Olympics and other things

I must be getting old, turning into a kind of curmudgeon, because I find myself increasingly at odds with what our society offers up as good and worthy. No, that's not quite right. Society doesn't simply offer these things to us and tell us they're good; rather it throws them at us, rubs our noses in them, submerges us in their squalor, and then tells us to inhale deeply. It then attacks and intimidates any who might in the smallest way object to such treatment. Examples abound...

The reaction to the comments of Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy are beyond belief. Well, they should be beyond belief, but in our increasingly decadent society, you can safely believe them. Mr. Cathy, speaking of his company, simply said:

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles." 

Omigosh! The man unwittingly pulled a half-dozen politically incorrect triggers and apparently exposed himself as an ignorant, intolerant, homophobic troglodyte. No doubt Eric Holder has already put together a team of prosecutors to investigate the criminal acts that obviously lie behind such comments. The reactions from across this once-great land were near instantaneous.

Mayor Menino "talking"

Mayor Tom Menino, perhaps the most inarticulate mayor in America, reacted with remarkable stupidity and declared that Chick-fil-A didn't belong in Boston, the city that boasted the Freedom Trail. It would seem Mr. Cathy, by exercising his freedom of speech in support of values held by the vast majority of Americans for over two centuries, is to be denied that freedom in a city that played such a major role in our nation's fight for freedom. The mayor only reinforces my decision almost a decade ago to leave Massachusetts for Florida. In Chicago too -- where else but corrupt, murderous Chicago? -- Chick-fil-A's despicable values were declared not to be "Chicago's values." Similar comments gushed forth from many of the nation's self-proclaimed smart people.

Personally, I'm with Mr. Cathy. Homosexual marriage is an abomination. The homosexual lifestyle is sinful, just as fornication and adultery and abortion and theft and murder are sinful. One cannot engage in any of these and lead the kind of holy life God wants for us.

I've also decided to visit our local Chick-fil-A on Monday and consume one of their salads (I'm on a diet) in support of Mr. Cathy and his family. I'd go tomorrow after Mass, but Chick-fil-A, in open defiance of market economics, has a "closed on Sunday" policy. Our local Chick-fil-A has also supported one of the ministries dear to my heart: the Wildwood Soup Kitchen, thus giving me another reason to support them in turn.

To read more on Chick-fil-A and its maniacal detractors, check out Mark Steyn's latest column.

Some still enjoy the Olympics

Then there are the Olympics. In truth, I really don't care about the Olympic Games. I don't care if the US athletes win or lose. I don't care about gold medal count or new world records. Why bother? The Olympics are no longer the global venue they once were for amateur athletes to compete worthily in a display of true sportsmanship. The games have simply become another arena for professional athletes to display their oversized egos on a grander scale. Gone is any pretense of gentlemanly competition among amateur athletes. The Olympics have been transformed into a series of in-your-face events, more similar to Roman gladiatorial bouts than real sport. The fact that all athletes must be tested for drugs, blood doping, and other performance enhancing techniques says much about the place of sportsmanship in the Olympics and our society at large. And have you noticed the almost religious nature of so many of the Olympic ceremonies? Watching them is like participating in some ancient pagan ritual -- all very bizarre. Most readers probably disagree with me, but, hey, we all have a right to waste our time in different ways. For me, I will find something else to occupy me during the next few weeks

Perhaps one of the best indicators of the direction of our society is how much we pay professional athletes and entertainers. Have you noticed how business people come under constant attack for the money they make, but we rarely hear a word about the compensation enjoyed by celebrities? And yet businesses create jobs for the rest of us and provide useful products and services rather than mere entertainment. I suspect, though, that celebrities and even many business people make far more money than they truly deserve, and I fear for their salvation because so many never seem satisfied with what they have. Don't they realize that their talents aren't self-generated but are gifts from God? Their praise and thanks should be directed toward Him and not toward themselves. And their energies should be directed not toward the pursuit of more money, but toward the pursuit of good. How did St. Paul put it?

"For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains." [1 Tim 6:10]

Excess is never attractive, nor is it good for the soul. (All you celebrity junkies might want to read this article on celebrity excess -- both sad and funny.)  I certainly don't envy the rich, whether they are business people or athletes or rock stars or actors or corrupt politicians. Money has never been a particularly strong motivator for me and certainly no sane person can possibly enjoy being envious. (I am far more susceptible to other of the deadly sins.) The trouble is, the extravagant lifestyles fueled by all this money can be very attractive to young people. This becomes evident when one observes the more talented college athletes as they enter the ranks of professionals. They seem to be afflicted with a sense of entitlement, an attitude nourished and encouraged by parents, coaches, and school administrators from the time their talent first manifested itself. At some colleges, and Penn State is just one obvious recent example, the standing of the school's athletic programs trumps most other considerations, even basic morality. Many of our society's newly discovered "values" have apparently migrated from the world of professional sports and entertainment to the rest of society. Of course, many of these values originated in the academic halls, so it is only fitting that they should ultimately infect the field house and the stadium.

Focusing only on the health of the college and university, I offer a most radical solution: the complete elimination of intercollegiate sports and their replacement with intramural athletic programs. This, of course, will never happen, not because of a love for sport, but because of a love for money. These programs are simply too profitable. And, as always, St. Paul is proven correct.

Lest I sound too pessimistic about our society, let me conclude with a more positive observation. It relates to one of the good things that came out of the tragedy in that Aurora, Colorado movie theater. The manly virtue of sacrifice above self is still alive within many Americans. A number of the men who lost their lives did so by intentionally placing their own bodies in the line of fire to protect the women they were with. God bless them and keep them. You see, it's the good people of this country, the hard-working folks we know and see every day, who live and keep the values we hold dear, who truly set this nation's standards. It's not the politicians or the baseball players or the movie actors. It is the people who give me hope, not the president.

Afternoon Thoughts

Earlier this afternoon I took a short golf cart drive to the local Barnes & Noble where I picked up a guidebook to Charleston and South Carolina. Diane and I plan to visit Charleston in the near future where we'll meet up with some old friends who are driving down from the D. C. area. It's been so long since I've spent any time in Charleston I really can't recall many details about the city. And so the guidebook was needed. Now, with my glossy, expensive, full-color book in hand, I can play the perfect tourist, rattling off little-known historical tidbits and recommending restaurants and other places to visit. I'm already a bit of a pain when it comes to this sort of thing because of my photography addiction. Now I'll be even worse and will likely drive our friends (and Diane) to distraction.

[A brief aside: The drive home from the bookstore almost turned into a mild (very mild) disaster since I hadn't charged up the golf cart batteries in a while and I could hear the electric motor running ever more slowly during the last mile or so. I rolled into our garage with maybe enough juice for another 100 yards. The idea of pushing a golf cart home is unappealing. Keep this in mind when you buy your all-electric car.]

And speaking of my photography addiction, I just fed it by ordering a new lens for my Canon Digital Rebel Xsi. For just wandering around in strange cities like Charleston I decided I could replace my other lenses with a single zoom lens, a Tamron 18-270mm zoom, a nice broad range from wide angle to telephoto. Now I won't have to lug an extra lens around, or go through the periodic and irritating (to Diane, anyway) changing of the lens ritual. The lens is also equipped with vibration compensation so my aging shaking hands won't lead to blurry photos. My new toy should arrive next week, so I'm happy.

The President, however, is probably very unhappy today...as are First Lady Michelle, Mayor Daley, and Chicago promoter Oprah. On the other hand, Lula, soccer great, Pele, and the folks in Rio de Janeiro are ecstatic. Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (or simply "Lula" to his friends and enemies), apparently was better able to convince the IOC that Rio was more deserving than the other cities competing for the 2016 Summer Games. I expected Rio to win since no city in South America had ever hosted the Olympic games, winter or summer. It just seemed the IOC would be far more likely to choose Rio, if only for that reason. And so I didn't understand why President Obama flew to Denmark and made that personal pitch to win the committee over -- seemed like a no-win situation to me. But I guess folks like President Obama and Oprah actually believe that they are such important people, celebrities of the celebrities, that their sheer star power would win the day. And do you think, maybe, a few of the president's friends and supporters might have come out waaaay ahead financially if Chicago got the Olympics? As it turned out Chicago didn't even come in second. The only real winners in Chicago today are the taxpayers. As for me, I just consider today's events as a kind of entertainment, something else to keep me amused as I watch another batch of self-important folks make fools of themselves.

Brazil's President, Lula, (left) celebrates with soccer great, Pele (right)

Oh, and speaking of disappointed people, how about film director Roman Polanski and all his Hollywood friends? If the planets line up just right this man may actually be extradited to the US to face sentencing for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl back in the 70s. Polanski took off before sentencing once he heard that he might have to serve some jail time for his crime. He's been living in Europe ever since. Now the Swiss have arrested him and all the beautiful people in Hollywood are simply aghast that this wonderful man is being persecuted for such an insignificant indiscretion, the sort of thing that could happen to anyone. Once again, I am entertained watching the self-important make fools of themselves. Click here to read an excellent column on this strange event ala Tinseltown.

Time to do more productive things. Blessings...

Olympics, translations, good Knights, Roman birthdays...

I've become one of those people who greets the Olympic games with a yawn. I wasn't always that way. I can recall being glued to the TV screen, fascinated by the enthusiasm and spirit of the amateur athletes who once competed in these games. In those days -- 30 or more years ago -- they all seemed happy just to be there. I hope it's still that way for most of today's Olympic athletes, but I somehow doubt it. Something has happened along the way. The Olympics have become as professional as the NFL and NBA. With the exception of those who compete in the few obscure sports that lack the following needed for sponsors and media attention, many Olympic athletes are now paid professionals and many of these are very highly paid indeed. The members of our basketball, tennis, hockey, and volleyball teams are all professionals, as are many of our track and field athletes. Somehow I find it difficult to cheer wildly for a team of millionaires as they compete against some third-world team that had to scrape together the money for their airfare.

Remember the Jamaican bobsled team? How could anyone root against those guys? And what about the "miracle on ice," the remarkable victories of the United States ice hockey team over the Soviet Union and Finland in 1980? Although some members on that team went on to play in the NHL, they were just college kids at the time, playing for the love of the sport. I'm afraid those days are gone forever. Of course we do have Lopez Lomong, the US flag bearer from the Sudan, Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, and the other swimmers...

The other thing that bothers me about the Olympics are the accompanying ceremonies that increasingly resemble pagan or new age religious rites. One can only pray that one day the entire world will have as much respect for the Eucharist as it seems to have for the Olympic torch.

Enough grumbling, or I'll risk turning into a curmudgeon. Anyway, I won't have time to watch much of this year's summer Olympics since our elder daughter and four of our grandchildren arrive Wednesday. I'll have better, un-curmudgeonlike things to do.

And speaking of better things, I'm pleased to see that the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship has approved the new English translation of the Order of the Mass. From what I've read so far, it corrects many of the mistranslations found in the current Ordo Missae. It's also refreshing to read that Cardinal Arinze, the Prefect of the Congregation, does not want the changes made immediately, but explained that time is needed "for the pastoral preparation of priests, deacons and for appropriate catechesis of the lay faithful. It will likewise facilitate the devising of musical settings for parts of the Mass.” A nice change from the approach taken back in the 60s and 70s when major liturgical changes were introduced almost overnight with little or no catechesis. Some bishops and liturgists are, of course, upset about the revisions, even though their purpose is simply to ensure the English accurately reflects the Latin of the Roman Missal on which all translations are supposedly based. Read more about it here.

It is also good to see that some Catholic organizations still have the courage to support publicly the Catholic Church's teaching on so-called "controversial" issues. The Knights of Columbus, at their supreme convention in Quebec City, approved resolutions calling for the legal protection of marriage and asking Catholics holding elected office to “be true” to their faith by acting “bravely and publicly in defense of life.” How sad that the Knights had to do this. How sad that so many Catholic politicians, judges and government policy makers reject Church teaching out of hand. And it's especially sad that we have regressed so far morally that such issues as the protection of innocent lives and Christian marriage have become "controversial." Click here for more on the Knights' convention.

But any sadness I feel is outweighed by joy because organizations like the Knights are willing to stand up publicly and tell our society to "Stop!" This is something we can all do. These life issues are not as complicated as some would have us believe. One need not be a physician or biologist to know that abortion is the wrongful taking of a human life. One need not be a sociologist or psychologist to know that same-sex marriage is simply not marriage. And one need not be a Christian to know these things. You and I and every human being knows them in our hearts because God has blessed us with Natural Law, the law that enables us to discern right from wrong, the law that governs our human nature. And so, don't fall prey to the obfuscations of the "experts" or the rationalizations of the politicians. Listen instead to your Church, a Church guided today, as it has always been, by the Holy Spirit. And pray for those who obstinately refuse to listen to and follow the Church's consistent and inerrant teachings on faith and morals.

Note on our upcoming trip to Rome: The mad planner (that is I) has struck again. In addition to the papal audience and the tour of the excavations under St. Peter Basilica, I have also booked a tour of the Vatican Gardens and a combined tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We visited the Museum and Sistine Chapel back in 2000, but it's all far too much to take in on a single visit. But even with all these planned events, we'll still have time for good food, good wine, and good times.

I'll celebrate my sixty-fourth birthday while we're in Rome (September 13 - St. John Chrysostom) and in anticipation of this minor milestone could not help but recall the old Beatles' song. Remember the lyrics? "Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?" When I posed this question to Diane today, she nodded, although a bit reluctantly it seemed to me. And so, I guess this means I'm good for another year. One more reason to praise God.

God's peace...