Ordinary Nothing

In case anyone missed it, and until recently I’d never have though
of it as a possibility, the Pope John Paul II has died. A few weeks ago.

I’d have thought anyone and everyone have already heard about it. It
was covered in about all the news and media sources, all over.
Certainly in the "western" world, but in right about everywhere else as
well. If you told me that there’s a person who managed to miss that
fact, I’d have said no way.

That is, until I met that person last Wednesday. I was meeting with
a few friends, and during the course of the evening the conversation
also drifted in the direction of the new papal candidates, and the
terrible coverage in the media. And one of them suddenly said something
like "How old is the Pope now anyway? He’s really old, right? Must be
around 87 or so?".

We all stared at her agape. She looked back, saying "What?".
So I politely explained that the current Pope is dead. Has been for a
couple of weeks. And the other people nodded, and added that it’s true.

Which got us a nice "What? You’re kidding me, right? Right?". It took us
as long to realize she’s serious as it took her to realize we were…

Don’t get me wrong, I make fun of her here (well, it is a
funny story), but she’s otherwise a very intelligent and nice person.
But as she explained, she doesn’t really follow the news. Lives in a
dorm without a TV, and doesn’t pay too much attention to the
newspapers.

Or as she put it "So how should I have heard?". I was as
nice as usual (Yep, I’m like that even with friends. But it’s in a
friendly-teasing manner, so that’s all right) and said "You could talk to
people occasionally". Which she actually does, but apparently the topic never came up during all that time. Amazing.

Needless to say, it took her some time before the red colour receded from her face.

And I can proudly say I had the honour of meeting the last person on
the world to hear about the Pope’s death. And the double honour of
helping close that category of people.

Now, should I tell the Guinness committee? Is she eligible for world fame?

April 17th, 2005 at 13:47 EET | Categories: Current Affairs | Track comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.