Gemma's Birthday

Here is what we're doing about overpopulation.



Once again, my wife has borne me the world's most beautiful daughter.

Gemma Noelle Drapeau came into the world at 8:25 PM, December 10, 2009. She weighed 7 lbs, 6 oz and was 18" long. She is fantastico.

We named her after St. Gemma Galgani.

Theology of the Bawdy: Amy, Will You Let Me

Here's a little salt to go with the sweet of the last post...

Amy and I have been watching (and loving) the Sharpe videos starring Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, a British soldier fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.

One of the best parts of the series is the music. Much of the music is composed and sung by Rifleman Dan Hagman, played by British folk singer John Tams. Tams' voice is amazing and the Napoleonic-era folk songs in the videos are wonderful. A song I particularly liked hearing was "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" (sometimes called "No, John, No"). It's a bawdy song and I found it charming--so charming that I decided to try my hand at writing my own. What follows is what I came up with.

Imagine it being sung back and forth like "There's a Hole in the Bucket". I'll try to record this one later, too.

p.s. It's not really all that bawdy, but sing it to the tune of Tantum Ergo if you long for the thrill of scandal...

Amy, Will You Let Me?

Robert: See that girl there? Her name’s Amy—
She looks nice in panty hose.
I would like to have a look-see
Just how high them hoses goes.

Oh, Amy will you let me
see how high them hoses goes?

Amy: Yes, my Love, on one provision—
You must do just what I say.
Robert: But of course, dear. What’s my mission?
Amy: Wait until our wedding day.

Oh, Robert, patient Robert,
Wait until our wedding day.

Robert: Surely, Love you must be teasing—
what an unkind thing to speak!
Can you not just once appease me?
I will marry you next week.

Oh, Amy, will you let me?
I will marry you next week.

Amy: Since, my Love, you asked so sweetly,
You can see how high they go.
I’ll remove my hose completely--
Put them on and you will know!

Oh, Robert, patient Robert
Put them on and you will know.

Theology of the Body: Max's Song

I wrote a song this morning for my son, Max.

I wanted to express the idea that he is an unmitigated blessing to our family and that he is the result of our fruitful love. He's an absolute delight and everybody's favorite. The first two verses are sung to him as if he still in the womb. Verse three is after he's been born.

The "crying and the laughter" mentioned in the second verse is a reference to this. Olivia ("Ala" to Max) has since gotten over the fact that he's not a girl and Joseph is still especially fond of him because sisters can be wearying.

I'll put up a recording here once I figure out how to do it.

Max's Song

Verse 1:
Baby, do you know
That you are something special?
Even if you don’t,
I’m here to tell you truly,
That you are being waited
for with eagerness and joy,
The long anticipated
baby brother for our boy.

Chorus:
You were made by Love,
Conceived in love,
You were made for love,
We love you, Boy

You were made by Love,
Made for love,
And we welcome you with joy.

Verse 2:

Baby, can you hear
The crying and the laughter?
Just wait till you appear—
It’s silence you’ll be after.
The home you’re coming into
Is filled with kids and toys,
It’ll take some getting used to
Though, especially the noise.

Chorus

Verse 3:
Baby, can you see
Now that we’re together,
Now that you are here we
All love a little better?
You’re bringing out the best in us
It’s such a great surprise
To see our family’s happiness
Increase before our eyes.

Chorus

Smithlings

My two college roommates and I meet once a month for a group we call the Innocence Smiths (named after a Chesterton character, Innocent Smith, from Manalive, which you are commanded to read).

Last Sunday, we got our families together. We thought we'd call it a Smithlings meeting.

Here are some pictures from that event.

Why I Love My WIfe

This little email tells you a lot about Mrs. Drapeau.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rob and Amy Drapeau <drapeau@mac.com>
Date: Fri, May 16, 2008 at 10:38 AM
Subject: Fwd: Enlightening
To: Rob Drapeau <rdrapeau@gmail.com>

we need to pray for this guy.

love you baby, and our punishments -

ae

Begin forwarded message:

---

Obama and Abortion

Is the Democratic Frontrunner Most Pro-Abortion Ever?

BY TOM MCFEELY

WASHINGTON — Veteran Democrat David Carlin knows what he's going to do if Illinois Sen. Barack Obama becomes his party's presidential nominee.

He's going to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

"Any Catholic who takes the abortion issue seriously will not vote for Obama," said Carlin, who served as majority leader of the Rhode Island Senate in 1989-90.

Pro-life leaders describe Obama — who is now the heavy favorite to defeat New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination — as the most pro-abortion presidential candidate in American history.

"Based on his record he appears to be the most pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the presidency," said David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. "It's hard to be more pro-abortion than Hillary Clinton, but he seems to have managed to do that."

Obama has promised that his first act as president would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that if enacted would prevent any federal, state or local government entity from restricting access to abortion. O'Steen said this indicates that to Obama, "the most important thing facing America is to promote abortion."

Both Clinton and Obama currently have 100% ratings from NARAL for their pro-abortion voting records in the U.S. Senate. But unlike Clinton, Obama has opposed legislation to protect babies who are born alive following unsuccessful abortions.

In 2002, Clinton voted in favor of the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which was approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate. Obama was not sworn in as a U.S. Senator until 2005, but he opposed similar state legislation in 2001 while serving as an Illinois state senator.

Obama argued against such legislation specifically on the grounds that it might undermine the right to abortion-on-demand throughout pregnancy.

"Whenever we define a pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the Equal Protection Clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we're really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a — a child, a 9-month old — child that was delivered to term," Obama warned during debate over three state bills that would have offered protection to babies who are born alive after unsuccessful abortions. "That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place."

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is scathing in his assessment of Obama's opposition to born-alive legislation.

"That's pretty doctrinaire — that's about as pro-death as you can get on the abortion issue," said Santorum. "He's a candidate who is not just for abortion, but also for infanticide in order to protect the right to abortion."

Santorum said Obama is continuing to affirm his embrace of abortion on the campaign trail. He cited remarks the candidate made at a March 29 town hall meeting in Johnstown, Pa.

At that meeting, in response to a question about sex education for children, Obama argued in favor of educating young children about using contraceptives.

"Look, I've got two daughters, nine years old and six years old," Obama said. "I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

Said Santorum, "To view a child as a punishment, under any circumstances, to me shows that this is not a man who values life, who respects the dignity of human life."

Obama's campaign office did not reply to questions about his position on abortion and other life issues that the Register submitted by e-mail.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that a child has a right to be considered as a gift, now as a punishment:

"A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. … A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged 'right to a child' would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights … [including] the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception" (No. 2378).

Judges

O'Steen said Obama's position on life issues is a stark contrast to McCain's. He noted that McCain has a 100% pro-life record on abortion in the U.S. Senate, has voted against a Senate resolution to express support for Roe v. Wade and has stated that he believes Roe should be reversed, supports parental notification and opposes the use of taxpayer funds to facilitate abortion.

Perhaps the most significant difference between Obama and McCain is their position on judicial appointments. Obama has indicated that if elected president he intends to make it a top priority to nominate pro-abortion judges.

In contrast, in a speech May 6 at Wake Forest University, McCain pledged to nominate only lawyers with "a proven commitment to judicial restraint." He attacked Obama's "judicial activism" and was

particularly critical of the Democratic candidate for voting against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

While McCain did not refer directly to abortion in his speech, opposition among Senate Democrats to the Roberts and Alito nominations centered largely on fears that if confirmed, the two judges might overturn Roe v. Wade and other federal decisions supporting abortion rights.

Said McCain, "Somehow, by Sen. Obama's standard, even Judge Roberts didn't measure up. And neither did Justice Samuel Alito. Apparently, nobody quite fits the bill except for an elite group of activist judges, lawyers, and law professors who think they know wisdom when they see it — and they see it only in each other."

In response to the speech, Obama's campaign said McCain would nominate judges who would threaten abortion rights, Associated Press reported May 6.

"What's truly elitist is to appoint judges who will protect the powerful and leave ordinary Americans to fend for themselves," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Santorum, who earlier in the campaign cycle was critical of McCain's pro-life commitment primarily because the Arizona senator does not oppose embryonic stem-cell research, said McCain's speech "was a home run from my perspective."

Said Santorum,"It hit all the salient points, and it should give a lot of comfort to pro-lifers."

Paying the Piper

Carlin predicted that Obama "would certainly" apply a pro-abortion litmus test on all judicial appointments if elected.

And Carlin said abortion is only one of a number of areas where Obama, even more than Clinton, is advancing positions that appeal primarily to the most liberal elements of the Democratic Party.

"His support is among the secularist wing of the Democratic Party," said Carlin, who teaches sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island. "He's beholden to that wing of the party, the most extreme wing of the party, the "moral left" of the party. And if they put him in office, you know, 'he who pays the piper calls the tune.'"

Added Carlin, "So I think if he gets elected as president, it's going to be a very, very bad time for pro-life Catholics."

Easter Break in Mexico

Easter Photos

Happy Birthday to Amy

I love my wife. Love her. (That's her on the left.)

She's great. She's greater than great--she's super great.

She makes me feel like a s'more. She's just terrific.

Today is her birthday so I bought her the song below on iTunes. Everyone in the whole wide world knows it from the Mac commercials. There are many things to like about the song, but I like it because it's like Amy--delightful and it makes you smile when you think of it.

I dare you not to smile when you hear this song or when you think of Amy. It can't be done.

One Wild Place...

The Chesterton quotation I have in my header says:

For a plain, hard-working man the home is not the one tame place in the world of adventure. It is the one wild place in the world of rules and set tasks.

This afternoon, Chesterton was proven right yet again.

I came in from my office to get a glass of water and I spied my little Olivia talking to her mother in the hallway. From the waist up Liva was the pretty Catholic school girl I had just brought home from Kindergarten; from the waist down she looked like Eve shortly after the Fall of Man.

Why are you in your underwear?
Because.
Because what?
Because we're having an underwear picnic on the trampoline.
Ah. Of course.

Milady tells me that's also the reason the baby was diaperless and crying when I came in. Thank God we don't live where they actually have Winters...

Some Pictures from Pinewood, AZ

Amy and the kids are on vacation in Pinewood/Munds Park, AZ just a few miles outside of Flagstaff. I'm mooching bandwidth from a neighbor to work remotely. So far, we're tired.

Olivia and I went for a picture walk today and snapped photos of anything that caught our fancies. She was really cute about the whole thing, but still has a long way to go...

We picked up Joseph and Sophia from drama camp and Joseph got jealous of Olivia with the camera. He took it upon himself to make things right and relieved his sister of the camera so he could take some pix himself. Both of their work is represented in the slideshow, as is mine.

I like photography. I think I'm pretty good, too, but there's a lot to learn to be great and I don't want to make that investment. If, however, a reader wishes to purchase a wide angle lens for my Canon Digital Rebel that reader would be heartily thanked...

Sophia got a main part in the play. She's Baghera in Jungle Book. Joseph has been cast as an elephant, but he wanted to be a monkey. I told him it wouldn't be acting if he was cast as a monkey

God is good.

The Queen

This is a picture of the beautiful woman responsible for blessing/genetically rescuing the children whose images you see littered throughout this blog. She is the finest woman I know. Most people are mystified by her decision to consort with likes of me (I include myself in that number), but she does, and I'm keeping her.

Chesterton says that limiting yourself to one woman is a small price to pay for the privilege of being able to see one at all. He was thinking of my wife when he wrote that.

He also had this to say about the "drudgery" of motherhood. It applies equally well:

To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, sheets, cakes, and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.
--"The Emancipation of Domesticity" from Chesterton's 1910 classic What's Wrong with the World.