Me And The Pope

Around here everyone’s making a big deal out of the fact that the new pope comes from Chicago. Or Dolton–a suburb just south of Chicago. So, close enough...

But I have my own personal big deal to make out of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost's elevation to Pope Leo XIV. For the first time in my life, I’m as old as the pope. Well, sorta. We were not born on the same day or even month–he’s September, I’m November. But the same year. Which–like Dolton to Chicago–is close enough.

How in the world did that happen? In my mind, popes are old, bent-over men, who shuffle when they walk or ride around in a golf cart, when they can’t walk at all. Not young and vigorous like me--ha, ha, ha.

Being as old or older than people you never imagined you’d be as old or older than is one of those milestones that show the inexorable march of time. Like being older than…

Your favorite player on the Bulls. Or your doctor. Or the new principal at your old school. Or Supreme Court justices. Or presidential candidates. Or presidents themselves. And so on…

As each barrier falls, it means you’ve advanced to a new phase of life, and sooner or later you’ll have to acknowledge that, like it or not, more of your time is behind you. Sigh...

Was the new pope on the wrong side of Disco Demolition?

The pope's a `55 baby. Right up there with Adrian Dantley, Moses Malone, Michiko Kakutani, Frankie Knuckles, Barbara Kingsolver, Joshua Michael Levin, Olga Korbet, Maria Shriver, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Whoppi Goldberg. And me! Just to name a few…

We share a timeline. Saw and experienced the same events–good and bad–from the same generational perspectives. In the case of me and the pope, we watched things unfold from our homes on opposite sides just outside of Chicago–me in Evanston, he in Dolton.

So as I read about the new pope, I have to wonder…

Did Bobby Prevost ride a sled to the grocery store over snow-clogged streets in the blizzard of 67? Did he sneak downtown to the old Woods Theater to watch Pam Grier in Foxy Brown? What did he make of Mayor Daley's shoot-to-kill order and the execution of Fred Hampton?  They say he’s a Sox fan. Was he in the stands that glorious day in `72 when Dick Allen came off the bench to hit the game-winning homer off of Sparky Lyle? Was he one of those knuckleheads storming Comiskey Park for Disco Demolition? I’d like to think the new pope was a Bee Gees fan–like me. But as a baby born in that increasingly ancient year of 1955, he could have gone either way.

In any event, Pope Leo XIV, I hope you live a long and healthy life--well into future decades. So I can say my streak continues and no matter how old I am, I’m still younger than the pope.