Personal Note: “Super Annie” to the Rescue!

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I must confess THIS is the photo I wanted to include in my previous post about the birthday parties that I’ve been throwing for the Constitution the last several years at my kids’ elementary school.  It’s a “double” cookie cake because this was the most cost-effective way to have cakes for both 4th grade classes.  The kids love it because it has lots of icing; I like it because I have them spell out “We the People” on the document, providing a nice lead-in to our discussion.  We talk about how in the American form of government, uniquely, sovereignty or power resides outside the government with the people.

Calling my daughter – Anne – “Super Annie” is an inside, family joke.  We all precede our name with “Super” when we think we’ve done something really outstanding.  I started the tradition by calling myself “Super Mom”, many times jokingly, when I do the things all moms are tasked with – many times simultaneously.  I even received “Super Mom” PJs one year as a Mother’s Day present!  In this particular case, Anne earned the distinction.  After lamenting the fact that I knew I had a photo of one of the Constitution Day cookie cakes but couldn’t find the photo to include with my post, she went straight to our desktop computer and produced it!  Better late than never?  Thanks, “Super Annie!”

Personal Note: A Quiet Constitution Day

DSC_0041-1Yesterday marked a departure in my annual Constitution Day festivities.  For the last 3 years I’ve gone to one of my kids’ elementary school classrooms and thrown a birthday party for the Constitution complete with cookie cake, candles, patriotic plates and napkins, party favors and a brief presentation about the honoree.  Kids know birthday parties so it’s fun way to highlight and celebrate the Constitution while piquing their interest in the subject.  I always leave feeling renewed and excited about the possibility and potential of helping our kids – “Liberty’s kids” – to learn to love these things.  And seeing their faces light up does a mom’s heart “good”.   All is not lost if we look for fun and innovative ways to celebrate our country’s unique and exceptional heritage.  I believe there’s a document that reminds us we have a duty to do these things but it’s birthday is in July!

By Design: Aiming at the Heart of Natural Law

Just government is an ultimate good and the aim of Constitution

Just government is an ultimate good and the aim of the constitutional ordering of separate and arranged powers

Identify target, take aim, fire!  Archery has as its effect the focusing and synchronizing of individual efforts into a common aim at a desired target of highest value.  Even when the mark (bullseye) is missed, the presence of the target produces the likelihood of better outcomes than those that exist in the absence of it.  Aristotle used the archer’s example to illustrate Natural Law.  His Hierarchy of Goods composes the rings of the target, culminating in the ultimate good.  The ordering of goods is as follows:

1.  The good is that at which all things aim

2.  The good is in each thing

3.  The things – and so, the good in each – are arranged in a hierarchy (known as the Creator’s natural order of things)

4.  The ultimate goods – highest ordered – are pursued for their own sake

The founders of America believed just government to be an ultimate good.  This is the aim of the Constitutional ordering of separate and arranged powers.  The Constitution prescribes the optimal arrangement of political power to achieve a government of, by, and for the people.