Polarizing Papal Pontification

Or, what would Chesterton say?

Words and Such - a mea culpa

I wrote an article the other day. The first sentence read: ”Pope Francis has been a fairly polarizing Papa.”

That opening sentence proved to be polarizing to a segment of people that read the post. It was clear to me, from the response, that we did not share the same understanding of the term “polarizing”.

Regardless, the back and forth was frustrating to me, and perhaps frustrating to the people I was corresponding with. And then this morning, I was reading an article about William F. Buckley Jr. and I got to thinking, “How would men such as William F Buckley Jr. and G. K. Chesterton have responded to this kerfuffle?”

As I have neither the erudition nor wit of the two men, I cannot guess as to their response, but I have a pretty good idea as to the character and flavor of their response: it would have been characterized by an undercurrent of joy, and the flavor would have been delight.

All I can say in honesty is that my response cannot be characterized as an undercurrent of joy, and the flavor was bland at best and bitter at worst. And I’m pretty disappointed in myself.

One of my goals with The Glob is to entertain, poke and prod at the ridiculous, and provide fodder for thought. A deep hope is that someone reads something here and thinks about it long after they forgot where they read it.

And I achieved none of that in the back and forth with the above mentioned folks. This, then, is just a public note to myself to think before responding, and to engage with joy and delight.

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