Saturday, February 26, 2005

February 26, 2005

Somewhere out there, throughout the vast infoglut of cyberspace, is this blog. Who knows who will see this, or who will respond to it? I guess if they like what I have to write.. or if they want to laugh at my messed up mental state.

But anyone would be a little messed up if they were unemployed. I lost my last job when I lost my transportation there. For 9 months, all was fine at the warehouse in Nassau County. And then on February 2, my 1988 Chevrolet Caprice died, just off of Mineola Avenue. Since public transportation is nonexistant in that part of Nassau (and because a round trip by taxi from where I lived would cost $100 a day), I was forced to leave the job.

Three days later, I purchased (with borrowed money) a 1990 Chevrolet G20 van. The van lasted two days before meeting the same fate as my Caprice. And to add insult to injury, the van died in front of the junkyard that purchased my Caprice. I used the money the junkyard gave me for the Caprice to tow the van back to the dealer. But the dealer is refusing to refund me the money. That means I am out $800 and stuck paying insurance on a van without a working engine (thanks to the dealer holding on to my license plates).

But other people have problems, too. The Pope is in a hospital in Rome because of the flu. Now he may not speak again for a while, if ever. And yet despite the breathing tube, the Parkinson's, and the complications being in your 80s can add to those conditions, the Pope still treads on. Few people alive right now can imagine what Pope John Paul II is going through. Fewer still can understand why he is still willing to hold on to the papacy after all his health problems. But then the first Pope, St. Peter, had a chance to escape certain death in the mid 60s A.D. But he turned around (after seeing a vision of Christ) and headed back to Rome, and was crucified- upside down. Now that was sacrifice.

Sacrifice is a scary word to most people. While most people don't have to sacrifice their lives anymore, they are afraid to lose something important. The Pope has lost his voice. Millions of people in South Asia have lost their homes due to the tsunami last December (which did claim a quarter of a million lives). Dozens of people have lost their homes in Southern California due to the mudslides. It kind of makes giving up meat on Fridays (one of the Lenten obligations for Catholics) seem trivial, doesn't it? It even makes losing one job and two vehicles seem trivial.


If any of the preceding drivel made any sense, you can comment on it, or let me know if I should keep this thing going. After all, I should get another vehicle and another job sometime, and a little conversation, or criticism, or prayer, never hurt anyone.