Forgiveness

When Clare was four or five, she took some kind of craft bauble—think five for a dollar at Michaels—from a friend.  I made her give it back, and this seems to have made an impression:  No stealing, be honest.  And that was basically it for finger-wagging lessons from Dad, outside of the time a certain someone dialed 911 at Grandma’s, and the emergency operator called back, but that’s a story for another day.

My point is that from early on Clare was aware her parents believed in doing things the right way.  Whatever failings Michele and I had, our daughter never saw us cutting corners or lying or stealing.  In this way, Clare grew up “old school,” and Catholic.

This all comes to bear with the White Sox signing outfielder Melky Cabrera to a three-year deal in the neighborhood of $42 million.  Cabrera was suspended 50 games in 2012 after testing positive for testosterone, an offense his camp made worse by trying to set up a phony website and make it appear that Cabrera had been tricked into buying the stuff.  No, the penalty by MLB doesn’t strike me as excessive even as it cost Cabrera the NL batting title, and, no, I’m not particularly happy we signed him given that transgression; neither is Clare.  But as Catholics, we believe sin is part of our nature and forgiveness an act of God which we should emulate.

So, we forgive you, Melky.  Just don’t do it again.