Besides the point that we really shouldn’t be talking about matters that are NOT our business to know, I gotta ask the question:

Don’t you think it would have been easier for Sarah Palin to refuse to run with McCain than to allow her name, her daughter’s name, their family’s name, dragged through the mud in all the scrutiny and criticism and condemnation that were bound to follow the announcement? If Sarah Palin was at peace with that, and McCain was at peace with that, then we really ought to leave it alone. They saw the wisdom in their decision, and I gotta trust that they are prayerful enough people that discernment led them to the right thing.

However, I still think that this situation bears watching. I’m eager to see what our Lord has in store for us. These are exciting days. We are actually talking about things that matter. How should we be raising our kids? What should we be talking with them about? What do we allow in our homes? How well should we get to know their friends? What does being “present to our children” mean? If WE make mistakes, how should we deal with it? If THEY make mistakes, how should we deal with it? What should we teach them about dealing with mistakes?

God brings about good in everything that happens to us — good or bad. Do we trust enough to know that God will bring about good in any and every situation that comes? For a practicing Catholic, I think the only answer to that last question is “Absolutely.”

I think that Sarah Palin (and her family, and the challenges they are facing right now) are right in front of our eyes these days for a reason. We need to confront things in our lives as families and as a country that perhaps we have not been willing to confront before. It is time to face the reality of just how far down our society has fallen, and take steps to get ourselves back up. It is also time to look into our own families and see what is working right, what is being blessed by God, where the graces are. Because the graces are many, and we cannot let people convince us otherwise. Yesterday, I saw a commentator hatefully call the Palin’s family a “dysfunctional” one. I think it’s sad when we no longer can distinguish between what’s dysfunctional and what’s not, when we can no longer see a family for what it is: bound together, going through suffering and challenges to grow both in holiness and grace, and despite all the challenges, striving to do what IS right rather than just what will make them look good.

Where I’m coming from:

I told you so: Bennett clashes with Blitzer about “abstinence”

What do I think: One Last Time

An observation in passing

Miss Palin and Puritans on the Left

Rethinking Mama Palin’s judgment

Palin: Bad Mother, Bad Woman


Doesn’t it give you the goosebumps that what’s happening now with Palin’s family is a very direct response to Obama’s words about “mistakes”? Am I the only one who thinks it’s not coincidental? I rather believe it’s providential.

Calls to mind Don Marquis:

If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.


Other’s thoughts worth reading:

A Vote for Sarah Palin By Suann Therese Maier over at First Things

Miss Conceptions: The invisible pregnancies of presidential daughters, by William Saletan: hypothetical, but based on real stats