The Jade Steps
Chapter Twenty-Seven:  "I Shall Cut Off Cortez's Ears!"

Over the next several weeks, the Spaniards marveled at how the Mesheeka accepted the loss of their gods.  Perhaps, they surmised, it was because the Mesheeka had been taught by their priests that if the gods were not fed the blood of human hearts, the sun would not rise and the world would collapse into darkness and chaos. 

Day after day, week after week, there were no sacrifices and the sun kept rising.  Maybe the priests were wrong.  Maybe the new gods of the strangers were more powerful than the ones of old.  Malinali heard these whispers, and did her best to encourage these thoughts among the Mesheeka.

Then one afternoon, a worried Orteguilla came to see Malinali.

"Doña Marina, I am afraid Montezuma is plotting something.  He has been having meetings in secret with several of his nobles, which I am not allowed to hear.  He keeps talking about how he must be free of his prison so he can perform the ceremonies of Tlacaxipeualiztli (tlah-kashee-pay-ooh-ah-leesh-tlee).  What does this mean?"

"It means the Aztec month of Tlacaxipeualiztli is about to begin.  Sacrifices must be made to the god Xipe so plants will grow.  Montezuma and the highest nobles must impersonate the gods in a sacred dance wearing a particular costume."

She paused, sighed, and put her hand gently on the young boy's.  "Thank you, Orteguilla, for coming to me and telling me of this.  The costume Montezuma and the nobles wear for the dance is made of human skins, flayed from the bodies of captives.  Tlacaxipeualiztli means The Flaying of Men."

Last week (5/19), Mary Anastasia O'Grady commented in the Wall Street Journal on The Pope's Embrace of Castro.

She noted that "The Holy Father is a native of 20th-century Argentina, ideologically defined by nationalism, socialism, corporatism and anti-Americanism. It wouldn't be surprising to learn that this influences his views toward the U.S. and the island 90 miles from its shores."

Yet there are many Argentines who are not so influenced and who can think for themselves.  As a life-long devout Catholic, it pains me to observe this is not the case with Francis.  As a result, he is a papal fraud. 

In matters of the cloth, good Catholics always seek a vision of Saint Peter's earthly successor as a man of goodness and spirituality -- as God's anointed emissary on earth goodwill will be done. Sadly, this is not always true.

There are many realities past where the Pope simply was neither devout in his vows nor divinely blessed to do God's will on earth for all mankind.

Today we have such a man who is radical to the traditions of the church, and instinctively biased against the teaching and strength of character of his two predecessors, Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II.

Abolish the Internal Revenue Service? IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has said the government must have an IRS to collect the taxes to fund the government.

Mr. Koskinen is right that no matter what kind of tax system we have, there needs to be a tax collection bureau. But those in favor of abolishing the present IRS are correct in that the United States certainly can get along perfectly well without the politicized, abusive and rights-trampling tax agency the IRS has become.

There is simply no excuse for much of what the IRS does. IRS agents complain that nobody likes them and they are shunned when they go to parties. Count me as one who is not sympathetic.

Some IRS workers claim they are there for patriotic reasons because someone has to raise the revenue to keep the government going.  Here's a question to ask them:

What if IRS agents went on strike - as real patriots - to demand that the monies they collect would no longer be used for political payoffs, mismanaged programs and unconstitutional activities?

A friend of mine built a very successful company, sold it for a substantial amount, then took some time off to get his MBA at Harvard Business School. Ironically, for years after getting that degree, he wasn't able to make a penny in business.

He had become too careful, too wary of failure.

Who likes to fail? I don't. Failure can feel humiliating. But if we're not willing to risk failure, we won't be able to make the bold moves necessary to really succeed, either.

Learning to deal well with failure is a skill. It's something that we can learn, practice, and master. Not that anyone wants to become a master at failure; we want to become masters at dealing with failure... and masters at learning from our failures.

Our failures can be more effective teachers than our successes; and with understanding and practice, we can learn to make the most of them, even turning those failures into triumphs.