Last night my friend asked me, "So what happened to your blog? Karen doesn't care anymore?". It's not that, but I have been really busy. I went back to school full time and I'm loving it, but the pace is pretty fast. I still think about all sorts of quirky things, but I just don't have the time to journal them.
I haven't abandoned my fans ... well, I guess that I have, but hope you understand.
HOWEVER ... here is the third "United Breaks Guitars" video!
Mark's brother recently got married. The day before, Mark sent me this video of another couple's dramatic entrance to the church.
I think that my favorite part is when the ushers throw their programs in the air with wild abandon ... followed closely by the groom somersaulting from the midst of the wedding party, then straightening his tie.
Canadian singer Dave Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, were on their way to a gig in Nebraska last year when rough handling — in plain view of the the alarmed passengers — snapped the neck off Dave's $3,500 Taylor guitar. After a year of appeals for compensation, this video was the result.
After the video received more than two million views, United Airlines offered to break its baggage loss policy and compensate Dave for his broken guitar. Carroll says he's gratified by the huge response, doesn't want money from United and hopes the airline donates it to charity. He said the attention has resulted in numerous offers to write songs and perform.
His dealings with "kind Ms. Irlweg" will be the basis of his next video: a light-hearted look at his year-long battle. The full story is here.
Prime Minister Harper said that the story above was "a low moment in journalism", "absurd", "ridiculous", "terrible" and "not based on anything". He also said, "As a Christian, I've never refused communion when offered to me. That is actually pretty important to me".
His advisors have been very insistant that of course he ate it ... although a part of me suspects it might have been after the media got ahold of this story and he located it again in his suit pocket! There are about 13 million Catholics in Canada, and Harper's election victory in 2006 was partly attributed to his strong showing among evangelical Protestants and church-going Catholics.
Enough said?
I am not Catholic, but communion is very meaningful to me. Lutherans don't believe in transubstantiation, but do think that Christ is "truly and substantially present in, with and under" the consecrated bread and wine.
In other words: you don't put it in your pocket to save for the car ride home.
However, when I watched this on the news, I had nothing but empathy for Stephen Harper. I come from a non-church background and have been in these types of situations many times myself. How many people throughout the ages have wandered up for communion because everyone else was getting up and they weren't quite sure where the rest of their pew was going but they thought they better follow?
BUT ... how many of them are the leader of a nation in the front row of a televised funeral service?
AND ... how many of them have had to sit down one-on-one with the Pope a week later? (No word on whether the subject came up between them!)
If Harper did do something that was not proper, I doubt he did it out of disrespect. He really was "damned" regardess (pun intended, literal meaning not!):
If he took the wafer and promptly ate it, someone would be outraged that he disrespected Christ/Catholicism by taking Catholic communion when he is not Catholic.
If he took the wafer "to be polite" and didn't eat it, someone would be outraged that he disrespected Christ by defiling His body.
If he had declined the wafer, especially without taking the blessing instead, someone probably would have been outraged that he thinks his '"sin" don't stink' and he doesn't need communion.
Canon law states that 'Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments only to Catholic members of Christ's faithful' (Canon 844). It does not specify that people may not present themselves for communion, since canon law claims jurisdiction only over Catholics, and it does not specify how a priest ought to respond if a non-Catholic presents himself or herself for Communion: it becomes a judgement call.
Well, it's happened to me ... which is probably why I think this is so cute.
I can remember telling my friend Lorie that I wished there was some sort of "Christian to English Dictionary" where I could look things up when I first started going to church. Ten years later, these phrases are a little less foreign to me ... not sure if that's good or bad!
