An odd, whirlwind 24 hours or so.

(And speaking of travel, pray for Mark Shea – he was supposed to be in Ireland now on a DVC speaking tour, but has been delayed twice and is giving it another shot tomorrow! That’s just miserable)

I will say the most memorable aspect of me being on Life on the Rock Thursday night was something I didn’t witness. They were all gathered ’round the telly back here in Fort Wayne, and, according to all, the minute my face appeared, Michael the Baby ran to the television, started beating on it and yelling "MOMMY! MOMMY!" throughout the whole show. Heartbreaking, but encouraging that he was so determined to rescue Mommy from the box!

Everything is very relaxed down there for this sort of thing. Producer Amalia Zea was great the whole time through, from her initial contact with me to the (short) time I spent there. Fr. Francis and Fr. Mark and the other friars are friendly and prepared – but not over-prepared lest the show end up too stilted. It was a good conversation, easy and fast – a small audience there, some of whom I was able to talk with afterwards. Met Raymond Arroyo before the show as he was going from one place to another, but other than that, the place was pretty empty. The cook told me that everyone was gone to St. Louis to prepare for one of their anniversary specials.

I was really grateful that Fr. Francis talked about more than DVC – that he began with Here.Now. and we even got into Prove Its  a bit. All good. I understand Barbara Nicolosi did Arroyo’s show tonight, but I’ve not seen it yet.

Then…hop into the rental car which was, bizarrely, a PT Cruiser. I’d not asked for it, and emitted an audible "Wha????" when I saw it, but no matter. It got me from Birmingham to Knoxville, through a bit of rain after Gadsen.

The car had Sirius, so I spent some time working my way through the dozens of channels (Michael has XM in his car. I have a radio that works, but the display doesn’t work. I stick with NPR, local Catholic radio, and sports talk radio when NPR gets insufferable and Catholic radio gets uninteresting.) Even though it was the middle of the night, I was kept awake, amazingly, by a very long discussion that came, I believe, via Canadian radio, between two native Russian authors, and one Scot who’s spent a lot of time there – on life for writers in the Soviet Union,  then in Russia. It was pretty fascinating, sad, and filled with dark irony.

Got to Knoxville about 1:15 AM. David was staying there, and waiting up for me, so we had some words, and then I collapsed. Up at 7:30 to get ready and head over to Thompson-Bolling Arena for Commencement ’06. They didn’t do individual conferrals (that would happen at ceremonies for the separate colleges, but Christopher didn’t go to that – I probably couldn’t have attended anyway). It was fairly short and sweet, and I liked the governor’s speech. It was basically: when you’re 80, and looking back on your life, what will have been the valuable and meaningful things you did? He seems to be a practical, solid fellow.

Then lunch, and off to the airport, which I hadn’t been in in years – probably – let’s see – not since Christmas ’93, when we flew to Knoxville, and then I returned to our townhouse in Lakeland only to interrupt a thief in the middle of his work – yeah, that was scary. I was impressed with the airport – airy and spacious, with a very Tennessee touch – a big, big, BIG window looking out onto the runway in front of which were scattered a couple dozen rocking chairs – which were mostly occupied. Nice touch!

Flight back went just fine, returned just in time to grab dinner and then make our way to Bye-Bye Birdie, which was probably as good a production of a broadway musical at a non-arts magnet middle school as you’re going to get. Katie played Rosie, the female lead – the frustrated and exasperated secretary to Conrad Birdie’s music promoter. Her singing was somewhat hampered by a cold she’s been fighting all week, plus, some of the music ("English Teacher") is actually rather difficult, I think. But…she projected. She emoted! She was…out there, pretty fearlessly. She wasn’t nervous at all beforehand, either. It’s kind of shocking to see your little (well…) daughter, who usually runs around in capris and t-shirts, up there on stage, hair upswept, in a business suit.

Almost as shocking as seeing a certain 23-year old in a cap and gown. And noting his brother, also now a college graduate at the age of 20, contemplating his future.

Time flies…no use in trying to catch it. Just live in it and know the moments are all gifts from God.

(more on this later – I’m still sorting through links, and have not had time to really mull over anything deeper than initial impressions…)