The Pope
I guess because my family's Catholicism is SO lapsed, I've never really thought very much about the Pope until these past few days. Even when Cooper and I were going through pre-Cana, when we were talking about religion, the Pope didn't really come up. Which is why its so interesting for me now to read, over and over again, commentary from people who aren't even Catholic - some of whom don't even believe in God - who remark on what an amazing man he was. My mom yesterday, at lunch, said something about what a brilliant and good person he was. Which marked the first time I can ever remember her saying something about him.
I just read something that noted that we're at the end of one era, beginning of a new. For the past month or two, its felt to me like that's the case in a lot of ways. Possibly that's just how it always feels - I can't imagine living during any time period, even one that history would remember as relatively boring, and not feeling as though the world were changing dramatically. But maybe that's because the world is always changing dramatically. But I definitely feel like these years are more like 1848 than to, say, any year during the Plague (and I realize that's a highly Euro-centric view of things. But Europe's what I know about, so its what I think about).
So in a way, it seems right that the Pope would die during times like these, especially since he played such a big role in the fall of communism. Apparently when the announcement of his death was made in the Vatican, the crowd applauded. That seems very appropriate to me. It doesn't seem right to be sad, exactly, about the death of someone so holy and who lived his life with so much purpose and intention. Mournful, yes, but not sad.
It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. I hope that there's not too much opportunistic talk from people on either side of the Schiavo situation. Maybe this will help calm the more disgusting elements of that debate (which I can't turn away from, for whatever reason) and will help people, on an individual level, come to terms with death as a concept, for themselves. We'll see.
Something I'm going to be thinking about: something I read this evening (that I can't find now) touched briefly on how the Pope saw gender. It mentioned that he believed that gender was more than just a distinction; it was a calling. That seems so interesting and complicated to me. In high school and college, I strongly believed that men and women doing the same job would be more or less the same - that differences were personality based, not gender based and that to assume otherwise was stereotyping (mostly because I was extremely competitive and resented what I saw implied - that women are softer and more emotional and better with relationships - and I'm still not all relationshippy with work). But since then, since I've been working and as my friends start to have kids, I see more gender-based differences (nuances). So I will be thinking more about gender as calling.
This was a long post...and I didn't think I had that much to say. It is a little rambly...
I just read something that noted that we're at the end of one era, beginning of a new. For the past month or two, its felt to me like that's the case in a lot of ways. Possibly that's just how it always feels - I can't imagine living during any time period, even one that history would remember as relatively boring, and not feeling as though the world were changing dramatically. But maybe that's because the world is always changing dramatically. But I definitely feel like these years are more like 1848 than to, say, any year during the Plague (and I realize that's a highly Euro-centric view of things. But Europe's what I know about, so its what I think about).
So in a way, it seems right that the Pope would die during times like these, especially since he played such a big role in the fall of communism. Apparently when the announcement of his death was made in the Vatican, the crowd applauded. That seems very appropriate to me. It doesn't seem right to be sad, exactly, about the death of someone so holy and who lived his life with so much purpose and intention. Mournful, yes, but not sad.
It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. I hope that there's not too much opportunistic talk from people on either side of the Schiavo situation. Maybe this will help calm the more disgusting elements of that debate (which I can't turn away from, for whatever reason) and will help people, on an individual level, come to terms with death as a concept, for themselves. We'll see.
Something I'm going to be thinking about: something I read this evening (that I can't find now) touched briefly on how the Pope saw gender. It mentioned that he believed that gender was more than just a distinction; it was a calling. That seems so interesting and complicated to me. In high school and college, I strongly believed that men and women doing the same job would be more or less the same - that differences were personality based, not gender based and that to assume otherwise was stereotyping (mostly because I was extremely competitive and resented what I saw implied - that women are softer and more emotional and better with relationships - and I'm still not all relationshippy with work). But since then, since I've been working and as my friends start to have kids, I see more gender-based differences (nuances). So I will be thinking more about gender as calling.
This was a long post...and I didn't think I had that much to say. It is a little rambly...
posted by Kit Pollard at
7:36 PM
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