POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Dr. Daniel P Collins, Sr – On Women

Pop can't see so well these days, but he still loves to write. And among the things all five of us kids, along with Daughters-in-law (and now Grandkids), have been asked to do is to type up his essays - there are tons and tons of them - all filling boxes full of legal pads. Some contain quotes. Some beginnings of ideas. Some are fully baked essays - and some are shorts.

Here is a sample of Pop Collins's writings. More to come - but reflections of the old dogs among us - the limping veterans, as it were, are fascinating. I thought to post the following on POWIP. So, with your leave, I give you the mind of Doc Collins - the last of the dinosaurs.

Women

“No man will have any serious affinity to the Virgin Mary who does not have a serious affinity to women. One is impossible without the other. For a Christian of the Catholic tradition one could almost judge his understanding of woman by his devotion to the Mother of God.”

“…It is probably to be admitted that our devotion to the Mother of God will be marked by the same attitudes we bear to women on earth. When woman is held in reverence, virginity reckoned to be beautiful, marriage and motherhood honorable, this will reflect itself in our relationship to the Virgin Mother. We have a certain consistency.”

Fluta Solo Matthew Kelly p. 103, 106.

Women Take Two

The theme of the temporal redemption of man by woman is common in literature, poetry, opera and other forms of art. My father believed devoutly that women were a superior form of life. He was courtly and gentlemanly and treated women with the greatest respect. I gathered it was because of his love for his mother Elizabeth Brigid who died when he was fourteen. He insisted that I watch out for my older sisters. If he was on duty he would call home and if Pat, Mariann or Joan was expected but not home, he would have me walk to the Northwest Highway, a mile or so, and wait in the doorway until they arrived.

I have come to appreciate his view. I believe if a man has a loving mother, and a loving wife, he should be able to fashion a happy and successful life.

The British historian Toynbee in his Civilization on Trial had some macro-cultural constructs that I believe translate to micro-cultural truths; the family is a microcosm of the world in general. The first is: as a culture successfully meets a challenge it gets stronger; as it fails to meet it the culture fades. So it is with the basic building block of society, the family.

Toynbee credited religion as the crysallis of civilzation, the cocoon that protected what was core and carried it to the next generation. In my micro model, women carry the important core values from one generation to the next.

Contrast my father’s convictions with the Rap artists of today and the denigration of women by Hefner and their ilk. What in the world has happened?

Again, the sixties with its disdain for tradition, which I believe represents accumulated wisdom by generations of smart people. The replacement of freedom (which has responsibilities) with license (which has none), and the rejection of religion. The Ten Commandments and the Old Testament address the things we should not do out of fear of God. The Beatitudes and the New Testament, the Gospel, the Good News, focus on what we should do out of Love of God who sent His Son to suffer and die to defeat death and open Eternal Life for us.

In the course of this, He gave us His Mother Mary. Now we have a woman’s redemption in more than a temporal mode but helping in our Eternal Redemption. Don’t get me wrong—it was only through Jesus’ cross, and Resurrection that we can be saved. Protestants are told, incorrectly, that we as Catholics, worship Mary - which of course would be a great sin. We honor Mary and use Jesus as true man as well as true God as the basis of our love for her. As man, He would be open to His Mother’s influence.

I am somewhat put off by the term “Co-redeemer” when applied to Mary. But if you believe in Free Will then we are all co-redeemers when we follow and obey God’s laws.

The 60s rejected all this and separated responsibility from privilege. Then we had the Feminist Movement which was hijacked by the radical feminists of the National Organization of Women. A small group but our lazy media people gave it stature since they would give a fifteen second sound bite for TV news. This radical feminism set out to destroy the family unit by denigrating motherhood’s status. The Supreme Court had decided abortion was legal so commitment and responsibility the backbone of civilized society and sanctity of life were degraded. Then the media decided what was legal must be moral. Morality was subjected to the brutality of a corrupt legal system. It started with the acknowledged perjury of “Rove v. Wade” is which Jane Roe said she became pregnant due to rape. She later admitted this perjury and became pro-life. This was augmented by the acquittal of O.J. Simpson and reached its zenith in the Clinton administration. The media kept saying he hadn’t been found guilty of breaking any law. He, of course, lied repeatedly under oath, suborned perjury and withheld the tapes from a blanket subpoena and then claimed we are “a Nation of Laws.”

Enoch_Root

Person with kids,a beautiful wife, a job. Catholic of the Latin Rite.

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