Saturday afternoon was one of those times...
"Where were you/What were you doing when you found out that Pope John Paul II had passed away?" I was sitting in front of the television, hoping to watch some of the NASCAR Busch race in Bristol, Tennessee... I could have gone to both the Busch and Nextel Cup race, apparently, thanks to a free ticket from my friend Jarrod's sister-in-law, but I couldn't have gone, anyway... which kinda sucked... ANYHOW, the race got cancelled 'cause it was snowing... so I was watching a couple different movies... about 2:45, I flipped the channels... and I saw the news. I knew it was coming... everyone did... it didn't make the news any less sad, though.

Now, I don't consider myself "religious," anymore. When I was younger, I was very involved in the church, thanks to a really good friend and my grandfather. I didn't particularly agree with a lot of the things the Holy Father "decreed" or whatever during his time... but I understand what he was about... why he was there. He was there to try to bring some kind of hope to the hopeless, some kind of faith to the faithless... whatever he could do to try to fill some small part of the emptiness that is in so many of us.

The Pope did many things in his time, as well, that could be seen in an almost secular fashion... probably the most notable of which was aiding in the downfall of communism in his homeland of Poland, as well as pretty much everywhere else, too. Yeah, the Pope was a Pollock. I am a Pollock, as well, but I am not the Pope. heh

I sat there and watched the news... saw the people in St. Peter's Square. I was sad. I even nearly cried for a moment. I didn't have to agree with what he thought to know he was a good man. I'm not sure exactly why, but he always kinda reminded me a lot of my grandfather. Well, they were both extremely good men who worked very hard to a very old age to try to make people happy... and they seemed to take a lot of pleasure in doing so, even when they had lost their health.