Uncle John-Paul II

When John-Paul II was made Pope I was in high school. Being as it was a Catholic school the deaths of the previous couple of Popes were announced on the PA system and then we were led in prayer. I remember there being some rapid turn over in that job for a while sort of around the same time the Soviets went through a few Premiers. The occasion of the selection of the new Pope was also a public event at my school. TV's on great big carts were wheeled out into study halls and the cafeteria so we could watch for the little clouds of smoke to come out of the roof of the Vatican. I imagined the cardinals huddled around a pot-bellied stove like on Little House on the Prairie. I feel sad for him now a lot like I might for a grandparent who is too demented to recognize anybody. I guess this surprises me since I'm not overly fond of the Catholic Church as an institution. On top of that I really did not enjoy high school. I did grow up in an Italian home though. One where a gilt framed picture of the Pope hung in the living room and in which my life was still a blastocyst of potential. It seemed perfectly normal to me that the new Pope would come and visit my godforsaken hometown and say mass out in the fields. For me it seems John-Paul II connects the time before cynicism and my abiding desire to trust in the future.