These thoughts have been thoroughly screened by Beefeater’s and tonic with a lime. Forgive the spelling, syntax, and logic. Whatever’s left should be absolutely brilliant, so get your pen out; you’ll want to take notes.

Did I ever tell you that, as a boy, I had four ambitions: sports broadcaster, actor, lawyer, and US Senator?

I mention this because I believe the training for the first two–sports and acting–prepare a young man for anything at all. Every hardship and every opportunity. Life and death. They live in sports and acting.

Fox News tells us that Nancy Reagan had this to say about the Pope:

In Los Angeles, former first lady Nancy Reagan (search), wife of President Ronald Reagan (search), spoke of the friendship and the similarities between the two great world leaders.

The two were united by their joint fight against communism, their assassination attempts about six weeks apart in 1981 and even their deaths just nine months apart, Mrs. Reagan said in a cable TV news interview.

There were surprising similarities, too, she added: Both were former actors, shared the “great communicator” title and loved sports.

“They were very much alike,” said Mrs. Reagan, who met the pope seven times. “They crossed paths a lot.”

I feel vindicated. I sit in meetings about software architecture with strangers quite often. Sometimes someone asks me, “where did you go to school?” They expect to hear Washington University or Rolla–Missouri engineering schools.

When I say, “Fontbonne,” they look around the room for help.

“I was a theatre major,” I offer.

“Really!”

“Yep. Then I spent ten years in the Navy as an enlisted submariner.”

Now they’re lost. Every once in a while, someone will ask what they all want to know.

“So, how did you get a job in this field?”

I answer, “Because those two things–acting and submarining–prepare you for anything.”

Okay, so submarining isn’t sports, but it’s similar. You’re there because you chose to be there. It’s tough, but it’s fair. While you hate every second of it, you love it implicitly.

This life that God gave us–how different is it from that? It’s tough but it’s fair. You chose to be here. You love it here.

Yet you want to be there. You want the ship to pull in. You want the play to be over. You want to be reunited with God in heaven . . . God and those who’ve preceeded us there.

The Pope and Ronald Reagan lived lives to envy. So have I. So have we all.

Special thanks to Joe Gandelman for his wonderful coverage of JPII’s death as guest blogger on Dean’s World. While it may be a testiment to the Pope’s reach, it is also a humbling tribute to Mr. Gandelman.

Catholic in the Public Square is serious where I cannot be.

Michelle Malkin makes me feel terrible for all the bad things I’ve thought, said, and written about Eleanor Clift whose husband, whom she clearly loved, also died this deadly week.

I wish I could so much in so few words as you’ll find on Echoes of Forever.

Jefe and the Man offers a beautiful poem.

Hennessy's View

John Paul II Random Thoughts

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