History

As you may have already noticed, I absolutely adore history. By no means am I a buff or anything, I'm simply fascinated by ages gone by. Whether we're considering the events of the Village of Windham from twenty years ago or talking about the travels of Christopher Columbus in the late 1400's, I love to hear about it.

Today, I'm enthralled by what's going on in the Vatican with the Conclave of the Cardinals and their election of the next Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. I'm not a Roman Catholic, never plan to be actually, all of the pomp and circumstance seems a bit empty when it comes serving the Almighty. Its the methodology of the whole thing that is interesting. Black smoke, white smoke, secret balloting, the influence of one person over many people and the desire to obtain or refuse that position, its reality television at its best. Who wouldn't want to be a fly on the wall of that Conclave just to see what's going on in there?

Are they quietly discussing the best candidates? Are they shouting one another down in support of their favorite? Are they playing Bingo, the favorite pasttime of many an old Catholic lady?

Regardless, in a day or two, the world will have their new Pope. Definitely a he, likely a white European, generally conservative, and touting the Roman Catholic line in every portion. Good for them, I'm happy. Yee ha. Perhaps I tend to be a bit cynical in some of this, because of the recent election. Do you think that some Cardinals will be put off by the new guy, because they didn't vote for him? I doubt it really, but it is an interesting question.

It wouldn't necessarily be out of the realm of possiblity. When you look backward into history, you find all kinds of interesting things about the Papal line, especially around the turn of the first millenium A.D. Its got everything! Murder! Scandal! Intrigue! Pregnancy! (Gasp!) Believe me, many books have been written about such things. They are all interesting reads if you get the chance.

So while you're undoubtedly dashing off to the Windham library to check out one of these books, I'll be sitting in the easy chair watching another round of black smoke roll out of a metal pipe. And there was much rejoicing.