75 years old

Today my Dad turns 75 years old- three quarters of a century... Born during WWII, he served in the US Army as a corpsman during the Vietnam war. He worked in banking for 33 years, bought a house in the Bronx and with my mother raised four children there. Now the grandfather of eleven, he has retired to Florida to escape the cold of winter. Who can blame him.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Richmond

Joey Logano, really? A two time winner? Locked in the chase? Logano?

So beside the point...

The race to the checkered flag with bumping and clashing between the top three- Gordon, Keselowski and Kenseth was great to watch, but them bashing away let Logano sneak in for the win.

And the carnage had started early when Bowyer knocked Kyle Larson, the pole-sitter, around in the very first lap. Well NASCAR wanted more action... Short track racing at its best..

Ambrose and Mears fighting- seriously? Short track tempers abounded.

I can't wait to see what Talladega brings us.

Also, I do want to give a shout out to the NASCAR official who basically pulled Reed Sorenson from his VERY ON FIRE race car. That was just crazy fast. Thanks!

Sainthood

Rome city officials expected up to five million people to attend the mass that  turned John Paul II, who led the Catholic Church from 1978-2005, and John XXIII leader from 1958-1963, into saints.

While Pope John Paul II is well known, John XXIII is less well remembered. I decided to learn more about the man and his life when it was announced he would be made a saint alongside Pope John Paul II.

He was born before the start of the US Civil War to poor farmers. He did wonderful things in a quiet way as a priest in keeping with his motto, Obedience and Peace.

Beginning in March of 1925, as an archbishop, he served as a papal diplomat in Bulgaria and assisted the Orthodox churches in rebuilding after an earthquake, During his time as a papal diplomat in Greece and Turkey he worked with Germany's ambassador to assist Jews escaping Nazi rule in Europe. Because of this, he  is considered a Righteous Gentile.

When asked after the war, he reasoned: "We are conscious today that many, many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes so that we can no longer see the beauty of Thy chosen people nor recognize in their faces the features of our privileged brethren. We realize that the mark of Cain stands upon our foreheads. Across the centuries our brother Abel has lain in blood which we drew, or shed tears we caused by forgetting Thy love. Forgive us for the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we know not what we did."

He was made Nuncio in France at the end of 1944 and retired all the bishops that helped the Nazi occupiers.In 1953 he was elevated to cardinal by Pius XII, and served in Venice. He believed this would be his last elevation so when he was elected pope, he was surprised- having bought a ticket for his return to Venice after the elections were completed.

His papal achievements are discussed by John Cogley, Ed.:

Perhaps a younger pontiff would have been less daring and innovative than John XXIII turned out to be. Soon after his coronation, he announced almost casually that he was summoning an ecumenical council—a general meeting of the bishops of the church—the first in almost a century. He said the idea came to him in a sudden inspiration. His purpose was to “bring the church up to date” (aggiornaménto) and to work for its spiritual regeneration. He was the first pope since the Reformation who acknowledged frankly that Catholicism stood in need of reinvigoration and reform.

It was long a truism among church historians that councils are followed by upheaval and disorder in the church. The pope’s decision, consequently, was received coolly by his conservative Curia, who were convinced that the church had prospered under Pius XII’s leadership and who saw no good reason for the changes John envisioned. Some of the Vatican cardinals in fact did everything in their power to delay the council until the old man had passed from the scene and the project could be quietly dropped. But the pope pushed on with his plan and lived long enough to preside over the first session of the Second Vatican Council in the fall of 1962.

In keeping with his wishes, the council fathers pledged that they would be consistently positive. No condemnations or anathemas were to be made; political hostilities were to be ignored; and the church above all was to recognize that it was not the master but the servant of humanity. The pope made it clear that the Second Vatican Council was convened as a pastoral council. No new dogmas were to be pronounced, though old doctrines and disciplines were to be reexamined. What John sought, he said, was a “New Pentecost,” a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The council, according to John’s design, would make a new start toward achieving Christian unity by putting aside the hostilities of the past and acknowledging the Catholics’ share of responsibility for the scandal of a divided Christianity. With his long experiences among the Eastern Orthodox, John’s interest in Christian ecumenism seemed natural enough, but no one in Rome was quite prepared for the extent of his openness. He received Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant religious leaders with extreme cordiality and made sure they were invited to send observers to the Vatican Council. He removed certain words offensive to Jews from the official liturgy of the church. On one notable occasion, he introduced himself to a group of Jewish visitors with the biblical words, “I am Joseph your brother,” referring to the Old Testament story of the meeting of the sons of the patriarch Jacob at the court of Egypt.

John traveled around Rome freely, breaking with the tradition that the pope, deprived of his former temporal power, was a “prisoner of the Vatican.” In an attempt to depoliticize the church, he played down his position as ruler of the Vatican and emphasized his role as “servant of the servants of God,” a traditional title of the pope. In that spirit he called on the president of Italy and cordially received the son-in-law of the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, in private audience. Among his other visitors were the archbishop of Canterbury—the first such meeting since the 14th century—the moderator of the Scottish Kirk, and a Shintō (the indigenous religion of Japan) high priest—the first such official in history to be received at the Vatican.

During the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the pope publicly urged both the United States and the Soviet Union to exercise caution and restraint and won the appreciation of both President John F. Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev. His major encyclical, Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”), addressed to all humankind, was received warmly throughout the world and praised by politicians as well as churchmen. Straightforward and frankly optimistic, it avoided the language of diplomacy and set forth the requirements for world peace in profoundly human terms. Distinguishing between the philosophy of Marxism and actual governments to which it gave birth, John suggested that peaceful coexistence between the West and the communist East was not only desirable but actually necessary if humankind was to survive. He thereby diluted the religious energy that had been poured into the Cold War as a result of the militant policies shaped by his predecessor.

John saw himself as a reconciler. In statement after statement he emphasized the church’s significance as a suprapolitical spiritual force in the world. His greatest claim on the world’s affection, however, rested on the warmth of his personality rather than on any of his formal statements. He remained simple and unaffected, in spite of the baroque setting in which he found himself, and instinctively appealed directly to human values that everyone could understand. “Since you could not come to me, I came to you,” he told the inmates of a Roman prison. When Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of the president of the United States, came to call, he rehearsed “Mrs. Kennedy, Madame Kennedy” in his poor English. Then, when she appeared, he spontaneously spread open his arms and cried out, “Jacqueline!” He once told a communist diplomat, “I know you are an atheist, but won’t you accept an old man’s blessing?” When a shabby peasant woman reached up to touch him as he was being carried through St. Peter’s, he stopped to clasp her hand. “There is no reason why you shouldn’t get as close as the king of Jordan did,” he said. The roly-poly pontiff—he was short of stature and never overcame a tendency toward corpulence—gradually became a kind of father figure for the world. When he died in 1963, it was generally recognized that he had become one of the best-loved men in the world.

Pope John XXIII was a good and holy man. A saint and a gift from God.

Happy Birthday President Buchanan

James Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791 close to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. His father was Scotch-Irish and came to the Pennsylvania frontier where he became a successful storekeeper. James Buchanan attended school in Mercersburg before entering Dickinson College in the fall of 1807 as a junior. He was among the best scholars in his class, but he also acquired a reputation for rowdiness and intellectual vanity. When he graduated two years later, he left the college with little emotional attachment.

Eager to improve his situation, Buchanan trained for the law and was admitted to the bar in 1812. His considerable legal skill brought him acclaim and a growing income. It also drew him into politics. A Federalist like his father, Buchanan began his political career in 1814 as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

In 1819, Buchanan became engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of a wealthy iron mogul. Their engagement was an unhappy one, however, and amidst rumors that Buchanan was seeing other women, Coleman broke off the engagement. She died shortly thereafter, leaving Buchanan brokenhearted, and her family to blame him for her death, to the point that they would not let him attend her funeral. Buchanan vowed to never remarry, and he never did.

In 1820 he was elected to Congress. With only a few exceptions, he spent the next forty years as an officeholder, serving as both congressman and senator, as minister to Russia under President Andrew Jackson, as secretary of state during the presidency of James K. Polk, and as minister to Great Britain under Franklin Pierce. In 1856, at the age of sixty-five, he capped this long list of honors with his election as President.

That year, the Democratic National Convention was held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Buchanan won the Democratic nomination on the 17th ballot.

In the general election, he defeated John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidencial  attempts to prevent it, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede. By February 1861, six more states followed suit and the Confederate States of America was formed  as Buchanan served out the last months as a lame duck president.

When Lincoln was sworn in as president and  Buchanan left office on March 3, 1861, to retire to his estate outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he left the nation on the brink of civil war.

The man who said: “All for which the slave States have ever contended, is to be let alone and permitted to manage their domestic institutions in their own way. As sovereign States, they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the world for the slavery existing among them. For this the people of the North are not more responsible and have no more fight to interfere than with similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil,” lived to see the end of the Civil War. Just before his death in 1868, he said, “History will vindicate my memory from every unjust aspersion.”

I am not sure that will ever happen....

House Hunting

So the winter was really rough and driving almost an hour each way to work is less than ideal, so I started working with a real estate agent to see about selling my house and getting a place in Norwood, ten minutes from work.

I expected, based on her computations, to get enough from my house to pay for pre-sale repairs and new carpet and still have enough for my down-payment and closing on whatever we purchased.

My family and I cleaned and packed for 2 weeks, Tony and Steve fixed a bunch of small problems and we listed the house the first week of April.

I have looked at a number of houses in Norwood and more than one would work for us. But I have to sell mine first.

In the first week, we have had 4 official showings and 2 unofficial showings, but nobody is interested so far, in spite of the nice finishes my house has. Too small, the upstairs, the bedrooms...

At 1000 square feet, it is going to be a compact house.

But it shows nice- according to our feedback.

Then my realtor and I went over the calculations again and somewhere in the original version a huge error was made. I will make a third of what I was originally told I would have. The two realtors would walk away with more money. Unbelievable.

After almost eight years and almost a total rehab to make the house beautiful...

So unless I get a wildly impressive offer- which is unlikely in the current market- it looks like I am staying put.  In my really beautiful cosy little house. Which is not so bad after all.

Heaven is for Real

On Sunday I went to a special screening of "Heaven is for Real". I do not go to the movies often, and this event was part of a work benefit, with proceeds going to DebRA of America.

One of the actors, the little boy who went to heaven in the movie, is the cousin of a little boy who died from EB. This screening was the "Love for Lucas" event for 2014.

The story is a very popular book but I have to say... This movie is AMAZING! I want everyone I know to go see it. It was such a gift to be able to be there and see it with my son. Just incredible.

Go see it. Take your family. Tell your friends. Have them see it.

It is possibly the best movie I have ever seen.

Black stripes at Darlington

Jimmie Johnson is my guy- I am rooting for him to get his 7th championship this year. And he is showing what he is made of for sure.

This week he qualified poorly for him at Darlington, where he has won three times (And yes I know Gorrdon has like 7 wins there, whatever). So Jimmie started from the thirteenth row and struggled early, but being the champion he is, he battled on. Chad got the car where it needed to be, they led for a while, and in the end it was 4 tires (Harvick) beating two tires (Junior and Jimmie) so Jimmie ended up third.

Congrats to SHR- and Harvick.

So is Jimmie in a slump? I think not. He is doing too well. And I think back to his smashed in windscreen at Texas... He drives like a champ NO MATTER WHAT. His win is coming.

I do want to mention another top ten for my rookie of the year, Kyle Larson. He is so good in the 42. Considering how many rookies (and others) kissed the lady in black, I think this kid is doing an amazing job.

And how does Kasey Kahne lose a tire and wreck and the first I know of it is reading about it post race?

On to Richmond...

Texas and NASCAR

So if you want a sure fire way to end a drought, invite NASCAR to race in your area...

In light of the drenching rain at the Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, the race took place Monday at midday. So I read the live feed before watching my DVR'd race because some of us have to work for a living.

Some highlights:

Tony Stewart, who took the pole (Go, Smoke!) lead the first ten green-yellow flag laps... Yes, they started the race under caution because there might have been some damp spots...

That was odd, but odder things were coming.

The Jet dryers still on the track blew air up under the hood of Keselowski, and popped his hood, along with messing up his safety flaps. His team had to bondo this hood down.

AND WE WEREN"T EVEN RACING YET!

Several other teams went down pit road to sort out the safety flaps before the race really got started, and we were off with Tony leading for real now.

Then Junior drove through the boggy grass, shot up to the wall and burst into flames as he headed back down the banking to the infield. He had his steering wheel off, seat belts unbuckeled and helmet detached before his car even stopped moving. Good thing too- the back panel of his care practically melted off.

But this is NASCAR, so when they got the fire out, they took it to the garage to see if they could get it back on the track.

Seriously!

Now I am no mechanic, but I knew they were done. And NASCAR agreed with me- they did not get back to racing.

The sad part of Junior destroying his car was JJ was right behind him and the debris messed up his car- caved in the windshield...

Have I mentioned we were only done with 30 laps of racing?

So the 48 team bonds-ed and cleaned with everyone over the wall and JJ speeding on pit road- they were now last in line so the penelties meant nothing.

And they kept the car going over the course of a very long day.

Kevin Harvick blew up his car- he just has not caught a break since his win- and JJ, who was not having a rough enough day, blew a tire.

And can I say the film of JJ's windshield vibrating as his speed increased was something else. The fact that it didn't seem to fluster the team at all just makes me think SE7EN is coming to the 48 soon.

And just when Joey was about to take the white flag, a caution as Kurt Busch blew a tire snatched away certain victory. There would be a green-white checker...

When I was reading along at work, this is where the live feed stopped...

So I got to watch the end- Joey taking the flag- when I watched at home.

Seven races, seven winners...

Rwanda Genocide and the Society of Helpers

Twenty years ago today, Rwanda began to unravel as a nation... Over the course of the next hundred days, hundreds of thousands were murdered...

Kofi Annan, who later lead the UN, was there and begged the international community for help. The UN peacekeeping troops stood by helpless without a mandate to use force to stop the massacres. And as U.S., European and world officials quibbled over the use of the word “genocide”, the bodies mounted to many hundreds of thousands. 

Blood ran in the streets and the world stood by watching...

A little history:

The Hutu are the ethnic majority in Rwanda, and viewed the Tutsi as a foreign race, instead of seeing them as an ethnic minority. The conflict between the two was not about language- both speak Bantu and French, and it was not based on religion- they are generally Christians.

The division instead was one of class warfare.

The Tutsi were considered to be wealthier, and had a higher social status, and were the monachy until the Hutu overthrew the monachy in the early 1960s.

In 1973, a military group installed Major General Juvenal Habyarimana, a moderate Hutu, in power. The sole leader of Rwandan government for the next two decades, Habyarimana founded a new political party, the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRMD). He was elected president under a new constitution ratified in 1978 and reelected in 1983 and 1988, when he was the sole candidate.

The Helpers:

The Society of Helpers, a religious order had houses in  Kigali and the south. In these houses, Tutsis and Hutus lived and worked together. Sr. Liberata Marie Grace Mukagatare was one of the women in the house. Ausiliatrix Sisters, as they are known in French, were well known to me. My cousin, Maryellen Moore, is a Helper, and was in Paris at the Mother House for an international meeting of the order. It was the summer of 1990, and I was traveling in Europe and The Helpers invited me to stay with them just blocks from the Eiffel Tower. I was able to spend six days exploring the city and sharing time with these wonderful ladies. I met Sister Antoinette Gasibirege, who was from Rwanda and of course I remember the Rwandan cross worn by so many of them. It is featured in the banner below.

I sketched it in my diary- it is really beautiful. Simple and beautiful. I remember asking about going to see the house in Rwanda after the Peace Corps...

I still have never been there...

In 1994 the Rwanda genocide saw the Hutu militias targeting Tutsis and moderate Hutus, resulting in a 100-day death toll between 800,000 and 1 million. Most were killed brutally- hacked with machete.  Sexual violence against Tutsi women was also widespread.

Sr. Liberata Marie Grace Mukagatare was one of those. She was scheduled to go to Paris that summer for one of the formation sessions for young sisters and had to leave the House and return to her village to get her passport arranged. She was there at home when the genocide broke out.

The Start of Chaos:

On April 6th,  the plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundi’s president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali, leaving no survivors. It has never been conclusively determined who shot down the plane with some believing it was the work of Hutu extremists, while others blamed leaders of the RPF. Within an hour of the plane crash, the Presidential Guard together with members of the FAR and the Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe (“Those Who Attack Together”) and Impuzamugambi (“Those Who Have the Same Goal”) had set up roadblocks with barricades. The  slaughter of  Tutsis and moderate Hutus began with impunity. Among the first victims of the genocide were the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her 10 Belgian bodyguards, all of whom were killed on April 7. This violence allowed for the creation of an interim government of extremist Hutu Power leaders from the military high command beginning on April 9.

This sparked the chillingly well-organized extermination.

Begun by extreme Hutu nationalists in the capital of Kigali, the genocide spread throughout the country with staggering speed and brutality, as ordinary citizens were incited to violence by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their friends and neighbors.

Sister Grace and her entire family were killed in their village. She was 30 years old.

Thank God, she was the only Helper to lose her life in Rwanda during the genocide. The Red Cross rescued the sisters in Kigali and the sisters in the South fled across the border into Burundi. Maryellen shared with me that at one point, one of the cars was completely surrounded by aggressors and all in the car thought they too would be killed...

The driver, a lay man, one of what I am sure are thousands of nameless heros, paid a bribe to save the sisters and they were allowed through.

By the time the Tutsi-led Rwandese Patriotic Front gained control of the country through a military offensive in early July, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were dead and many more displaced from their homes.

After the genocide  about two million Hutus fled to Burundi, Tanzania (from where 500,000 were later expelled by the government), Uganda, and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Sister Antoinette Gasibirege and others share their experience with the healing that has been on-going in her country: Capacitar in Rwanda

I pray the healing continues and hope to one day make the long ago planned journey and see this beautiful country. And I remember Sister Grace. Rest in Peace.

Martinsville

Jimmie was second at Martinsville... Kurt Busch broke a winless streak and we have six different winners in the first six races... Seems unimportant in the news of NASCAR when the Waltrips lost a brother, Jimmie lost a brother in law and Richard Petty lost his wife...

Weight Loss Update

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Since weight loss surgery at the end of September, I have made great progress. I wore a size 16 today- at my largest I was wearing 26-28.

Hard to believe. So happy and excited about the new me.

DWTS

Lando went home due to medical issues so scores mattered little on the emotional night... I think Derek and Amy Purdey made me cry harder than I have in my years of watching. Sobbing in my livingroom... "I danced with my dad before I could walk..."

Snot running sobs... That was me... Honestly. "How do you thank someone who gave you a kidney?"

This was just amazing. Derek is facing a huge challenge dancing with a double amputee and yet when they dance you forget all that.

Everyone else danced, but this is the performance I will remember....