Everything doesn't ahve to be doom and gloom;

Gage Driskell is an 11-year-old boy with life-threatening cancer. For his birthday, the motorcycle-loving youngster asked his dad, Jake, for a ride on a chopper. When Jake reached out to the community for help making Gage’s wish come true, local biker club member Dwight Murphy answered the call — in a major way. He assembled a group of over 75 riders to show up to Gage’s birthday party! And as if simply rolling a legitimate biker-cade into an 11-year-old’s birthday party weren't enough, many of the riders also brought gifts and donations along with their well-wishes.

Dwight made sure the fun didn’t stop there either, as Gage was given a leather vest autographed by every member of the group, and then popped into a sidecar for a ride along! The four-minute Web video of the ride gives us a full-length, first-person view of the experience through Gage’s eyes — which were no doubt smiling the whole time.

Gage is currently undergoing new rounds of cancer treatment in Denver, Colorado, funded in part by the generous donations of the gang. Along with the entire Parma community, we wish him all the best.



.http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/bike-gang-comes-together-11-old-brain-cancer-172940564.html

How is this even the least bit edifying? How is it anything at all but depressing? If this were a story about a dying boy who received Baptism and Viaticuм on his deathbed, that would be a truly happy story.

As it is about a dying child, possibly in a state of Original and / or Mortal sin, walking the razor's edge between heaven and hell, and it cheerfully ignores that fact to report that he got to go on a motorcycle ride... I'd say it is pretty damn "doom and gloom."

Thanks for darkening my day with this crap.

Quote from: BTNYC

How is this even the least bit edifying? How is it anything at all but depressing? If this were a story about a dying boy who received Baptism and Viaticuм on his deathbed, that would be a truly happy story.

As it is about a dying child, possibly in a state of Original and / or Mortal sin, walking the razor's edge between heaven and hell, and it cheerfully ignores that fact to report that he got to go on a motorcycle ride... I'd say it is pretty damn "doom and gloom."

Thanks for darkening my day with this crap.

This is an example of how an ordinary person went out of his way to bring consolation to a child who was ill. So often when it is a question of holiness we think of the priest or the nun or some monks in the monastery. Holiness applies to all of us. This person went out of his way to do something good for someone. We should learn from this and follow this example.    

With death on this child's doorstep, how in God's Name is giving him a motorcycle ride (or buying him ice cream, or taking him to Disneyland, or introducing him to Justin Bieber, or whatever other carnal favors one might offer) any kind of objective "good," let alone an example of "holiness" that we ought to imitate?

"Well, poor little "Gage" (that name alone causes me to despair of his having parents who are in any way concerned with his spiritual well-being) has passed on and now stands before Our Lord for Particular Judgment. We never bothered to have him receive Holy Communion, or even get him Baptized, but hey, at least we performed the holy act of giving him a motorcycle ride."

Contrast this lamentable story with that of Little Nellie of Holy God, a genuine story of happy childhood death of the sort that Catholics with even a halfway formed Sensus Catholicus used to recount or read for genuine edification. As a Catholic father, that story warms my heart and does my soul good. Yours makes me physically sick and tempts me to despair.

Are you sure the kid hasn't been baptized? Maybe I missed something in the article but I didn't read anything that indicated this kid is devoid of faith and so on. If the kid was properly prepared for death would there be anything wrong with giving him a good time on his birthday?

That's immaterial. For all I know, the boy was Baptized and is preparing himself spiritually for his end (though if such emphasis is being placed on things like motorcycle rides, I have good reason to doubt it).

The point is, the story says nothing whatsoever about it. It is being posted here - on a traditional Catholic forum - as a "feel good story" when it is, from a Catholic perspective, anything but. The only things that really matter for any of us are the Four Last Things - Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. This boy is about to arrive at the first of those four. The time for frivolous indulgence is now over and done with.

The story is about a child who might be in hell in the very near future, and it gives no indication that anything has or will be done to avert this horrible End. It is indifferently silent on that crucial point, but it happily describes some stupid carnal thrill ride the boy enjoyed for a few of his precious last moments before Judgement.

How any Catholic can find that to be a "feel good" story is utterly beyond my ability to comprehend.