Rob points us to a column by Peggy Noonan which has been in the front of his mind for the last few weeks.
Just go read them.
April 2, 2005
April 1, 2005
Karol Wojtyla
Karol Wojtyla is one of my heroes. He is the first non-Italian pope since 1523.
He spent nine days in Poland in 1979 and told the people, “You are men. You have dignity. Don’t crawl on your bellies.” He was right. They refused to.
He went to Cuba in 1998. Castro, the only Communist leader who seemed to understand Karol’s power, wore a business suit in his presence and treated him with tremendous deference.
I agree with Hugh Hewitt’s assessment:
With Reagan and Solzhenitsyn, John Paul II represents the three forces of opposition to communism that shattered the evil empire, the Soviet Union –the American-led West, the Eastern European resistance, and the Russian dissident movement. They also represented the three spheres of opposition: political, artistic and spiritual. Each man came into the field of his greatness later in life, and each has endured hard circumstances in their later years. I hope Solzhenitisyn is able to and inclined to write about his colleagues in the struggle that triumphed.
“This world,” he says, “is not capable of making man happy.” A challenge to capitalists.
I remember John XXIII, and Paul VI. “Good Pope John” was as well-known as John Paul II, and considered an amiable man. Paul did not elicit quite the same generosity, perhaps because he followed a man so loved. John Paul followed, and survived only 33 days in the Papacy. Karol Wojtyla took the name John Paul II in his honor, and became as loved as John XXIII.
As I mentioned, he was also feared. Despots dreaded his visits. And John Paul II visited–often. He made more foreign trips than all previous popes combined: 170 visits to over 115 countries. He knelt in prayer next to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and visited Buddhist temples. He visited Auschwitz and the synagogue in the Jewish District of Krakow, two places close to him from his younger days.
Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Africa. He drew crowds of Catholics, but also people of all religions. And athiests. He had charisma, and he had faith. Those two characteristics allowed him to cross all boundaries.
His strength, long failing, was impressive. He will be a difficult Pope to follow.
God Bless Karol Wojtyla.
****UPDATE****
In an Istanbul prison cell, Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish extremist who tried to assassinate the Pope in 1981, was praying for his “brother”, according to his lawyer. The two men have long since made their peace.
****UPDATE II****
A Great Man has introduced himself to God.
Sociology 101
Eighteen holes of match or medal play will teach you more about your foe than will 18 years of dealing with him across a desk. ~Grantland Rice
Duncan has learned that.
Funny thing about golf. It will also teach you about yourself.
The game is humbling. Even Tiger Woods hits bad shots. Recently. Several in a single round. And I don’t mean that they are simply bad shots compared to how he usually hits the ball. I mean they are bad shots even by the standards of weekend golfers.
What Tiger and other Tour pros miss out on is the exhilaration we duffers feel when we hit a really good shot–one that comes off the clubface with that unmistakable feel, and the precise trajectory we envisioned, landing just the way we wanted it to, exactly where we wanted it to land. Tour pros expect all that every time they swing the club. The rest of us simply hope for it.
That is why we learn about our playing partners. It is very difficult to keep your own thoughts and emotions hidden in such circumstances. I have never broken par, even for nine holes. But I’ve come close. And there have been many times when I shot one or two strokes over par on the front nine and then played the back ten over. Jekyll and Hyde. It is not an uncommon thing.
Think of the range of emotions in doing something like that. First there is the boost that comes with confidence in yourself. Then there can be the nagging doubts about whether it is actually happening. Then, a resignation that it will all soon end. Finally, it happens. I’ve seen PBS many, many times–Post-Birdie Syndrome. Someone finishes a hole with a tough birdie, then scores double-bogey, or worse, on the very next hole.
For those of you who don’t play the game, consider a night out on the town with your high school or college buddies. These are people you know well, or so you think. Until the drinking begins. Some drunks are passive, some are belligerent. Some get quiet, others get very vocal. Yet you will often see one or two that go through the entire cycle of personas.
That’s what you see on the golf course.
What you find, though, is that most people deal with the ups and downs quite well. Others throw things. Some joke about their own play. Some get very quiet when things are going well and some get very quiet when things are going poorly.
If you, like Grantland Rice, are a student of social interaction, I cannot think of a better place for research than the golf course.
(HT BogeyLounge)
Comments Off on Sociology 101
Instapundit and Schiavo
Hatred is not a Christian virtue. If you hate, you are not following your religion. It is as simple as that. Regardless of your feelings about any situation, hatred is a sin.
Apparently Glenn Reynolds has recieved more than his share of hate mail. Today he posts an email from a true Christian, which makes him feel much better about things.
T-Rex
Book cycle time. Having completed Theodore Rex, I have picked up something lighter for a change: Mark Twain’s Library of Humor. As Sam indicated in the frontispiece, “The selections of my own writings in this volume were made primarily by my associates. That’s why there are not more of them.” I have read this book many times. It is Sam’s collection of humor from the writers of his time, many of them friends of his.
As for a review of the Teddy biography–get it. The Roosevelt Presidency was nothing if not dynamic. The “cowboy” in the White House played his political cards well, but never lost the sense of honor he carried all his life. A balancing act if ever there was one.