Narrow the Road with Fr. John Girotti
By Fr. John Girotti | For On Mission
Across the street from my grade school was a rather unique store that sold lampshades. I remember playing kickball at recess and seeing ancient people coming and going from the store. At the time, I thought, “What are all these old people doing buying lampshades? Why would somebody want to buy something so useless and boring as that?” It being the early 1980s, I was far more interested in Star Wars figurines.
But time passes. Recently, during a visit with my octogenarian father, I observed that the shade of his living room lamp had thoroughly disintegrated. I mentioned this to him, and he told me that he hadn’t really noticed. Since I remembered how much my mother loved the lamp my parents had bought over 50 years ago at Marshall Field’s, I suggested to my dad that perhaps we find a way to get the shade repaired. But where to go? Ah ha! The lampshade store, of course.
By some singular miracle, the store still exists, is still in the same location and is still selling lampshades. My father and I took the decrepit shade and drove to the store. When we arrived, I was surprised to see a long line of people with lampshades to be repaired. “Where do all these people come from?” I wondered. My father and I were the only men to be found in the store, and the women in line looked at us as if somehow we had not recently bathed. I was dressed in clerical attire, and perhaps the consensus was that priests really do not need lampshades. Attempting to break the ice, my father began talking with the others waiting in line, and we discovered that this was the only lampshade store left in the state — a place people traveled to from great distances. Our time eventually came, and a very elegant woman, whom I assumed was the owner of the establishment, ably took care of our shade and assisted us with purchasing a new one. It was a unique and wonderful experience.
The Scriptures tell us that our years are numbered as 70, or 80, for those of us who are strong. One of the blessings that comes with living life is discovering the reasons why things are the way they are. The mysterious behavior of adults when we are children begins to make greater sense when we grow up and join their ranks. And perhaps the very things we vowed as an idyllic young person that we would never do, we find ourselves doing as adults. One of the great tragedies of life is that we are often quite quick to judge older people and the apparent oddity of their behavior, not realizing that someday we will do the very same thing. Respect for our elders is wrapped up in the Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother. If only we realized how quickly time is passing for us! Perhaps we would be more understanding of the older generation.
Winter is now passing, and spring will come again. Soon, everything that is dead and gray will grow green. One of the blessings of our Catholic faith is the richness of the liturgical year and its similarity to the seasonal cycle of our lives. As nature changes, we spiritually are aware of similar changes within us. During this change of season, I urge all of us to ponder the passing of time. Perhaps we need to ask for forgiveness from God or to forgive our neighbor. Maybe we need to finally get help for that addiction in our lives or start talking to God in prayer again. Now is the time to say and do the things that we have been putting off for far too long. Time is quickly passing.
As my father and I left the store and walked to the car, I happened to glance across the street at children playing kickball on the playground. Three of them were at the fence, looking across the street at us, carrying our new lampshade. I wonder what they were thinking. But on that sunny winter morning, it dawned on me that I was now buying lampshades. My time had come.
Fr. John Girotti is vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Green Bay.