"It takes strength to be gentle and kind"

Since the end of the year is always such whirlwind, I've deliberately taken it a bit easier now the we're in 2016. Since last Friday was New Year's Day, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, I chose not to post a traditio. Choosing thusly I missed a great chance to post U2's "New Year's Day." Oh well, a bit cliché n'est ce pas?

Today I had that procedure, highly recommended for people as we turn 50. Maybe it's because my Dad was killed by cancer that I was so nervous and, frankly, a bit scared. My results seem to indicate a clean bill of health. I am grateful that after I was prepped and waiting to go into the procedure room (sounds omninous in a kind of Huxleyan way, which is how it felt- I hate hospitals and airports), I was able to pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary and utter a few Memorarés. While it may seem overly dramatic, it was an opportunity to usefully contemplate mortality. Whenever I am consciously confronted with my mortality, I ask the Blessed Virgin for the grace of not dying without benefit of the sacraments.

I recovered quickly enough from the anesthesia and found my lovely wife waiting beside me. Seeing her smiling face was wonderful. I am very grateful, too, for the many friends who prayed for me yesterday and today.

After I arrived home, we made breakfast and listened to The Smith's. The first song I heard was "I Know It's Over" off their 1986 The Queen is Dead album. It sounded lovely to me on a gray, cold, semi-snowy January day. Hence, "I Know It's Over" is our first Friday traditio of 2016:

It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes strength to be gentle and kind
Over, over, over, over