Truth

This is a sermon from the movie "Doubt." The movie is excellent, and this exerpt is so good that it deserves a post all to itself:

A woman was gossiping with a friend about a man she hardly knew -- I know none of you have ever done this. That night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed down at her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O’Rourke, and she told him the whole thing.

‘Is gossiping a sin?’ she asked the old man. ‘Was that the hand of God Almighty pointing a finger at me? Should I be asking your absolution? Father, tell me, have I done something wrong?’

‘Yes!’ Father O’Rourke answered her. ‘Yes, you ignorant, badly broughtup female! You have borne false witness against your neighbor, you have played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed!’

So the woman said she was sorry and asked for forgiveness. ‘Not so fast!’ says O’Rourke. ‘I want you to go home, take a pillow up on your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me!’

So the woman went home, took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to the roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed.

‘Did you gut the pillow with the knife?’ he says.

‘Yes, Father.’

‘And what was the result?’

‘Feathers,’ she said.

‘Feathers?’ he repeated.

‘Feathers everywhere, Father!’

‘Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind!’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘it can’t be done. I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over.’

‘And that,’ said Father O’Rourke, ‘is GOSSIP!'

Aloha

Sunset at Wimea Bay. Just us two sexy Hawaiian lovers.
Kayaking at Kailua Bay.

Cliff jumping at Hidden Cove.
Dinner at an authentic Thai restaurant after hiking up Koko crater.

Sunset at Turtle Bay.

Turtle Bay. The resort there is fantastic. We didn't stay there, but we pretended we did for a few evenings. :)

The first thing I said to Jacob after we stepped off the plane in Hawaii was, "How about we just move here and stay forever?" At the time that statement was based solely upon the feel of the warm ocean breeze on my face and the sight of exotic tropical plants lining the walkway. That was before we toured the island and saw how beautiful it all was. It's tempting, when you both have jobs that can go anywhere, but after about a week of missing our little boy and the mountains, we said goodbye to paradise. It was probably the most romantic, refreshing, adventurous week of my life. We were asked several times if we were honeymooners, and we really felt like we were. *Sigh* When can I go back? Anyway, here is a handful of pictures. Perhaps someday I will post more, but with my recent blogging track record there is no guarantee... I'm horrible at formatting my blog so the pictures are placed weird and I couldn't figure out how to get it to let me write a caption for each one. Oh well. Better than nothing!