Cal called to tell us that he was accepted into the Dominicans. He will start his novitiate this summer. I feel a sense of completeness - a long road that has reached its end. A new road lies ahead. You know they must walk it alone. You are also on the road, but it is their road, not yours.
Here's the start.
It's the end of a long night of poker, cigarettes, and beer. 23 or 24 years ago. I'm alone with Uncle C, known to the world as Fr. Damian Fandal, teacher, interim President of U. Dallas, Provincial of the Central Province, TV personality. As usual, he'd separated all of us from the stray nickels and dimes we'd laid in wager. He'd also humored me with his argument about why women shouldn't be priest. "Of course" he says "you are a heretic, but that's okay." In response I say to him something inane and then told him, "Uncle C, since you can't acknowledge your own children," we both laugh at the absurdity of the statement, "I think we'll name our first son after you." When I told her, Mo laughed and said, yes, it was a great idea. And so Callery got his name, and, I guess, his calling.
Uncle C died too young, but I do feel that a small part of his spirt will live on with his namesake who has accepted the same challenge in life.
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