Where & What I've Been Doing

​I will keep this brief because there is not enough time left in the day when I am writing this, nor the spare cognitive powers to do any form of “essay” on any one subject or do it justice.

About the 12–Month Exodus
Rather like any “New Year’s” resolution, my attempts (if I can say that without rolling my own eyes) to limit my time on YouTube started out well intentioned and then sporadically got worse as a I *ahem* stumbled across topics and channels that I had not come across previously — and went down these new rabbit–holes more than once.

The only upside from some of this is coming across one academic who in her own way is coming to virtually the same conclusions that Pope Paul VI did in Humanae vitae almost* 55 years ago.

Her Substack can be found here, and an interview with her on YouTube, here.

Another upside, apart from some very pertinent and useful clips from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s many tours, has been discovering a lady of intellect and sense on YouTube under the name of Baggage Claim: claim the baggage in your life holding you down and make it your own.

She has some very refreshing and realistic essays on, to name but a few: difference between service and celebrity; how the far left attack the (often life-saving) work of Dr. Jordan Peterson; the ever-visible rise and exposure of Cultural Narcissism in current filmmaking; and the emasculation and derogation of male role models in film and pop–culture.


​WYD Lisbon 2023
So tomorrow is both the anniversary death of Caroline Chisholm and the First Formation Session for all WYD pilgrims in my diocese in the lead up to Lisbon 2023.

I am both desperate for the ball to begin rolling but also struggling at times to contain my panic to manageable levels.
Such is the way of being for a person who does not thrive on (nor is very much enamoured by) the living by the seat of your pants–lifestyle that so many others appear not only to embrace but incarnate within their whole being.

On a related note, our pilgrimage group has been branded “Magnify”. Personally, this does not sit true with me, and I am left to wonder how much analysis went into this decision.
I can very well understand, and sympathize with, the more obvious reasons for choosing Magnify: to increase or amplify something greatly (i.e., Mary’s “yes” to becoming the Mother of God).

But alternatively, the word magnify can also mean to increase for greater scrutiny certain faults or failures that have previously been ignored or pushed aside as being of “no real importance”, or “above my pay grade.”

I am wary of the double–sided nature of the choice of “Magnify” as the identifier for the diocesan pilgrimage. As the book of Genesis reminds us: words have power. Often beyond the borders of our physical perception.

Sadly, I appear to have been born a fault-finder.


And your art?
Yes, two-and-a-half weeks is a long time between posts.

I’ve been devoting my energy more pointedly of late towards a project that began all the way back in February. That is all that I can give myself permission to say at the present moment, because it is somewhat tangentially dependent upon whether or not certain things happen tomorrow.

I do know that my life is greatly diminished when I don’t draw or make art and I hope to get back into it.

Art is where my heart is.
~ Vincent Cavanagh

Until then I am waiting to see what inspires or tugs at my heart and leaves a yearning desire within me to act, rather than force myself to create something that only leaves me with excess frustration and regret instead of joy.


Vincent Cavanagh
~ 24 March 2023

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*The exact date of the 55th Anniversary of Humanae vitae is the 25th of July, 2023.