ago while during contemplative prayer I realized how involved in my life God really is and how much more involved in the life of God that I need to be. It was a deeply moving moment laying there in my bed trying to go to sleep late in the night (more like early in the morning). I felt supercharged and highly in tune with my surroundings. I was moved to tears, crying quietly through closed eyes as a smile spread across my face. It was like the first time I realized that God loved me so many years ago as a child. My adult sized spiritual cup, which had been suffering from a lack of filling over the past year or two, was suddenly overflowing. I slept more sound that night than I had in months and over the past few nights since then, have not had the same trouble falling asleep as I had before. My life, my days, have been happier, more peaceful, and more focused than at any other point in my life to this date. After that experience, I felt that I had to share my new found knowledge and understanding with you.

Ignatian spirituality is spirituality for everyday life. It insists that God is present in our world and active in our lives. It is a pathway to deeper prayer, good decisions guided by keen discernment, and an active life of service to others. Like all Catholic spirituality, Ignatian spirituality is based on the Catholic faith and the gospels. It draws most specially from St. Ignatius' "Spiritual Exercises", whose purpose is "to conquer oneself and to regulate one's life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment." In other words, the Exercises are intended, in Ignatius' view, to give the exercitant (the person undertaking them) a greater degree of freedom from his or her own likes, dislikes, comforts, wants, needs, drives, appetites and passions that they may choose based solely on what they discern God's will is for them. In the words of former Jesuit Superior General, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the Exercises try to "unite two apparently incompatible realities: exercises and spiritual." It invites to "unlimited generosity" in contemplating God, yet going down to the level of many details.

Ignatian spirituality can be described as an active attentiveness united with a prompt responsiveness to God, who is ever active in people's lives. Though it includes many forms of prayer, discernment, and apostolic service, it is the interior dispositions of attentiveness and responsiveness that are ultimately crucial. The result is that Ignatian spirituality has a remarkable 'nowness,' both in its attentiveness to God and in its desire to respond to what God is asking of the person now. The Ignatian ideal has the following characteristics:

God's greater glory: St Ignatius of Loyola stressed that "Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord and by this means to save his soul." Ignatius declares: "The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God's life to flow into us without limit. Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to the deepening of God's life in me."

Union with Jesus: Ignatius emphasized an ardent love for the Savior. In his Exercises, he devoted the last weeks to the contemplation of Jesus: from infancy and public ministry, to his passion and lastly his risen life. There is a great emphasis on the emotions in Ignatius' methods, and a call for the person to be very sensitive to the emotional movements that shape them.

Self-awareness: Ignatius recommends the twice-daily examen (examination). This is a guided method of prayerfully reviewing the events of the day, to awaken one's inner sensitivity to one's own actions, desires, and spiritual state, through each moment reviewed. The goals are to see where God is challenging the person to change and to growth, where God is calling the person to deeper reflection, and to where sinful or imperfect attitudes or blind spots are found.

Spiritual direction: Meditation and contemplation are best guided, Ignatius says, by an experienced person. Jesuits, and those following Ignatian spirituality, meet with their spiritual director on a regular basis (weekly or monthly) to discuss the fruits of their prayer life and be offered guidance. Ignatius sees the director as someone who can rein in impulsiveness or excesses, goad the complacent, and keep people honest with themselves.

Effective love: The founder of the Society of Jesus put effective love (love shown in deeds) above affective love (love based on nice feelings). True and perfect love demands sacrifice, the abandonment of tastes and personal preferences, and the perfect renunciation of self.

Detachment: Where St. Francis of Assisi's concept of poverty emphasized the spiritual benefits of simplicity and dependency, Ignatius emphasized detachment, or "indifference." For Ignatius, whether one was rich or poor, healthy or sick, in an assignment one enjoyed or one didn't, was comfortable in a culture or not, etc., should be a matter of spiritual indifference…a modern phrasing might put it as serene acceptance.

Prayers, efforts at self-conquest, and reflection: Jesuits stress the need to take time to reflect and to pray because prayer is at the foundation of Jesus’ life. Prayer, in Ignatian spirituality, does not dispense from "helping oneself", a phrase frequently used by Ignatius. Thus, he also speaks of mortification and of amendment.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, the Eucharist, and Our Lady: The Society of Jesus has a relationship with the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary in a commitment to spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart. The Jesuits particularly promoted this devotion to emphasize the compassion and overwhelming love of Christ for people. St. Ignatius counseled people to receive the Eucharist more often, and from the order's earliest days the Jesuits were promoters of "frequent communion". It should be noted that it was the custom for many Catholics at this time to receive Holy Communion perhaps once or twice a year, out of what Catholic theologians considered an exaggerated respect for the sacrament; Ignatius and others advocated receiving the sacrament at least monthly, emphasizing Holy Communion not as reward but as spiritual food. Ignatius made his initial commitment to a new way of life by leaving his soldier's weapons (and symbolically, his old values) on an altar before an image of the Christ child seated on the lap of Our Lady of Montserrat. The Jesuits were long promoters of the Sodality of Our Lady, which they used to encourage frequent attendance at Mass, reception of communion, daily recitation of the Rosary, and attendance at retreats in the Ignatian tradition of the Spiritual Exercises.

Zeal for souls: The purpose of the Order, says the Summary of the Constitutions, is "not only to apply one's self to one's own salvation and to perfection with the help of divine grace but to employ all one's strength, for the salvation and perfection of one's neighbor."

Finding God in All Things: The vision that Ignatius places at the beginning of the Exercises keeps sight of the Creator and the creature, the One and the other swept along in the same movement of love. In it, God offers himself to humankind in an absolute way through the Son, and humankind responds in an absolute way by a total self-donation. There is no longer sacred or profane, natural or supernatural, mortification or prayer—because it is one and the same Spirit who brings it about that the Christian will "love God in all things—and all things in God."

Examen of Consciousness: The Examen of Consciousness is a simple prayer directed toward developing a spiritual sensitivity to the special ways God approaches, invites, and calls. Ignatius recommends that the examen be done at least twice, and suggests five points of prayer, however, the person feels free to structure the Examen in a way that is most helpful to them. The basic rule is: Go wherever God draws you. It focuses on one's consciousness of God, not necessarily one's conscience regarding sins and mistakes.

Service and humility: Ignatius emphasized the active expression of God's love in life and the need to be self-forgetful in humility. Jesuit educational institutions often adopt mottoes and mission statements that include the idea of making students "men for others", and the like. Jesuit missions have generally included medical clinics, schools and agricultural development projects as ways to serve the poor or needy while preaching the Gospel.

I am slowly beginning my journey into Ignatian spirituality through reading this book and practicing what I learn through my study. I have already begun to change my life through the use of Ignatian forms of prayer. This may not be the path for everyone and I am by no means recommending you run out and try to reform your spirituality. And this is certainly not my announcement of joining the Jesuits. This is just information, which you can take or leave of your own choosing. But know that if you feel like you haven’t been on any path or that the path you are on isn’t taking you where you thought you’d go, then perhaps a little contemplative prayer and discernment would do you good. It has helped me and I have only just begun.

Mother's Day

I’ve talked about my mother before in this blog. I’ve talked about my sister before in this blog. And I’m sure I have mentioned my grandmother at least a couple of times in my life of blogging. These women all have something in common. They are mothers and they are important to me. So, considering today is Mother’s Day, I decided I would add a special entry into the mix. This is my special Mother’s Day blog and it goes out to all the mothers I know out there and all the mothers of the people I know out there. This is for the mothers who are still raising their children and the mothers whose children have left the nest. This is for the mothers who have passed and the soon to be mothers. For everyone who is a mother either by nature or by the goodness and love of their own heart. Being a mother is a blessing and we are all blessed by our mothers. Indeed the Lord Jesus Christ loved his mother dearly and she loved him completely. So for all the mothers out there…Happy Mother’s Day…

A TRIBUTE TO MOTHER
"Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many daughters have done well,
But you excell them all."
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the Lord,
She shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31:25~31