This is why I don’t believe I’ve watched a major network TV program, including news, start to finish in years.

The History Channel, of course, is another story. BTW Genghis Khan died on my birthday and knowing that makes me…what? I shudder to think.

My wife and I are contemplating travel to Canada this summer for the Archdiocesan Convention in Montreal and the topic of passports came up.

More than a decade ago I had family living in northern Minnesota minutes away from the border, so close, in fact that they often went to Winnipeg for shopping. In those days all you needed to do was hold up your bucket as you passed north and Canadian customs knew you were going to pick blueberries and waved you on through. You could wave “hi” on the way back as long as our customs didn’t think you were smuggling in Cuban cigars.

That seems like a long time ago. Probably was.

Of all the things I miss about these times those kinds of things, a more trusting gentle way, seem to cause the most melancholy. Now we’re screened in, screened through, screened out, and travel with documents and permits and the threat of search and detainment if we miss some detail. There will probably never again be a time when you can take a joy ride into Canada like I did when I was in college or be waved across any border with a berry bucket as your credentials.

I know its necessary. I know, too, that others (like the victims of 9-11) have been inconvenienced beyond my imagination and so I have little about which to complain. But the fact I can’t hardly cash a check anymore, have to pre-pay for gasoline when the sun goes down, and now may need a passport just to cross into Canada, kills me not in one big fireball but rather by hundreds of little needles each taking a drop of blood. One by one they are inconsequential, together they can be fatal.

I guess if people don’t have honesty in and of themselves they will make a law to enforce it. If people aren’t going to allow morality, honesty, and trust be part of thier lives there will be a regulation to that effect. I’ve not changed but at least now I’ll have the paperwork to prove it.

For the most part this is a gloomy time of year but I do like it when the leaves fall and I can see where the birds nests have been hidden.

What can I say?

A quick trip around the blogosphere is all it takes to get a taste of the level of complaint around the world.

There can be a value to that. There are things that need to be exposed and the democratization of the media represented by the blogosphere means that people who are actually expert in thier fields, and not just pretty faces, get exposure for thier thoughts in a way the larger media would never allow. But sometimes its just about complaints.

At times I fall in to that trap. Something rubs me the wrong way and I want to gripe and have the tools to do it. Even if no one in particular is paying attention I still have the emotional satisfaction. There needs, though, to be more from me and from anyone else who occasionally taps out a paragraph or two on the web. We need solutions.

Part of what I hope to do (we have such grandiose plans when we start blogs!) is to point to one solution. I remain convinced over the years that the transformation of family, culture, and world, begins with the continuing transformation of the person. I believe, as well, that Jesus Christ presents the model to which humanity should aspire and if we wish to truly evolve as a species we have that example to measure our progress.

At times I have told my parish I would be a Christian even if there was no heaven, no life to come, simply because the way of life is one that makes for human contentment. And I think sometimes we in the Church speak too much about the life to come and too little about how following Christ makes for human happiness, a balanced life, even a physically healthier life. How many people have literally killed themselves in the endless chase for whatever the latest thing the world says is important when the rest they seek, for thier soul, thier body, thier mind, could be found in the way of Christ?

It’s not about immunnity from the realities and problems of the world but perspective, a clear view even in our weaknesses of what really matters. A life with Jesus life and teachings at its core brings a kind of knowledge that allows all things to find thier true setting, thier optimal environment, thier real paradigm so the person who embraces them, embraces Him, becomes fully alive and as they grow in it all more and more human in the best sense of that word.

Therein lies, I believe, the single solution to the human question and I presume I will always struggle towards it.

A note of thanks to the person who was visitor number 700 to this blog.

It’s been a priviledge to write for you all.

On the whole I am a grateful man, not necessarily for the specifics as this has been a tiring year with some very hard times, but, for the larger picture and greater graces that have carried me along and continue.

Coming to terms with the fact that much of what the world out there calls “success” will always elude us is part of the maturing process, the understanding of life in panorama and not just snapshot. And there is a bitterness to that, no, more of a melancholy. Even when we know for a fact the hype is just that and those who have attained heights we can only imagine still carry the primal human emptiness we remain creations of what our culture values and the message has been force fed on us for so long and with such passionate intensity that we still believe we’ll be the exception to the rule, the one person who can truly have it all with no regrets, no empty spots, and no loss.

But sooner or later the thinning hair or sagging this or that and the ravages of time bear undeniable witness and we have to choose. Do we wish to be some kind of caricature like those sad old people whose faces have been lifted to the point of distortion and whose energy is spent throwing themselves against thier own mortality like a “Jackass the Movie” stuntman or do we come to some knowledge greater than ourselves that allows us to place all the events of our life, including the future, in a context that understands life but is never conquered by that reality?

If only for coming to ask that question at all I am grateful for this hard year. Because the correct answer to that question is precisely the place where grace can flow in to any life and transform what in a more hopeless moment would seem to be a relentless grind towards the cemetery into a journey of hope.

I’m holding out for that, thinning hair, sagging parts, and all.

From time to time in this blog you’ll see references to sites or articles about the Muslim world, some of which have critique, all of which have been chosen for the purpose of illumination. After all what happens there matters and if all one has for information is the mainstream media much will be missed and important things will go unnoticed.

But let me state that there is no hate here for Muslims despite the efforts of some in that religion to portray any critique or analysis of Islam as “hate” or intolerance. I disagree with the understanding that Mohammed is a prophet of God or the Koran is the literal word of God. I believe the revelation of God found in Jesus Christ is true. True disagreement, as against unthinking bitterness, is part of the search for truth and when dissent is immediately labeled as “hate” and a topic off limits for reasonable discussion then all hope for discovering truth is killed and the world decends into night.

In that context I remain convinced people should always examine thier faith, know why they believe, understand the history of the outworking of their faith, warts and all, and come to a mature knowledge of thier religion. In the current times of turmoil such a mature understanding of religion matters more than ever and there are frankly too many people both in Islam and Christianity who have only emotional, cultural, or tribal understandings of what they believe, understandings that have become empty jars into which fanaticism can be poured. I am an Orthodox Christian not because Orthodox people, including myself, have always been shining examples of purity but rather because Orthodoxy calls me and the world to transcend brokenness and gives us an example in Jesus Christ of one who lived the fullest humanity to which we, despite our sometimes terrible deeds, aspire.

And quite frankly I believe that Muslims will find the rest they seek, the rest that has caused a number of them to resort to violence and fanaticism, in Jesus Christ. There is wisdom in Islam but it’s fulfillment is in Christ who shines with such glory that even thier prophet revered Him. Christians have sometimes done terrible things to Muslims and Muslims to Christians and yet the light that is Christ, when allowed to shine freely, illumines all.

Ultimately that is what I wish. Light for me in my darkness and light for those in Islam as well.

So I speak and write and pray as a fellow traveler hoping for, as our Liturgy prays, the “union of all” in Christ.

The English translation of an article published in France regarding Christianity, Islam, and Europe, and for which the author is now in hiding.

CNN takes on a story about happiness and among the happiest people are, you guessed it, the religious…

Oh, and the survey says more things have little effect on happiness. But Jesus could have told you that, oh say, 20 plus centuries ago.