I like both these bands. No doubt you have heard of U2, but perhaps not Simple Minds?

If you’ve seen The Breakfast Club movie, then you’ve heard their number one hit song, “Don’t You Forget About Me”–yeah, that’s them.

What is interesting to me about these bands is that they both followed similar trajectories until the mid to late eighties, but then U2 launched into world-wide fame while Simple Minds went the other way, becoming now an unknown band to most people in the U.S.

U2 hails from Ireland, Simple Minds from Scotland. They have had the same producer work on different albums; both broke through with hits in the United States in the 80s: Simple Minds with “Don’t You Forget About Me” and then their album, Once Upon a Time, U2 with The Joshua Tree.

But after that point, Simple Minds never reached the top of the charts in the States again, even though in Europe they received more acclaim for later albums. U2, on the other hand, followed up with the somewhat quirky album/movie Rattle and Hum and then changed gears with Achtung Baby, hitting it big again with an album that went to the top of the charts.

After that point, U2’s success seemed sealed. Their next albums, Zooropa and Pop, were a bit weird, though I liked many songs on Zooropa, but in spite of that, they came back with All That You Can’t Leave Behind, winning over a new generation of young people. How to Dismantle was good enough to continue their success; its hit songs were okay by U2 standards but are better than many other bands’ best ones.

Simple Minds has come out with just as many albums in that time, if not more, but they always seem to fall flat. There was a critical point where they could have launched into U2-like stardom, but they failed to do so. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have the Edge and Bono? Maybe it’s because their band didn’t stay together as one unit like U2 always has?

I think U2 managed to do what few bands have ever been able to: Make good music that speaks to people’s hearts, and do so song after song, album after album, decade after decade. They were almost suffocated by their own seriousness/pomp/success many times, but somehow they escaped from it and came out with another surprisingly good album after critics had finally written them off.

Any other U2 fans out there? I’d be interested to hear why you like them (or don’t like them) and when you began listening to their music.

My mom’s extended family came to visit for a few days after Christmas, and we had a blast!

One of the neat things we did this year was a “Chinese” gift exchange with home-made gifts.  Each person made a gift and then we put all of them in the middle of the floor.  We drew numbers, and whoever had the lowest number went first, picking a gift and unwrapping it.

Then the next person went and could either open a new gift, or steal any already-opened gift.

We had a great range of gifts, and they were all really cool:

• Beeswax candles and balm (ala yours truly and Katie)
• Fudge
• Beef Jerky
• Sourdough starter that is from an original batch 70 years old
• A garden stepping stone with a cross made out of colored glass embedded in it
• A really good oil painting made by my cousin Branda (who is a neo-natal intensive care nurse practitioner and didn’t know she also had talent for art!)

I’m forgetting one of them, but needless to say everyone enjoyed their gift.  It was inexpensive, had a personal touch to it, and was a ton of fun.

My uncle and aunt are starting a grass-fed beef farm up in the Texas panhandle, north of Amarillo, so we all had a lot to talk about.  It was a blessed Christmas all around!

“Think globally, act locally” was the slogan on a poster in my science class growing up; the idea being that you would make changes locally, the area in which you had the most control, in order to effect a global change.

Today, however, I read about Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nancy Pelosi, and others purchasing “carbon offsets” to make amends for their carbon-polluting lifestyles that involve private jets, entourages, hummers, etc.

This type of action can best be described as “think globally, act remotely”, where “remotely” means: get someone else to do something good for the environment while you keep doing whatever you’re doing.

To me, the whole notion of buying carbon offsets is the completely wrong-headed way of being a good steward of the environment. Instead of personally changing your own actions, you use your abundant wealth to pay someone else, somewhere else to do something that counteract them.

Joel Salatin, who wrote three books that Katie and I have bought, is a leader in the locally-grown agriculture movement which encourages treating animals with the respect they deserve as creatures made by God so that the food that we humans eat will be worthy of our dignity as creatures made in God’s image.

His idea is better: You change your ways of eating to support local, humane agriculture, reducing fossil-fuel use in transportation costs, improving your health by eating food from animals that were raised in a good way, and improving your local economy and self-sufficiency.

(As a side note: Katie and I still shop at the grocery store, and we will for a long time to come, but we have come to believe that there is another way that is better, and so we are making small steps toward it.)

At its heart, Salatin’s way is more Christian and more reasonable philosophically because it advocates personal responsibility and conversion of heart and mind, rather than tossing money at the problem to get some other guy you don’t even know to supposedly make amends for you.

Carbon offsets are an example of what can happen when an idea gets hyped up beyond reasonable proportions, leading people to look for quick fixes that don’t address the underlying problems in the system nor personal accountability.

The chickens instinctively feared our honey bees from the beginning. I witnessed helpless honey bees crawling on the ground right in front of the chickens, but the chickens looked at them and ignored them, even though they would snatch up any other similarly-sized creature.

I figured that our bees were safe, but this past week, I noticed our chickens were hanging out around the bee hive entrance a lot, so I went over to check it out and saw them cherry-picking bees on the front patio of the hive!

They eat not only ones that are old and dying, crawling around on the dirt because their wings have withered, but also they now eat live bees when they land. The bees fight back, and I saw some try to sting the chickens, but the bees’ stingers can’t get through the dense feathers.

To defend the bees, I have blocked the area around the hive with tomato cages and upturned lawn chairs. So far the chickens are thwarted, but they are clever girls (warning: this is the scene from Jurassic Park where the raptors attack the game hunter).

I recently heard about an effort called Biblia Clerus (clear Bible?) that combines multi-language translations of the Bible linked with Sacred Tradition and the Magisterial teachings of the Church, as well as analysis and reflections on different Scripture passages by the early fathers of the Church, saints, and encyclicals and councils.

The cool part is you can download whatever parts of it you want and peruse through it.  I am downloading it now and am going to try it out.  Hopefully it is accessible because it sounds really awesome.

I’ve always been intrigued by the very human foot-race between St. Peter and St. John on the way to Jesus’ empty tomb.  From today’s gospel:

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first…

I can picture St. Peter, as he begins to trail behind, calling, “Hey John, wait up man!” but John didn’t stop, the excitement about what had happened to Jesus must have been too great.

To add to our home-made beeswax balm, Katie and I made rolled beeswax candles today!

We used sheets of beeswax “foundation”, which we have plenty of because these sheets are put into our beehive to give the bees a starting point for building their honeycomb.  All you have to do is warm up the sheets, then roll them over a wick, and voila! candles.

Here is Katie beginning to roll a candle:

The steam from the oven below misted the camera lens on this shot:

Katie moving at high speeds:

The candle grows:

Then we melt the bottom to smooth it out and flatten it:

Two finished products:

We couldn’t resist burning one of them:

In the silence of that night in Bethlehem, Jesus was born and lovingly welcomed. And now, on this Christmas Day, when the joyful news of his saving birth continues to resound, who is ready to open the doors of his heart to the holy child? Men and women of this modern age, Christ comes also to us bringing his light, he comes also to us granting peace! But who is watching, in the night of doubt and uncertainty, with a vigilant, praying heart? Who is waiting for the dawn of the new day, keeping alight the flame of faith? Who has time to listen to his word and to become enfolded and entranced by his love? Yes! His message of peace is for everyone; he comes to offer himself to all people as sure hope for salvation.

You can read the entire message here.

Would you believe that none of this furniture came from Pottery Barn? Only the lovely runner is a Pottery Barn sale purchase. I am a frugal daughter of my frugal mother and feel quite proud that I’ve been able to create a Pottery Barn look without the Pottery Barn price-tag.

Devin, such a good husband, got me glassware for Christmas, in view of our ongoing de-plasticizing of our kitchen. These Anchor Hocking Bake-n-Serves have a five-year warranty and look like they’re sturdy enough to serve as family heirlooms one day, provided they don’t break, of course. And, these Frigovere 2-liter pitchers are from Italy, making me feel very cosmopolitan.  Thanks, sweetheart!