Let’s start with the top 10 reasons boys will be boys:

10. Mud.
9. Burps.
8. Dares.
7. If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, perhaps the loud voice wins the ... “discussion.”
6. Yesterday is long gone and tomorrow is far, far away.
5. The bigger or faster something is – a truck, dinosaur, scar, spit wad – the cooler it is.
4. Life can be an adventure if you want it to be.
3. Pushing, bumping, shoving, grabbing and wrestling are not technically “fighting.”
2. Girls will be girls.
1. God. (Male and female He created them.)

On the Web: The Hard-wiring is Different

In an article in The Washington Post, educator and author Michael Gurian writes:
“Boys have a lot of Huck Finn in them – they don’t, on average, learn as well as girls by sitting still, concentrating, multitasking, listening to words. For 20 years, I have been taking brain research into homes and classrooms to show teachers, parents and others how differently boys and girls learn. Once a person sees a PET or SPECT scan of a boy’s brain and a girl’s brain, showing the different ways these brains learn, they understand.”

You can read more at: www.gurianinstitute.com/wash_post.html.

The Lives of Tough-Guy Saints

You may be unaware of this, but a style of art from the early 19th century may still be influencing how your sons think about Jesus and “guy saints.”
It can be argued that those (misinformed) attitudes trace their roots back to Paris about 170 years ago. That was when a lot of Catholic religious material was made by French companies in the area of the city known as rue St. Jacques and the Church of St. Sulpice.

By 1862, some 20 firms mass-produced and marketed holy water fonts, candles, medals, statues, crucifixes, Nativity sets, rosaries, scapulars, lace pictures and holy cards.

Catholics in the United States were customers of all of it, but it was the holy cards that still can have such a strong influence today.

Their general style – featuring soft, feminine-looking images – came to be known as “l’art St. Sulpice.” You’ve probably seen that style: the blond, blue-eyed Jesus who looks as if he had never been outside without serious sunscreen.

The heroes of the early Church, Peter, Andrew, John, James and all the rest, are so wan and delicate it appears they did not have the strength to lift a fish stick let alone a full fish net. And the saints of later centuries, including those who really had to be tough (like the North American martyrs, for instance), appear to have gone to the same beautician and cosmetologist.

Then, too, sometimes biographies of the saints can be just as ... sappy. (Excuse us. Just as “inaccurate.”) Why? Because, again, their was a time when that “romantic” style was popular.

A suggestion: Take the time to find images and biographies that depict the saints – these strong-willed and courageous heroes of the faith – more accurately. The true stories of what they did despite all the challenges and disappointments they faced tend to show an amazing mental, physical and spiritual toughness.

Bill and Monica Dodds are the founders of the Friends of St. John the Caregiver and editors of My Daily Visitor magazine. Their Web site is www.FSJC.org. They can be contacted at MonicaDodds@YourAgingParent.com.