The Higgs Boson "God Particle": Of All Things Visible and Invisible
. . . The short answer is "no." Imagine for a moment that you're on an archeological dig on the outskirts of Rome. Standing in your carefully excavated hole, your spade strikes a metal box. Inside you discover a small, worn chisel, and a note written in 16th Century Italian: "Herein lies my favorite chisel." The note is signed, "Michelangelo Buonarroti." Well, if you're an art historian, what you now hold might be priceless. If you're also a person of faith who has viewed the magnificence of Michelangelo's Pieta, you may treasure this forever as one of the tools used to create a work of artistic genius. Your discovery might land on a shelf with your name on it in the Vatican Museum. There will be no doubt that what you discovered is a tool used to create an inspired work of art, but it is not itself the art's creator. . . .
These Stone Walls' Second Annual Stuck Inside Literary Award
. . . We are caught up on this same road. Whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, our entire life as individuals and as a Catholic community comes down to one crucial element: we are either instruments for the proliferation of evil or instruments for its defeat. None of the petty squabbles, devastating scandals, and addictive diversions that muddle us in the muck on this long, long road will come to mean very much in the end. We are instruments, and instruments of what depends entirely on our response to grace. This is the tale of The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R.Tolkien brings his characters again and again to the very brink of hopelessness, only to teach them - and us - that there is always hope. We cannot accept that there was, and is, a Christ without accepting that one true fact. To be without hope means to admit there is no grace at work in the world, and that is simply pointless, and demonstrably untrue. . . .
Help the Knights of Columbus Restore Civility to American Politics
. . . The timing of this movement couldn't be better. According to the website, the Knights of Columbus and the Marists co-sponsored a poll that clearly demonstrates that the majority of Americans - 78% - are frustrated with the tone of the political campaigns now in full swing leading up to the presidential election. 74% believe this negative campaigning is only going to get worse. 64% of Americans say that negative "attack ads” hurt the political process. Major candidates, their parties, and political action committees (PACS) are going to spend a record-setting $6.5 billion on television and cable TV ads in this election year, and that doesn't even include newspapers, magazines, and all those unsightly billboards. A rapidly growing percentage of those ads are negative. Political attack ads draw politics away from the notion of civil service and into the arena of winners and losers in which the former triumph while the latter feel disenfranchised. These attack ads stifle bi-partisan cooperation for the good of all for years to come. They reduce politics to the service of a party or a platform instead of to the service of America and its people. We need to send a strong message before this downward spiral of toxic rhetoric in the name of politics gets any worse. . . .
Indicted We Stand: Penance, Penn State, and Catholic Culture
. . . It should have been a solemn and somber affair. That cheer seemed more a response to a contest in the Roman Coliseum than the exercise of justice in an American court of law. Are there really winners and losers in this story? Like many prisoners, I followed the Jerry Sandusky trial carefully, and I believe justice was indeed accomplished inside that courtroom. But not outside. The cheers and jeers of that crowd had no place in the administration of American justice. I was glad to hear one newscaster say he was embarrassed for his own peers who stood there to focus on the cheers. . . .
Unchained Melody: Tunes from an 8-Track in an iPod World
. . . Joseph likes to stop by to help with my TSW titles. He brags that every recent title that "was a hit" had his hand in it. So when he asked about this post, I told him I wanted to call it "Unchained Melody" after the great love song. "Never heard of it," said Joseph. "Can't you find something that isn't pre-Roman Empire?" I tried humming a few bars. Surely this kid has heard this great song. "Nope!" said Joseph. "Way before my time! That's why you need my help," he insisted. "You're kind of like an 8-track in an iPod world!" . . .
Why Are So Many Catholics So Angry With So Many Priests?
. . . One Philadelphia defense attorney who reads These Stone Walls described this trial as “justice with an agenda." She wrote that few in Philadelphia are now very proud of this "District Attorney with an ax to grind, and a judge who appeared to work for the prosecution." When law is reduced to a lynch mob in this arena of decades-old child abuse claims, the jury is in before the trial even starts. Those who would tritely say today that Monsignor Lynn had his day in court and justice prevailed have no first hand knowledge of the prolific injustices that have permeated our justice system. Just see "Thy Brother's Keeper” for a vivid example. . . .
David v. Goliath: Standing up to Anti-Catholic Bias in the News
. . . Another published letter by Bernice Durbin of Crossville, Tennessee concluded that Catholic priests "don't deserve First Amendment protection." I could not believe I was reading this in the nation's second largest daily newspaper. Could you imagine the backlash if USA Today gave a platform to someone declaring that Jews, or Muslims, or African Americans no longer deserve First Amendment rights and freedoms? As I wrote in “Honoring Father Norman Weslin,” those who have claimed to advocate for victims – some real, but many feigned – have created a whole new set of victims by dismantling the freedoms and civil liberties of a single class of citizens: accused Catholic priests. The outcome of the trial of Monsignor William Lynn in Philadelphia is the result. . . .
Accommodations in the Garden of Good and Evil
. . . That, for me, is Jamil's wake-up call. The Catholic Church in America - and I do not refer just to the United States of America - is in the process of being parked a block or so outside the Public Square, and it's going to be accomplished by a force I have written of before on These Stone Walls. It is the most insidious force of all, but it is vague and subtle and indistinct, and we cannot blame President Obama for it. That force is best characterized as "the noise of a few, and the silence of many." . . .
Winter into Spring, a Little News, and an Easter Uprising
. . . I've always thought TV Newscasts had it backwards. It’s a New England tradition that polite conversations begin with the weather, then gradually descend into the gritty news at hand. But TV news does just the opposite, at least in New England. Folks up here are so interested in the weather that the newscasters hold it until last to keep viewers' attention on the news. I'll follow the more polite social tradition, however, and begin with the weather, then sneak in – here and there – the things I really want to convey. . . .
Saint Patrick and the Labyrinthine Ways
. . . The story of St. Patrick of Ireland is a perfect example of the gravity of grace. We tend to reduce Saint Patrick to the whimsical Shepherd of Ireland who inspires our parades (and maybe a snort or two of Jameson's) this week, but the life of the real Saint Patrick is one of terrible tragedy responded to with the courage born of sanctifying grace. Stepping for a moment into the life and lore of Saint Patrick of Ireland will help us see more clearly these labyrinthine ways of grace. Whether you're Irish or not - and whether you're Catholic or not - the story of Saint Patrick is one of profound struggle against the forces of human evil, tragedy, and salvation against the tides of human history. . . .
Downton Abbey Blue Bloods Touch Falling Skies Upon Criminal Minds
. . . It's time to come clean and confess. I owe TSW readers the truth, and just can't go on living this secret any longer. I've been seeing someone. I can't really say she's my soul mate just yet, but I find her mesmerizing and alluring in her own peculiar way. She lives far beyond my state in life, but now I feel incomplete without her. There is little so painful as unrequited love. There! I've said it! So, who is this new spark of joy in my life? Why, who else could she be but Lady Grantham, the Dowager Countess of Downton Abbey? Yes, yes, I know she's old enough to be my mother, but - like justice - love is blind, and sometimes it's deaf and dumb, too. Most people who spend five minutes with the elder Lady Grantham want to flee for cover, but I see beyond this matriarchal conniver to a heart laid bare by a looming threat: the winds of change. The incomparable British actress, Maggie Smith, plays the role to perfection. . . .
These Stone Walls at Year's End: My Hits and Misses for 2011
. . . A "cup o'kindness" in the Scotish tradition is usually something with the words "single malt" imprinted on the label. That, too, is not possible in prison. But I have some Starbucks coffee I've been saving, and I plan to brew it on New Year's Eve. I'll have a cup o'that in honor of you, the friends I have met on this long and winding road. These Stone Walls is such a strange and unlikely place, yet it exists, and from it every week you let me reach into your hearts in friendship, and with a shared vision of grace at work in our world. . . .
Thy Brother's Keeper: Why Wrongful Convictions Should Matter to You
. . . I was sitting in a county jail awaiting sentencing to prison. I was cut off from everyone. My Diocese would not even accept my collect calls. My own lawyers told me I had no choice. What meager assets I had were exhausted on the first trial. So, post-trial, I entered into what I called - then and now - "a negotiated lie." It was a lie that was extorted from me, but the lie was not mine alone. If you've read my post, "The High Cost of Innocence," you know that even then the pressure never ended. Prison itself has any number of sanctions to further punish those who do not admit guilt. I spent five years confined to a cell housing seven other prisoners because I would not admit guilt. The notion that men in prison always claim to be innocent is a myth. There are dire consequences for such a claim. . . .
The "Stuck Inside Literary Award": At Sea with Patrick O'Brian
. . . A few TSW readers - notably Sharon Morris and Lavern West - have traveled to New Hampshire to obtain one of Pornchai's vessels. Lavern has a magnificent tall ship displayed in her living room window in Cincinnati with some beautiful handcrafted stained glass in the window just above it. She sent a photo which Pornchai proudly added to the collection on his cell wall. One day, a guard came into this cell and was looking intently at the photos of Pornchai's beautiful ships. When he saw the one in Lavern's window, he said "Wow! That's just incredible." Pornchai smiled and sat up straight waiting for the usual comments about his carving skill. Then the guard said, "That's some of the nicest stained glass I've seen!" I just about hurt my ribs laughing. Pornchai told me that on his next ship, he's adding a plank for me to walk. . . .
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
. . . And I was. In the dream, my anxiety turned to desperation as I walked into the retreat center hoping beyond hope to see Father Moe sitting there waiting for me. Instead, what I found was a room full of empty chairs at empty tables in a place where there had been no signs of life for many years. Dust and cobwebs covered everything, and death was all around me. I came face to face with the stark reality that the life I knew before prison is gone. There was no place for me anywhere. I didn't understand what Father Moe had done. I may never understand it. . . .
The Spring of Hope: Winter in New England Shows Signs of Thaw
. . . There's a "Southie" accent, a North End accent, a Charlestown accent, and of course the famous Boston Brahmin accent of Beacon Hill. A linguist once told me that the Boston accents evolved from the period of the 1630s when Boston became the geographic and social center of New England Puritanism after the success of Plymouth Colony that I described in "The True Story of Thanksgiving." Some think the Puritans came here just to one day make famous the phrase, "Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd." There's another subtle accent distinction on the North Shore (the "Nawth Shoah") where I grew up, and still another if you head west out to the Berkshires. Venturing north to New Hampshire, where I am in prison, or west to Vermont or nor'east to Maine, you'll hear other distinct variations on the basic New England accent. . . .
"Phasers on Stun, Mr. Spock!" Captain Kirk's Star Trek Epiphany
. . . Back in 1966, to make matters worse (for Debbie, at least) our family had the only color television on our block. We were by no means privileged. Our father brought it home that year as a Christmas bonus from his boss. I remember the day we first plugged it in. We quickly became the popular kids in the neighborhood! "This means," my 12-year-old sister tactlessly proclaimed, "that every nerd in the neighborhood will be in our living room for Star Trek." Debbie had to admit, at least, that Star Trek was far better in color. We discovered, for example, that only the crew members wearing red shirts were done in by aliens each week, and the slightly green tinge of Mr. Spock's skin made us wonder if perhaps Leonard Nimoy might really be Vulcan. . . .
A TSW Summer Re-run
. . . “A Corner of the Veil” is about the death of my mother, Sophie Kavanagh MacRae, during my imprisonment. Tomorrow, July 15, is her birthday so this post in her honor is my choice for a summer re-run. I would much appreciate a prayer for her as well. . . .
Jack Bauer Lost The Unit on Caprica
. . . I wrote that life in prison revolves around television. The prison commissary sells a small twelve-inch flat screen TV, and the profits from prisoners' weekly purchases go toward a recreation fund that pays for basic cable. So prisoner access to television costs taxpayers nothing, and is an essential link to the outside world. In fact, TV in prison actually saves a lot of money. Most prisons would have to double their staffs if not for TV. There are only four television shows that I never miss. You already know what they are if you looked closely at the title of this post. The problem is, it's summer, and they're all gone now. "24" and "LOST" have come to an end and are gone for good. I will never again get to see Jack Bauer accomplish his most mind-boggling feat - driving anywhere he wants to go in Los Angeles or New York in less than a minute. . . .