Today is Ancestor Appreciation Day.

One of my ancestors is a Catholic saint, Teresa of Avila. (Her father was Don Alfonso Sanchez de Cepeda, and Cepeda is my mother's maiden name.) It may seem initially ludicrous to think that I am in any way related to sainthood, but that's only because you don't know that St. Teresa was a writer and an ardent reader.

In her words: "I could not be happy without some new tale in my hands. I began to imitate the fashions, to enjoy being well dressed, to take great care of my hands, to use perfumes, and wear all the vain ornaments which my position in the world allowed."

So you can see that there is a family resemblance, except that Teresa eventually renounced her vain and "sinful" ways to become a nun. But as a Mother Superior in the Carmelite order, the first thing Teresa looked for in an aspiring novice was intelligence, proving that she valued brains above anything else.

She was also fairly trippy. At the age of seven,Teresa ran away from home, with the intent of traveling to Africa in hopes of being "beheaded by the infidel Moors" and thus achieving martyrdom.

She did achieve sainthood eventually, after the requisite number of miracles--including reviving her nephew by touch after he had been crushed to death by a collapsing stone wall.

Since I am extremely attached to my vain and sinful ways, I probably won't be following in Lola Teresa's footsteps anytime soon. But should any of you ever be crushed beneath a collapsing stone wall, come on over to me and we'll see what we can do.