Thanks for the Memories

I like to read the lists of the top stories of the previous year as reported on the pages of the local newspaper This year, I decided to make my own review of the remarkable accounts of 2013, with a bit of commentary tucked in alongside the headline. I’ll start with a recent story - the death of Nelson Mandela. I’ve never been to South Africa, but I’ve read his biographies and have a deep respect for the man and the role he played in the deconstruction of apartheid. Mandela taught the watching world a great deal about redemption and reconciliation, and we mourn the loss of Mandiba, the father of his nation. As he taught us, “to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

In November, we marked an anniversary of our own country’s sorrow, as fifty years have passed since the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the United States president who died before his true potential could be known. Growing up in the sixties, his untimely death was a painful rite of passage, and left us wondering about what might have been, with our hopes summed up in his own words: “So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.”

A third story of note happened closer to home, on the west side of Cleveland, where Ariel Castro imprisoned three young women for many years. A dramatic escape by Amanda Berry led to the rescue of the other two women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, as well as Berry’s young daughter. How could this happen right in our backyard, many asked? But Ashland had its own story of unlawful imprisonment that reached the national news, as pit bulls and snakes were used to threaten a disabled woman and her child into virtual slavery. What is our world coming to?

These heinous stories of captivity left me with little pity for the young man who became “a man without a country” due to his leaks of the National Security Agency’s confidential information taken without permission (stolen) from the United States. His actions sparked an intense international debate about privacy and national security, but perhaps we could have gotten to that discussion through another door.

It was also a year with some unexpected white smoke arising from the Vatican. In February, Pope Benedict XVI announced abruptly that he would retire, forcing the Catholic Church to choose a new pope in a hurry. Pope Francis has been quite a media sensation, and his words have been tweeted around the world. He recently said, “I dream of a church that is a mother and shepherdess.” My pastor’s heart can relate to that.

Like so many other years, it has been a dismal season for the Cleveland Browns, and while the Cleveland Indians made it to the playoffs, their sudden-death, win-or-go-home game turned a remarkable September run into a disappointing finale. But it was the Ashland University women’s basketball team that makes my list of memorable happenings for 2013. After a second place finish in San Antonio in 2012, Sue Ramsey and her Lady Eagles made it happen this year, bringing the national championship trophy home to Ashland, Ohio as the winners in the Division II NCAA tournament. Geography has not been kind to me when it comes to victorious sports teams, so I especially cherished the AU win on the national stage.

And for the final item on my top seven list (drum roll, please), the lovely Madelyn Simone has mastered the fine art of potty training. How can this rank right up there with world peace or racial reconciliation? Like jazz, as Louis Armstrong said, if you have to ask, you’ll never know. We sang the potty song, did the potty dance, and offered bribes of M&M’s and pretty princess panties, all to no avail. One day, she made up her mind, and that was that. Woohoo!

Segue to conclusion: thanks, 2013, for the memories.