Green, Grateful and Groupy!

My wandering thoughts this morning have turned me green, grateful and fearful about becoming a groupy - well not the latter. My faith in humanity was a little restored when I read the story about how a scientist, from Cuba none the less, received the Goldman Environmental Global Prize. Now to those who are about as ignorant of what this prize is as I was, its a green nobel-type prize given to recipients all over the world who work to provide ways for people to sustain themselves. Scientist Humberto Rios Labrada has worked to help farmers in Cuba be able to select for themselves what crops best fit the soil on their state run farms. In a society so closed as Cuba's the fact that he is able to do this is remarkable; and he even offers them a CD to listen to while they work. Time will tell how much lee-way the Cuban government will give him; it has granted him a permission to fly to San Francisco tonight to receive the $150,000 award .... congratulations Humberto! Another article that caught my attention early this morning was 'Frayed nerves with WH press corps.' So it appears that reports who follow every step of the President are suffering bruised ego's because the President decided to give them the slip and go to watch his daughter's soccer game .... shame on him. The aggrieved reporters are warning of a 'cooling-off' in their relationship with the president if he tries to pull this slight again. Amazing since our current President has enjoyed probably the best relationship with reports since JFK! Is there not one reporter that could encourage us with a story about how one of democracies most powerful men still keeps the activities of his children a priority?....not one?? I don't very often find much to agree with with our President, but one this matter I give him a grateful cheer, and say, 'keep it up!' ... Well at last, I'm so cheered by the fact that the 'Vatican makes peace with the Beatles,' this has been nagging at me since I was 18. No, I'm not a Roman Catholic, although I do have a middle daughter and family who are. But faith just seemed to be less than complete knowing that the Vatican and the Beatles were at odds. At a time when the standards of faith need to be so clear and skillfully proclaimed we get this article, I'm thinking the Catholic faithful must be hiding their faces in shame. Here's a part of that article, 'It's true, they took drugs; swept up by their success, they lived dissolute and uninhabited lives, they even said they were more famous than Jesus, but listening to their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless. Their beautiful melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions, live on like precious jewels.' So I'm confused, is the Vatican saying that after 40yrs the meanings of the words to their songs have changed, is the Vatican now complimenting lifestyles it once criticized? is the Vatican telling us that our standards of faith need to now be more accommodating ... what in the world is it thinking? Maybe more later, have a great day!