Maxwell's Silver Hammer

[eggwards]

I went out with the parents last night for our first dinner in a few weeks. Things were pretty much the same, as usual with them. Mom was very talkative, glad I was around, as Dad was doing his best to tune her out, especially as he watched North by Northwest at a very high volume, that I don't think was all due to hearing loss.

I was wearing my TBRU T-shirt, and Mom was trying to ask me all about it. I had told her a little bit about bears a few weeks ago, but not enough that she's really notice things like bear flags or the whole "woof" thing and such. she asked me about the event and where it was and what it was about. I kept the answers simple, and she could put together some of her own answers, probably being able to put together a few more puzzle pieces than Chuck Norris when running into a group of guys at a sushi restaurant. I'm still happy that Mom hasn't mastered the intranet.

Dad is still not interested in learning anything about extra curricular activities, no matter how whitewashed I make it, but Mom always has been the nosy one.

We went out for dinner and started talking about the Pope. I had kind of wanted to stay away from the topic, but that's where it went. What I definitely didn't' want to talk about was the Terri Schivo mess, since I wasn't on board with the Fox News talking points and I wasn't sure where they stood. I do know that they have living wills of their own, but still, they are both big fans of Bush, talk radio and all, so I didn't want to get into a big fight about the issue at dinner. the Pope seemed to be a bit lighter touch, as there were things I could admire about the late pontiff, even if I didn't agree with all of his teachings and beliefs.

Still, in talking about him, I stuck a lot to what I had learned from the Dan Brown book Angels & Demons about the papal succession, and talked to Chris earlier about how odd it was to see that play out now (and now we're both waiting for the antimatter). Now that I've heard that they didn't use the silver hammer on JPII, I feel cheated in the thought that someone wasn't there hitting him on the head, asking him if he was dead.

As we were talking, Mom started bringing up the idea of new popes. I said that it's been a long time, and remembering how remarkable the choice of JPII was, since he wasn't Italian (and that I really couldn't remember who was a pope before John Paul I). Mom mentioned that television had been speculating on several people world wide. We remarked that it would be interesting to see the first Hispanic pope, or the first African pope.

Then I said, "We've probably already seen the first gay pope, not that they would ever admit that." That pretty much shut up the parents for a few minuted.

I'd be happy to give all of my March Madness winnings to the new pope if he'll take the name Pope George Ringo. Sure, it's a really old joke, and the new pope would only be getting $125, but hey, it's really cool. Who cares if their names aren't in the Bible - neither was Innocent or Pious.

Otherwise, I intended to see the Gay Men's Chorus of Houston's show, since one of my former coworkers partners is in it, but unfortunately I was told the wrong day. It was Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, not Monday night. So much for using my Outlook calendar for keeping up with dates. This isn't great because now at work we're in a blocked period do to tax season, and that means no vacation, so I'll probably be missing the Turtle Creek Chorale's show this weekend as well.

My legs are tired tonight from doing some extra long walking stints this weekend, oh, and remember that drinking more water thing, I've been doing it. Believe it or not. I've been trying to keep my cokes and other drinks with meals only. I miss them, but it's OK.

Comments

[jdvsqz.livejournal.com]

Water = good!

[t8r.livejournal.com]

I haven't researched this, so take it with a grain of salt, but a Catholic friend of mine tells me there have been African popes, just none that were black.

[airbearma.livejournal.com]

Lets hope that they elect a Pope who is more gay tolerant.

[paladincub21.livejournal.com]

I should read "Angels and Demons" just to learn about his version of Papal Succession, as I already know a few things.

there have been three african popes, but none of those were in the last 1500 years.

Pope Saint Victor 1 (189-199 CE) A North African, Victor was the fifteenth pope. He is buried near the body of the apostle Peter, the first pope, in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. His feast day is July 28th.

Pope Saint Miliades 1 (311-314 CE) Not much is known of Miliades, who was born in Africa but died in Rome. He is buried on the famous Appian Way. His feast day is December 10th.

Pope Saint Gelasius 1 (492-496 CE) Born in Rome of African parents, Gelasius was a member of the Roman clergy from youth. Reportedly the most active of African popes, working to exile the Manicheans and pagans, and is author of a famous letter to the Byzantine emperor, Anastasias. His feast day is November 21st.

There is throwing info out at ya. Also, I didn't know this but the habit of Popes changing their name is not ingrained. It happen when a man named Mercurius became pope in 533 AD. He felt it was wrong for someone with such a pagan name be head of the Church, so he changed his name to John II to honor a previous pope/saint. Since then, its been an option for men with odd/unlikely names to change their names. Obvious Innocent and Pious are a bit grating, but its probably why we avoided the Pope Ralphs.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I guess the real question is, were any of the popes black - or notiecably non-white. The Catholic Church, despite being worldwide still is a wester-world run organization, and all the pictures of popes I've ever seen have been white.

And yes, we'd never want a pope to ever have a taint of seeming pagan with an inappropriate name that didn't seem properly aligned with church philosophy (Boniface?) still, Pope John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt would be pretty good.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't count on it. JPII has selected a majority of the cardinals who will pick his successor, so he's pretty much stacked the deck. Just remember that JPII never acknowledged the problem with pedophile priests, do you think they would acknowledge the gays within their own structure, let alone those in the rest of the world?

[paladincub21.livejournal.com]

Well, the church can be accused of whitewashing, of that I have no doubt. We look at people of middle-eastern today, we think back to what people in that area may have looked like; and well, we can't say for sure that they were dark-skinned, but i'd imagine that Jesus isn't as lily white as his pictures. Does it matter?

Thinking about history of the papacy in general (which is a bad mood because its almost 2000 years of turbulent, malleable and often contradictory history), i can say that the Italian slant has been very strong, so keeping the african identities quiet maybe a pro-italian slant versus anything else.

i'd like a jacob