Maryann Austin

My sister Karen and Me. The last Christmas that my father was living. 11:00 PM December 24, 1970 whatever... In Lake Ronkonkoma, NY, several Sekulski kids gathered in the living room, surrounded by shredded Christmas wrapping and bows, cardboard boxes, plastic, twist ties from things like stretch Armstrong and Barbie Whatever.  It was a joke and a custom in our family that my mom would start asking us in October, "Do you want one of your Christmas presents?"  What normal American kid would say no? So, it's understandable how on virtually every Christmas morning, we had already opened all of our gifts. Not the type of household where gifts sit nicely under the tree on Christmas morning until everyone had eaten their special Christmas breakfast. No, it wasn't like that in the Sekulskis of Arlington house. (There were also 5 Sekulskis on Webster Ave...our cousins, not to be confused with the Sekulskis on Arlington.) So, when many other families in the neighborhood we

A day or two ago, a friend was lamenting on facebook. It seemed that a "friend" of hers with different beliefs had "unfriended" her. Her situation struck a nerve with me. I had been in the same boat. And I shared her disbelief. The kneejerk reaction for each of us was something like this: How could they unfriend me for something like that? They share all kinds of things that I don't agree with and I wouldn't unfriend them. I have been through it a number of times in my life. It may not have always been on facebook. But it was the same scenario. There is a good explanation for why lopsided "friendship" happens and will continue to happen--and it may be of special importance for Christian people to know why. First, lets look at what the general population considers friendship to be. All you need do is look at the typical facebook share about friends. Friends are always there for you. They support you no matter what you decide to do. All tha

There seems to be an epidemic of simplistic thinking these days.  And I don't mean that in a good way.  Today I witnessed the following situation in a retail store.  Two crotchety old men walk in and tell the clerk that they need a manual for a particular item that one purchased a couple of days before.  "My wife threw it away," one stated.  The clerk spent several minutes scouring the computer for a way to print a new manual for the man.  As she worked on a solution to the problem, the men had a loud conversation about how there is no consideration for customers these days.  Why can't "they" be more customer-oriented and stock extra manuals for just these situations?? I mean, people lose things all the time. A little while later I had a chance to ponder the exchange.  All I could do was shake my head.  Rather than take responsibility for his losing the manual, rather than thanking the sales clerk for trying to remedy his problem, he chose to gripe and offe

Recently I met a young child who lost a sister to suicide. It was an incredibly sad experience for me. The family's pain was fresh and seemed to ooze off of them and onto all of us who were close by. Since that day a few weeks ago, I have seen several stories on tv about young children who took their own lives. Each of the children I learned about was a girl--a female child. I asked myself, "How could a beautiful and loved child not know her worth? How could she not know the value of her life?" Why would a beautiful child feel that her life is so worthless that she might as well end it? I guess the real question to ask is: Why not? What message is learned in a society which will "terminate" a "clump of cells" while in it's mother's womb? The public proclamation that abortion is merely a procedure has surely played a role in instilling in our children the worthlessness of life. A radical notion? Give it some thought.

     Admittedly, this isn't the cutest bunny in the world.  But it is not the ugliest either.  Some of you who have kids ages 6 and up through teens may know that this is Bonny.  Some may be surprised to know that this bunny, along with a few moderately weird friends strikes terror in children everywhere.  No, it's not the scared of clowns thing.  It's something entirely new and different.      Bonny is a feared character in the amazingly popular video game app called Five Nights at Freddy's.  I first saw it several months ago when my nephews were playing it on their ipads.  My 8 year old son was both intrigued and terrified.  What happens in this game is that the player sits alone in a dark room waiting.  Sound exciting?  It gets better (wink, wink).  Basically, the player is limited to only a few actions while waiting: open and close the doors to the room he is in, turn lights on and off, and look at security cameras to see if Bonny or any of his "animatronic&