Sad News
The sad news for today, as I drove into work, was that Pope John Paul II had died. For those of you that know me, and my religious background, know that I am not Catholic. However, Pope John Paul II was a stalwart keeper of his faith, he did not waiver when it came to issues that are important to me, no amount of bickering within the church or pressure from without would cause him to change his mind or alter the way the Catholic church functions, and in the end he stood up for, literally, what he believed as a Catholic and a Christian.
Further, his works throughout the world, expanding the humanitarian efforts, the amount of travel he did, etc. has been enormous. His has been an amazing life to watch and one that will probably be canonized by the Catholic Church when the appropriate time frame has elapsed. He will be missed and I am sorry to hear that he has passed on - even though he hit the top of my 'death watch' list over the past several weeks.
And yes, I do have a death watch list. There are some pretty interesting names on it. People that, when you wake up in the morning and for some reason they've come into the news; whether due to illness or a crime, or just because something is being written about them. Regardless, occasionally you just sit back and see someone and wonder why that person is still alive. In other cases you just realize that this person, or another, is on their last leg and may die.
Over the past two or three weeks Terri Shiavo rocketed to the top of that list. I couldn't care less whether or not someone who'd been in a persistent vegetative state for fourteen or fifteen years dies. Further, I couldn't care less whether or not someone I don't know and who holds little or no significance to me lives or dies. That is to say, Terri Shiavo holds no concern for me and because she holds no concern for me my interest in the case has more to do with the law and politics surrounding her state, her family, and her stated or implied wishes before the incident that caused her to be in the state she was in. Because of the media attention and because I believe that we have a certain level of rights associated with determining whether or not we choose to live on life support, and because the laws of the land can affect me and my family someday in this area (I wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially) this case was important to me. Someday I would hope my wife would do the right thing, by me, and let me pass on if the only thing keeping me alive were some kind of feeding tube or other artificial means. At the same time I completely respect other peoples rights to decide to remain alive, in hope, rather than pass on to the other side.
Other people on my list would include Queen Elizabeth II, Muhamed Ali, and others. Most are old, some are young. At times some people become higher ranked and others, still, aren't on the list at all and then become very highly placed so that, when I wake up in the morning, I check to see what has happened with them. Pope John Paul II and Terri Shiavo literally had me checked news sites and listening to news channels on the radio to determine whether or not they were alive or had passed on.
With all of that said, I do not wish people would just die. Death is an end, I believe that, and it is a beginning for that individual and their families; however, to wish someone would die is wrong and I believe that as well. Being on a death watch, as long as it doesn't affect my interaction with people or how I live my life, I think isn't bad thing. With the Catholic Church we get to watch when, in about fifteen days, the College of Cardinals convenes at St. Peters Basilica in Rome and elects a new pope. This is exciting because, like in my own church, the direction the church goes, though steady, will in part be determined by the man elected to take them their. In Pope John Paul II's position, he maintained that abstinence was church doctrine, that homo-sexuality was counter to God's will, and that the church would still only be led by men.
Now, the LDS church doesn't 'elect' a new prophet. The succession is very different and the direction of the church doesn't radically change when one prophet dies and another takes his place; however, as in President Kimball's case the church began to move radically forward with the adoption of technology in the performance of church functions and record keeping. President Hinckley is a temple building president and in ten years he has increased the number of temples in the world by more than 100%. President Benson encouraged the membership to read the Book of Mormon. Each president follows the guiding principles established by Joseph Smith and the rest of the prophets, but in each case, each president follows what he feels is the right course for the church at the right time.
Change is a period of excitement, for me, and in the case of the Catholic Church I look forward to the change that is about to happen. Only good things can come from this.