Catholics believe in a Hell that doesn’t last.  In college, we covered Dante’s (the Central European Shakespeare) Purgatorio, where souls go who don’t quite deserve eternal damnation.  When they have served their sentence, they are free to enter Paradise.

It makes sense.  For some sinner to be worth eternal damnation he has to hurt a lot of people.  I don’t know many people like that.  But I do pray for people who might be in Purgatory.  I offer to God my temporary sufferings to make up for theirs, according to the Communion of Saints which we believe in.

Have I freed anybody from Purgatory?  You have to ask an angel !

Jan.6 is seen by the Democrats as a grave danger to our republic.  How can a group of people who were led by a man with a bullhorn, who is a schizophrenic, mount a danger to anything but the immediate area?  Yes, they killed people, but so do gangs and law breakers, and these people were mostly lawbreakers.

There was no effective coup d’etat going on.  It was clearly and simply a case for the National Guard.  The National Guard could also handle these shop looter sprees.

Who’s at the helm, an elected official or the man with the bullhorn?

Sidney Poitier said he always carried out his mother’s advice, which was, “Say thank you and please.”  That is another way of saying “be polite,” or “have your neighbor’s interest at heart.”  It is not quite “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but it gets quite close to it.

You might say that advice won people over, and in essence, that is what Sidney did, and it accounts for his success besides his picking excellent roles that showed his talent.  He seems to have won over people with his goodness, avoiding hatred and activist stances.  He didn’t say do or don’t.

He kind of makes you say, “I hope I left the world better like he did.”

Could any man have a son like I do?  My car warranties ran out, though the salesman had talked me into a few.  What does my business man son say?  “Don’t worry, Dad; I’ll take care of the repairs you can’t handle.”

He’s not bragging.  He is able.  I remember him as a scout.  He played pranks on the other boys, but I had to curtail it.  After all, he was the scoutmaster’s son, and that should not give him any privileges.  He took it amicably, but who dared dream he would turn out as responsibly as he?

God grant everyone a response like his.  God has the last laugh, and we, after all, are the beneficiaries.  Thank you, God.

Is the world getting better?  I look for it in the news every day, but the news is for the sensational, the lawbreakers, the chaotic, yet today I saw something good.  A vagrant had tried to cross a six-lane highway on foot and was stuck in the center island.  Along came a police truck, and instead of arresting the man, the police stopped the opposing traffic and guided the man to the desired side.

It meant someone had heart.  There were several policemen involved, so that meant one man had the idea and the others agreed.  God bless them.  Things like that make you believe there’s hope for mankind yet.