On this page you will find recorded what I found significant during the past week as well as my thoughts about those events and other reflections.

 I was tempted to give up on G. K. Chesterton. Except for a few passages in the early pages in Orthodoxy that, as I mentioned last week, caught may interest, I found it to be a difficult read. That was partially due to his frequent references to places and things in England with which I was unfamiliar along with references to other writers with whom I am equally unfamiliar. Some were names which I know but alas, know little of the person. He was not bashful about criticizing other writers or celebrities. I did enjoy his witty way of putting them down such as this biting comment regarding what has value: "Oscar Wilde said that sunsets were not valued because we can not pay for sunsets. But Oscar Wilde was wrong; we can pay for sunsets. We can pay for sunsets by not being Oscar Wilde."

In spite of the sprinkling of witticisms such as this, I found the first few chapters to be disjointed ... not arriving at any discernable point. Then came chapter five and things came together. Persistence pays! I may need to go back and read the previous meanderings now that I know their destination. The one thing he has done so far is make me think. He said something about marriage and love that really rang a bell with me.

Before I get into his statement and how it struck me, I should preface it with a caveat.  Some marriages are impossible and should be dissolved. Even the "No Divorce" Catholic Church provides for this in the annulment process. An annulment doesn't mean the marriage never existed, but it terminates a legal marriage by reason of the fact that it should never have existed due to some serious impediment including a hidden flaw of character or a lack of total commitment in one or both parties. ... Now I can continue.

In my August 3 Current Events I said; "I came to know that someday I would be married. It was an axiom, a given truth, not to be doubted. I also knew, deeply ingrained in my being, that my wife and I would become one person. I didn't understand it but I knew it to be a fact, never to be questioned." Friday afternoon I read Chesterton's words; "Love is not blind, that is the last thing that love is.  Love is bound, and the more it is bound, the less it is blind."  That explains the marriage between Anne and I. During my year in college, she dumped me because, I am sure, she felt I was getting too serious and she was not sure. This gave us time to think and compare. We would not be victims of the blind love which is really infatuation. When I dated during the years to follow, Anne was the yardstick by which all other were measured. In addition to that, I was preconditioned to be bound in love. It would not be love unless it was a bound love. Of course, at the time, although this was an ingrained part of me, I did not understand it. 

Love at first sight in not love but infatuation. It often leads to love just as arranged marriages often lead to love if the parties are disposed to it, Sometimes it is unilateral love and that is sad. It is sad for the one who does not love. In any case, I have found a common belief with Chesterton in the concept that in a good marriage there is a oneness in the partners as they have a binding love for each other.

Another point that comes to mind is that the term "Lucky in love" is poppycock  Love is a choice and a gift, something to be given, not taken or sought after. When given generously and unconditionally it returns greatly enhanced.

Wow ... Chesterton does make one think!

Saturday Mikey and I joined Dominick, Sarah and Hunter at the Albano's. Dom cooked hamburgers and sausage on the grill and Anne Marie made potato salad. Joe is still being an "only child" while Marc is in Wichita with his summer baseball team. Joe is giving his right arm "light duty" while the surgery is healing and he no longer uses the sling. It has been a while since I have had a big juicy hamburger with a slice of raw onion and a slice of tomato. DELICIOUS!

Being with the two dogs on Saturday tired Mikey out and Sunday he slept 'till 8. I flittered away the morning to the point that I realized I was going to be late for 10:30 mass. So I 'turned lemons into lemonade' by spending additional time in the gazebo and then going to the noon mass. I had intended to return to the church hall to attend the reception celebrating Sister Gael's forty years as a nun, But circumstances put me in church for the mass at which the mother superior of her order gave the homily and Gael renewed her vows. Gael is a Franciscan nun who is serving as a pastoral associate at our church. It was good to be there. I credit Gael for a miracle in my life. It  was she who invited me to make the pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi in 2005. At the time I was using a cane, I called it a walking stick, and was standing and walking with great difficulty. When I responded to her suggestion by saying I would not be able to keep up she convinced me that I could. Such is her power of persuasion. Either that or she knew something I didn't. But, by that time, in working with her in the Community Life Board, I trusted her. I also knew that I had to do my part and began to take regular walks, lengthening the course as time progressed. I was still using the cane when on the trip to Italy but have since discarded it. The trip itself was a life changing experience, one I will never forget. To read about it an see photos go the Rome and Assisi. But, Gael is one of those; "Ordinary people doing extraordinary things with faith in the good God and in the goodness of others". She is just one of the many people who have touched my life and left me the better for it.

When I returned home from the reception there was a phone message waiting. My daughter didn't know where I was! And so we had our daily chat. Marc's team lost Saturday evening but he opted to stay the night in Wichita to start his drive home well rested. He was on his way home and Joe will no longer be an "only Child". Actually, he hasn't been a child for a long time.  For the bulk of the afternoon I was engaged in reading and just enjoying the day. Since I was still in my Sunday Church clothes I ventured out to R.C. Mulligan's and treated myself to their delicious Lake Perch. I call it "the fish for people who don't like fish". I came home, did a little more reading and then tried to watch some TV. Garbage! Unusual for us, Mikey and I went to bed shortly after nine.

Monday morning I was up at seven and the morning was beautiful. When I went out to the gazebo, Mikey detected a rabbit beneath it and kept circling, stopping to sniff at the openings in two places where the critter gained refuge. At one point, our little friend decided to bolt for safety elsewhere and Mikey chased it three times around, squealing all the way until the little guy dove into the same hole from which he immerged. To say the least, all this distracted my meditations a great deal. When I went in the house to check my email, Mikey continued to circle the Gazebo in hope of flushing out his adversary. Of course he did not succeed and finally gave up to come in for a much needed drink of water and to lay down and rest.

My desk is still a mess, probably more so. I have continued to go through old papers, many of which can be simply tossed into the recycle bin, others which include account numbers and such require a trip through the shredder and yet others cause a pause in my task while I decide to keep it or in some cases simply stop and read or record a bit of information in a computer file. After all, weren't computers supposed to put an end to all this paper? Since my old shredder was subject to frequent jams, I purchased a new one last Friday. This one does a much better job in that it will tolerate staples and instead of simply slicing the sheets into long strips, actually chops the paper into diamond shapes which rain into the bottom of the basket instead of backing up into the blades. It even has a small slot to shred credit cards.

My periodic trip to the foot doctor was made early Monday afternoon, It is a trip I always enjoy as it satisfies my need for a bit of pampering. (Never could get Anne to peel my grapes.) Of course, Dr Tillman doesn't peel grapes either but he does pamper my toes and feet. On my return, Chesterton, Mikey and I retired to the gazebo ... and I mean retired. I read a little but I am in an area of the book where his metaphors, although they in themselves make sense to me, do not seem to move me to any particular point. I put the book down to think about it and just sat there with my coffee and the delightful day. A half hour later, Mikey startled me awake with a request to go in the house. The half consumed coffee cup was in my hand and I was totally refreshed, though not quite awake.

Tuesday's reading revealed another turn in the road and another view of Chesterton's thoughts, again pulling things together in his odyssey to Christianity. Bit by bit he casts aside various philosophies as impossible in the light of Christianity. Along the way he injects a liberal dose of humor along with things such as the statement that in Christianity we are being led to "... a city in which each of you can contribute exactly the right amount of your own color to the many colored coat of Joseph." He and I have again reached agreement. Of course he was there long before me, but the fact is that our collective goal is one to which we all contribute freely what is uniquely ours in order to complete the ideal. It is God's way of giving us a personal role in His creation. He concludes chapter eight in his criticism of modern utopians by saying, "You will have real obligations, and therefore real adventures when you go to my Utopia. But the hardest obligation and the steepest adventure is to get there."

Chesterton also does a good job of putting down the high and mighty such as in this passage; "The great and very obvious merit of the English aristocracy is that nobody could possibly take it seriously." He was attracted to Christianity by, among other things, the equal treatment of the powerful as well as the poorest among us. All could be sinners, as all could be saints.

Again this week there was much to be done with the parish web site. We had received an email from CRS, Catholic Relief Services, in which Darcy wrote, "In doing my research, I noticed that your parish maintains an informative website. Would your parish be willing to partner with CRS by adding Catholic Relief Services to the “links” section of your website?" Good grief ... we are Catholic and there was no page on our web site asking for money! Seriously, ... I realized that in our many pages there was no place that we reminded our parishioners and visitors that we have an obligation to share our God given gifts. We do not have a "links" page but we do link to other Catholic organizations on pages which are relevant to them. We also have a "Mission Sunday" coming up and so I did some research and came up with a Charitable Giving page. The page includes a bit of the theology behind the concept as well as information and links. It also has a link to a "Stewardship Prayer" composed by two of our parishioners and a link to pages intended as a resource for our Stewardship committee.

But I wasn't finished. Fr Steve has started as series on his "Sharing from the Pastor" page of the parish bulletin which explains the Catholic Churches' view on non-Catholics. I decided that that also deserves a permanent page in the "Our Faith" section of the web site. The first article in the series is presented this week at OUR SEPARATED BROTHERS AND SISTERS and includes a direct link to the Vatican document to which he refers. Several weeks ago I was moved to write down my thoughts on the same subject in The Catholic Church - The Only Church? I am curious to find out how close my thoughts are to those of Fr Steve.

Anthony's 2 RBI home run in the first inning followed later by a double Tuesday evening was not enough as the Grizzlies made little hamburgers and gobbled up the Sliders in a 13 - 3 outing. It is easy for players to get discouraged and just lay down when they seem to be in a hopeless situation but Anthony continues to shine. He refuses to be part of the problem as he plays every day as if the world series depends on it. We give him a pat on the back for not letting the team's slide to the bottom effect his efforts to stay on top of things.

For my non-Chicago friends who do not fully understand the above paragraph, an explanation is in order. White Castle Hamburgers, a Mid-West institution from the 20's, is famous for their small square hamburgers with a reputation for being deliciously greasy and sold by the sack. They are affectionately called "Sliders". See White Castle. They are a favorite treat of mine and there can usually be found in my freezer ready for a 55 second trip to the microwave to provide a quick luscious snack of a pair of them.

I am making progress on a couple fronts. The file drawer in my computer desk has been cleaned out. In addition to old records and information on computers and software there were papers regarding my brokerage and accounts including records of transactions from the days before I was doing everything on line. There is no longer a paper trail for the new transactions so why keep the old stuff. My new shrewder has been getting a workout. Also gone is a ton of outdated paper without any identifying information that just went into the recycle bin. I still have a file cabinet to tackle.

My other area of progress was on Chesterton's "Orthodoxy". I had been looking for compelling arguments in favor of Christianity until It dawned on me that this was a description of his acceptance of the faith and not primarily intended to convince others. That premise was stated at the very beginning but I was intent on getting something out of it that was not there. And so, I apologize to G. K. ... as if he would care. In chapter nine, he says of the church, "All other philosophies say things that plainly seem to be true; only this philosophy has again and again said the thing that does not seem to be true, but is true."   I have finished the book and conclude that I can agree with Chesterton in his acceptance of Christianity. He confirms that I need not understand everything I know about it but I can know about it because the truths of God and creation have been revealed to us through the church. Again, a knowledge of creation and heaven does not depend upon my faulty logic to exist. He did make me think.

Lana is the leader of our Pro-Life ministry at St. Julie and has been for 30 years. She has little help and I find that to be sad. One problem is that the radicals who hide behind that name have sullied the cause. In an exchange of emails with her I discovered that in one of my recent revisions to the St Julie web site I had deleted the link to the page dedicated to pregnancy issues. She has a difficult time as it is and doesn't need my mistakes to cope with. That is now fixed and the Pregnancy Issues page is now restored.

From an author who wrote at a high level of complexity I have turned to Joseph Girzone who is simplicity personified. He is well known for his simplistic approach to religion and world problems as well as the problems of life for the average person. The Book is "Joshua's Family" a prequel to all the other books of the Joshua series. As his message is simple he delivers it in an almost child-like way and I would probably rate his pros as being at the 8 grade level or less. You don't need to stop and think about the meaning of his words. They are simple and to the point, Even the message is simple but it treats subjects that I think are made too complex by most of us. He deals with serious matters in a simple way. I like Girzone! In this book we flash back to Joshua as a young boy living with his father, Joseph, and mother Miriam in a small American Town. I will enjoy this lighter parable.

In an email Peggy Cecora reported that their daughter's house was burglarized during the night. Fortunately nothing of major value was taken and no one was disturbed in their sleep especially the children.  Still, it is disturbing to find that someone broke a window and was roaming around your house. She said that Her and Jim are doing well and have been busy. Before I came in from my morning sojourn in the gazebo I was thinking of them and also of the mystery of the origin of our ancestor Sheppard Packard. Then in her email Peggy mentioned that she has not been doing any research lately but will try to get back to it this fall and winter.

I also had an email from the Copeland branch. My niece Judi Woodards's husband Jack wrote that they plan to make a trip to Chicago to get a taste of the deep dish pizza from a particular restaurant and want to stop and see me. I invited them to stay with me while they are here. There is no place in the world that you can get anything like Chicago Pizza and there are many restaurants in Chicago and suburbs that make it. My trip to Italy taught me that Italian food there is wonderful ... but not the pizza. And Italian food in Italy is not the same as American Italian food. I liked the food in Italy. I think it is healthier but it is a different style of eating. Just don't ask them for an American breakfast of bacon and eggs. They just don't do it!  I spoke of that in Rome and Assisi .

We have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Dominick Albano. Our first grandson is now married and a home owner. time really flies by. Congratulations Dominick.

More next week ...
and 'till then, ... 

Let's be more kind than we need to be.

Grandpa Don Plefka 

Anne wanted everyone to be 'Nice'.
This button was in one of her dresser 
drawers I cleaned out in August of 2004

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