In any case…Myra Kraft was an extraordinary woman and I can’t help but think of my mother who passed away around the same time after a struggle with health problems.  Clearly Myra was an “away mother” for many players.  My own mother, for her part, was a bit of a sports sage, in the way that is peculiar to old school Boston fans.  Some memories:

-She was an unreconstructed Red Sox fan who never could really get comfortable with the fact that they won the World Series.  I mentioned this in my eulogy.  Last summer, when they were winning like crazy before the epic collapse, I would go to the hospital and tell her they won, and she would say “they are doing TOO well” meaning it was bound to fall apart – a true veteran Sox fan.

-She was so into the games that when Vinatieri trotted out to kick the field goal in the first Pats Super Bowl win she ran and hid in another room – she could not bear to watch it out of nervousness!

-My mother – Carol – was a huge, huge Bruins fan.  She could probably dress for a week in nothing but Bruins clothing – she had that much stuff.  She even had special Boston Bruins bowling balls for her weekly bowling with the church seniors.

-She was a devout Orthodox Christian but would talk about how she “hated” Roger Clemens, or Ulf Samuelsson, or some other such sports figure.  I asked her about this once and she said “it is sports hate, not regular hate.  It is different”.  As a sports fan I totally understand what she meant – she didn’t wish bad upon these people in real life but only in the arena of sports.

I miss her so much.

Below is the picture of the public works guys fixing the water main.  Check out the old trolley tracks that were buried and were, at least for today, once again visible:

Born Under A Bad Sign

Yellow Ledbetter

Hoochie Coochie Man

Mustang Sally

Gotta Serve Somebody

Sympathy

Dirty Dishes

The Thrill Is Gone

Willie The Wimp

Run Run Rudolph

Pride & Joy

I am not sure if this group is representative of the whole Occupy movement, but our discussion, which was calm and cordial, was distressing.  I said that Che committed violence not just in the theater of warfare but for political means, including the lining up of political enemies and their summary execution (he also executed priests!).  This pretty much amounts to killing those with whom you disagree.  The occupy group made the argument that the “kleptocracy” (to use their term)  keep people from having health care or homes, and they are really killers in their own right and may well deserve death.  This is scary stuff.  I asked them if they thought violence was justified in their struggle and they said it may well be necessary and that the incidents of violence at other Occupy events throughout the country were “caused by the cops”.  I tried to point out that killing those with whom you merely disagreed on political matters, no matter how serious, was just plain wrong, but they resisted this line of argument.  After saying that, as a clergyman with a flock entrusted to my care I am a (minor) authority figure, I asked them if I may be a target.  They said that if it came to that I may well be.

Things ended cordially – I had to go visit someone in the hospital and left.  I may well return to engage them in more conversation on the Che matter.  I did ask them if they would carry banners with Stalin, Mussolini or other such figures, all of whom were for “the people” but did many unsavory things.  For articles on Che as a mass murder check out Jay Nordlinger’s writings here, and for the same from a left-wing perspective check out this from the New Republic.

It kind of reminds me of this:

-We have three parishioners on the ballot in the general election!  This is very exciting.  I have also made friends with some new people who are running, and I am happy to say that these are all great people who are civic-minded, regardless of their political leanings.

-Turnout was pretty low – the article from the T&G puts it at around 8.7%.  One precinct, which will go unnamed, had 5 people come out to vote.  Normally I defend low voter turnout – it is a sign that people are content with the status quo.  But I have been rethinking this.  Clearly people are not engaged on any sort of level here.  Politics is but one piston in the engine that moves society, but it does have a place, and it is sad and frightening to see such a disengagement.  When people do not feel part of a society nor want to participate in it there will be problems, and this seems to be what is happening.

-I voted at our quite precinct and was amused by the setup.  The door to the voting area had a small sign saying vote here and a gigantic sign, with a red-slashed circle, saying NO SMOKING (in two languages).  I do not promote smoking, but really – would anyone even think of lighting up in such an area (remember I voted and was there for only two minutes, if that)?  And why a huge, and no doubt expensive, sign?  Is this really the most important thing?  Sometimes I think we have become a parody of ourselves….

This is the left side door and the left center door.  The shadow is me, the photographer:

Here are details from the doors showing both the beauty of the wood work as well as the contrast in finish:

Thanks especially to George Economou, who has taken the initiative in making this happen, and the rest of the House Committee.

Now, if you know me, you know I am pretty easygoing and live and let live.  I also see no conflict in believing in God as the Creator as well as believing in evolution or some other such scientific explanation for our development – Darwin himself believed God to be the origin of creation.  My thing about the Darwin fish is that instead of coming up with some other symbol, the people who have them take a Christian symbol – the Jesus fish – and use it to mock Christians.  The Darwin fish is not so much a statement of belief in science or whatever as it is a mocking of Christians.  It also betrays appalling ignorance of the many, many Christians like me who are believers in God and believe science is another gift from God.  I understand that the target of the Darwin fish is the Christian who believes in Intelligent Design and other such things (and can be guilty of intolerance or ignorance, as we all can be), but please…how about taking the high road, or at least coming up with a statement not so reliant on the Jesus fish, which is a cherished symbol to many of us?

In addition to the Darwin fish the car had a bunch of stickers.  Most were political and were sneering and rude (whatever happened to the New Civility?) to those on the other side of the spectrum.  Generally, when I see a car covered in political bumper stickers it throws up warning signs, but still…Some of the stickers said things like “Religion ruled the Dark Ages”.  So clearly, the driver had a problem with religious people, or at least certain types.  I will give him the benefit of the doubt – there are many people who have had bad experiences with churches, whether through abuse, unfriendliness, neglect, whatever.  Based on his political stickers, though, there seemed to at least be some sort of consistency to his thinking.

The hardware store is not big, and I figured I would see everyone from the six or so cars in the parking lot when I went in.  And I was in full priest-mode – black shirt, collar, everything.  I put a big (and genuine) smile on my face, went in, got what I needed, and got in the line near the register.  It was more a gathering than a line, so the handful of us there could all see each other.  I then engaged in a bit of stereotyping myself – I tried to figure out who was the driver of the car.  Everyone looked pretty much alike but the one whom I guessed to be the owner was indeed that person.  We ended up in the parking lot at the same time but he moved just a bit too quickly to his car for me to talk to him.  If I had had the chance I would have smiled and said “Most of us are decent people” or something like that, but whatever.  I have no idea if he even noticed me, but I would hope that anyone who feels so strongly about such matters would be open to meeting someone from the other side, as it were, and having an honest and friendly encounter.

UPDATE: Apparently the law in Worcester is that you have to be 18 or older to “can” in the street.  This explains why it looks like the ‘rents are doing all the work.