For over a thousand years pilgrims have been walking the Camino de Santiago. Tomorrow I leave for Spain. After spending a few days with my wife’s relatives in Santander, I’ll make my way to St. Jean Pied de Port, France where I will begin a 33 day nearly 500 hundred mile walk across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, following in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, María de Lourdes Ruiz Scaperlanda (my wife), Christopher and Mary Scaperlanda (my son and daughter-in-law), and countless others. For the first two and a half weeks, I’ll walk alone and look forward to meeting other pilgrims and those who will provide us hospitality. For the rest of the trip, I’ll be joined by two good friends from Austin.
Why the pilgrimage?
In our book, The Journey: A Guide for the Modern Pilgrim, María says:
When we make a conscious decision to live in the present moment by embracing each day, each person we meet, each situation in front of us, we are like Mary in her “Fiat,” saying “yes” to the graces that God has for us today and every day. In the words of St. Ignatius, we step out with trust that “everything has the potential of calling forth in us a more loving response...” It is this distinctive choice that makes us pilgrims in our everyday lives.
I can only speak for myself, but fear, the desire to set and control my own agenda, time pressures, etc. keep me from living a life of total freedom as described above by my wife with a little help from St. Ignatius. A pilgrimage, like a retreat, is an opportunity for me to intentionally step outside normal everyday life to practice this type of openness to the graces in my life that so often go unrecognized. After reentering normal everyday life, I hope some of the lessons from the road will be retained.
Why now?
2009-10 is transition period in many ways for me. I turn 50 next April. Our youngest child graduates from college next May. I have been teaching for 20 years. And, with a sabbatical this fall, I have from this past May until next January with no classes, dedicated time to devote to writing, and the opportunity to take an extended trip. In short, I feel called to let go of my normal routine to learn better how to live every moment in God’s love and grace. I wish for no rain, temperatures between the upper 40’s and low 70’s, no blisters or backaches, and wonderful welcoming people all along the way. But, that is not real life, and it won’t be real life on the Camino, so I pray to be open to whatever comes my way.
Please pray for me as make this pilgrimage. My fellow bloggers have consented to me posting my Camino reflections on the blog every few days, so I will keep you updated. My next post ought to come around the end of September.
“Lord, I am grateful. Forgive my ingratitude.”
Thursday, September 17, 2009
All lawyers, judges, law students and others associated with the legal profession are invited to the 30th annual Red Mass at St. Thomas More in Norman (corner of Jenkins and Stinson). The Mass is at 5pm this Sunday, Sept. 20 with a wine and cheese reception to follow. MOJ friend Professor Kevin Lee is our honored guest this year.
I think all of us on this blog agree that everyone should have access to affordable quality health care regardless of economic status, age, or condition of health. The devil, as usual, is in the details. What I fear is that Congress will expend a large amount of time, energy, money, and political capital putting a bandaid on a skinned knee while ignoring the chest wound threatening our nation's health care.
If they have the courage, the nation's Catholic bishops are in a unique position to play a constructive non-partisan role in the debate. Here is what I propose. 1) The bishops invite all Catholic members of Congress (and other members who wish to particpate) to a health care dialogue. 2) The bishops use the opening of the conference to teach on the principle expressed in the first sentence of this blog. 3) They get the assent of all present to the propostion that "everyone should have access to affordable quality health care regardless of economic status, age, or condition of health." 4) They facilitate an in depth discussion across party lines of the preceived problems with health care today. 5) They facilitate an in depth discussion across party lines of the potential solutions to those problems. 6) They offer mass each day of the conference. 7) They have communal meals during the conference.
At the end of the process, I expect that vast disagreements will still exist because "how" to fix the health care system is a matter of prudential judgment. But, hopefully, some barriers will have been broken, a better understanding of the other side's positions will have been achieved, maybe each side will be less suspicious of the other, hopefully some new and creative ideas will have emerged, and these Catholic Democrats and Republicans will have modeled a badly needed format for engaging in vigorous debate in a civil and loving manner.
I can think of no other person or group in the United States other than the United States bishops who can play this role.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thank you Susan for your insights into health care reform. Last month, after reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, I suggested that one way to control health care costs in the US would be to reform agricultural policy. A couple of days ago, Michael Pollan had an op-ed in the NYT advocating this approach. Here's a taste:
No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet.
That’s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat “preventable chronic diseases.” Not all of these diseases are linked to diet — there’s smoking, for instance — but many, if not most, of them are.
* * *
The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care.
HT: David Bell
UPDATE: Coincidentally, Susan's Creo en Dios post today also mentions the misuse of food.
This week my family took at small step away from government subsidized big agri-business toward what I hope will be healthier food produced in a more sustainable way by people we will get to know over the years. We joined the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. Over the next several months, we plan on volunteering on a delivery day or two and also visiting some of the farms growing our food.
This op-ed in the Wall Street Journal from last month proposes a market-based solution for health care reform, which gets us closer to universal coverage without massive government regulation. If it works, isn't this solution consistent with Catholic Social Teaching? Although the op-ed doesn't address the poor, don't we have Medicaid for them? And, if Medicaid is inadequate (I don't know whether it is or not), shouldn't we be tweaking and/or expanding Medicaid to work toward ensuring that no one goes without needed health care because of their economic status? In other words, if one problem is affordability and portability and the other poverty, might they need two totally different solutions: one market oriented and the other government interventionist?
For those more in the know, what are the problems with the market solutions proposed in the op-ed? And, are your conclusions based on your prudential judgment? Or, is the market based approach inherently at odds with Catholic Social Teaching?
Lots of questions, but no answers from me.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
... of New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman's view of one-party autocracy?
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.
This article may be of interest:
Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research says.
The report, Fewer Emitter, Lower Emissions, Less Cost, concludes that family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction.
