Pope in My Back Yard: Sightings

Philadelphia at its best

With our street facing the Pope's sleeping quarters and totally blocked off, we did an end run and came up a side street this morning just before he arrived. I got to see his arm waving out his Fiat. But later in the day, came the fun. Riding through empty streets on our bikes to go into Philadelphia, past smiling, friendly uniformed police, National Guard, Border Patrol, Secret Service.
Friends with a high view had invited us and while you could see the Pope better on TV and hear his impassioned ex temp speech on love better there, too, we had spectacular views of Philadelphia.

Looking towards the Philadelphia Art Museum

The Pope in My Back Yard: Countdown Two Days Out

There was a buzz this morning. Helicopters practicing their landings at St. Charles Seminary., When I went out to look, I found my own personal port-a-potty, right on my corner. But first (since some have complained about my touting too many toilets),  a view of the Chapel where Pope Francis will receive the Bishops on Sunday. It was serene, the lull before the storm. The only people out were a few neighbors along E. Wynnewood Rd.

Chapel Building

And here's the building across the street from me, where the Pope isn't sleeping, It's the Seminary's school. It dates from not long after the Civil War.

Photo Courtesy Gerry Senker

Of course, downtown, excitement  is beginning to build: Personal prayer intentions posted at the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul

Notes at the Cathedral: Photo - Terry Fernald

And now, my corner. We think the facility may be for the Secret Service and police who will be shooing people away. Anyway, I'm presuming the pictures will be a lot different come Saturday.

The Pope in My Backyard: Signs and Predictions

Here are some photos from downtown Philadelphia, taken by my daughter, in advance of the Pope's visit. Lots of signs, not so many people yet! Out my way, by St. Charles Seminary, nada. The only signs are "permit parking only". They want to keep everyone very far away.

Water bottles piled up 

Cleaning up Market St. at 8th.

The Pope in My Back Yard: The Signs of Day Two

Photo by Dotty Brown

Everywhere you look, the Pope is in fashion. Check out the Nicole Miller window in Manyunk, a Philadelphia neighborhood.

A sign  that the Pope is coming -- and that U.S. mail is not:

Photo by Naomi Fernald

The Pope in My Backyard: Day One of Countdown

The metal crowd control gates have gone up on the street bordering the side of my house a week ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis in Philadelphia. The gates also  partially block the entry way to my little street, such that one car can barely squeeze through.  The noose is tightening. No one told us about the gates. No one has told us what to expect.
Such is the scene at Ground Zero, my house, across the street from where the Pope will be sleeping one week from now.  When he arrives, we will be prisoners of the event. For that matter, most of Philadelphia will be in lock down, or lock up, depending on your perspective.
Which is why a lot of folks are heading out of town, if they can. We, however, after much thought, are staying put. Is it because we need some excitement in our lives at this certain age? Curiosity?
Or maybe it's history. The last time a pope came to town, we carried our young children on our shoulders down this very street to see him in an open-top Popemobile. It made for a good story.  Having new stories to tell is always good.
This time will surely be different. Today's paper says Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia "is the largest event security operation ever undertaken by the U.S. Secret Service." Bigger even than the inauguration of President Obama. "This one is more unique because of the amount of travel the pope will do within the city of Philadelphia and the volume of people as well," said Secret Service Director Joe Clancy.
Clearly, the city is getting prepared. Today, during a drive downtown -- probably one of the last I'll be able to make before they close down the highway -- I saw an important sight: three very large 18-wheelers, loaded with Port-a-Pottys.

Before it's too late: Pope Port-a-Pottys en route 

Speaking of which... from my bathroom window, I can look right into some of the campus buildings of St. Charles Seminary, the Pope-motel. But those buildings are about a block from where the Pope's brand new bed will be. More likely, the Secret Service, standing guard at the Seminary and looking into my window as I shower will find more entertainment than I will looking out at them.  

For Judge Flora Wolf, a Liberation -- and Love

Flora Wolf, former Common Pleas Judge

In trying to find “purpose” and “meaning” in later life, some folks act as if they’re cramming for the test of their lives: if they don’t study really hard to figure it out, they’ll be failures in retirement. True has-beens.

Such is the pressure.

Former Common Pleas Court Judge Flora Wolf, though, sees this next stage of her life as “reinvention,” and one that comes with a sprinkle of luck, love and poetry.

Of reinvention, she told about 50 people at Philadelphia’s Cosmopolitan Club the other night,  “I’ve done it more than once.”

“When I was 33, my husband died, leaving me with two small kids, a dog and several cats. The dog had puppies -- eleven!

“It became apparent to me that I needed to work but I didn’t want to go back to school. So I got involved in a political effort, a ‘Recall Rizzo’ campaign,” she said, referring to the city’s cop-mayor of the 1970s. “It was a wonderful experience for independence, self-confidence, political connections and general friendship -- and out of that came law school.”

After a decade practicing law, Flora morphed again. She ran for election as a judge, building, she said, “another level of confidence.” For 20 years, it was “the best job I ever had.”  In her late 60s, she contemplated running for a third term, but it didn’t seem worth it.

“You go senior at 70 and somebody else gets appointed to take your place. So I said no. I had almost a year and a half to think about the next reinvention.”

In reading, The Third Chapter by Harvard sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Flora was struck by her discussion of the “liberation” of this time of life, of “not having the same urgency, not having the same financial pressures, of not having the same ego, and I thought that was very appealing.”

While Flora was determined to work part time on a meaningful project, “my goal for the first day of retirement was to stay in bed all day. My goal for the second day was to go to [the restaurant] Parc and sit in one of the windows and drink cappuccino and be entertained by all the passersby.” 

Her plan had been to help social workers deal with “dependency” cases in the courts, involving children and families, but with bureaucratic changes, that idea went out the window.

Instead, serendipity flew in. And Flora was ready to embrace it. Or rather, him.

“I didn’t know that I would find a new relationship, and that we would travel together. It’s been an enormous pleasure. We went to India last year,” she said.

A year and a half into her transition, she’s still finding her way.

Yes, she’s on too many boards and committees – something she says she’ll “have to sort out.”

And no, she isn’t spending time at her desk. “I really need to spend an hour or two every morning doing the computer stuff, doing the reading, doing the paperwork I avoided for the last 50 years. And perhaps I will.”

And yes, there are things about her job she misses.

“I miss the work. I miss the responsibility -- occasionally.

“I miss my friends, but I still have lunch with them -- occasionally.

“It’s a good thing that we get two years in which to figure this out because I’ve now used up a year and a half of my transition time. I have to say it’s been one of the happiest times in my life so far...We’re getting ready to go to France. We’re going to study French. And when I come back I’ll find that project and save some small part of the world.”

Flora closed her remarks by reading from the poem “Ulysses” by Alfred Tennyson:

Come, my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 

Push off…To sail beyond the sunset... 

Though much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Click here to read a blog on another Cosmopolitan Club speaker, Dr. Anna Meadows.

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