OK, so maybe I went a little crazy over the pope. I stand by what I wrote, but admit that I was sucked into the nostalgic, grieving, meloncholy of the global funeral. When I talked about "greatness" as a measure of magnitude, I meant that great isn't one step higher than good; no, it is one step past, say, significant. It is, as I said, a measure of magnitude, not quality. And the swatch the pope cut through history was one of a great man. On a different scale, Robert Moses was a great man, but he was a wicked little scoundrel.

Again, I am not religious. And I tend to think that organized religion does more harm than good, in that it inserts some sort of hierarchy in between man and God. I like the idea of no middle man, no church managing my relationship with the Big Fella. Hello God, its me Josh. Have you been reading the blog?

But the outpouring of emotion was so pervasive and profound, even a boen cynic like me couldn't help but take note.