Remembering Pearl Harbor and common sense

Yes, I know Pearl Harbor happened a long time ago, but it is forefront in my mind now, not because of the war, but because of my fascination with people and their foibles.

I have many friends and relatives, plus a big one — my church family.

So, for today, I choose to celebrate my life as a Christian.

It has always been interesting to me that my father’s father was raised as an Italian Roman Catholic, but marriage to a little Scotch-Irish spitfire had us growing up Methodists. Pop, however, did not participate as a Catholic. Mom did see to it that we were all confirmed in the Methodist church.

Accordingly, I have never received much of an answer from Pop, except that he himself was confirmed Catholic. At that time, the wine was served to the confirmands in a wine goblet. Each confirmand was supposed to take a sip of wine to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, then pass the goblet to the next confirmand. As it happened, the boy before Pop drained the cup. Remember, these were Italian children who had been reared with wine at every meal. They had to refill the goblet before Pop could certify his confirmation with his own sip of wine. No one ever explained to me how exactly that happened. I only know that Pop was confirmed Catholic, and we grew up Emanuel Evangelical and reformed. Doesn’t really matter anymore; we are surely all united now.

This reminds me that we have Communion this Sunday. The serving of the Lord’s Supper is a most important situation in my church life, and I believe everyone should celebrate however they believe.

Back to Pearl Harbor. Since I was only 10 years old at the time, my memories may be different from people who were older at the time. Dec. 7, 1941, still rings loudly in my mind. At the time, people were already calling it the war to end all wars. We haven’t reached that time yet. Considering human nature, I often think how nice it would be if our wishes for peace could be met. OK, world, you definitely have your job spelled out for you.

I am definitely not seeing an answer yet. Maybe someone soon will find the answer to the world using good old common sense ­— I hope. As Pop used to say, “If people would just use common sense.” There are many of us who are still waiting for that to happen. I believe you, Pop.