New Beginnings

Many people I've met proclaim themselves as "lapsed Catholics," but since I was never in that faith, I cannot. Still, I follow its activities with ... interest.

I can remember two "white smoke" rituals, each of which brought forth a John Paul. Now, a shiny new Pope will emerge, and I have no idea who it will be.

Here's a list of contenders.

Here, you can see the odds, but not everyone is listed. This site lists more, but you have to do some digging (current events, papacy, on the left).

I'm leaning toward a Latino, but I think it would be quite interesting if they chose an Arab. Not sure how many Arabs are Catholic or qualified, but that would be a balsy political move. I'd be given mad props for that one.


I must be one of the least decisive people on this planet. Maybe I ran across a stretch of poor writing yesterday (and no jokes about the extent of that "stretch" are needed, thank you) but the chapter I'm going over today I'd put in the "not horrific" column.

Oddly, what I'm doing is Undoing some of the compaction I've been practicing. Giving the writing more of a rhythm (I hope) or more slowness. Give the reader some explicit information, let her slide along for the ride. I know there are no hard and fast rules about when to slow things down and pace them out, and I'm ever mindful of "Omit Needless Words," but some times I write too densely.

One thing I do not do, and I consider this a fairly large flaw, is have anything much in the way of serious issues or themes examinations. I think that gives the reader much more to chew on, but, then again, I've done heavy and I've done light, and for now light seems to be my depth.