religion

To know Mitch Menlove was to like him. He was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet.  He was a wunderkind in everything he did professionally, in his church and as a husband and father.

And at the tender age of 36, he has been called home to his Father.

Those of us who share his faith believe that there is a purpose for his death. But that doesn’t take away the shock and pain. And it doesn’t take away the grief we suffer as we think about his wonderful wife Elizabeth, the three boys, and the baby that is due any day now.  As Kevin DeMenna (Mitch’s former boss and tennis partner) said, Mitch must be one incredible human being to be needed “on the other side” more than here.

Our hearts go out to Mitch’s young family, his brothers, his parents and anyone else who was blessed to call him a friend.

Here is a statement from two of his close friends, Kevin DeMenna and Matt Salmon:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is with immense sadness that we share with you the heartbreaking news that our friend, colleague and brother, Mitch Menlove, passed away shortly after 1:00 AM last night in the Flagstaff hospital.

[Service information below]

There is no way to express the heartbreak and the sadness that death at such a young age brings, however, Mitch’s family and friends are gathering to celebrate the life of such an extraordinary and selfless man.

We ask that your prayers and thoughts be with Mitch and his loved ones at this time.

With heartfelt feeling to all,

Kevin DeMenna

The Honorable Matt Salmon

Phoenix, Arizona Services:

• Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

• Biltmore Ward

• 1835 East Missouri Avenue

• Phoenix, Arizona 85016-3021

• Family Viewing from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM

• Public Viewing from 9:00 AM to 10:45 AM

• Funeral Services will begin at 11:00 AM

Salt Lake City, Utah Services:

• Friday, July 23rd, 2010

• (Location yet to be determined)

• Family Viewing from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM

• Public Viewing from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM

• Funeral Services will begin at 10:00 AM

Mitch was one of the good guys.

God is smiling down on me. I had a couple meetings scheduled in Chicago this week. Now, I’ve been to Chicago many times, but either during the winter months or for too brief a time to play around.

But this time, because of meeting schedules, I had time to catch a game at Wrigley field. To make it even better, it was a day game and it was the Dodgers! There is a saying among Mormons that when things are falling into place it means “you must be paying your tithing.” When I bought aisle 104 (in Wrigley “sections” are actually called “aisles” on the lower level) behind home plate and on the visitor side, that saying crossed my mind.

Obviously, I’m a bit of a nostalgia nerd, especially when it comes to baseball. As I blogged a long time ago about the reason I have the Brooklyn Bridge as the image on my blog, I am a huge Dodger fan, and particularly keen on Dodger history, which had some of it’s best years in Brooklyn. As such, going to a game at Wrigley Field has been a life-long dream.

I went to my first major league game at Candlestick Park just before I turned five years old when my dad was in dental school in San Francisco, and when we came back to Arizona and settled in Show Low that summer, I could only dream about big league baseball games as I listened to Vin Scully call Dodger games on KTAR. Those dreams included seeing games at Dodger Stadium (which was fulfilled the first time in 1981), Yankee Stadium (fulfilled in 2004), Fenway (fulfilled in 2006) and finally Wrigley Field. So it’s been a long time coming.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day for baseball. Sunny, light breeze and about 70 degrees at first pitch, which was at 1:20 – making the experience even more fulfilling since it was a day game. (Wrigley Field was the last of the major league parks to add lights, holding out until 1988). I settled in, bought a hot dog from a vendor walking the aisle, applied the Gulden’s mustard and had the second best ballpark hot dog of my life. (The best was the hot dog I ate at Fenway – I can’t even tell you what made it better).

I took in the imagery, the history and, in part because I was wearing my Brooklyn Dodgers hat, envisioned the Brooklyn Dodgers playing ON THIS VERY FIELD!

Like I said, I’m a nostalgia nerd. (I think I’ve coined a phrase).

I suppose the only thing that could have made the day better was a Dodger win. However, it was a great game, a pitchers duel that the Cubs won 1-0 with back-to-back triples in the bottom of the eighth.

So I’ve hit the big four of the parks I’ve long wanted to see. The only thing left is to visit the monument for Ebbets Field, which was torn down ten years before I was born.

Play Ball!

ABC’s Lost had one of the most anticipated series finales in TV history.

Lost was simply… epic.  Its draw was the examination of human interaction under a multitude of situations, both extreme and mundane.

Lost was in its third season before I watched the pilot and got completely hooked.  And after six seasons, I am still numb to the idea that it’s actually over.

I’m torn about the way it ended.  I loved it, I hated it, I laughed, I cried.

But when the camera zoomed in on Jack’s eye and the signature Lost logo popped onto the screen I felt… fulfilled.

It’s hard to describe.  It was less dramatic than I think I was expecting, but it was surprisingly satisfying.

Here’s what I think… The writers didn’t really know how to end it, so they pulled the pure emotion card - figuring out how to bring everyone together, and by doing so, even those of us who wanted a complete tie up at the end forgave the unanswered questions because everyone got back together.

It was thrilling to watch each character begin to remember what they had been through and to recognize who they were.

So, had they in fact died at the beginning after all, and the island was purgatory?  I don’t think so - I interpreted it as the sideways reality being purgatory (or in my faith’s parlance, the spirit world), where the work gets completed.

However you view the ending, and whether you think it was great or terrible or just ok, ultimately there wasn’t a perfect ending or a right ending, because we each viewed the series through our own prism of understanding, ideology, faith, bias and personal application.

What surprises me the most is that I don’t even remember all the questions they didn’t answer. That tells me that even though those questions seemed to be of burning priority, they just weren’t that important.

Kind of like how life unfolds…

We celebrate the most holy of days today, the day that marks when our Savior overcame the bonds of death and rose again.

First Things is the premier Catholic intellectual journal founded by the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.

First Things has an excellent piece about the Senate health care bill that the House is trying to pass later this week written by Charles Chaput, the Archbishop of Denver. As an outspoken voice for the Catholic Church, Archbishop Chaput is, to use evangelical vernacular, preachin’ the truth. And, to use Baptist vernacular, damning the Catholic posers to hell.

The Senate version of health care reform currently being forced ahead by congressional leaders and the White House is a bad bill that will result in bad law. It does not deserve, nor does it have, the support of the Catholic bishops of our country. Nor does the American public want it. As I write this column on March 14, the Senate bill remains gravely flawed. It does not meet minimum moral standards in at least three important areas: the exclusion of abortion funding and services; adequate conscience protections for health care professionals and institutions; and the inclusion of immigrants.

Groups, trade associations, and publications describing themselves as “Catholic” or “prolife” that endorse the Senate version—whatever their intentions—are doing a serious disservice to the nation and to the Church, undermining the witness of the Catholic community and ensuring the failure of genuine, ethical health care reform. By their public actions, they create confusion at exactly the moment Catholics need to think clearly about the remaining issues in the health care debate. They also provide the illusion of moral cover for an unethical piece of legislation…

The long, unpleasant and too often dishonest national health care debate is now in its last days. Its most painful feature has been those “Catholic” groups that by their eagerness for some kind of deal undercut the witness of the Catholic community and help advance a bad bill into a bad law. Their flawed judgment could now have damaging consequences for all of us.

Do not be misled. The Senate version of health care reform currently being pushed ahead by congressional leaders and the White House—despite public resistance and numerous moral concerns—is bad law; and not simply bad, but dangerous. It does not deserve, nor does it have, the support of the Catholic bishops in our country, who speak for the believing Catholic community. In its current content, the Senate version of health care legislation is not “reform.” Catholics and other persons of good will concerned about the foundations of human dignity should oppose it.

In my previous post I pointed out that in the TV show Lost, John Locke is now evil personified.

But a friend of mine pointed out that this is the real evil personified.

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters holding out in Marjah are increasingly using civilians as human shields, firing from compounds where U.S. and Afghan forces can clearly see women and children on rooftops or in windows, Afghan and U.S. troops said Wednesday.

The intermingling of fighters and civilians also has been witnessed by Associated Press journalists. It is part of a Taliban effort to exploit strict NATO rules against endangering innocent lives to impede the allied advance through the town.

These animals are sick and they must be stopped. Our efforts in Afghanistan have never been more important. Pray for our troops as they look evil in the eye and make sacrifices so that we don’t have to.

The hit TV series Lost continues to wow me. This week’s episode actually answers more questions than it raises, much to my enjoyment and relief.

Now we know where the lists of names comes from and we have a better understanding of what Jacob was up to. The challenge is whether we believe that Jacob is evil or the man in black, now personified as John Locke.

Whereas previous seasons nibbled around the edges of good versus evil, this season has overt religious overtones. It is sure to keep Lost fans buzzing about what it all means, and I am guessing that the Lost writers are good enough to throw some major twists into the plot in this final season.

The John Locke-centered episode this week we learn a lot more about Locke, but we also catch glimpses of a different side of Ben and Hurley. Ben is much less confident and the Hurly that lands in L.A. continues to act as if he’s the luckiest guy in the world – a stark contrast to the Hurley on the island that believes he is cursed.

It is a rare moment for me to get to the end of a TV show and actually feel enriched for having watched it. I’m crossing my fingers that the rest of the season of Lost will have some big payoffs.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)

Is anyone else as bothered as I am about the media labeling the kick-off of the Christmas Season as “Black Friday?”

Very disturbing.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday in the sense that it is built around the whole idea of gratitude.

If there is one thing missing most in society today, it is gratitude, true gratitude. Not the kind like, “I’m so thankful that Wal-Mart has this awesome sale.” (That was the gratitude on display late Thanksgiving night when I ran to the nearby 24-hour Super Wal-Mart and there were lines of people waiting for the clock to strike midnight to officially kick off the post-Thanksgiving sales.)

Gratitude, in its purest sense, is recognizing that all that we have is a gift from God.