The World, Quilts, and Me . . .

I love to quilt. I enjoy the challenge of taking bits and pieces of different fabric and turning them into a whole cloth again. When you sew a dress or suit, you have to keep in mind how the various colors and patterns work together. You would never sport a striped blouse with a flowered skirt. In quilting all these rules are left behind and you find the oddest combinations seem to work amazingly well.

I am beginning to see that our world is a lot like a quilt. We all come in different colors, patterns and sizes. Alone we are something but together we can make a formidable whole. We all have a place in our world-wide quilt of humanity. Each person is in his or her place as a part of a pattern that wasn’t designed by mortal hands. Our free will, however, is starting to make a difference in the fabric of our lives.

When you make a quilt, each piece, square, triangle is stitched carefully to the next one. Each segment is dependent on the pieces connecting it to the whole. Because one piece is in place, the rest can be built accordingly. The pieces of a quilt provide a meaning and basis for the entire quilt. The world’s quilt is starting to miss spaces. The solid fabric of its connecting pieces are fraying and disappearing. God sends children into the world to step into the places left by the souls called to Heaven. He keeps older people in the world until He calls them to their eternity.

Mankind has been arranging its quilt without consulting God. Abortion leaves empty spaces and euthanasia leaves gapping holes that bring down our solidarity. You look around at your friends and relatives and wonder what life would be like without them. How many other people should be in our lives that were not given the chance to take their place in our quilt? I have heard that abortion and euthanasia weed the unproductive and unneeded. Will your child miss out on the perfect partner because they were weeded out? Will the wisdom of an older person be missing when you need it the most because someone decided they were unproductive?
The reasons for destroying our unborn and eliminating our elderly and sick are not valid, at least not to the minds that see God’s Hand in our lives. Although we will all pay for this holocaust, we, as pro-life Catholics, know where the future of our world is going. We understand why scientific cures are not being discovered. We realize why there is a lack of vocations, either in religion or marriage.

In this day the best blessing we can give anyone is to pray that they are surrounded by all the quilt pieces of life that should be there and that their children will always be surrounded by the people God planned on being there. This is a hopeful blessing although the sins of those who justify their wrongs can be seen in our lives.

I love to quilt, yet as I sew, these thoughts go through my mind. I can only pray the bits and pieces of our lives will be eventually sewn together with as much love as I put into my quilts.

“The one peculiar and characteristic sin of the world is this, that whereas God would have us live for the life to come, the world would make us live for this life. (Cardinal Newman)

This is the solution . . .?

A few weeks ago, a company sponsored what is called a 'rave' which, from what I can gather, is a huge groups of young people getting together to listen to bands/music, dance, etc. They pack the stadiums or whatever space is used for these affairs. From what we hear, it doesn't draw a really good element. At the last one, a 15 year old girl died of an overdose. I don't imagine she was the only one indulging in some experimentation. It wouldn't seem the morality level at these events would be very high, either.

The city put a temporary stop on the Raves until they could figure out a safe way to operate them. A temporary stop seemed to me to be a good beginning followed by a permanent stop. All the blame doesn't fall to the companies that sponsor these things. What kind of parents allow their young people to attend them?

Last I heard, the sponsors decided to put on more security and more on-site emergency medical teams. You have to miss the olden days when you would go to a decent concert or event and you didn't have to worry about drugs, guns, and immorality. The sponsors can put whatever kind of 'bandaids' they want on a huge problem. When it comes down to reality, the people in charge should be the parents and they are seriously falling down on the job. No fifteen year old should die of a drug overdose. No fifteen year old should be in a situation where she can obtain drugs. No one deprived the parents of a daughter. The parents aided the demise of their child by not being a parent.

It is a sad world where the children seem to be in charge and people don't recognize inappropriate behavior for what it is. Guess I'm getting old and showing my old-fasioned mentality more and more these days. My children, however, have never been to a Rave.