Busy, busy; thanks, but no thanks; Copper Cup closed; and summer arrives

My backlog of posts I'd like to write is growing hourly. Of course I'll never get to half of them. As I told someone recently, I could write a post on the things I meant to write a post about. But a steady stream of deadlines has kept me hopping and otherwise committed. I'll try to get something halfway thoughtful posted later this week based on an event I attended last week, especially since it wasn't covered in the news.

Over the weekend I was daydreaming to my hubby how I'd love to take off the entire month of July. A month of playtime in the summer would be just enough to recharge the batteries. After that I'd be itching to get back to work. But with college looming in three years, such a break is unlikely.

Thanks, but no
Here's an open question: How is an anonymous $2 million gift to keep open one of the city's most vibrant parishes, which is spiritually and financially strong, deemed "inappropriate" by the Diocese? Disclosure #1: I attend St. Peter's Church from time to time and was at Sunday's Mass when the Parish Council made its report. I've been spiritually nourished by the parish's adult education series, including RCIA classes. Disclosure #2: The PD story quotes Robert Zack, who is a close family friend and used to be my boss years ago at Avenues magazine. Disclosure #3: I am a regular contributor to the Catholic Universe Bulletin, the diocesan newspaper. Disclosure #4: Bob Tayek, the diocesan spokesman, and I served on the local SPJ board together back in the early 1990s.

Copper Cup closed?
As a Bay Village resident, I am most loyal to Bob and Lisa Lowrie, proprietors of Java Bay. But I can't work there because there's a steady stream of people I know and there's no wireless. Just over the tracks on Dover Center Road in Westlake was the Copper Cup, which did offer free wireless in a fairly quiet beautiful setting. Unfortunately, it's closed right now and that's unfortunate for the legions of West Shore folks who worked there. But then again, one wonders how it can survive when a customer spends four hours and buys only a $2 cup of coffee. Hmmm...

Summer—and heat—arrive simultaneously
We just turned our furnace off a few weeks ago. I'm already sick and tired of having the house closed up with the A/C. I'd like to open the windows and smell the peonies in bloom.

We're headed back to the ortho today for a new, short, hopefully waterproof cast. This heat, humidity and a two-week-old cast = YUCK! Five days into summer vacation, we have yet to hit the pool. That has to be some kind of record.

Word of the day
vibrant: pulsating with life, vigor, or activity

Tuesday Tidbits: Why Joe Biden rocks, WAPO Wonder bread, power and sex in the church and another broken bone

Why Joe Biden rocks
I've been a fan of Sen. Joe Biden's for one simple reason: he is a no-nonsense guy unafraid to speak his mind. It's a shame his presidential run didn't get very far ironically in part because of his forthrightness. If you missed his op-ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal, I suggest you give it a look. There's also a video bit on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program below. Biden for veep? Secretary of State?

He does a nice job of talking about the current administration's squandered opportunities. There's this:

At the heart of this failure is an obsession with the "war on terrorism" that ignores larger forces shaping the world: the emergence of China, India, Russia and Europe; the spread of lethal weapons and dangerous diseases; uncertain supplies of energy, food and water; the persistence of poverty; ethnic animosities and state failures; a rapidly warming planet; the challenge to nation states from above and below.

Instead, Mr. Bush has turned a small number of radical groups that hate America into a 10-foot tall existential monster that dictates every move we make.

And this:

Terrorism is a means, not an end, and very different groups and countries are using it toward very different goals. Messrs. Bush and McCain lump together, as a single threat, extremist groups and states more at odds with each other than with us: Sunnis and Shiites, Persians and Arabs, Iraq and Iran, al Qaeda and Shiite militias. If they can't identify the enemy or describe the war we're fighting, it's difficult to see how we will win. (Bold is mine.)

Wonder Bread at WAPO op-ed
Last week was one of those weeks when I was working in triage mode getting through various deadlines so I missed getting some things posted that caught my eye. One was WAPO ombud Deborah Howell's look at the complexion of the paper's op-ed pages.

I love the Post, but I have to agree that its op-ed pages are so vanilla that I tend not to read them very often. The old tucks have been holding court so long (and vociferously) that I'm sure there's a "why bother" mentality of some would-be contributors.

But the answer to why bother is that this nation desperately needs to hear new voices. It's the only way to ensure our democracy, which frankly feels "less than" these days. And that's partly because we've been living under an administration that labels citizens as unpatriotic for having a difference of opinion. I saw a bumper sticker on a car in the Bay Village Library today that said, and I'm paraphrasing: Dissent is the truest form of patriotism. If you know anything of Bay Village, you know that it just warms my heart to know that there are few others like me in this town.

A variation of the same could be said of the Catholic church.

Power and sex in the Catholic church
On Thursday, June 5, Cleveland-based FutureChurch welcomes Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson who will speak on his book, "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus." Father Donald Cozzens, who used to be a frequent celebrant at my church and is now teaching at John Carroll University, wrote the forward. The public lecture will be held at 7 p.m. at 3430 Rocky River Drive.

This is one of only 10 stops on his U.S. tour. He's been banned from speaking on church property in some places and word is Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is not pleased with his appearance here in Cleveland, but (at least for now) is allowing it to take place.

Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese banned him because he believes his work is counter to doctrinal teaching. I wonder if Mahony has even read the book. Here's what he wrote to Robinson.

I have come to learn that you new book is being investigated by the Australian Bishops' Conference because of concerns about doctrinal errors and other statements in the book contrary to Church teaching.

I have also learned that His Eminence, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops, has urged you to cancel your visit to the United States.

Consequently, I am hereby requesting that your cancel you visit to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles now set for June 12, 2008. Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God's Word and the teachings of the Church in his own Diocese. Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

What are they so afraid of that they would seek to deny someone's opportunity to have a voice? More to the point: WWJD?

Another broken bone
My little Mikey broke his wrist on Friday while riding his bike home from a friend's house. A very kind mom drove him and his bike home and I wish I knew who she was so I could properly thank her. (I was at my neighbor's and she had left by the time my older boys found me.) Today he is sporting a royal blue cast that goes above his elbow and is already filled with signatures from his friends and teachers. He wouldn't let me sign it first because he didn't want me to spoil the clean look. So I signed after school in very large lettering on the under side of his arm, "LOVE, MOM (smiley face)."

Fortunately, we are only looking at a total of four weeks for this injury and at most, some lost baseball games, a week or two of three-on-three summer hoops and some pool time.

My baby must have been on my brain because I had one of those bizarre dreams in the early dawn today where I was getting everyone off to school—high school and middle school—when a 2-year-old version of Mikey came around the corner and said, "Hi, Mama." And a surprised me said, "Hi, Baby Boy." It was so real that I could see and smell his little toddler face, with his precious little cheeks, his chubby bare feet and his long, fluttery eyelashes.

It was the very best kind of sweetness. Unfortunately, at a beefy 9 years old, there's no way I could balance him on my hip these days.




Word of the day
Manichean: a believer in religious or philosophical dualism
Example: "You're either with us or against us." — President George W. Bush

Monday odds and ends

I'm trying to keep my Mondays and Fridays as "office" days so I can sift through the myriad items requiring constant follow up. I spent the weekend proofing pages for a book project so my tired eyeballs could really use a break.

In addition to following up with folks I haven't seen in a while (thanks to the SPJ DSA), I'm also going through my reviewer checklists for fall titles from publishers, getting my writer's group submission together and setting up interviews for upcoming story assignments. Once the mail arrives, I'm also hoping to update my May receivables.

Meanwhile, I found an interesting contradiction in today's Plain Dealer that I thought I'd toss out for your reading and commenting pleasure. Did you happen to see the full-page ad on the back of the A-section for St. Martin de Porres High School? The ad states that every one of the 50 seniors of this private school for those of modest means was accepted into at least one college or university. Cool, huh?

There's no story in the paper on this school, but there IS a cover Arts & Life story on idol nonsense. Are you kidding? It's not as if "American Idol" is some new phenomenon sweeping the nation. It's a tired TV show with sinking viewership. WHY give valuable editorial space to Idol when the achievements of students at an alternative inner-city school are reduced to having sponsors (Forest City) buy ads for them?

If Idol is deemed such a cool story by the editors, throw it up on the web, where the cool "Idol" fans are anyway. I highly doubt they are reading the print version of the paper.

A new kind of urban school, committed to transforming students and preparing them for college deserves better than an ad.

This Catholic college-prep school is not run by the Diocese of Cleveland, but is one of 19 schools across the country in the Cristo Rey Network. Check out the 60 Minutes video about Cristo Rey in Chicago and tell me if you could get through the last 30 seconds without tears. Students, some of whom lack supportive home environments, are in school four days a week for a longer period of time during the day and then work one day at local companies, such as Forest City and even The Plain Dealer!

It's founding supporters are: The Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus, The Sisters of the Humility of Mary, The Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I spoke with Kim Mantia, associate director of advancement for St. Martin de Porres, who tells me that she scheduled a college signing day with the top 11 students in the class of 2008 (the school's first graduating seniors) and no one from media showed. Now if this involved athletic scholarships, you can bet the city's sportswriters would be there.

A PD photographer who was covering the school during its first year in 2004 did come and he admitted it had been a while since he saw the students (as freshmen), when the paper was committed to observing and writing about its efforts. I certainly hope the PD plans to follow up because if you have any inkling of how difficult education reform is, you'll realize that success of this kind is truly inspirational and contagious.

Regardless of what they do, I plan to write about St. Martin de Porres because I happen to know a little something about education reform efforts. And the school's success is a BIG deal.

Word of the day
dichotomy: a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities

Clay Shirky on cognitive surplus

Check this out from Web 2.0 Expo. The video is about 16 minutes, but well worth the time.



The entire presentation in couched in the context of a conversation he had with a TV producer pre-screening him for an appearance. His point: media targeted at you but not including you may not be worth sitting still for. Just ask your nearest preschooler.

Word of the day
audacity: the quality or state of having intrepid boldness

UB story: Benedictine seniors helping to end violence against women

Here's my latest feature in Friday's Catholic Universe Bulletin:

Benedictine seniors helping to end violence against women of the world
Senior Honors Theology project transforms beyond a graded effort; it’s now become an educational, social justice and charitable mission for change.
By Wendy A. Hoke

Spring sunshine is seeping into the windows at Benedictine High School where Senior Nathan Szabados is leading a discussion on the senior project. “We’re going to be planting a garden at Transitional Housing on West 25th Street,” he tells his classmates.

“Wednesday we need to make a meal for 50 people for Ronald McDonald House Meals the Heal,” he says. “We’re going to St. Ann’s to talk at the Masses, but I need someone to go to St. Gregory’s to talk about the project,” he says.

Szabados double-checks his list and then the group of about 25 breaks into small groups to tackle their assigned tasks.

What started as a senior project, something required for a grade, has morphed into a mission—to stop the cycle of violence against women. “Men of Benedictine Helping Women of the World” is their third-quarter senior project for Senior Honors Theology class.

“We did research and found that 50 percent of the area’s homeless are women and children affected by domestic violence,” says Jason Petroff. “It takes men to stop the violence.”

That an all-boys school is taking on the issue of domestic violence against women came as something of a surprise to area women’s shelters, says Szabados.

But they are passionate in their cause.

“This is one of those issues that doesn’t come up in society,” says Peter Barrett. “But not only does it affect the person who is abused, it also has a trickle-down affect for family and friends.”

When asked if any of the boys know someone who has been the victim of domestic violence, several nod solemnly. Beyond families, however, they also acknowledge the importance of discussing the issue with teens who may find themselves in abusive relationships.

“We’ve shared a lot of information,” says Barrett. “Nathan and I went to Regina High School and gave our presentation to five different classes. We also sold tickets to our benefit concert,” he says.

The concert, held March 16 at The Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights, featured bands with Benedictine students and benefited the group’s project to the tune of $1,400.

“It was a forum to raise awareness,” says Barrett. Education is one part of the project.

Another is charity. Szabados contacted shelters to find ways to help, and so they are providing food and items needed to help the women.

“That’s the closest we can get to the root of the problem here,” says Barrett. But they are finding ways to use their time, too.

“Nathan has done a good job of identifying where we can go out and help to cook a meal or plant a garden,” says Petroff.

Of the money raised, 40 percent goes toward battered women’s shelters. The remaining 60 percent will be donated to a micro-financing Web site called Kiva www.kiva.org. “The site allows for loans to people in third-world countries that are paid back with low interest,” explains Riley Smith.

On a Mother’s Day Luncheon on May 4th, $1,500 of the $2,500 raised so far will be given to the moms, sisters, grandmothers and girlfriends of the boys to invest in the Kiva entrepreneur of their choosing right from the luncheon via three computers.

“We’re trying to get women who are important to us choose who they want the money to go to,” says Szabados.

There’s a symbolic purpose to this, say the boys. The money was donated to on a local level and will partially be used to support local battered women’s shelters. But it also is being channeled into supporting women of the world to become more financially self-sufficient.

“They can see their money making a difference and hopefully that will inspire them to keep going with this effort, not just in school but also beyond that,” says Stephan Dober.

Indeed, the boys would like to broaden the project to make sure it continues with younger grades and to reach out to parent and alumni groups.

“The project started as something we were doing for a grade,” says Petroff. “But after a while it stopped being about that and now we’re just doing it because we want to.”

“I realized there are different ways to help people,” says Szabados. “It’s not just about putting in time, but also spreading the word,” which he has done through the Catholic Schools for Peace and Justice, news media, masses and parent networks.

“I’m learning more about this issue as I’m forced to write about it to share in our presentations,” he says. “It’s not just a class now, it’s an organization.”

To donate to Benedictine High School Love Fund, call (216) 641-7053. You can drop of nonperishable foods, paper products or gift cards at Benedictine High School, 2900 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Or you can visit www.cbhs.net.

Word of the day
vellum: a fine-grained unsplit lambskin, kidskin, or calfskin prepared especially for writing on or for binding books

Tuesday's hodge podge

We don't teach to the test...
If that's true then why did my third-grader bring home six—count 'em, six!—practice Ohio Achievement Tests last week alone? We've had them coming home and notes about how best to prepare for six weeks now. Extra help sessions for an hour after school twice a week and the occasional phone call home. Ugh! I shudder to think about what they are NOT learning in order to prepare for this test.

Journalism students get better GPAs?
PD reports today that high school students who participate in some form of journalism—newspaper or yearbook—"earn higher grade-point averages, score better on college entrance exams and demonstrate better writing and grammar skills in college compared with students who were not involved with their school's newspaper or yearbook." This is from a study by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation.

I'm not sure how it is in high school, but in my experience college journalism majors tended to get lower grades because they were so consumed with writing for the newspaper at the expense of their class work.

Storyteller blogs
Some of my fellow storytellers in the rapidly ending KnowledgeWorks project are blogging. Check out Tiny Mantras, Prefers Her Fantasy Life and Goat Bomb. A quick word about each.

Tracy Zollinger Turner of Tiny Mantras has raised mommy blogging many notches with her blogging about her son, Declan. Nice to see such an intellectual blog about being a mom. She's a veteran blogger, having been online for many years. But this one is particularly great.

Peggie Cypher, and her red-headed alter-ego Meg, is outrageous, provocative, funny, thoughtful and somewhat obsessive about certain topics (namely Wilco, John Cusack, hoppy beer and Colin Farrell) on Prefers Her Fantasy Life. But she's always surprising and entertaining. Behind the wit and occasional rant is another mother of three just trying to keep all aspects of her life humming in tune.

Please, please encourage Phil Neal of Goat Bomb to keep blogging. He has recently taken a full-time job, which will hinder his time. But he's also one of the most creative writers and thinkers. When we experimented by building out scenes in someone else's story at a workshop, he ran away with the grand prize for creativity. Egg him on because I think he'll be a unique blogging voice once he's done enough to get hooked. C'mon, Phil! We want some more.

Journos aren't having any fun
Well, at least the ones who don't embrace change as a good thing. Reminds me of teachers. Both professions are being thrust into a role of ongoing change and neither seems to attract people especially equipped to handle it.

The cure, I believe, is to get out of the malaise of group think that permeates newsrooms. Step aside, take a deep breath and inhale the possibilities. Amy Gahran takes a look at this fun-less phenomenon in Poynter this week.

In particular, engaging directly with your community can be fun and rewarding. Learning to monitor and improve the spread and impact of your work can be fun. And the process of learning anything new at all also can be a lot of fun. In fact, that basic craving for continual learning is what drew many of us to journalism in the first place. Remember that?

What's new at Creative Ink?
You may have noticed the addition of a photo on the Creative Ink banner. Or not. In case you're wondering, that's the early morning surf on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It's one of my favorite places to relax and unwind. I first wrote about it here. I find tremendous inspiration at the beach and that's another reason I've added the photo, to illustrate a source of creative inspiration for me. Plus, I think the photo makes the page look more interesting. What do you think? Do you have a favorite place?

Busy, busy, busy week
I'm working on another assignment for the Christian Science Monitor, revising my 10,000-word narrative on education reform at Cleveland Heights High School, working on a grant application, preparing for my monthly writers group, and reporting on a market for a writing newsletter.

Word of the day
highfalutin: expressed in or marked by the use of high-flown bombastic language (I like the word bombastic. Very onomatopoeic.)

A gift from friends

Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" was partly a magnificent gift from friends who in 1956 gave her a year's salary as a Christmas present so that she could devote all her time to writing. After writing, rewriting and nearly losing the pages to the New York winter, Lee's novel was finally published in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961.

Writers send their darlings out into the world with every hope and prayer that they won't be squashed on arrival. It is a most anxious time when the work leaves the writers hands and when it appears in its final form. Lee, who turns 82 today, had nothing to worry about. It was well received and included this from a Washington Post reviewer: "A hundred pounds of sermons on tolerance, or an equal measure of invective deploring the lack of it, will weigh far less in the scale of enlightenment than a mere 18 ounces of new fiction bearing the title To Kill a Mockingbird."

Her book is now required reading in high schools around the country.

"I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected."

Word of the day
denizen: one that frequents a place

New Catalyst Ohio on college access online

Preparing an entire issue of a magazine to address issues of access to college in the state of Ohio is a mighty big challenge. It becomes even more complicated when the governor announces a major new initiative during his state of the state address that adds a new program to the discussion mid-way through the editorial production cycle.

That's what we faced with the April/May issue of Catalyst Ohio magazine, now available online. I've been serving as consulting editor there while Editor Charlise Lyles is engaged as a Kiplinger Fellow at The Ohio State University.

You're not an editor if you're not flexible. So we regrouped and and got another story assigned to look at Seniors to Sophomores (when not many in the state really had any notion as to what this program would look like, how it would be funded and how far-reaching it would be). I hope you'll take the time to read the work of some pretty dedicated professionals.

Word of the day
idiom: the language peculiar to a people or to a district, community, or class

UB features and the end of an era

In addition to the Monitor story from yesterday, this has been a big writing month for me. I'm heading to Columbus tomorrow for the final KnowledgeWorks writing workshop, which will be a longer narrative on the past four years of education reform at Cleveland Heights High School. More on that later this week. For the third consecutive year, I've written mini-profiles of Judson's Smart Living award-winners. I'll link to those once they are posted online.

Friday's Catholic Universe Bulletin contains two of my stories, both are online. One is a profile of Tim Warneka, who has written a book about Catholic servant leadership. The other is a feature on Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Euclid, which this year commemorates the 150th anniversary of the last apparition of Mary before Bernadette in Lourdes, France.

Though I'm sure it won't be marked in the annals of Cleveland journalism history, this issue also marked the last for editor Dennis Sadowski. Last week, as Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Washington, D.C., so too did Dennis. He's taken a position as a reporter/editor there with Catholic News Service.

I've known Dennis since the early 1990s. For the past three years, I've written regularly for him and I've gotten to know and respect his journalistic sensibilities. He trusted me to explore a new dimension to my writing when I approached him with a very vague idea I had about writing about Thomas Merton. He gave me permission to let my ideas wander and the freedom of time needed to make a story great. The Merton story went on to win first place in religion coverage in the 2006 Ohio SPJ Awards and I went on to become a regular contributor to the UB. Good writers appreciate good editors. It is a match made in heaven and is built on trust and knowledge of each other's strengths and weaknesses. Dennis knew how to match story assignments to the writer. His e-mails usually began something like, "I've got a great story for you." And he was nearly always correct.

Few people stay in the same job for the duration of their career these days, but Dennis was at the UB for 10 years, almost a mini-lifetime. So I thought I'd share a bit from his farewell column.

"After living my entire life within an hour or two of Lorain, God is challenging me to move from my comfort zone—yes, even working at the UB had gotten to be rather comfortable—to experience new horizons in a world full of hurt and hope. My hope and prayer is that I will continue to follow God's plan with grace and kindness and with as little anxiety as possible.

"Thanks, Cleveland, for putting your faith and trust in me to tell your stories."

Here are the latest stories.

Warneka builds on the principles of service
By Wendy A. Hoke

Tim Warneka has the peaceful expression of a Buddhist monk, approaching his Catholic faith in a Zen-like manner by giving his full attention to others. It’s a skill he’s been perfecting all of his adult life.

He combines all of his influences spanning nearly 20 years as a psychologist and black belt in Aikido to pioneer the concept of Catholic Servant Leadership, which takes the principles of servant leadership (service to others, collaboration, trust, empathy) and applies the Catholic faith as an overlay.

His book, “Black Belt Leader, Peaceful Leader: An Introduction to Catholic Servant Leadership,” provides a guide for discussion on how to use Aikido, emotional intelligence, servant leadership and tenants of Catholic faith to become a better leader.

“God was grooming me for a number of years,” says Warneka, a resident of Wickliffe and member of St. Noel Parish, Willoughby Hills. He spent his early years in Lakewood, attending St. Clement Parish and School where his parents were very active.

“I remember being in the church basement so often and realizing that there’s meaning here, that this place changes people’s lives and not just on Sunday,” he says.

Catholicism was like breathing, it was just there and his parents modeled faith and leadership in action. They led retreats, were active in the pro-life movement and hosted a Vietnamese family to live in their basement for six months.

But when he was in fifth grade, his family moved from the tight-knit Irish-Catholic community to Perry, where he first encountered peers with divorced parents, a Protestant community and public schools.

“It was rocky. I had my first experience of being marginalized because I entered a community in which friendships were made by first grade. I was on the outside,” he says.

He learned to appreciate different perspectives as a result.

But it was as a student at the University of Dayton that he found his calling. He met the Marianists and describes that as “life-changing.”

“They started handing me books to read and it was all over. I knew this was what I wanted to do,” he says.

He considered the Marianist novitiate for a while and even contemplated entering the Trappists, but one summer break he met his wife, Beth, who was working in a Catholic bookstore. He switched his major to psychology and never looked back.

Heavily influenced by the writing of Carl Jung, Thomas Merton, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Thich Nhat Hanh, Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, Warneka says he developed a deep respect for the individual subjective experience.

“To see the Marianists live that out was inspiring. They always had time for people. I came from a large high school and a family with eight people in the house. No one had time for anyone. But at UD, even the president of the university knew me by name. There, my reading and life experience came together,” he says.

After graduate school he became a psychologist, but today calls himself a life coach. “It’s therapy for people who don’t want to call it therapy,” he explains.

While he was in grad school at Loyola of Chicago, Warneka stumbled upon the other great influence in his life. He had been reading about Aikido, which is a nonviolent martial art that seeks to protect the person who attacks you. He walked into a center on All Saint’s Day in 1989 and found an international seminar taking place with one of the master’s from Japan.

“It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. The teacher moved like water through the students and around them. His movements were so refined and androgynous,” he says.
So what pulls his Catholic faith and his martial arts and his psychology together?

“Embodiment. Our culture is very anti-body. Being embodied is front and central to what it means to be Catholic. It’s in our basic prayers. People have the answers inside them. They just need to get clear and quiet long enough to hear what’s inside of them,” he believes.

Warneka hopes that his book and his Catholic Servant Leadership philosophy will take root and build awareness that we all have potential to be a leader if only we allow ourselves to be aware of our bodies and our emotions.

For more information on Catholic Servant Leadership, visit www.catholicservantleader.com

Hoke is a freelance writer.

A hundred little blessings
Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine celebrates 150 years of grace, devotion
By Wendy A. Hoke

EUCLID-When Vincent Mancuso was 10 years old he was visiting Little Italy for the Feast of the Assumption when someone accidentally shoved him. He fell and the pair of scissors in his hand pierced his right eye, leaving him blind.

The next month, his parents took him to Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Euclid for the annual closing of the grotto Mass. “My mother told me, ‘Wash your eye with the water.’ And so I did. When we got home I said, ‘Ma, Pa, I can see.’ They didn’t believe me. But when they took me to the doctor they learned that I could see,” says Mancuso, who turned 90 this month.

Over the next 80 years, that right eye has suffered from a detached retina and cataracts, but he still has vision. “Our Lady has always pulled me through,” he says.

Sister Rochelle Guertal, of the Sisters of the Most Holy Trinity, director of the shrine, says they don’t proclaim any miracles of healing at the shrine, but rather count a number of blessings or graces, much like Mancuso’s. Indeed, an enclosed case on the grounds holds a crutches, braces and glasses no longer needed by those who were “healed.”

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France, where the Blessed Mother appeared in a series of apparitions in 1858 to a young girl named Bernadette. Euclid is home to the national shrine and is joining in the celebration.

Situated on top of a hill overlooking Euclid Avenue, the shrine stands today as an oasis of peace and devotion. When in full bloom, stately trees buffer the sound of the traffic below.

After the Civil War, the property was a vineyard, home to “Euclid grapes,” known for their distinctive flavor seasoned by Lake Erie breezes. Julia Harms, who owned the land with her husband, was a devout Catholic who always had a vision of the Blessed Mother on the property. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd would regularly pick grapes at the vineyard, so in 1920 when the Harms children decided to sell the land, the Good Shepherd Sisters took over.

Two years later, while on a trip to the motherhouse in France, the sisters were inspired to build a grotto similar to Lourdes on their site. And they were given a unique treasure from a Dominican priest--a piece of the stone being hewn into a statute of the Blessed Mother on the site where she appeared before Bernadette in Lourdes.

Today, that noted piece of stone is embedded into the rock of the grotto where the water flows over it and into a pool. The treasure makes Cleveland’s shrine unique among others throughout the country, including the grotto at the University of Notre Dame.

Over the years the Sisters of the Good Shepherd diminished in size and by 1952, the Trinitarian Sisters were looking for more property. They found the shrine, were given permission by Archbishop Edward F. Hoban, then bishop of Cleveland, to transfer their novitiate and continue the work of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Under their supervision the shrine has expanded to accommodate visitors from more than 44 countries and a number of regular devotees.

“Some people are hoping for miracles when they come,” says Sister Guertal. “I explain that sometimes the miracle is acceptance and that can be a bigger miracle than healing.”

More than anything, the shrine gives people an opportunity to silence to noise of modern life and to listen to God. “People come to be open to the Lord through the Blessed Mother. When they do, things happen,” Sister Guertal says.

Mass is held outside in front of the grotto at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday from May through October (weather permitting). Novenas, rosary processions and Stations of the Cross also are prayed regularly. The shrine remains open throughout the year.

Hoke is a freelance writer.

Word of the day
contemplative: a person who practices concentration on spiritual things as a form of private devotion

Getting a taste of the writer's challenge

Last night I printed off a draft of a story I'm working on for my husband to read. It was 2,000 words and needed to be shaved down to about 1,200. He balked at first. "I'm not a journalist, what would I know about what needs to be cut?"

"Just give it a read and see where there are places that don't move the story forward," I told him, with pleading eyes.

I've never asked this of him before, but this story is for a new (to me) national market and I really needed someone to give me another perspective. I know he's very interested in the subject, so I felt he was the perfect first reader. Well, there's that and the fact that I've threatened on occasion to leave him out of my book acknowledgments (when I eventually write a book) because he never reads what I write.

He was a captive audience and I took advantage. I'll hand you your dinner when you read my draft.

Immediately he started in and noticed a missing word or two. I handed him a red pen and the power that comes whence. He kept shaking his head and I'll admit I was worried. When he finished he said, "I don't know how you're going to cut this. Everything flows and it all seems to be so important to the story."

Welcome to my world, to the journalist's world. Where half is the most we are permitted sometimes.

He was good at identifying main themes in the story and really good and picking up those missed words (a, is, in, etc.), the ones we tend to lose when our fingers and brains move too quickly.

I was glad to have his comments. But I still needed to make cuts. So I slept on the story and ripped into it again today. It was tough, but there's a point in rewriting when you're less sympathetic to your own writing, but only a tiny bit and only because you eventually want to be finished with the story.

When he called I was just finishing the final touches. I read it to him over the phone. "What did you cut? It sounds like you didn't lose anything?"

That, my dear, is the point.

Word of the day
riposte: a retaliatory verbal sally

Sleuthing through an ancient text

In some small way I suppose I fancy myself a bit of a detective, only I use my sleuthing in uncovering what's not been written about others. This story in today's Christian Science Monitor about the restoration of the Archimedes Codex is exactly the kind of work I'd like to do were I not a writer.

The Archimedes texts were copied in the 10th century by an unknown scribe in Constantinople, then a major center of the Christian world eventually to become a center of the Islamic world. Three centuries later, another scribe washed, scraped, and otherwise tried to remove the text from the book's parchment. This person undid the book, rebound it in the opposite direction, then, on the imperfectly cleared pages, wrote his Christian prayers in Greek over the original text, which was also in Greek, and still discernible in a faint rust-colored thread running beneath. This procedure was common in medieval times: Parchment was scarce. Thus, the Archimedes Codex became a palimpsest, a twice-used book.

The findings gleaned from it have raised Archimedes's status as a thinker higher than anyone might have expected. Noel describes him as "the most important scientist who ever lived."

Most significant among the discoveries was the knowledge that "Archimedes was the first to calculate with actual infinity in the mathematics of the West." That is to say, he was operating at an intellectual level that didn't become common in the mathematical world until the 17th century, nearly 2,000 years after his time. The Archimedean texts, Noel writes, make the mathematics of Leonardo da Vinci "look like child's play."

Will Noel, one of the curators at the Walters Museum in Baltimore who worked on the restoration, admitted he originally harbored a "simmering animosity" toward the person who defaced Archimedes original work. But as he later came to realize, this person protected the valuable information contained so that it would remain, albeit buried, some 2,000 years later.

Word of the day
equivocal: of uncertain nature or classification

Swamped and loving it

When work is in the toilet and you're an independent, it's standard practice to start throwing stuff out to see what sticks. After about six months of not trying very hard to get new projects, I found myself in dire need of a kick in the ass.

I got one in the form of my taxable income for 2007. Tax time can be an eye-opener. Over the past six weeks, however, I've launched an all-out marketing assault. For the next few weeks, I may have limited posts here because so much has come in over the transom. Some of it I sought, others sought me.

I'm amazed at how certain organizational tools—marketing sheet, budget, revenue projections, invoice tracking—led to a stronger sense of purpose in the kinds of work I want to pursue. All pistons are firing (but I better not say that too loudly or I might jinx myself).

The next two months are going to require more time than usual to get it all done, but it's such delicious stuff. Here's a little taste of what I'm working on:

Five stories for the Universe Bulletin:
• Our Lady of Lourdes 150th anniversary
• Profile of pioneer in Catholic Servant Leadership
• Feature on high school student senior project
• Vatican Splendors exhibition at WRHS
• St. John's Bible at John Carroll University

Mini-profiles for the 2008 Judson Smart Living award-winners

Final editing for April/May Catalyst Ohio magazine

Copy editing for Kovel Antiques & Collectibles Price List 2009, published by Black Dog & Leventhal

Final KnowledgeWorks narrative (about 12,000 words)

Feature for new national Sunday newspaper insert

Feature for Christian Science Monitor

Market report for ASJA newsletter

Ideas beget more ideas and my pitching cup runneth over so I'm sure this list will continue to grow. Enough mini-celebrating; it's back to work. I'll be posting and linking to finished work here in the next few weeks. Don't mind if I give myself a little, "Woo Hoo!"

Word of the day
prolific: marked by abundant inventiveness or productivity

Celebrating Lady Day

"Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain." — Billie Holiday

Today is the birthday of Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan, in Philadelphia in 1915. She is, quite simply, one of my all-time favorite vocalists. I love that she never sang the same way twice. Her singing reflected her mood. She led a tragic life, which led to an untimely death at the age of 44, but her influence lives on. She is a legend.

Here's Billie singing my favorite song. It's not so much the lyrics of this song as it is the emotion with which she delivers this performance. The longing is palpable and it's hard to listen without feeling it in the deepest recesses of your soul—the place where your heart is most vulnerable.



Billie's music is nighttime music. So tonight, turn out the lights, grab a glass of your favorite beverage, and put Billie on the stereo. And then offer up a toast to legends living and deceased.

Word of the day
luminous: emitting or reflecting usually steady, suffused, or glowing light

Robert Frost on poetry

"A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching out toward expression, an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the word." — Robert Frost (born March 26, 1874)

Word of the day
doppelganger: a ghostly counterpart of a living person: 2) an alter ego