'May the odds be ever in your favor.'
That is what is inscribed on the metal braclet that I wear around my left wrist. Not only is it one of my favorite quotes, it is a phrase that seems to resonate deeper within me. Espeically today.
As I write this I await to hear who the next President of the US of A will be. With my faith changellened and my religious freedom threatened I find myself praying that the odds will be in favor of right and just.
Over the past few weeks I have been reminded of a strange dream I had when I was in high school. At the time I thought little of it, but now I find my mind lingering over it more than I would like. In my dream there was a strange turn of events in the 1960s that allowed the Ku Klux Klan to become a very powerful force in the government in the present time. As such Catholicism became illegal and those who were Catholic were closely monitored by the government since they did not want those 'damn Papists' contaminating the purity of the American people. In the dream I am walking in the streets of the town I live in; little has changed, except for the fact I have to carry a passport with me constantly as I am often harassed by the police demanding to know my business. I inform them that I am on my way to the Catholic Church that was downtown. In the dimensions of the dream the Vatican, in effort to protect the faithful in the United States made the agreement in which the land that every Catholic Church stood was an extension of the Vatican and thus considered like an embassy of sorts with all the extraterritoriality that went with it.
I will not bore you with the details of the rest of the dream - they're rather depressing.
The dream scared me then and it unsettles me today.
Mostly because it feels like the reality that I dreamt of is not too far
off. Especially in light of the recent going ons of the political atmosphere. As I look back at the dream I'm surprised at the age I dreamt myself - it was the age I am now.
Whoever gets to sit in the Oval office come January, when they're sworn in, please God, let them respect life (before and after birth), let them respect the Catholic religion which seems be under attack from all sides and let them realize what is intrinsically good and what is intrinsically bad.
'May the odds be ever in your favor.'
I'm not talking about the results of this year's presidential election. I'm talking about people's reactions. And I am disappointed in many of my countrymen. Going through social media I have never seen so much hate-filled reactions as I have this morning. So many cruses, and demands to be disassociated with people who voted differently than them, and thinly veiled derogatory remarks made me very angry. Where is the 'tolerance' and 'love' that so many people claim to have (especially when things go their own way)? And don't start with the argument that 'it's all going to go away'; that's a cheap cop out.
