Presume that someone's out to get you

My parents, in their early marriage, were somewhat competitive. I won't go into the history, suffice it to say that their dear priest friend sat them down during a visit he was making to our home and told them that they needed a new motto: Presume Good Will. This has been a mantra in our family for a long time, and it certainly gets at that part of me that wants to be uncharitable and suspicious.

Why on earth can it be so hard to presume good will with some people? I think part of it is that I'm convinced that certain people either have it in for me or just don't care one way or the other. Also, there are those whose stated motto is Look Out for Number One. These people make it awfully hard to presume good will about them, since they often don't have good will...at least not for anyone but themselves.

But I don't think that lets me off the hook. I mean, Jesus didn't tell us to love our neighbors *and* our enemies when it seemed like they had good will. He didn't put conditions on it. We just had to do it. And since obedience is a virtue that I'm struggling to teach my almost-4-year-old, it seems right and natural that I would be struggling with this particular command.

"But Jesus, the last time I saw that person, he messed up my day in 12 different ways...before noon!"

"Okay, fine, Jesus, I heard you. Just let me finish venting about how much I can't stand that person. Then I'll be charitable. Just a minute. I'm almost done."

"Can I just set aside one of the fifty things that I was going to complain about? I'll save it for later. Then I can be charitable now, but have something to fall back on later, because I know that person is a no-good sumgum."

I can imagine that Our Lord is getting fed up with me. I can't stand having direct orders questioned, blathered about, ignored, put off, etc. So thank God He has infinite powers, because otherwise I'd be testing his patience this week!

Okay, Lord, I'll work on it now.

Patience

Again. I have to say that patience is the virtue that I have the hardest time keeping a big enough supply of around here. For some reason, it's like...well, what's the ingredient that I'm most likely to be out of when I go to make a recipe? Something perishable, like cilantro. Come to think of it, that's a great analogy, because once you put cilantro in a bag in the fridge, it's good for about 2 days. Then it starts to stink and exude brown stuff. Yuck.

And it's an even better analogy because, good heavens, that stuff makes so many things so much better! Like patience. Hmm. I have to say, I love cilantro. It's difficult for me to understand those who don't like it -- and if someone doesn't like cilantro, often they really don't like it.

But I digress. Cilantro is also pretty easy to grow oneself. I have grown quite a bit this season, and it's so rewarding. I just went out back and clipped a bit here for guacamole, a bit here for salsa, a bit here for salad. MMM. This way, too, I didn't have brown-goo syndrome in my refrigerator, which is terribly sad. Why DO they sell so much at one go? Does anyone really use that much cilantro before it goes bad?

This is another thing about patience: it's much better to grow your own than to try to count on an emergency prayer here or there in order to get it...you may just find brown goo instead. I often seem to. So I should learn a lesson from my cilantro: work on growing (with God' help, of course) a good supply of my very own patience, to be used when necessary. It definitely makes most things better.

Some of my cilantro has now gone to seed, and I'm looking forward to collecting those seeds to keep growing my own cilantro. Another good lesson: let your patience grow so much that it creates flowers and then seeds. This way, you have a stash of mature patience, you can use the seeds to grow more, and you can -- with proper tending -- use your store of patience to create (with God's help, of course) more of the patience that you need.

I have two cilantro plants that I haven't planted in the garden yet. They're not terribly robust and need LOTS of watering, since it's the heat of the summer and they're in tiny little pots on the deck. Again, another good lesson about patience -- or really any virtue: connect this virtue with the rest of your spiritual life so that it gets lots of nutrients from your regular (hopefully) sacramental life. Don't consider an outsider, adopt it into yourself and try to make it a part of you.

There, I'm convinced. Cilantro is one of the best herbs -- tasty and instructive!

So the next time I'm tempted to yell at my daughter for behaving like a baby (okay, she's only 3!) and making me late...for Mass (yes, always good to preface an attempt to get to daily Mass with lots of yelling; you'll feel especially foolish when you get to the church and discover that there isn't Mass today. Just saying.)...I'll remember the lessons of cilantro.

Pray without ceasing

Overheard yesterday as my first daughter was coloring:

"Dad in Heaven, bless Dada all day long."

Imagine God's heart melting at that prayer!

Verse to ponder

Jeremiah 23:29

"Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, like a hammer shattering rocks?"

I'm going to ponder this one a while, especially since I know some hearts of stone (including my own) that could use shattering with a hammer...

Is it holy fear or just fear?

A discussion with some good friends got some thoughts percolating in my mind. It occurred to me that, whenever I'm considering an objective good that I am afraid of or have some element of fear about for whatever reason, it has never been the case that the fear was an indication of God's will for me. Holy fear is something different -- fearing to sin and offend God is obviously leading me to God's will. With something that is objectively good, though, if I have fear about it, it is almost always an obstacle to my discernment of God's will rather than God trying to tell me something about the situation. And the times that I've recognized that and done what I could to allay the fear, as well as ask God for the grace to surrender to his will in the matter, things have been much more clear.

For example, before I met Michael I felt that I needed to discern about the possibility of a call to religious life. For some reason, I was very fearful that God would call me to this! It sounds so silly to say it, but there it is. Of course God's will for me is going to be my greatest good, but there I was, fearful about it. And it wasn't until I finally decided that I needed to give my fears to God and surrender and look for what really was his will that I began to have some peace. First of all I felt that if it was his will it would be a good for me (okay, not rocket science), and then I began to realize that it wasn't what he was calling me to, but he wanted my willingness to follow his will without strings attached on my part.

It sometimes seems so hard to follow JPII's recommedation -- Do not be afraid! But perhaps it's more simple than it seems.

Fierce Japanese What?

Hannah has been listening to some books on tape, one of which talks about Samurai. She has a new interpretation, however, that may not have much historical accuracy, but really brings amusement into the lives of the grownups around her: Samurai, the fierce Japanese spiders! On the tape, of course, they say fierce Japanese fighters, but Hannah heard spiders, so spiders it is.

She and her cousin, older by 15 months, and wise in the ways of spiders, were playing outside today, running from various evil creatures, including t-rex. Hannah thought this was a perfect opportunity to introduce Samurai, so they then spent a good long time running from the fierce Japanese spiders. Cousin Gabe did balk a bit about them carrying torches and using swords, but Hannah stood firm and won her point.

Yet another blessing our children bring us: laughter.

Restless

Do you ever get a feeling of holy restlessness? Like God is about to do something in your life, or is asking you to do something and you just aren't sure what it is yet? I have that right now. I started the Novena to the Holy Spirit, so hopefully that will help to clarify things. Or perhaps God is merely hinting that I get off my duff and clean the whole house...this feeling is almost like the nesting feeling of pregnancy.

I certainly need to work on turning over more of my time to the Lord, if only just as an offering at the beginning of an activity. It's important that we make our offering in the morning, but I should not just forget God until the evening after that offering...I suppose I don't entirely forget him, but I am feeling very drawn to giving more of my time over to him. Perhaps that is what it is. It will be interesting to see what the next couple of weeks bring.

A Sense of Humor

Haha. Did I say "return to health"? Haha. That's a good one!

Okay, Naomi came down with an ear infection this week that meant that she had to have antibiotics. And she hates getting them. And she had several 20-minute screaming episodes that scared the dickens out of her mom. This is all besides the temperature of 104.6 that got the whole thing started. Okay, enough details. It's been a rough week.

But strangely enough, either I'm getting worn down or I'm learning something, because I handled everything much better this week -- especially towards the end of the week, when I'd gotten some practice with the screaming episodes. I even was caught up on the laundry by Thursday afternoon, switched from winter to summer clothes for the girls and I, and made a trip to the store to get a few summer essentials for Hannah, who doesn't have hand-me-downs to grow into.

So thank God for adversity, I suppose, since it's the only way to learn to deal with adversity. And I did better. Not a perfect job, of course -- far from that. But I remembered to pray, and I rested, and I enjoyed the little things.

I took the girls to a new park yesterday and helped Naomi slide down the slide over and over as she giggled aloud. I watched Hannah as she climbed and balanced and jumped and played. I remembered to bring a snack. It was fun.

Naomi is much better, and I'm very grateful for that. And we're not doing the planned activity with several other families this afternoon, since two of those families have colds. I mean, adversity is one thing, and sheer idiocy is another.

Gratitude

There is really nothing like illness to make me grateful for returned health. And isn't that true in most areas of life? I wonder how much I wander around, unaware of the rich blessings that God is showering upon me. When things get taken away, I miss them, and when they come back, I am very grateful, but I realize that I should try to be grateful more often without having to suffer the loss first.

So I will try for at least a week to come up with something new each day that I'm grateful for -- that hasn't been taken away recently. Something that's a fixed part of my life -- or as fixed as things in a passing world ever are.

For today, I'm grateful for Hannah's swimming lessons. She's got an amazing teacher, she's learning a ton and is not afraid of going under water any more, and she's having a great time. Thank you, God, for Hannah's swimming lessons.

(Incidentally, Naomi is grateful for Hannah's swimming lessons, too...although she would be more grateful for her own swimming lessons! When she turns two...)

Enjoying the little things

This morning I was sitting in the living room with my children, when Hannah decided she had to go potty.

"Mama, please keep an eye on Naomi while I go potty."

"Okay, Hannah."

How sweet.

Holding lightly

Well, what do you get when you have a 13-month-old with a nasty cold and 8 teeth coming in at once? Tired. Also, you get to not speak on the panel discussion because you have some compassion for your husband and a fear of getting a plugged duct, since your baby hasn't been nursing very well these days, either.

So I didn't speak on the panel after all. And I need to remind myself that God is in charge, He certainly knew that I was planning to speak on that panel, etc. There must have been a reason for me to be home instead of speaking.

One reason might be that I got the chance to spend a relatively quiet evening with my husband, doing some meal planning, talking, and enjoying the fact that our little one was sleeping more than 15 or 30 minutes at a time. That was nice.

I am a planner. I like to plan out fun stuff to do, meals, days, weeks, chores, vacations, etc. I don't know why, but it is just fun for me to plan. And I enjoy doing the things I've planned, too, most of the time. Now that I've had a bit of practice with planning things with children, I am much better at not overplanning where the kids are concerned. I planned too much on our trip to Houston and the kids both objected violently -- in their own ways. So I'm learning.

But the thing that's somewhat difficult is to give up the plans. Like the panel. And although I'm even getting better at giving up the plans -- although not terribly great at it yet! -- I still like to plan things. And sometimes even that has to go. My husband, my children, and I all need quiet times when we don't have plans. Not just that we cancel plans, but that we don't have plans. Or have vague plans, like: if it's a nice day, we'll go outside. If not, we'll play indoors.

It is so difficult to hold things lightly, and it seems that, right now at least, it is hardest for me to hold my time lightly, to be ready to give it up to what is necessary, and especially to realize in the first place that it's not really mine at all. And I need to remember that, and not spend it all before I get it.

A well-formed conscience

I'm going to be on a panel discussion next Wednesday about decision-making for Catholics. I have 7 minutes to present on "pro-creation issues" -- most especially contraception -- and then I will take questions. 7 minutes. What to say in 7 minutes.

The tricky part of this discussion is that on most pro-creation issues (sex before marriage, contraception, abortion, IVF), Catholic teaching is quite clear. It's not hard to find the teaching, it's not hard to understand what the Church is saying, and it's not hard to tell whether it applies to your situation. The tricky parts come in once you've accepted the basic teaching and are trying to live it out -- how to date in a secular world with Catholic ideas about these things, how to decide if now is a good time or not to have a baby, etc. However, I think that most people are still at the phase wherein they're trying to decide about whether to follow Church teaching on these issues -- or trying to talk to others about them -- so that's what I'd like to primarily address. And 7 minutes isn't going to be long enough to cover much more.

The beauty of the teaching is what I'd like to get across. I could open up with saying that it's not a terribly moral dilemma because Church teaching is clear, so let's move on to more exciting moral dilemmae, such as how to decide if you should have another baby at this point. But I don't think that will win friends, and I also don't think that it will get at what most people need to hear.

So I'm going to try to come up with a 7-minute talk that doesn't make me sound like too much of a cheerleader but in which Church teaching comes across as the sane and beautiful message that it is. Please pray for me.

The benefits of lack of sleep

This isn't a post you're going to find in a health magazine, because I will freely admit that physical health isn't really one of the benefits of lack of sleep. There you will find out why you must get at least 8 hours a night. Little do the authors know that I would love 8 hours straight of sleep. Given the option, I'd go for 9 or 10, even -- this sounds like a recipe for paradisical living!

However, there are some benefits of lack of sleep that bear mentioning. Especially to those who aren't getting 8 hours straight. The main benefits, should one choose to take advantage of them, are spiritual.

First, one gets the chance to make a large sacrifice for one's family: getting up with the alarm. I believe that there needs to be no more said on that point.

Second, one needs to pray most fervently that today go okay. Because one realizes on this day, even if this has never occured to one before, that one cannot do this alone. Especially since one is not a caffeine drinker and one will be fighting heavy eyelids and slower thinking all day.

Third, one has many occasions for humility throughout the day: one cannot finish housework as one would like; one cannot remember a darn thing that one promised oneself to remember for today; one barks at one's children for minor offences and then realizes that one is completely out -of-line...The list could go on.

Once one has faced the humility lessons for the day, one gets more motivated to practice other virtues: patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, etc, in an effort not to be too overloaded with humility.

So as the day progresses, one is brought to thankfulness for the lack of sleep, as there are so many obvious spiritual blessings emanating from it. But one also prays for better sleep tonight. Because even though God can bring good out of anything, it's not easy to be chronically tired. And one might even remember to get Motrin at the store in an attempt to help the teething baby facilitate one's sleep.

Conformity with the will of God

Michael: It's hard to believe that someday our girls will be teenagers.

Hannah: I'm not going to be a teenager, Dada, I'm going to be whatever God calls me to be.

(Her parents sit quietly, bemused at their sweet daughter.)

Hannah: Maybe a garbage woman. Where do you buy a garbage truck?

Finishing school

I always thought it was so cool that John Paul II called the family a school of virtue. Before I got married and had kids, I pictured teaching my children virtue, helping their little souls get off to the right start. It was exciting to think about.

Once I had my first daughter, though, I realized how wrong I was. Sure, one day I'd be teaching her virtue, but this school was going to be my finishing school. And I don't mean as in a six-week course on how to walk with a book on one's head, I mean finishing -- helping finish my trip to (hopefully) Heaven. And I have a long way to go, so this is going to be a tough school of virtue for me.

Priorities

Thank God for good friends. Yesterday and today we had visits from good friends during the day, and I have to admit that I found myself looking around my house, thinking, "I'm inviting people to come here, where there's obviously so much to do? What am I thinking?"

However, can you believe it, neither of them asked me why I live in squalor, nor did they leave just moments after arriving because they couldn't stand being here.

And I need to remember that building friendships is so important for me and for the friends I'm building the friendships with. God will not be asking me how clean my house was come Judgment Day. And it would be most terrible if my children learned the lesson that housework is more important than people.

The irony here is that I don't love housework -- I just like it to be done so that I don't have to worry about it anymore.

There will be housework always, but our friends we do not always have with us...

Dealing with Irritability: An Immersion Course

Today, my 13-month old screamed whenever her will was crossed. Screamed. It was a very trying day, because 13-month-old wills get crossed often if one wants to keep them and one's things safe. I was terribly relieved when she settled down to dig dirt out of the 1/2 wine barrel with herbs planted in it on our deck. She was happy to get herself completely filthy and enjoy being outside for half an hour. Then I had to bring her inside, take off her outfit, change her diaper, put her in new clothes, and put her down for a nap. It was not a pretty picture.

To be fair, she was much better after her nap, until about half an hour before I put her to bed. But MAN does that screaming wear on my nerves. At one point I told her older sister Hannah to leave her alone (I was in the kitchen and the screaming began again), only to be told that she wasn't anywhere near Naomi -- she was just screaming for kicks. Ugh.

So I was *very* glad to get her to bed tonight, and I hope she's better tomorrow. Because I did okay dealing with the screaming today, and I'll pray for the patience to deal with it tomorrow, if that's what happens, but I'm not anywhere near the level of sanctity where I ask for trials or suffering.

Hey, though, that's okay, because here at the School of Virtue, you don't have to ask. That's God's plan, since he knows that people like me would get almost nowhere if we had to ask for lessons in virture. He provides us with the best teachers in the world and then stands by for the cries for help that are sure to rise to Him once his teachers get to work.

Luckily for them, the teachers are soft, pudgy, and do all kinds of cute things, like learn to sign "I love you," and then sign it to you all the time.

Perseverance

is really a great virtue for mothers, homemakers, anyone who does the same thing over and over. Like laundry. And when I get a moment -- after folding the laundry -- I'll post the picture I took of the mountain of laundry that I had today. I opted for time in the garden instead of time with the laundry. Hey, in the Pacific Northwest, you take advantage of the sunny days.

Plus, you can't practice perseverance if you're never behind in anything. I think I'll have made huge strides in virtue by the time I go to bed tonight...

Kindness

If you need a dose of humility, try reading The Hidden Power of Kindness, by Lawrence G. Lovasik. I have been working on it in small increments for several months now -- small, because I seem to need small doses of humility, or I get discouraged. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart! Perhaps that's why I'm taking it slowly -- courage of heart is a tough virtue to come up with. It's quite unnerving to come face to face, on the pages of a book, with vices and difficulties from your everyday life and be told, in no uncertain terms, that these vices must be rooted out -- NOW!

For all that, Lovasik is a very gentle writer. He's much more of an exhorter than an accuser, which is good, since the bruised reed is very easily broken by harsh words. But he doesn't have patience for excuses for vice, and it seems he's heard them: "You will say that your irritability is caused by your nerves, high or low blood pressure, insomnia, indigestion, or worries and responsibilities. All such excuses are usually a false front. Irritability is a a lack of self-control, an inability to subject your feelings to the demands of charity."

See what I mean? Basically: "Don't you be telling me that you didn't get lunch so you can't be kind to your kids! It's merely lack of self-control on your part."

Difficult, but refreshing, too. It does get old to have the same vices, excuses, and problems day after day. It's nice to have someone tell you that God's grace is going to get you through it, but you've got to do your part, too. It's good to have a reminder that something can be done about it.

Joy

If you ever wondered what joy looked like, a girl with a new trail-a-bike that she's riding behind her beloved Dada will give you a hint...

Friends

We had friends over for dinner. Since we have two kids 3 & under and they have 3 kids 4 & under, the evening began around 3 and ended around 6:45. But you know what? It was great to see them. It was great to visit with another family that has the same values, similar struggles, similar senses of humor. Also, the dad of the family likes to drink scotch, which my husband also likes. I think it smells like turpentine, so Michael enjoyed drinking a bit of scotch with his buddy. I enjoyed swapping non-dairy, eggless recipes with the mom, since we both have kids with allergies and sensitivities. It was a very pleasant evening, and a good reminder as to why God wants us to gather in community. It's good for us.

Forgiveness

I was chatting with our mail carrier yesterday (okay, that sounds like a post that should begin around 1950...but our street is like that, everyone knows everyone, including the mail carrier), and she was talking to me about a difficulty she was having with her 5 1/2 year old son. She'd had to discipline him over the phone earlier in the day (her husband had made him call his mom and tell him he'd done something she had *specifically* and *clearly* told him not to do), and was wondering if she should be annoyed with him when she picked him up. Well, not whether she should be annoyed, but whether she should act annoyed.

And I had the strangest sensation. I had the sensation of *just* having learned something that seemed to work very well and having the opportunity to pass it along.

Because I'm sure I would have, several months ago, and perhaps even now, on not-so-good days, held that grudge. I would have remained annoyed. I probably wouldn't have said it was a good idea, and I probably wouldn't have told anyone else to, but I might not have had an answer as to what I would do instead. Since I would have held the grudge.

God's grace and mercy are getting to me, though, since I recently discovered the very useful and effective technique of disciplining without rancor. Thanks to Dr. Ray Guarendi, in the book You're a Better Parent than you Think. It turns out I'm not really, but the way. :)

At any rate, Dr. Ray's point in the section that turned on a light bulb for me was that your child, once he or she is being disciplined, may throw caution and good behavior to the wind in an attempt to get back into control of the situation. Their idea seems to be, "Well, she's mad, and I'm in trouble. But I bet I can make her more mad. I bet I can make her face turn red. I bet I can make her holler. Can I make her holler louder than last time? Let's see."

The light turning on was almost blinding. I needed to stop engaging with the bad behavior, disciplining what came along and going on with life. The theory seemed so simple. It's pretty difficult to do at times, but the theory is itself is very straight forward -- discipline the behavior that comes along, as it comes along.

What do you know, it works! So I told my mail carrier, " When he asks to have the thing you told him he can't have as his discipline, then remind him why. Otherwise, go on with your life."

Later I realized that this is a much more godly way of disciplining than anything I'd tried before. Forgiveness, without strings. Sure, there are consequences, but God doesn't sit up there blasting lightning at us because we annoyed him.

And boy, is that a good thing for me!

Sweatshirt virtues

I used to think I was patient. Back before I had kids. I'd put up with an annoying or difficult situation and congratulate myself on how patient I was.

Then I had a baby. She was a high needs baby. I like to illustrate this by telling the story of one day when Michael, my husband, was holding her. She was happy and content, for once. After a time, he announced, "I have to go to the bathroom." I looked at him in horror: "Are you sure you can't hold it?" Believe me, I had never asked my husband if he could hold it before, but she was the type of baby that you didn't disturb unless *absolutely* necessary.

One of the many things I learned from Hannah was that I am not patient. Sure, I had dealt with situations in a patient manner before, but the virtue of patience was not a part of me. I had the patience sweatshirt. Like a sweatshirt, I would put on patience when I thought it was necessary, then take it off, fold it carefully, and put it away when I didn't need it any more. The problem with sweatshirts is that they are not an integral part of you. You can't have them one magically in the middle of the night if you suddenly need them when your baby wakes up for the 47th time and is screaming again.

So I came to realize that I am not patient. The patience sweatshirt was only useful to a point, but my major field of study in the first year of attendance at the School of Virtue (at least, my first year with my daughter as the professor) was patience. Or perhaps it was a double major: patience and selflessness.

Now I'm getting better, praise God!, and I can certainly recognize points in my dealings with my second daughter that would have sent me over the edge with the first, but seem not to affect me as strongly this time around. But patience is still not an integral part of me, since I still sometimes grumble and growl and occasionally roar when awakened from a dead sleep to deal with wee ones who are screaming.

So I imagine that I'll continue to take many courses in patience at school. God help me! And of course, He will.

No Spring Break for the School of Virtue

Today, my three-and-a-half-year old said, "I'm ready for Spring Break."

I looked at her, paging through a library book. What *exactly* does she need a break from?

Easy virtue

It's always so much easier to tell other people how to be virtuous than to do it ourselves. I noticed this this morning when I was chatting with one of my sisters. She was struggling, I suggested something. I could totally understand her situation, it's one that I have faced often. Was my suggestion the virtuous thing that I usually do when faced with the situation? No, it was the virtuous thing that I suddenly realize I *should* have done several days after the situation has passed.

I suppose this is a good reminder to keep working during Lent. I would LOVE for my first reaction to be the most virtuous one -- I guess that's a good working definition of sainthood. But it's not usually my first, or second, or third thought. For instance, when my daughters conspired to spend their time at bedtime A. screaming and B. taking 30-45 minutes for me to put to sleep while I was visiting family recently, did I thank God for the challenge and for the gift of the children? Did I realize how wonderful it was that I got the opportunity to grow in virtue? Did I go through with bedtime inwardly whining and snivelling about how unfair it all was and having a self-pity party? Sigh. It's going to be a long trip to sainthood.

Perspective

isn't technically a virtue, but is very useful, especially when one is trying to live the Christian life. For instance, suppose your 1-year-old is busy working on giving up her morning naps (a bit too soon), and one day takes 30 minutes to go down for a 20-minute nap, and the following day goes right to sleep, sleeps 20 minutes, then gets up and is cranky for the next 3 hours, it's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to remind yourself of the white martyrdom that many Christians are called to face. It's easy to begin to fall into self-pity. Which is neither a virtue, nor useful. If, at this point in your life, you happen upon the story of someone whose child died tragically...well, you get a little perspective, and your white martyrdom looks a bit less like martyrdom and a bit more like you're one *very* lucky person with your two (so far) lovely kids. Even if one of them doesn't go to sleep too easily right now.

Humility

...is not my favorite virtue. Mainly because it's hard to learn and hard to practice. And just plain hard. However, in the interest of humility, I will admit that I often get more angry at my kids than is good for me or them. I found this book helpful: She's Gonna Blow, by Julie Ann Barnhill. It's from a Christian perspective and it's written by a mom, for moms. It's been quite helpful to me, and not just because I'm relieved that I don't have the problems that some of the moms in there have to deal with.

School of virtue is now open

Who will visit? I don't know, but I'm looking forward to posting!