I told myself it had to be worth it. It had to be. It was.

A man's last name will always stay with him. A woman's last name will change with marriage. And yes, I'm aware that marriage and is a choice as well as keeping/abbreviating/hyphenating a maiden name is. But her first name will never change, regardless. In the case of Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton is the one most associated with the name "Clinton." Hillary is using her first name as a way to make herself more recognizable as an individual away from the Clinton name.

She also uses her first name to distinguish herself as an individual from her husband, who is also a politician.

This is the point that I am trying to emphasize.

I would argue that in our culture a woman's first name now personally defines her equivalently to how a man's last name defines him.

Shhhh. It's only for a few months.

I'm concerned what it would have looked like had we been drunk.

This article is amazing. I've read To Kill a Mockingbird and I adored it. It's the one book I could read over and over again and never grow tired of. I have not yet read Harriet the Spy, but after reading this I soon will be. Scout is such a strong and inspirational character, I'm looking forward to seeing the parallels between her and Harriet.

When I was in grade school, I had a boy in my class who had a "mentor" if you would call it. He was an old man, maybe 60 or 70, who adored children so he volunteered at the school. Eventually they paired him up with this boy and that became his only job. He would come and spend the entire school day with him a few times a week. I've never seen an unrelated adult have a bigger effect on a child than he had on this boy. Anyway, every year on the last day of school he would give a performance of this poem to our class. He had it memorized by heart and the way he told it was the most inspiring thing I've ever heard. As soon as I saw "Casey at the Bat" I said to myself "Casey. Mighty Casey. Just. Struck. Out." Because that was the way that he ended it. This poem was one of the most memorable and influential things for me as a child.

Gosh, wish I had read your spoiler before I watched this. I can't necessarily say that it was sad because it really made me want to go out start being a lot more thankful for all that I have. Nevertheless, it had me bawling like a baby. Beautifully written, beautifully played. I haven't listened to any of their other songs yet, but I definitely will be. Are all of their music videos that odd? I kept searching for some sort of deeply hidden symbolic meaning to everything that was happening but came up with nothing. If anyone has an idea I would love to hear the explanation.

I just wanted to say that I love this post. I don't have time to write for it right now but I hope I'll get the chance in the next few days. This is typically the kind of stuff that I write and I find it so interesting to see how beautiful the "ordinary" lives of others can be made using a little language.

Let me start this comment off by saying that I'm an atheist, and why I ended up reading this article is a mystery to me. But what caught my eye in the first place was the title "Praying to the Ceiling."

What this instantly reminded me of was going to church with my family. My family was always pretty religious, especially when I was younger. We would go to church often, and before I understood my skepticism with God, I would always try to "pray" because that's what everyone told me to do. My church has these very large, cloudy windows that let light into the sanctuary on the ceiling. When everyone stood and prayed, I would focus on those big windows. I did this so many times I can still remember them being 5x7 - and I haven't been to church in over a year.

The point I'm trying to make is this - there was never an option for me to pray. The adults did it and I was expected to follow suit. I think that communal prayer often suppresses free will and doesn't allow any room for free thought - especially with children. Believing in God and prayer should be something that people freely choose to do for a purpose that has a specific meaning to them. So in a weird way, I kind of agree with this article. Prayer should be something that people do to connect themselves to their higher being, rather than doing it for an external influence.

Anyway, this article just made me wonder how many other children are standing out there, mindlessly staring at their church's ceiling, counting the window panels, because they aren't being given the information or ability to make their own decisions regarding their faith.

Life's short. This definitely isn't my only motto, but I figure the rest of them don't mean anything if I don't follow them and this is the only phrase I know of that make makes me realize the importance of living each day to its fullest.