TAKING A SECOND LOOK, ON SEPTEMBER 3

WRIGLEY AND CEMETERIES

What does Wrigley Field and a cemetery have in common...?

That's not a trick question. They really do share a great many similarities. Large...green....a gathering place where people's emotions flow freely and openly. A cynic might even add that both the Cubs and cemeteries deal in death. When you think about it, there's more than cynicism at work in that thought. Rather, it's the irrefutable fact that in both these venues we come to terms with finality's. At Wrigley -- dreams; at cemeteries -- lives.

The final scores at Wrigley are of course only final for that day. The finality's at cemeteries are forever. And yet, it's inspiring to see what happens in most cemeteries. Here we see people dressed at their best, conducting themselves at their most respectful, and at last free to say what's been in their hearts all these polite restrained years. Feelings of love and respect that would, of course, have been better shared with the deceased than saved for the survivors.

But then that's the way of the world. As cultured adults, we are advised not to wear our hearts on our sleeves. Not to embarrass loved ones with our public love. Not to give way to the sentimental and gushy (that's left to Hallmark so as not to force us into finding the words ourselves).

Funny how at Wrigley we find it easy to yell out our emotions from the stands, but in life we contain them within the bounds of propriety. How many times the deceased would have loved to hear us drop the facade of civility for the authentic emotions of love, fidelity, even anger.

But that's OK -- where they are now, they understand. In the meantime, back at Wrigley, we drop the facade with the very first hot dog. It's called being a fan. Just as we were of the deceased, only never got around until now to say it....

HOW SURE ARE YOU ABOUT ANYTHING ANYMORE....?

The NAR reports that new home sizes are down for the first time since 2000. The average size of new home constructions is 2400 square feet as compared to 2700 only 10 years ago....!

Now if you enjoy interpreting statistics, you can jump in here at any time and from any angle. That's the fun of statistics -- they usually can mean exactly whatever you want them to mean. For instance, the Catholic Church in Chicago has been studying their statistics that only one in five Catholics attend Mass on Sundays. Mass to the Church is the quintessential part of the faith, where Holy Communion allows the creature to become -- body and soul -- one with the Creator.

How oh how to interpret these various figures....? OK, lets think about this. To play this game you may not need a statistician's degree as much as a free-wheeling imagination.

For instance take home sizes. The shrinkage here can be interpreted anywhere from the shrinking economy of the times to the shrinking ego of the owners. As for Catholics, lapsing attendance can be seen as anything from no longer believing what the Church teaches to no longer believing anything.

This writer has at times struggled with the authenticity of modern science and such off-shoots as statistical methodologies. That is not to say either of these is without merit, for they are essential to the decision-making in our modern world. The thing to remember, though, is that faith in anything needs to be tempered by doubt about everything!

Now maybe that's really why homes and Mass attendance have been shrinking. On the other hand -- well, you see, now there's the problem. In our modern disciplines, there may simply be too many "hands" to always consider. Unlike the days when we were much more sure about being sure.

But then again I'm not so sure anymore about being so sure...