BUSY PEOPLE | 2005-09-16
Pope John Paul II was a very fine man, but he never had time to talk to me.
I never expected him to.
So my relation with the Pontiff was entirely impersonal.
What gets me is people who act like the Supreme Pontiff but who also expect me to have some sort of personal obligation to them.
To me, a "busy" person is, to the extent he is busy, a non-person to me in exactly the same way I am a non-person to him, as I am a non-person to the Pope.
I wish him well. He wishes me well. That's all very well. Isn't that, well, just very well?
Now that I am retired this is easy. If someone is preoccupied, that's just fine. But don't expect me to act like you are an emergency when you suddenly need Ole Bob.
I am out of the emergency business. Speak now or forever hold your peace.