Information Technology, Blogging, and Practicing Patience

I try to post once a day on this blog, partly as a way to make sure I keep learning about what it is to be Catholic.

This blog had no post for yesterday, May 12, 2011. And still doesn't, for that matter.

It's not that I stopped being Catholic yesterday. A "dark night of the soul" wasn't involved, either - not even an overcast afternoon.

Well, literally, yesterday afternoon was overcast yesterday afternoon, and drizzling. Which was frustrating, since I'd blocked out time to sit in the back yard and listen to birds.

The [only] Big Blogger Crash of 2011 - I Hope

I'd just finished a post for another blog yesterday, when Blogger went down. Not entirely. Most of my blogs, the ones I hadn't worked on that day, were online. But this blog and Apathetic Lemming of the North (there's an explanation for that blog's odd name), were simply not there.

Good news: Blogger's techs knew about the problem, were doing something about it - and were posting the occasional update on Blogger's status.

Bad news: I couldn't edit existing posts, or make new ones on Blogger, for more than a day.

I just hope that this mid-May crash is the first and last big SNAFU in Blogger's service this year.

I wrote about my experience in another blog:

• "Blogger's Back - So is Most of This Blog"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (May 13, 2011)

Blogger's been down before, by the way - but not for too long: and not much at all recently. From another blogger's experience, about five years ago:

• "Blogger down"
  The Hermeneutic of Continuity (June 8, 2006)

Knowing Virtue, Good: Practicing Virtue, Better

I think it's a good idea to know about Christian virtues. I also think it's better to practice virtues - applying knowledge and will in a practical way. Remember, though: I've got the teaching authority of "some guy with a blog."

I was going to write about practicing the virtue of patience. Just one problem with that idea: Patience isn't one of the four cardinal virtues. Those are

• Prudence
• Justice
• Fortitude
• Temperance
  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1805)

Then there are the three theological virtues:

• Faith
• Hope
• Charity
  (Catechism, 1813)

Technically, patience isn't a virtue at all: it's one of the 12 fruits of the Spirit:

• Charity
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Generosity
• Gentleness
• Faithfulness
• Modesty
• Self-control
• Chastity
  (Catechism, 1832)

So it looks like I was practicing a fruit yesterday and much of today. Which sounds downright odd.

Practicing Patience, Taking My Meds

Whatever working at being patient would be called, that's part of what I was doing yesterday.

I am not a particularly patient man. Some of my kids laugh - snort, actually - when I make that observation.

No, I am not one of those calm, composed, easy-going, even-tempered, forbearing, imperturbable, meek, mild, mild-tempered, fellows who seem to invest a particular sort of 'uplifting' story.

I like to think that decades of trying to act reasonably when frustrated is paying off. I'm pretty sure that diligently taking my prescribed medications has helped. (November 11, 2010) Taking meds and trusting God? I've written about that before. (March 4, 2010)

Particularly when compared to previous performance, I think I did okay, staying calm during the Blogger shutdown. There's still room for improvement, of course.

Pursuing Good, Anyway

I don't have anything against 'feeling spiritual.' I've had deeply-moving experiences: and I've written about that before. (April 22, 2010)

I think it's a mistake, though, to assume that if the buzz is gone, it's time to switch religions. The Catechism has a few words about fortitude, including these:

"Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. 'The Lord is my strength and my song.'⁷⁰ 'In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.'⁷¹"
(Catechism, 1808)

I think it's noteworthy that 1808 uses words like "firmness," "resolve," "resist," "overcome," and "conquer."

Emotion is mentioned: fear. But that's what we're supposed to conquer.

There's nothing I can see in 1808 that says we have to 'feel good' about following our faith. Just that we're supposed to do it. Sometimes, I think, the emotional high comes as a sort of side-effect: sometimes it doesn't.

And sometimes folks have gone days, months, years, without feeling 'uplift.' But they kept practicing their faith, anyway. Then there's Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who seems to have gone through much of her life in a 'dark night of the soul.' And that's another topic.

• Blogging:
  • "Blogging, the Vatican, and Getting a Grip"
    (April 9, 2011)
  • "Assumptions, Making Sense, and Politics"
    (March 22, 2011)
  • "Why I Write Posts on A Catholic Citizen in America"
    (March 6, 2011)
  • "Social Media Guidelines from American Bishops"
    (July 21, 2010)
  • "Giving the Internet a 'Soul?!' No, Really: This Makes Sense"
    (May 8, 2010)
• Dark night of the soul:
  
  • "Dark Night of the Soul? No, More Like a Dim Monday Morning"
    (July 19, 2010)
  • "Really 'Spiritual' Experiences: Those are Okay"
    (April 22, 2010)
    Particularly
    • Getting High on Jesus, Rousing Revivals and the Dark Night of the Soul
  • "Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Born August 26, 1910"
    (August 26, 2009)
    Particularly
    • Mother Teresa's Letters and the Dark Night of the Soul
  • "Mother Teresa of Calcutta: She's No Princess Di"
    (May 8, 2009)
    Particularly
    • Dark Night of the Soul
  • "Mother Teresa of Calcutta"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (August 31, 2007)Particularly
    • Back to those letters