Gratitude

I cannot write about another sexual scandal.

I cannot comment about still another celebrity or politician being caught having homosexual sex in their office, groping a sleeping woman as a joke or calling women horrific names and crowing about how they will accept that behavior from rich people.

In my mind, I cannot help but picture a vast expansion of chickens - like a herd of buffalo on the American Plains - walking towards a place to roost. 

Once they have settled in comfortably, once the dust has settled and books have been written and homilies delivered from various pulpits, the same behavior will begin again.  Men will behave badly and be rewarded for it.  Women will see the rewards and equate those rewards with freedom and equality - something to be grasped - and the cycle of sin will begin again.

Conservatives and Liberals will continue to dance with each other and throw rocks back at forth.  No one will listen and no one will think it through and so it will go on and on and on.

Because I can't bear it, I am going to take the easy way out and write about being grateful.

I am grateful that there is a sold sign on my house - now if everything goes well, Mama and I will be moving to a one story home which will be much better for her.  The next 45 days are going to be a pain in the patootie but by golly it is going to be worth it once it is all done.

I am grateful for my job.  The people I get to work with are kind, loving and funny.  I have a boss that is a Rising Catholic Celebrity AND has a GREAT sense of humor. 

I am so grateful for my sobriety.  To be able to walk the path I am walking without having to wonder what I said or did the night before or who I may have insulted or what sin I committed this time?  I am going to tell you, that is priceless.

Most of all, I am grateful for the Catholic Church.  I am grateful to belong to the Church Jesus founded.  I am grateful for a liturgical and Sacramental life that allows me to walk through the world with some grace, some dignity and a sense of humor that seems to be particularly Catholic in many ways.

I am grateful for the family and fellowship that has grown up around me - people who respect my choices and do not expect me to sign off on anything that goes against my morality and yet have no problem loving me.  And I am grateful to those who have chosen to walk away from me because my morality and my life offends them.  I can keep them in prayer and know that I was honest with them.  Their choices were made and I respect those choices.

I am so glad the Niners finally won a game.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!