Columns

“That’s an excellent question” normally doesn’t make the list of utterances that can get a candidate in trouble on the campaign trail. But this presidential campaign isn’t what anyone would call normal.

John McCain gave that anodyne response Monday at a “town hall” event in South Carolina when an elegant woman, of patrician bearing, posed this question about a possible Democratic nominee: “How do we beat the [expletive]?”

I looked up from my comfy, warm spot on the love seat at just the right time to see a cat paw sticking out from one of the slats in my blinds at my living room window.

The sound that made me glance away from the television program was a hard thud on my window. Two thuds — one from the inside and one from the outside — came simultaneously concealing themselves in one loud noise.

It was enough to make me pay attention and enough to wake my dog from his evening slumber as he dozed by my feet beside the love seat.

The Christmas holiday season is still weeks away, more than a month even. Although there are still many weeks in which I might have the opportunity to discuss this topic I feel that as the holidays have already been pushed out into the open for the earliest possible public consumption, its prompt address is unavoidable.

Pax Christi is a group that has long worked very hard for peaceful resolution of conflicts. It is a global organization that has a strong U.S. section.

I have long pondered over their writings. Recently I was given a copy of Pax Christi USA’s “Prayer for World Peace” by Benedictine Sister Joan D Chittister.

The musings below build on some of the insights from this prayer.

“Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurteeto punisheeto terrorizeee.”