Sunday in the Bronx with Ben
Apr. 15th, 2008 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arisbeAlthough my daughter is (or was) one of the notorious Bleacher Creatures, I have never been inside the Stadium, though I once changed trains there conducting some Sough Bronx adult education students to the Coney Island aquarium. Divine Providence, in the form of a cat-loving Baviarian pianist gives me one last chance before they tear it down. (I was at the Polo Grounds only once, for the last game between the Giants and the Dodgers. The real ones.) The last -- I hope -- of my surgical procedures will have been Friday afternoon, giving just enough time -- again, I hope -- for the internal bleeding to stop or get under control. There's nothing in the press about a book signing, which is probably just as well.
This will be my third Papa in person. 39 years ago, I went to see Montini at Castelgandolfo with Potter the Peircean and his mother -- and a decade later I was attempting to cross Broadway at Chambers late for work when the Polish gentleman rode by in his white Popemobile. (Pacelli, Roncalli, and Luciani I only know from TV.)
Am I supposed to bring pocketfuls of holy stuff to get blessed or what? Or Yankee memorabilia? I can't recall anything like that with the Dalai Lama at Columbia, who, by the way, couldn't finish his own joke because he kept cracking himself up.
As you may know Maya and I go to something called School of Community on 96th Street a block this side of the mosque, and Benedict attends one in his private quarters taught by one of his domestic staff, so the wife, the Pope and I are on the same page -- pretty much literally. I like the idea that the Servant of the Servants of God, and the teacher of their teachers, is himself glad to be a student, and of his pastry chef (as I like to think) at that. (I do hope he gets his birthday strudel tomorrow. It should be less of a problem than it was during the conclave.)
This morning I got an email, which I didn't much expect, to pick up our tickets Friday.
This will be my third Papa in person. 39 years ago, I went to see Montini at Castelgandolfo with Potter the Peircean and his mother -- and a decade later I was attempting to cross Broadway at Chambers late for work when the Polish gentleman rode by in his white Popemobile. (Pacelli, Roncalli, and Luciani I only know from TV.)
Am I supposed to bring pocketfuls of holy stuff to get blessed or what? Or Yankee memorabilia? I can't recall anything like that with the Dalai Lama at Columbia, who, by the way, couldn't finish his own joke because he kept cracking himself up.
As you may know Maya and I go to something called School of Community on 96th Street a block this side of the mosque, and Benedict attends one in his private quarters taught by one of his domestic staff, so the wife, the Pope and I are on the same page -- pretty much literally. I like the idea that the Servant of the Servants of God, and the teacher of their teachers, is himself glad to be a student, and of his pastry chef (as I like to think) at that. (I do hope he gets his birthday strudel tomorrow. It should be less of a problem than it was during the conclave.)
This morning I got an email, which I didn't much expect, to pick up our tickets Friday.
Popes
Date: 2008-04-16 05:22 pm (UTC)Papa Wojtylwa, however, I "met" (for three seconds) in Saint Lucia's Cathedral in Kotahena, Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1995, when he came to Lanka to beatify Joseph Vaz. Some Lankan friends of mine were parishioners, and they had tickets, one of which they gave to me. John Paul was very old and frail at the time, though.
Re: Popes
Date: 2008-04-16 05:23 pm (UTC)Re: Popes
Date: 2008-04-16 08:06 pm (UTC)