One Friend to Another: Seeing Goodness

It started with a snowstorm.

During a blizzard – the kind of storm that has recently been happening oh-too-frequently for those of us living in the Boston area – a mother of six wanted to do something fun for her kids, “and wouldn’t you know it, Ice Cream for Breakfast seemed liked the best idea.”

Jason Downer’s post about my new favorite holiday not only connects with what other guys at the The Jesuit Post have been writing in the past month but also gives me food for thought ¹ for how to respond to stuff that, well, blows — literally, as I look outside my window.

The Boston Globe had a graphic last week comparing the recent snowfall to the height of Boston sports stars. The snow completely covers Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia and is ominously preparing to cover the head of Rob Gronkowski. Sure enough, after our most recent storm, it now has even covered seven-foot Celtics center Kelly Olynyk.

I can’t control the snowfall or the gray days or the commuting headaches. But I can choose how I respond. I can try to see the bigger picture. I can be like that mom who, faced with a recipe for disaster, looked around, opened the freezer, and created a delicious tradition.²

***

Seeing beyond initial disappointment or imperfection has been a common theme on TJP this month.

Cyril Pinchak isn’t Brad Pitt or a saint, but he is Cyril Pinchak. While it is normal to compare the beauty of others with our “limitations we know all too well,” he writes that “the effect of finding beauty at the limits doesn’t have to end in limitation.”

Eric Immel isn’t going to win any spelling bees, and he never earned the penmanship award. He’s also made some mistakes that are bigger than just adding an extra E in judgment. But, with the proper vision, one can see that while mistakes are part of us, “there is always more.”

Moralizing Super Bowl commercials were understandably met with skepticism, and while acknowledging that companies aren’t purely altruistic when they’re paying $9 million/minute, Joe Simmons welcomes “the calls to strive for our best collective self” and notes how “spreading the Good News involves searching for allies, even in the most unlikely places.”

Striving for excellence generally isn’t a bad thing, except when it obscures that which is real. “Authenticity may always be imperfect and incomplete, but it will always at least be,” notes Keith Maczkiewicz. There just may be goodness in what initially seems less-than-perfect.

Even in the middle of tremendous personal loss, Damian Torres-Botello sees God “in the face of every person who has held my hand since.”

***

Today, we celebrate a day that is a little more widely practiced than Ice Cream for Breakfast: Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.

Some years, I give up something for Lent;³ other times, I try to do something positive. This year, however, my main hope is to see — really see.

Others on TJP have described how so frequently there is much good beyond the surface if I give it the time and remove my skeptical glasses.

And sure, it’s still snowy and cold outside, though it’s also cold in my freezer; delicious goodness awaits.