Reflections from the Trail
The number of times I’ve been asleep on an airplane and woken up to find a fetching stream of drool down the left side of my shirt is greater than I care to admit. The more tired I am, the greater…
Reflections from Day 12
This isn’t over. We have not officially arrived at campus yet, even though we’re staying at the Morris Inn and went to Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and watched Rudy on the giant screen in the stadium and I have another couple dozen pictures of all the landmarks I already have a couple…
Reflections from Day 11
Reflections from day 10
I’m struggling tonight. So many thoughts are pushing to make their way into words, they’ve crowded themselves at the door and no one can get in.
My heart is heavy tonight. I’m challenged in a way different from any day on this Trail thus far.
I’ve been struck all day by the question,…
Reflections from Day 9
Reflections from Day 8
Do you remember being a kid in school – a young kid, fifth or sixth grade – and those times when the teacher would momentarily leave the room for whatever reason, and would warn you that your…
Reflections from Day 7
I have ankles like a 70-year-old Hungarian grandmother. It’s a bit disconcerting.
…
Reflections from Day 6
Reflections from Day 5
My brother thinks I’m an idiot. He’s never said as much to me, but I know it to be true.
…
Reflections from Day 4
It can be a challenge to be introspective when you’re on something of a forced march.
…
Reflections from Day 3
I believe I mentioned that the days on the Trail are all themed. So far, we’ve had Faith, Compassion, and Gratitude. Today is Stewardship, a topic which is important to me and which I’m going…
Reflections from Day 2
When my wife confirmed that our suspicions were correct and that we were, in fact, expecting our second child, I knew that my first reaction was supposed to be one of joy.
…
Reflections from Day 1
I spent the day walking, wondering what I should write. Wondering what I could write.
…
Launch
I’ll tell you right now I’m not going to tell you everything I want to tell you. No way. No can do.
…
Faith, Life, and Other Uncertainties
As we’re all grown-ups here, can we begin by acknowledging that faith – by definition – is unprovable? Faith is not science. Faith is, in fact, quite the opposite of science. That’s not to diminish faith – not at all – but only to embrace faith’s inherent uncertainty. Science is what one…
Unauthorized Pilgrim Profile: Terry Wilkin ('92)
My former roommate is proof that you should always think of your physician as the responsible, professional medic they are now – and not the college kid they were when, for example, Terry Wilkin (’92) showed up to Moriarty’s Pub dressed as an exceptionally well-endowed Lady Di. It was the London Program Hallowe’en party, sure, but honestly, the photographs I have in my possession should guarantee me free healthcare for life.
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Pilgrim Profile: Brother Larry Stewart, C.S.C., (’60/’61)
I’ve been hearing about Brother Larry Stewart, C.S.C., (’60/’61) from the very start of my involvement with the Notre Dame Trail. He’s the sort of man who leaves an impression. In 1997, he celebrated his 40th jubilee as a Holy Cross brother by cycling across the country, sea to shining sea. In 2007, he celebrated his 50th jubilee by doing it again. This year, when considering how to mark the occasion of his 60th jubilee, he jumped at the chance to walk the 300-plus miles across Indiana in the footsteps of Notre Dame’s founder, Father Edward Sorin. Brother Larry is 80 years old. “But I don’t look my age,” he is quick to reassure me. “People tell me that all the time.” Why am I not surprised?
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T-minus 31
It’s thirty-one days until the core pilgrims set out from Vincennes to start the long walk to Notre Dame, and I wanted to mark the t-minus-one-month mark somehow. But, frankly, I’m just not in a philosophical mood today. The week gone by has me kind of thinked-out.
So instead I’ve decided to…
Pilgrim Profile: Pat Hellman (’63)
If it’s easy for me to feel proud of myself, walking and biking as much as I am in preparation for the 317 miles I and the other core pilgrims will cover in August, the bubble of my pride deflates quickly when I talk with someone like Pat Hellman (’63). We speak on a day he has completed a 27-mile bike ride as part of his training. The preparation seems to be going well – it reminds the 75-year-old of the last Iron Man race he was in. “Your last Iron Man?” “Oh, yeah,” he says. “I’ve done a few.”
Pilgrim Profiles: Patrick J. O’Malley III (’84) and Christine Ann Silva O’Malley
In his 2016 Laetare Address, Vice-President Biden explained how his “grandpop” had played for Santa Clara in the early part of the last century and how he always resented the team being referred to as “the Notre Dame of the west.” The Irish, the proud Bronco had insisted, were in fact “the Santa Clara of the midwest.” Well. That being said...
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Pilgrim Profile: Mark Alexander (’80)
Brace yourselves. By the time Mark Alexander (’80) and I get back from our two weeks walking the Notre Dame Trail, we will have the world set to rights. We will have it all sorted out. We got this. There’s a lot to say about Mark. He’s one of those people who make things happen. I didn’t ask about his sleep schedule, but it’s got to be pretty thin.
60th & Greenwood
My wife and I describe ourselves as tumbleweeds. We celebrated our 23rd anniversary last year by her kissing me at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut as I boarded a plane for Seattle where I would spend the next week hoping to secure a new place for us to live out here.
We had no…
Pilgrim Profile: Stu Fortener (MBA, ’97)
Stu Fortener (MBA, ’97) strikes me as the good guy in the group. The Clark Kent, saying things like “gosh” and “heck” and apologizing repeatedly – often in back-to-back sentences – for giving me answers to my questions which very sweetly he worries I’ll find boring. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He speaks rapid fire in those sentences before those apologies – I’m hard pressed to think of anyone I’ve ever met who talks faster than Stu. Perhaps he’s trying to get through what he worries I won’t be interested in as quickly as possible. Perhaps that’s just how fast his mind works. Perhaps both.
Pilgrim Profile: Jim (’81/’83) & Karen Jenista
Speaking with the pilgrims on the Core Team, the thirty or so of us walking the entire length of the Notre Dame Trail from Vincennes to South Bend, I often feel as though I am about to enter freshman year all over again. There are these people I’ve never met with whom I am about to have an amazingly intense experience and the only thing we all know about each other is Notre Dame - that somehow we are all connected by and to that place and all that it means for all of us. Some of them have lives which are 180 degrees from my own. Businessmen and women. Athletes. Bankers. Some feel as though they are other versions of myself.
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Pilgrim Profile: Lisa Hendey (Bartholomy, ’85)
If there’s one thing wrong with Lisa Hendey (Bartholomy, ’85) it’s that there’s nothing wrong with Lisa Hendey. Honest to God, she’s one of the nicest people I’ve never met. We spoke on the phone as she was out on a training walk for the Notre Dame Trail and it was immediately evident that my dark, evil streak had met its match in bright, cheerful goodness. It happened like this.
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Don’t give up on the kids.
I’ve been back east for a week and a day. I spent last Saturday flying east so that I could spend the first half of last week shooting the exteriors of a short film on location in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and the second half shooting the interiors at a house in Hamden, Connecticut. I learned a few things this week.
Memorial Day 2017
Some years ago, when my father turned 90, I was tasked with creating a birthday video. I collected everything I could think of to tell the story of his ninety years on earth – family photos I’d seen, news clippings, family photos I’d never seen, music, family photos from before I think camera were…
Pilgrim Profile: Chris Golic (Hansen, SMC ’85)
Laughter is just part of her voice. I can tell that immediately. We’re not even talking about anything yet. We’re just getting through the Hello’s and the Thanks for taking the time to speak with me’s and already I have cheeks aching from smiling so hard. That’s what it’s like speaking to her. She confesses that she’s not been out walking like she probably should, and the trainer in me kicks into gear and admonishes her. She needs to take the walk seriously, I tell her. She needs to not be lulled into false confidence because it’s “just a walk”. The hours on feet thirteen days in a row – particularly in the Indiana summer heat and humidity – are going to be a challenge even for the pilgrims in the best condition. Going into this underprepared will be miserable, if not dangerous. Lace up, I tell her...
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Pilgrim Profile: Nancy Majerek (Votava, ’86)
Nancy Majerek (Votava, ’86) and I have a lot of ground to cover. Okay. Sorry. That was a terrible pun. But the truth is, I’ve been struggling with how to introduce her to you. The conversation I had with her last week covered topics ranging from her role as the University’s Treasury Manager to her experiences in the New Mexico Desert on the Bataan Memorial Death March to the challenges of considering human idiosyncrasies when planning business systems to how she met her husband, Tom, in a volleyball league.
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A Change of Pace
I write letters. This shouldn’t surprise you. And of course I know not everyone does. I know, in fact, very few do. What I hadn’t realized – what surprised me – was just how obsolete the practice of writing an actual letter to actually send in the actual post had become. I haven’t been in the practice of letter writing long. It only started a few months ago and I don’t write everyday. So the small handful of cards and envelopes I had grabbed at the Fred Myer here lasted a little while. When I ran out, I stopped into Office Depot on my way home dropping my youngest at school. Finding the inkjet paper and the laser printer paper was a snap. Also the résumé paper and business cards and name tags and invitation stationery for those inkjets and laser printers. What I couldn’t find was paper for writing a letter.