Andre, Pope Benedetto, Cologne and Baseball

Andre is in Cologne Germany today with his youth group to see Pope Benedict. I think I could see him in that picture of 800,000 or so people who were there. Andre seems to have found a nice niche as a youth minister, at least for the time being. He definetely has an extraordinary rapport with his youth group and a nice working relationship with the local church leaders.

I wonder a lot about where this Pope is going to take us. No doubt the world is unfolding as it should, but that is not always easily apparent. They keep writing that he is going to undertake a campaign against the philosophy of relativism. I don't know if the "they" define relativism the same way that I do, but I consider myslf a "very big" relativist, so I wonder a lot.

Relativism seems to make so much sense to me. I remember, the last year the Brewers won the pennant, however long ago that was, the announcer saying after the ground ball was hit that Robin Yount bobbled the ball before making the play and then added "it's not how badly you bobble the ball, but how quickly you recover". This always struck me as a reasonable philosophy of life. It is not so much what one accomplishes in life, as how one deals with the cards one is dealt. Whatever happens to us, the only thing we have some control over is how we respond to the situations we must face. I have always thought myself lucky to not have had to deal with some of the situations that I see my friends have to face. I also admire greatly those who have come through those situations in tact.