First as a student, then as a teacher, I’ve longed to be right. Don’t you want to be part of the truth, the way, the life? It is heaven to make a statement you believe is right, and then have the Almighty prove it, simply, to be right, even if by chance.

Isabel Allende, the author (24 books), used to say Jesus Christ was always on the left. She was partly right. I make the statement: Jesus Christ was always in the right, whether on the right or on the left. You get what I mean by having chance (history, here) prove you’re right? Would you could all have that feeling!

If you live the right life, how can you miss? Teacher said. I have so many rights to be thankful for. But now in my old age, don’t talk to Freddy, he knows too many times when I’ve been wrong.

Life is an adventure, and if you don’t believe it, let me tell you, it is like walking several of the various wards at Creedmore, the mental asylumn (I haven’t done it). Yes, the real world, where most of those benighted people run wild, is where the steel hits the grindstone, you might say. I pray for them all, because although they make for a bumpy ride, there are parts of any adventure that have to be uncomfortable to say the least.

From my youth I remember Men of Iron, Captain Ahab, The Call of the Wild, Huckleberry Finn, Ivanhoe, Heidi’s Alm Uncle, Starbuck in Moby Dick, and many lesser characters. They have their counterparts in people I’ve met.

Sometimes I heard the voice that said, “It’s all right.” There must be an indwelling spirit that calms all human beings who seek it, and is the source of our peace in old age.

Yes, we need those who have supported the ideals of our Judeo-Christian civilization not to abandon them either for acidic hate speech or bleeding heart liberalism, which only goes on feelings. Many of those who run fear any assertion of power is unfeminine, or warlike, not realizing that to defeat evil you must use innate strength.

Stalin was once advised to be more spiritual in his life, and his reply was: “And how many divisions has the Pope?” In other words, he was ignorant of spiritual strength or power. Please note: Stalin failed, and big time at that.

Today I spoke as a lector at a 7:30 Mass on Sunday morning, and in the reading St. Paul spoke about that very thing– spiritual power. I was surprised after the service by the comments how many people got an insight.

Though I sometimes like a bourbon on the rocks, I seldom drink. But today we walked into a homemade ice cream store and I had an ice cream called Black Cherry Bourbon. It’s amazing what delights are available to the citizens of Western Civilization. It made my day.

It was chocolate ice cream with black cherries and the taste of bourbon. It must have been expensive to make. But the small tub from which the sales girl scooped it was almost empty, so it must have become popular since I last tried it, last fall. That was half a year ago. Yes, all the Creator made (he made the people who made that delectable) was good, though man with the choice of good over evil sometimes messes things up.

I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with guys like Nietzsche, Marx, Lenin — a few troublemakers — but hey, when my hands weren’t figuratively tied I settled them in class (Only kidding).

The non-Western world has been quick to copy many of the advances of Western Civilization. After Thomas Edison invented the electric light, China soon had electrified cities, and the clothes made in India and Bangladesh soon bore velcro, invented by George de Mestral, a Swiss. Some, like Russia, (which barely makes it as a Western civilization) have been set back by Socialism or autocracy, and that can cause a preventive economy (bankruptcy).

But have they copied the essentials, the philosophy, the thing that made Western Civilization the hotbed of technical and social advancement? To some extent, the answer is yes. South Korea, with its manufacturing and technical advancement, has become largely Christian, abandoning the religion of what was once a backward nation.

But what about nations that founder? Do we have them in the West? Look at Cuba, Venezuela, and because of an earlier choice toward non-dictatorial communism, Haiti. May the nations that copied use these gifts as a means to help their struggling people.