AN AMERICAN MEMOIR FOR THE POPE

via eonline.com

When The Pope Visited Philadelphia In The Shadow Of Rocky.

Picture yourself in the land of our forefathers, walking on ground won by American blood.

It’s the same American blood flowing through every American.

That’s Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War and every war since.

Two hundred years later Philadelphia was the site of President Ford’s bicentennial address from Liberty Square.

In 2015 Pope Francis spoke to America from the same place.

This blogger was on site for President Ford’s speech in 1976, an enlistee in the great experiment of America’s all volunteer army.

I watched Pope Francis thirty nine years later from a whole different perspective and the message seemed eerily similar.

Naturally I drove my family members up the wall with my recollections of Philadelphia, my unique take on American memoir via spoken word.

Their spoken word was, “Enough already, we can’t hear the Pope.”

The American Army in 1974 was reeling. Some might say America was reeling, not just the military.

Saigon was falling, a signal to the end of the Vietnam War; President Nixon was resigning, signaling an end to Watergate; and the Army Chief of Staff recently died on the job.

The hated draft gave way to the volunteer army and every Drill Sergeant wanted the new recruits to know one thing: Vietnam wasn’t their fault. And they’d know. They were all Vietnam guys.

Everyone rallied around “Today’s Army wants to join you” and “Join the people who’ve joined the Army.”

Sounds friendly enough?

Those slogans echoed in the words of Pope Francis, the difference being his army had a different mission. People working to rebuild institutions have more in common than not.

Saturday at Freedom Square to Sunday’s Mass saw the Pope move to the Ben Franklin Parkway. Behind him sat the Rocky Steps.

Philadelphia has a unique road running from city hall to the art museum. It’s mile long one way. You saw Rocky run it in his first movie. That’s him at the top of the Rocky Steps above.

I lived a couple of blocks away from the art museum where I visited on free Sunday, just another Pfc on a day off. In an unusual Army posting I lived off base and worked a 9-5 job in South Philly, another Rocky neighborhood.

While the Pope spoke I kept hoping he’d turn and bolt for the steps and do his own Rocky dance at the top. No one wanted to hear my idea for the Pope, but if anyone could do it, he could.

Signing my name on an Army contract in 1974 delivered me to Philadelphia. Pope Francis arrived in Philadelphia through different channels.

What I heard him say was an eternal message of “You do better and you can start now.”

With that in mind I look back over the decades of baby boomer life and ask, “How much is enough?”

The Army says be ready to give all. The Pope says you always have more to give if you try.

Rocky says, “It don’t matter how many times you get knocked down. What matters is how many times you get back up.”

Boomerpdx says, “Be a good listener.”

And share your blessings. You can do it.

via captiv8promos.com