because i didn't want to write about my bad morning

so i'll write about the pope instead.

a few days have gone by, and i do feel a twinge of sadness for his passing. i have a hard time knowing how to feel when people die, especially people that were amazing and good but that you didn't really know. case in point: my mom sobbed when princess di was killed; i only remember laughing at her (my mom, that is) and asking if they'd secretly been best friends. but john paul did do a lot of great things.

i saw him once, pretty upclose. i was in rome for palm sunday in 1999 and attended the mass at st. peters. it was quite spectacular, actually, and i really enjoyed the connected feeling i had with everyone else there, everyone in the world, it seemed like. there is a funny story about that mass. i didn't know that only catholics were allowed to take communion and that doing so without being catholic was blasphemous and a huge no-no. i grew up in an episcopal church and so was quite accustomed to taking communion. so, i partook joyfully in the communion with the pope, unknowingly insulting the group i was with (a choir from a catholic church) and probably damning myself to hell. nonetheless, it was a beautiful mass, and an experience i will never forget.