I have a Pope crush

I know who he is and what he stands for. I know that he is opposed to issues that are integral to who I am. And yet, in the afterglow of the weekend... I like this guy. 

It was a pretty cool weekend. For weeks leading up to this visit, Philadelphia has been freaking out over the major security measures which were badly communicated from the beginning. It has been a PR disaster from the start.  They took a five mile square and closed it to traffic, seriously disrupted public transportation, and closed a main bridge into the city from NJ. They basically made it difficult as hell to get into the city and to the celebrations. Then, after scaring everyone out who could get out, they were surprised when the numbers were less than expected.

Luckily my field placement is outside the "box" so I had a sweet commute Friday and today. At the hospital where I work part time, I signed up to work at the ER on Saturday and Sunday.  They had literally hundreds of folks spending the entire weekend because of the transportation issues.  Saturday was so dead that they told me I didn't have to work on Sunday. My bike and I stayed at my mom's in center city to make it easier to get around  Bike riding on car-less streets was the best part of the weekend. I understand it was dubbed "urban utopia." With literally no cars on the roads, you could right right down the middle of the street. Going to work at 6:30 am on Saturday was like riding through a ghost town.  Eerie. The only other folks out were going to work and a few "pilgrims" in town for the big World Meeting of Families. Coming home was a different story.  With tons of pedestrians everywhere I had to adjust my routes so as not to collide with pedestrians filled with the spirit of their adventure but not always watching for a novice biker.  In many ways it reminded me of the thousands who would walk from RFK stadium in DC to the mall when we would hold those massive rights marches.  Of course, those were for abortion or LGBT rights and these folks would not like the analogy.

Now, for the Pope. I know all the things he's against, but if you can put that aside for a minute. Yes, a big put aside, he's kind of a cool dude.  Very humble and down to earth.  Took a pass on lunch with the big wigs in DC to have lunch with a bunch of homeless folks from Catholic Charities.  He visited some school kids in Harlem in NY and a prison while in Philly. He talked about emergency housing and how critical it was to anything else in life and spoke about immigration and our responsibilities to the people who need our help now. At the prison he talked about how being confined was not the same as being excluded or forgotten. He talked about rehabilitation. He has a great smile which seems to light up most when meeting the average people rather than donors or big honchos. I admit it, I was charmed by the guy.  At the end of every speech, he asked people to pray for him. In the prison, he said, I could have just as easily ended up here as where I did.

I'm hardly a religious person, but his message of peace seemed genuine.  The message of remembering those among us that it is too easy to forget... or maybe too hard to remember. Who knows. But on those issues, I appreciated his message.  Maybe those who agree with him on abortion and gays will really listen to his message of peace on other areas.  Maybe there is some common ground possible in this harshly divided world we live in. 

I walked over to the Parkway where there was a big concert on Sat night. I just wanted to see what was happening since it was happening so close to my mom's. I'm too short and was too far back to really see anything but on my tippy, tippy toes with my camera as high as my short little arm would go -- I got a video of the top of his pope mobile.  And somehow that was exciting.  Yup, I was officially sucked in to the Pope-a-palooza!

Here's a link to my almost sighting if you want to see:

https://www.facebook.com/hannah.olanoff/videos/10153648211248970/

So while the city was a ghost town and restaurants and businesses say their weekends were a financial disaster, and lots of people lost time and money over the hugely restrictive city closures, I have to admit I enjoyed the excitement of Pope Francis in the US and especially in Philly. I enjoyed the way the city felt as we endured/survived/celebrated together. For a city that can often seem rude not only to outsiders but to locals as well, it was gave me a whole new perspective on home. Seeing the top of the Pope's car is hardly a once in a lifetime experience, but it was cool. 

I know this won't last, and honestly I don't want it to. I want to understand his positions and explain to folks that while he is cool, there is still work today.  But for now, for today. The afterglow shines on.