[DoodleBob]

Congratulations, FRiend!

Mrs DoodleBob and I continue to derive motivation from the our Lord, His Church and those silly celebates. To wit:

This is Luc Olivier Merson's "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (1879). This hits me in several ways (about which I won't yammer on now) but it really highlights - for me - the essence of marriage.

There is Joseph...as one writer puts it, Joseph is asleep on the desert floor. One imagines his mental and physical exhaustion fleeing danger and trying to take his wife and baby across deserts. This is what we husbands are called to do...support our family without whining, without complaining about our need for a man-cave so we can have some "me" time....just DO YOUR JOB.

Mary is in a (somewhat) better position, cradling the Baby. This is HER JOB and she doesn't seem to be unhappy that Joesph couldn't find her a Serta. I doubt she's comfortable but I also doubt she'll nag Joseph about her lack of equal rights or get tatted up and establish a pro-abortion PAC in Egypt.

Finally, this is all being done FOR THE CHILD.

Aahhhh, but what could anyone learn from such an antiquated story like this?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Wonderful painting, and an interpretation with insight.

I went to google images to see other examples of this artist's work. Impressive.

I remember hearing Philip Lawler, husband of blogger Leila Lawler w/ 7 children and 13 grandchildren, giving a talk about St. Joseph as model husband. The part I best remember, is where he noted that St. Joseph, though fully and firmly the head of the household, was married to a woman who he knew was greater than he was, spiritually, and had a son who was God.

He noted that Joseph was a patriarch, but there are different kinds of patriarchies, there are different kinds of heads. "Head" doesn't mean "everything."

OK, for cabbages, the head is about all that matters. (The audience laughed.) But consider the river: the man is the head, the woman is the mouth? (The audience laughed more.) Then he said, consider the pin. The man is the head, the woman is the point.

Hm. Yeah.