A Tossed Salad of Links

In lieu of a coherent entry, allow me to offer up a smattering of what passes for food for thought in the little corner of the universe that I represent:


My good friend, and fellow football fanatic, Bob Guerrero shared a link detailing the long road to recovery that England must embark on to reclaim its fading football glory on his Facebook page. As, quite unfairly, there seem to be quite a number of people who have not had the privilege of meeting the erudite, impassioned curmudgeon who keeps our little Sunday football community alive, here is the link, and an excerpt from the excellent article written by Georgina Turner:

"It's easy to forget that England even had a front line to dissect, scoring three goals in four games and only flickering momentarily into life for a brief spell against Slovenia. Wayne Rooney has now played at two World Cups without scoring a goal, but his virtual absence in South Africa is more worrying that the statistics. His contribution in four games could be scrawled on a Post-It note with room for a shopping list."


Another good friend, Roberto F. de Ocampo, wrote a wonderful article about both the promise of the incoming Aquino administration and the fiscal feasibility that should be attached to servant leadership, which you may find in full here. An excerpt follows:

"The desire and willingness of the citizenry to help its government succeed are the highest they have been since Edsa I and are arguably more substantive now, given the lessons learned since then that effective deployment of People Power for the purpose of bringing about sweeping but nevertheless lasting reforms the country needs requires sustained partnership between the government and the people more than it does sporadic demonstrations of public displeasure. This intense feeling for participation must be harnessed from the grassroots who could help call to public attention instances of corruption, identify those involved, and help bring them to justice. It is important for all of us to ensure that this golden opportunity for true participatory democracy does not fade once again into a malaise of public apathy."

And lest I be accused of linking only to friends, here's one pointing to an article written by one I have no personal relationship with, but hold in the highest respect nonetheless. Antonio J. Montalvan II writes about sex education, and how it shouldn't be rooted in a contemporary understanding of pleasure. An excerpt follows:

"As well as it is a gift that ordains one to life and love, sex is not a shameful thing. Because our sexuality makes us authentically human, the rule of life is not built on the selfish pursuit of pleasure. An essential factor thus in the teaching of sex education is purity, or in its secular parlance, abstinence from sex. A Protestant group actually uses the more youth-savvy phrase “true love waits.”

Sex education is not merely restricted to the learning of concepts and their information but has to take place along these coordinates because it seeks the integral formation of the young. Using the framework of St. Thomas Aquinas, the more important a thing, the more necessary it is to follow the order of reason concerning it. Sexuality thus is a great good which must be necessarily treated by the order of reason enlightened by faith."

Enjoy!


Photo Credits:

Picture of salad comes courtesy of Peoria Steak and Fries.