June 5, 2009
The Second Half
Weekend choices
BY DEACON JIM AND ANN CAVERA
Granddaughters Cate and Rachel spent the weekend with us. Saturday morning all of us made a trip to a discount store for a few inexpensive toys to liven their visit. We came away with some interesting choices. Cate had quickly spotted squirt guns and felt we must have one for each of us. In the excitement of the moment we agreed, thinking these might provide outdoor fun after supper and so four squirt guns went into the cart. Rachel wanted a doll that was advertised as being able to swim in the bathtub. She bargained for it by offering to share it with Cate. A large “Sponge Bob” coloring book and some gel/glitter markers rounded out the selection. We left the store confident that we had made good choices to add some fun to the weekend.
The squirt guns were a big hit, literally and figuratively; if you had either of the two squirt guns that actually worked. The girls ended up with the working ones leaving the grandparents to run around ducking and jumping their aim. The doll did swim a little, but watching a doll swim isn’t nearly as exciting as being in the water doing the swimming. The gel pens worked well. In fact, they worked so well they ended up dripping off the half-colored drawings of Sponge Bob. Though we had chosen as well as we could from among the hundreds of toys offered, nothing turned out quite the way we had imagined. A loose translation of the following verse from I Corinthians sums up our efforts at making choices with the words: “All things are good, but not all things are beneficial. All things are good, but not everything is useful.” (I Corinthians 10:23)
Finally, on Sunday just before the girls went home, we watched a movie based on the 1954 book “Horton Hears a Who” by Dr. Seuss. This classic children’s book says more about how important our real choices are than any quick visit to a large department store. In spite of persecution, hardship and doubt, Horton the elephant stakes his life on his conviction that the inhabitants of the tiny world of Whoville must be protected. Though few of the inhabitants believe the elephant even exists, he stands by them, until they finally get the message that they are in grave danger. In the end, the inhabitants of Whoville find that even the smallest voice counts and they must pull together if they are to be saved.
The Catholic Church supports a “preferential option for the poor,” and we make personal and collective choices based on that option. We believe every person has value, every person makes a difference and we are called to protect the least among us. Beyond squirt guns, watching toys swim and trying to color Sponge Bob, the real understanding of the power of choices this weekend came from “Horton.” There are small Whoville’s all around us, but most of us have trouble hearing them: the neighbors who struggle to buy groceries because both have lost jobs, the woman in the nursing home waiting for a volunteer to bring communion, the child in pain because of her parents’ divorce. In barely audible voices they all cry: “We are here, we are here!” Is anybody listening?
Deacon Jim and Ann Cavera are former residents of Evansville; their award-winning column is a regular feature of the Message. Contact them at www.catholicseniorspirit.com.