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heidiDon't forget, if you live in much of the US, it's Spring Ahead tonight, which means change your clocks *and* change the batteries in your smoke & carbon monoxide detectors!
And on the Pope, I'm going to paraphrase words by others on my flist and say that as a non-Catholic, one has to admire strong faith when manifested for good - and he did a lot of good. He also held various positions on matters of life and death that I strongly disagree with, in large part because they stem from something other than the theology and faith I've grown up with, and only time will tell how problematic said positions are. But the test of time has already shined on certain things, like his solidarity with Solidarity, his forgiveness of the man who shot him, and the way he saved a man from Death Row in the US.
When I was a senior in high school, the Pope and the President both came to Vizcaya in Miami to have a summit - it was the fall of 1987. The flight pattern for MIA is over my parents' house, and I sat with a book outside to see the two planes pass overhead - the airport was closed to all other traffic for a few hours, and my school was cancelled for the afternoon because many of the students had to go near Vizcaya to get home, and they were closing that road to all traffic. So I was within a few thousand feet of both men, on one afternoon, and now they're both gone, within ten months of each other. Actually, ten months give or take two days. One died on his own terms, one died most likely without any real knowledge or understanding of anything, his mind ravaged by a disease. And if John Paul II had felt otherwise on stem cells, would the death of Ronald Reagan been any different?
And on the Pope, I'm going to paraphrase words by others on my flist and say that as a non-Catholic, one has to admire strong faith when manifested for good - and he did a lot of good. He also held various positions on matters of life and death that I strongly disagree with, in large part because they stem from something other than the theology and faith I've grown up with, and only time will tell how problematic said positions are. But the test of time has already shined on certain things, like his solidarity with Solidarity, his forgiveness of the man who shot him, and the way he saved a man from Death Row in the US.
When I was a senior in high school, the Pope and the President both came to Vizcaya in Miami to have a summit - it was the fall of 1987. The flight pattern for MIA is over my parents' house, and I sat with a book outside to see the two planes pass overhead - the airport was closed to all other traffic for a few hours, and my school was cancelled for the afternoon because many of the students had to go near Vizcaya to get home, and they were closing that road to all traffic. So I was within a few thousand feet of both men, on one afternoon, and now they're both gone, within ten months of each other. Actually, ten months give or take two days. One died on his own terms, one died most likely without any real knowledge or understanding of anything, his mind ravaged by a disease. And if John Paul II had felt otherwise on stem cells, would the death of Ronald Reagan been any different?
