Saying Goodbye to a Friend

It wasn't too bad after all. And I'm glad that I worked up the courage to do it.

I wasn't going to go to Comerica Park to view Ernie Harwell. I was afraid that I would lose my composure. Yet though the eyes did well up, it was okay, and I am glad I went.

My oldest son tagged along and got a few good pictures, and the company was welcome. The entire event, such as it was, was done tastefully and low key, sort of like you would assume Ernie would want it. We feared there would be vendors hawking stuff, and there weren't. There was free coffee and Gatorade, and that was it. It was a classy send off for a classy guy.

We didn't get there until about 9:30 in the evening and the wait was only about an hour. The line was still long when we left.

We said a little prayer at the coffin and signed the huge card outside. We had to lay on the ground to write, because there were so many signatures and well wishings that the only room left was ground level. We went back to the gates for one last so long, and came home.

An usher said they were expecting a crowd between 75,000 and 100,000. I have to believe they got it. Yes, the tears came. I could only manage a nod to the person at the end of the line who thanked everyone individually for coming. It was difficult, but I'm glad I was there.

Goodbye, Ernie, and Godspeed.

Ernie Harwell

There are times when words cannot tell a story. This is especially ironic when the subject is someone who used words so very magically to enlighten an audience. When Ernie Harwell passed away Tuesday, we found ourselves at that crossroad.

What can you say about someone who said it all? He lived life well and did his job at a level far above the ability of most men. Ernie was clever and straightforward, painting pictures of ball games from inside little transistor radios all over Michigan, and much of the United States. When Ernie spoke, you were there.

There have been and will be uncountable and well deserved tributes to this icon of Michigan. When everyone shares such great experiences as we all did over the many summers Ernie created baseball for us, how can we not talk about them over and over?

God bless you, Ernie. You have earned your reward.

Why Limit Miracles?

One of the best Gospel readings is centered on one of the most famous stories from Scripture. It is St. John's account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, a story so powerful and awesome that it is almost electric. It's one of the premiere miracles performed by Christ, in stature as well as in scope.

Yet there are those who do not accept that it actually happened, even among Christians. Their take on it was that the crowd which had assembled saw Christ sharing food with his disciples learned to share themselves. Those who presumably had the foresight brought something to eat and then shared that with their neighbors. Christ was only teaching them to share. Or, perhaps, shaming them into it. Either way, it rather takes the edge off the event, to say the least.

In the first place, are you ready to believe that no one, not one, of the 5,000 or so gathered had any inkling that it was a good thing to be kind to those around you? I believe ancient Jewish law already covered that. Secondly, It doesn't seem like a very profound thing for Our Lord to do. Not that everything He did had to have pow or zing, to be sure, but as He was trying to prove His Divinity I have to think he would do so in a stronger way than saying essentially, 'Be nice, now.' Any decent parent or teacher can do that.

I have likewise heard that many don't believe that the Red Sea actually parted for Moses in leading the Israelites out of Egypt. The tide was out for them, you see, yet it came back in and Pharoah's chariots become entangled in the seaweed, that's all.
No big deal.

It is a big deal. As with the loaves and fishes, it loses all its strength stripped of God's help. To begin with, it would have been one unusual tide to have allowed Moses to get by while returning quickly enough to decimate the pursuing Egyptians. But my ultimate point here is that I can't understand why people who claim to practice and indeed even teach Christianity want the miraculous aspect of it purged.

I realize that there are parts of the Bible which can be taken literally while others are intended to be figurative. But the standard as what is what, I've always believed, is that whatever isn't obviously figurative is expected to be taken literally. As there is no reason to doubt these two tales, there is no reason that they ought not be taken as the straight truth, an accurate accounting of what actually occurred.

Unless you don't really believe that Christ is God. If so, then it doesn't matter. Yet if He is what He says, then you ought not cast aspersions on His work.

Family Guy and The Meaning of Life

Seth McFarlane has proven beyond doubt that he is not interested in anything or anyone save himself. This past Sunday's episode of Family Guy has proven it.

The episode was so unbelievably gross it is difficult to imagine that he truly sought to entertain his audience. He simply wanted to insult our decency and intelligence, first by employing such a repugnant storyline, and then by trying to make a statement on the meaning of life (or lack thereof) afterwards. There was no actual comedic purpose to the former, and no worthwile insight on the latter.

He clearly believes that as a Big Cartoon Producer he has the right to say and do whatever he wants, and that it should pass as decent intellectual fare. Or he is snidely playing his audience by going so far off the path of creative entertainment, knowing that they'll watch and praise his avant guarde attitude. Either way, it demostrates not artistic merit or any real concern for the folks in TV land. It is little more than the arrogance of a small mind.

Philosophy and Politics on Other Worlds.

The journal Nature reports that circling a nearby star is a planet with some earth conditions, specifically an atmosphere and water. While too hot to likely support life, as it has a surface temperature of about 250 degrees, the discovery bodes well for those who hope that there may be sentient life on other planets. Apparently there are at least two other so-called 'Super Earths' which have also been detected.

That these are exciting discoveries cannot be disputed. But where we have an issue about them is in the interpretation over how finding other life in the galaxy would shake our core beliefs here on our own good Earth. It has been said that we would have to completely rethink our philosophies, and even our religion.

Why? Would not the same God have created them too? Why would they not be as subject to sin and failure, the whole universe being imperfect, as we are? Further, why should we presume that the challenges they face aren't any different from ours? Getting food and shelter, worrying about how the kids are growing up; why should alien daily life be so much different than ours?

The best guess is that they would still have personal, political, and social struggles akin to ours. Granted, they may be superior or inferior to us in myriad ways and forms, but there is simply no reason to think that the cultures of another world would be, at their core, any different from ours.

So while finding Earth-like planets is certainly exciting, it should not change our outlook on the relationship between God and Man. It only means that He has seen fit to share Himself more generally than some may have thought. There would still be conservative and liberal viewpoints vying for attention, and their conservatives would still be as right as our liberals are wrong.

Sunday Musings

Lunatic, liar, or Lord. That, according to Aquinas, is our choice. Those are the only options which Christ leaves us.

If He was a lunatic or liar, then we cannot trust anything He says, even the stuff about love one another that cafeteria Christians adore so much. Such ranting would be as worthless as anything else He might have said.

This is a man who went up to complete strangers and said, "I can forgive your sins". How are we supposed to take that? He was lying, which many would say, He was crazy, which, on a purely human level, would make sense...or He meant exactly that.

Lunatic, liar, or Lord. What do you think? That may be the most important question you'll ever face.

Youth Wasted on the Young?

The Democrats are very worried about their chances this November, and with good reason. There's a significant part of the voting public simply fed up with the power surge in Washington, while President Barack Obama's ratings are, to say the least, stagnant. Still, discontent and poll numbers may be fleeting, and by themselves mean little this far ahead of game day. But that is not all which trouble our liberal friends.

The 2010 elections are midterm. Historically, midterm elections bode ill for the folks in power. That in itself forecasts something of a downer for the Dems. When you throw in the fact the people the President and his allies count on for support, the young and minority voters, have a strong tendency to ignore the middle elections, there is greater reason to fear the results. When those groups come out, it is often only for the big time.

To counter this, the Democrats are attempting to woo those groups into turning out en masse as they did in 2008 for Mr. Obama. But can the ploy succeed?

With unemployment still high and the spark from the President's electoral triumph gone, who knows? When you depend on a shallow electorate in the first place, the inspiration to vote will naturally be fleeting. Yet it may be the only card which the Democrats can play.

Older and conservative voters are the ones who tend to show up for the off elections. This, coupled with the other points herein, are what concern the Obama-Pelosi-Reid gang the most. It is all of these factors which spell disaster for them later this year.

Winston Churchill famously said, "If you are not liberal when you are 20, you have no heart. If you are not conservative when you are 50, you have no head." However true or not that may be, it is a saying which will be tested in November 2010. It is not an exam the Democratic National Committee feels it can pass.