Reflective Moments with Angela
By Sister Michele Morek
One of my favorite comic strips is “Pearls Before Swine” by Stephan Pastis. I have one taped to my bathroom mirror that has been there for several years and is starting to get yellow with age.
It shows Pig jumping off a cliff. There is a sign on the cliff saying, “Catch Fairy here.” Sure enough, he is caught in midair by a Fairy named Mary, with wings and a magic wand. When she asks what he needs, he asks her to “Fix the whole world – the virus, the racism, the planet, the hungry.”
She says, “Okay, just one problem: I don’t exist.” She disappears, and Pig falls to the ground with a thump.
Then Fairy pops back into the picture to say, “But YOU do!”
Pig looks thoughtful, and you can see the light dawning on him.
The next frame shows a box of food left outside a food bank, and Pig running off, clad with wings and holding a magic wand.
Ever since I wrote the Angela Reflection (June 3, 2024) about Saint Angela admonishing us to “do what needs to be done,” everything reminds me of her words. This comic seems especially evocative!
But I was thinking that maybe Pig did not need the wings or the magic wand to leave the box of food.
Maybe we don’t have wings or a magic wand, but we can do a lot with what we have. Maybe even an 80-year-old Sister could still use a pen and paper (or computer) and a ballot box. I know in the month of November that is going to be part of my strategy for “doing what needs to be done!”
Have you researched all the candidates – both up- and down-ballot – and made your plans to vote?
What else can you do even without wings and a magic wand?
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