On days like this, I should be legally barred from posting. We’ve got the deaths of not one but two pop icons from my youth, on top of the ongoing awfulness in Iran (which everybody seems to have forgotten all of a sudden), topped by the systematic transformation of our country into a European-style social democracy. Hmm, what shall the tone of tonight’s blog post be?

Speaking personally, Michael Jackson never really took up much of my mental square footage (and I do mean square). He was one of those phenomena, like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, that I observed from afar, uncomprehending.

But Farrah! The perfect face, at the perfect time of my life for emotional imprinting. She even resembled (sort of, in a distant way, in the right light) the girl who’d broken my heart about a year previously.

I forget what night of the week “Charlie’s Angels” was on. I do recall that it was opposite “Grizzly Adams,” because my roommate was a huge GA fan, while I always wanted to see CA. I don’t recall how we worked it out. Very likely we took turns. There was only the one TV.

Opinions differed on whether “Charlie’s Angels” or “Grizzly Adams” was the stupider show, but I’m convinced the Dan Haggerty vehicle was not only dumb, but dangerous. Every week, millions of American children were indoctrinated in the lesson that if you thought positive thoughts and were really friendly to them, the animals in the woods would never hurt you. You might call it “Bambi’s Revenge.”

Anyway, I had three Farrah posters (never got ahold of the famous red one-piece one, though).

Farewell, my lovely. You were the icon of my youth. I traced my own decline in yours. I hope you found somewhere to rest in the Catholic faith of your childhood.

And yet… and yet…

I had a conversation with one of our missionaries this morning—an older man who spent most of his life in Brazil. We were speaking of events in Iran, and the general awfulness of the world, and he spoke words of hope to me.

“I think back,” he said. “I think back ten years ago—Tiananmin Square. Think how things have changed since then. The Chinese aren’t free yet—but it’s better.

“And I think back to the 1960s, people trying to get across the Iron Curtain, being machinegunned by border guards, their bodies just left where they lay. Where’s the Iron Curtain now? We didn’t see that coming.

“You look around and say, ‘The Muslims are taking over Europe because they’re having all kinds of babies. But you know what? Once they get an education, the women don’t want so many babies anymore. They don’t want to wear the head scarves either.

“Things change. We don’t know which way they’ll go. Things surprise us. The thing for Christians to do is pray. Our job is to pray.”

I felt better after that.