Smorgasbord #85

Some Assembly Required | Car Shopping | The Fulfillment of All Desire, Part I

Jun 20, 2025

Some Assembly Required

Our first trampoline lasted five years under the Arizona sun until the springs started flying around our backyard while the kids were on it. Trampoline 2.0 arrived a while ago, but I hadn’t mustered the courage to begin that project, knowing I would invariably get frustrated. However, it is my sacred duty as a father to assemble anything that requires assembly, and since I had the day off yesterday, I decided to start that project.

I opened the box and started to group pieces by shape and size. This is a twelve-foot trampoline with four W-shaped legs, which means eight sections make the ring, eight poles hold the netting, and seventy-two springs make it bouncy. Putting the legs together was fine, snapping the extensions in place, and they were done. I had the kids help by putting the ring together, and then I went around connecting them with the T-shaped connectors. We were cooking.

The instructions said that two people were needed for the next step. I took that as a challenge and did it myself [foreshadowing]. I struggled a bit but was able to connect the ring to the legs. Next up, springs. I started hooking springs one after the other until I noticed that about halfway, it got harder and harder to attach the spring from the trampoline to the structure. I went back to the manual and even watched the instructional video. They said to install the springs in an X-shape. So, I undid my work, left eight springs attached to one side, and tried to attach eight on the opposite side. That’s what they meant, right? Wrong.

At this point, it was 9:00 a.m., and it was getting hotter and hotter. I rage quit. Upon reading my texts, Mrs. Cantú, who was having coffee with a friend, got me a breakfast sandwich and a cold brew because she’s a saint and she knew I was hangry. We went about our day. I took the boys to get haircuts and all the children to the indoor trampoline place (to make up for our own trampoline not being ready), and after bedtime, I got back to it.

I undid all of the springs and reread the instructions. The right way to do it was to fasten spring #1, then go to the opposite side and fasten spring #36. After that, fasten spring #18 and #54 on the opposite side. This is the X-shape they were talking about. From here on, I was fastening one spring to the right, alternating sides. I was also pulling the wrong side of the spring. The correct way to do it is to attach the spring to the mat and then pull it toward the structure. I would’ve known this if I had paid close attention to the instructions. It was work, but it was easier than what I was trying to do.

Mrs. Cantú came out and helped me put together the rest of the trampoline, and we were done within the hour. She put on some music, brought me a seltzer, and cheered me on, which I really appreciate. We cleaned up a bit and went to bed tired, which is a nice feeling.

This episode made me think about how doing my will always produces bad fruit. I thought I knew better, but I didn’t. My decision brought heartache and unnecessary toil. It wasn’t until I was humble enough to realize I was wrong and needed to follow the manufacturer’s instructions to the letter that I got the best result. I also needed to accept help and let others help me attain my goal. Similarly, in the spiritual realm, when we choose our will over God’s, the results may be heartache and unnecessary toil. The creator of everything has given us instructions for life, and following them as best as possible will yield the best results.

Car Shopping

I don’t know if you subscribe to Dave Ramsey’s advice regarding debt, but I believe in Proverbs 22:7. Having said this, we were in the market for a second vehicle. For the last five years, we’ve only had our family van as a means of transportation. I work from home, and we homeschool, so we do not need a second vehicle. However, our situation is changing. My employer is asking for an increase of butts in chairs, so I’ve been going into the office more regularly. The three older kids are going to Regina Caeli Academy, the hybrid homeschool our two older boys were in last year. If I get accepted into the Permanent Diaconate program, I’ll need to attend classes at the Diocesan Center in Downtown Phoenix.

I wanted to buy a car cash with some savings, but for what he had saved, the options were very few and not great. They were high in mileage, older than we would like, and risky in general. Mrs. Cantú and I talked about using our savings as a down payment and financing part of it. This is where Dave Ramsey’s voice popped into my head. We decided that, given the kind of car we wanted, a Honda Pilot with less than 100,000 miles on it, we would need about double what we had, and that we would finance as long as we could be aggressive with payments and have the car paid off by the end of the year.

With the terms clearly defined, I went to Carvana’s website and found a 2013 Honda Pilot that fit the bill. The only problem was that someone else had started the buying process for it. Carvana lets you put your phone number in and get updates in case the purchase falls through with the car you were interested in, so I did. Mrs. Cantú and I decided to let the situation breathe and not make any decisions until we knew whether this car was available.

A few hours later, I got a text that the car was available, so I started the purchase process and got it. I uploaded all the documentation needed, figured out the down payment situation, got approved for the financing, made arrangements for insurance, and scheduled delivery of the car for the next available date they had, which I thought was Monday morning.

I was wrong. I inadvertently scheduled the delivery of my new 2013 Honda Pilot for Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Happy Father’s Day to me.

The kids wanted to take the new car for a spin, so we did. On Tuesday, I took the car for inspection at our local Honda dealership, and they told me it is in pretty good shape. I even called the shop in Tucson where the previous owner took the car for service, and the guy on the phone told me I got a gem of a car since the last owner took it in for service thirty-two times in twelve years. I even got a bit more info that wasn’t listed in the CarFax report.

Although I’m still getting used to the idea that I can leave the house if Mrs. Cantú and the kids are out, I think this is a positive change and part of a new stage we’re entering. The last four years have helped Mrs. Cantú and me communicate better to coordinate outings, events, and calendars. It has also helped us be flexible and always have what is best for the family as our main objective. It felt like a game of Tetris at times, but we figured it out. And it allowed me to ride on a Waymo driverless car once; it was weird.

The Fulfillment of All Desire, Part I

In the following weeks, I’ll share my notes on Ralph Martin’s The Fulfillment of All Desire—think of this as a serial book report.

After reading St. John of the Cross’s Spiritual Canticle, Ralph Martin felt called to “launch out into the deep” and dig into other spirituality works, such as The Ascent of Mount Carmel and the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Augustine’s Confessions, and Saint Fracis de Sales. At the end of the Jubilee year 2000, Saint Pope John Paul II published Novo Millennio Inuente (NMI), where he called us to reconnect with the mystical tradition of the Church. These two facets are the basis for the whole book.

“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48) sums up Jesus’ teaching, a.k.a. the universal call to holiness. This is impossible to attain by our own resources, but all things are possible with God. No matter what state or rank, we’re all called to the fullness of the Christian life and the perfection of charity (NMI 30; LG 40). In Thérèse of Lisieux’s words, “Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be...who resists His grace in nothing.”

JPII identifies four basic principles that help us understand this spiritual journey. First, deep union with God is totally unattainable through our own efforts; it is a gift that only God can give. We’re totally dependent on His grace to make progress. Second, our effort is indispensable. Our disposition toward achieving union with God matters. Third, we must asses what has to change in us in order to make us capable of deep union with God. Fourth, we need to know that all the effort and pain is infinitely worth it.

Spiritual growth can be divided into three stages: purgative, illuminative, and unitive. The purgative stage includes the initial phases of the spiritual life, like conversion, turning away from sin, conforming our lives to the moral law, initiating the habits of prayer and the practices of piety, and maintaining a relatively stable life in the Church. The illuminative stage is one of continuous growth; deeper prayer, growth in the virtues, deepening love of neighbor, moral stability, more complete surrender to the lordship of Christ, greater detachment from all that is not God, and increasing desire for full union. The unitive stage is one of deep, habitual union with God, characterized by deep joy, profound humility, freedom from fears or suffering or trials, great desire to serve God, and apostolic fruitfulness. In practice, no one’s life perfectly matches any of these stages; different aspects of them can simultaneously be present in one’s life.

Next week, we’ll start breaking open the purgative stage.

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Sobremesa

Are you team “read the instructions” or team “wing it”?
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