Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Being an Iowan

I am an Iowan, partially by birth and partially by attitude. I've taken sides in the famous debate over whether Iowa or Iowa State is better (Sorry UNI...you'll always be our cute younger sibling even when you beat both of us), I have visited every part of this state, and I consider pig poop a normal smell that people just need to put up with while driving.

Last week, I was on retreat. I spent a week in Missouri visiting the monks at Conception Abbey. It was an awesome week of prayer and reflection with some truly holy men. But, the crazy thing is that on Friday I felt the greatest joy at crossing the Iowa/Missouri border. It was just so good to be back home.

There's a part of me that hopes that's what heaven is like. I don't really need the perfect city with gems for roads and perfect symmetry in its construction, although if that's the way it is that's cool. I just hope I look around and feel truly at home. No more suffering. No more worrying that something was left undone. No more lying awake knowing that people will send nasty emails to you because you've got to take a stand on a controversial issue. It's like seeing the big sign saying "Iowa, Fields of Opportunities" and realizing that you belong there.

4 comments:

Kris Egan said...

I think it'll be like "Ahhhhh .... GOD'S COUNTRY!" And He'll say, "Yes, it 'tis! Welcome to My mansion! It's good to have you home with Me ... for eternity!" It'll be like two Jimmy Buffet songs coming together ... a perpetual "It's 5:00 Somewhere" and a "Cheeseburger in Paradise!" And, of course, a third Buffet song has to complement the cheeseburger ... "Margaritaville!" LOL!

Thanks for sharing your idea of Heaven because I think it'll definitely have a Dubuque county flair to it -- it'll be the "Field of Dreams!"

Kris

nabimba said...

What? The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah get into heaven after all?

Fr.Dennis said...

Not Iowa City! No, that place is evil!

Jeff Dole said...

Amen. Fr. D....
From Chesterton's Orthodoxy(the last chapter):
"Believing that there is a world of spirits, I shall walk in it as I do in the world of men, looking for the thing that I like and think good. Just as I should seek in a desert for clean water, or toil at the North Pole to make a comfortable fire, so I shall search the land of void and vision until I find something fresh like water, and comforting like fire; until I find some place in eternity, where I am literally at home. And there is only one such place to be found."

28 OT B : Give!

Friends Peace be with you.  Generally around this time of year, priests give a sacrificial giving homily. I haven’t done one since coming to...