Tag Archives: Rant

GAH!

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I’m annoyed. **Warning, this may sound like a rant**

I don’t get political. It’s not that I don’t have opinions about how things should work, but in the end I find that speaking about politics can be polarizing and confrontational, I’d rather just get to know you and have a conversation, you know, like a person should. I preface with this because this is not about politics, though the rest of the world *cough* America, seems to want to make it as such, this is about being a disciple. So without further ado…

Last week Pope Francis visited the United States and Cuba, and reminded the world that the good ‘ol U.S. of A. isn’t perfect and is still in need of some guidance. (Hooray!) The press loved him, twitter loved him (mostly), Facebook loved him. In general the media loved sharing with everyone his trips to the homeless shelter, his visit to a prison, his speech in Congress…the list goes on. The man had the busiest 6 day trip and I hope he is getting some much deserved rest. Though let’s be honest he’s probably still going full speed ahead.  America had Pope Fever! I read numerous articles where people lauded his stance on immigration, his call to action for helping the poor, his prayerful and peaceful attitude, and his loving acceptance and embrace of everyone he encountered. (Read: his stance- following Jesus’ teachings).

People were shouting from the rooftops, celebrities, journalists, politicians, Catholics, Christians, agnostics, cat people, that the Pope was truly showing them what it meant to be Christlike,  to embody the love of God and share the Gospel.

Then he left, and not 3 days later everything changed. It became public knowledge that Pope Francis had a 15 minute private meeting with Kim Davis and her husband, and the American media threw a fit. My twitter was alight with journalists and celebrities alike decrying their sense of betrayal, with tweets like…”Ahhh he was doing so well…” or “I knew it was too good to be true,” littered my feed. In a matter of 3 days Pope Francis went from media darling to fallen from grace. One Twitter-er when so far as to call the Pope a bigot, I’m sorry have you not been paying attention?! He met with all sorts of people during this whirlwind visit, and you have the gall to call him a bigot because of ONE person with whom he met? BLOCKED. I have very little patience with mainstream american media because while they love a feel good story, they love to watch that person fail more. (But that is a topic for a different post).

Here’s the deal people. You said that Pope Francis embodied Christ. Showed you what compassion and love truly looked like, and yet when his meeting with Davis became public knowledge everything he said and stands for immediately gets thrown out the window? That’s not how it works people. He’s not a politician. It’s not “shady” for the meeting to have been private, he doesn’t need your approval and acceptance to meet and talk with people. If you think Christ didn’t have a conversation with a person like Kim Davis in his time, you are sorely mistaken.

Pope Francis is walking the walk, and talking the talk. He is a role model for our time, and has reminded me time and time again what forgiveness and mercy really mean in a world of cynicism and judgement. While I’m perturbed with the media, and all those people who were so quick to change their tune what I really feel is sadness, because for whatever reason, whatever joy they felt while he was here so quickly dissipated, and left them angry and hurt. I hope that those who had even momentary joy and/or personal revelation when reading or hearing what Pope Francis had to say, seek out that which made them happy, that they seek truth, seek the Gospel, and seek Jesus. Because that’s really where they will find that joy again.

So thank you Pope Francis for being a true disciple. Thank you for giving me another example of how to be a disciple. Thank you for sharing the Joy the of Gospel.

I’ll even Unblock those people on Twitter

Also if you want to smile and feel happy just Google Image search Pope Francis. It’ll make your day!

.Pope-baby-zuchetto “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”        Mark 10:14-15

Hulking Out

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Don’t Make Me Angry

I spent six weeks this summer in Boston starting my graduate studies at Boston College. It was a blast, school was interesting, sometimes challenging, sometimes not, but that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about.

Within an hour of landing back in Montana, I opened my garage door and said hello to my wonderful Subaru, I got in the car, put the key in the ignition, turned it on and proceeded to back out of the driveway. I was on my way…to the grocery store. Huh? I needed to stock up. Normally I’d walk as the store is conveniently close, (closer, in fact than any grocery store around BC) but I had been awake for a long time already and had also run through the Atlanta airport to make my connection, and quite honestly, I was planning on cooking myself a feast, and was conserving my energy for that.

But I digress.

Even though the store was only a block away, I was still nervous to drive. Can you forget how to drive in 6 weeks? Apparently not, but that didn’t stop me from being a bit apprehensive. I shouldn’t have been though, everything went off without a hitch.

I want to say it was like riding a bike, but I’ve ran into parked cars on my bike, more times than I’d like to admit. I also can’t compare it to walking, because I struggle with that as well. Let’s just say I’m deserving of the name Stumbledore. So I’m just going to stop before I embarrass myself…further.

All seemed right in the world, I was back in Montana, I got to experience long summer days again and sunsets that always take my breath away. But the simple of joy of driving quickly lost it’s shine. A couple of days upon my triumphant return to the Big Sky State, I found myself traveling to Helena one afternoon to meet up with my mom and spend the night with her. I hadn’t even gotten out of Bozeman by the time I was frustrated and yelling a people for driving like idiots. Either they were driving too slowly, not using their turn signals, cutting me off, tailgating, what have you. I breathed a sigh of relief upon hitting the interstate, knowing that I would be able to speed up and pass those as necessary. Soon enough however I was yelling at someone who insisted on using the left lane as their own personal road. Because they thought that they may being going fast enough to possibly, maybe pass that car that’s five miles ahead of them. Turning off the interstate for the last leg of the trip, I was counting down the miles until the passing lanes so I could pass the semi that had so rudely cut me off. Eventually we get to the first passing lane, which happens to be on a uphill stretch, I put on my blinker, moved into the left lane, and pressed the gas pedal, only to be cut off again by the same semi who had decided that it was necessary for them to pass another semi. I don’t know if you have ever had this happen to you, but usually semi trucks take a long time to pass car in general, now add in the uphill factor and the fact that this man was choosing to pass another truck that’s about 100 feet long (this is probably an exaggeration, I have no sense of stuff like this). Needless to say I was unable to pass either semi truck in that moment and would then have to wait until another clear passing opportunity. I was livid…

When I get to this point of anger, I have to put on my “Angry Car Mix.” Which has a fair amount of Foo Fighters and Kings of Leon…Rock music that I can sing at the top of my lungs. It always calms me down. I also make a point of not looking at the other drivers as I pass them…I reserve that for those moments when I’m so exasperated I just HAVE to look, to see who’s driving. I made it to Helena and was able to pass the semis after what seemed like hours, but was probably more like 15 minutes. All was well with the world again. My saving grace is that  once the car has been passed, I am no longer angry.

Now I never got upset or annoyed in Boston, a train ride into downtown was about 45 minutes (the train I took was also above ground for most of the trek so it would almost be the equivalent of taking a bus) plus, driving (I wasn’t driving, I was riding) from campus to down town took about 30 minutes or so…I should also mention that we were only traveling between 3-5 miles. Why wouldn’t someone so prone to getting road rage, not be angry with this? Because Boston has about 17 times more people living there! And that’s not counting the greater Boston area.

My name is Kelly, and I have Road Rage.

I understand that I need to work on my road rage, and I will. Just as soon as the drivers of Western Montana decide to not be dumb.

To put things in perspective.

“Hey Siri, what’s the population of Boston?”

-“646,000.”

“Follow up: What’s the population of Bozeman, MT?”

-“37,300.”

“What’s the population of Massachusetts?”

-“6,693,000.”

“And how many square miles is Massachusetts?’

-“The answer is about 10,600 sq. miles.”

“Okay, what’s the population of Montana?”

-“It looks like the population of Montana is about 1.02 million people.”

“How many square miles is Montana?”

-“About 147,000 sq. miles.