The Loss of Another Happy Man: Kevin Flynn At Home With Christ

Susan and Kevin Flynn

The other morning I checked my cell phone which had been recharging over night.  I found four missed messages from my brother and the attendant voice mails. When a family member calls multiple times in short succession, it is never happy news.  " Pat, Mom took a fall.  We are at Palos (hospital),." my Mom had a knee and hip replacement over the last two years.  She is a very fit and healthy 87.

I was happy to learn that the fall damaged her right-side hip joint which was the God-given device and not on the artificial ball and joint left side, as artificial components tend to really damage bones and sinews.

Happy is the word.  Was her fall merely fortunate?

Now, I can't work a home improvement job without a gun to my head, but I can reach into the old reading tool box to try and sheet-rock life's pains . . .somewhat.  I have been reading Herodatus' Histories, since the 4th of July.  I went back over the encounter between Solon, a really smart Greek and Croesus a really rich Greek.   Solon was a visiting Athenian smart guy to the Sardian court of Croesus, who demanded that he was the happiest man in the world because he was the richest.  Solon argued that one can only determine another man's happiness upon death.  Solon held to the notion that Croesus was merely fortunate, lucky. Hey, You are really wealthy; that's nice. You are the king of Sardis, which is like being President of the United States, which is nice, but so what ?

The smart guy explained, " For in the course of long time a man may see many things which he would not desire to see, and suffer also many things which he would not desire to suffer. The limit of life for a man I lay down at seventy years: and these seventy years give twenty-five thousand and two hundred days, not reckoning for any intercalated month. Then if every other one of these years shall be made longer by one month, that the seasons may be caused to come round at the due time of the year, the intercalated months will be in number five-and-thirty besides the seventy years; and of these months the days will be one thousand and fifty. Of all these days, being in number twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty, which go to the seventy years, one day produces nothing at all which resembles what another brings with it. Thus then, O Croesus, man is altogether a creature of accident. As for thee, I perceive that thou art both great in wealth and king of many men, but that of which thou didst ask me I cannot call thee yet, until I learn that thou hast brought thy life to a fair ending: for the very rich man is not at all to be accounted more happy than he who has but his subsistence from day to day, unless also the fortune go with him of ending his life well in possession of all things fair. For many very wealthy men are not happy, while many who have but a moderate living are fortunate;  and in truth the very rich man who is not happy has two advantages only as compared with the poor man who is fortunate, whereas this latter has many as compared with the rich man who is not happy. The rich man is able better to fulfil his desire, and also to endure a great calamity if it fall upon him; whereas the other has advantage over him in these things which follow:—he is not indeed able equally with the rich man to endure a calamity or to fulfil his desire, but these his good fortune keeps away from him, while he is sound of limb, free from disease, untouched by suffering, the father of fair children and himself of comely form; and if in addition to this he shall end his life well, he is worthy to be called that which thou seekest, namely a happy man; but before he comes to his end it is well to hold back and not to call him yet happy but only fortunate. Now to possess all these things together is impossible for one who is mere man, just as no single land suffices to supply all tings for itself, but one thing it has and another it lacks, and the land that has the greatest number of things is the best: so also in the case of a man, no single person is complete in himself, for one thing he has and another he lacks; but whosoever of men continues to the end in possession of the greatest number of these things and then has a gracious ending of his life, he is by me accounted worthy, O king, to receive this name. But we must of every thing examine the end and how it will turn out at the last, for to many God shows but a glimpse of happiness and then plucks them up by the roots and overturns them."

Kevin Flynn lived for forty-six years.  He was very fortunate.  His Dad, Donald F. Flynn, amassed what we would call a fortune. Kevin went to great Catholic schools ( Fenwick and Marquette University).  Married a beautiful and unspoiled woman, Susan.  Fathered four beautiful and unspoiled children. He could have lived for the next Bulls Skybox, VIP treatment everywhere, lorded his fortune and luck over his staff and generally lived the life that leads to scandal without consequence and dismissive self-satisfaction. That is Pagan stuff.
Herodatus too was a Before the Common Era Pagan, but wrote of God the Unchanged.  God the Unchanged is the same one we worship.  Kevin Flynn worship the Triune God through Christ with his short life.


Kevin Flynn did not live like a Celebrity Pagan.  Kevin Flynn picked up his father's Catholic moral tool-set and tried to make life better for those less fortunate than Kevin Flynn. One should be regarded as one treats people regardless of bank account, vocation or circumstance. A great person never needs to ask, " Do you know who I am?"  A great and happy person asks, " How can I help?"

Kevin asked to serve on Leo High School's Advisory Board after his his Dad went home to Christ.  The Leo Advisory Board is not sexy appointment.  With the sole exception of Tamara Holder, it is comprised of happy men who were schooled here on 79th Street in the values of giving back without the applause of Chicago Magazine, or WTTW.   The work of making a Catholic education a possibility for young men from Englewood, Gresham, Brainard, Grand Crossing, Bronzeville and Canaryville whose families are not financially fortunate is Herculean. The rewards are Olympian.

We received the news of Kevin Flynn's accident with all of the sadness attendant to a death in the family.  Kevin's devoted helper Linda Eichorn contacted Leo President Dan McGrath with this terrible news.  We know Kevin's wife Susan and the four children, especially the boys Donny and Brendan.  Moreso, we know Kevin's mother Beverly who not only had her love Don called home to Christ, but now her son.

We know loss.  Last year one of our freshman, Antonio Davis, was slaughtered by a thug shortly before the start of the school year.  Kevin was one of the first to call Dan McGrath to ask how he could help Antonio's family.  A few weeks later, senior Miles Turner was shot five times by another urban savage and struggled from a coma and heroically managed to stand once again, but remains confined to a wheel chair. Again, Kevin Flynn stepped up to help another suffering family.

Kevin Flynn was a happy man.  That he was fortunate enough to be wealthy was a matter of some consequence, I suppose.

He was happy in his family and in his work.  Kevin Flynn treated everyone with respect, dignity and manly concern, even those who tried and continue to demand to define him.   That is evident in the sadness, universal.

We live in an age where envy is somehow dignified by what passes for culture and politics.   Life is as precious to a fortunate family as it is to the more challenged of us.  Loss is as painfully evident in six and seven figure families as it is in working man's tribe. Kevin's father was a very happy man. Kevin Flynn learned to be a very happy man.  His sons and daughters will be helped by the loving family and friends of the Family Flynn to be happy persons.

My Mom is doing fine; she continues to be lucky, despite another hip replacement surgery, a fractured elbow and a fractured ankle. Mom is 87 years lucky and happy. Kevin Flynn was 46 years happy.

Our World Needs Boats Full of Tough Greeks in Narrow Waters

I had a long chat with a pal living in Canada.  We talked bout everything from Leo High School to Libya, Chicago to Cairo, and DC to Moscow. We agree that neither of us could have imagined the condition of our planet today, controlled as it is by bullies and grifters. Chicago's Mayors ( Daley & Rahn) refuse to hire more police officers, but will gladly hand one million dollars over to wife-beating gang-banging pensioners to combat spiking homicides, rather than support cops sued for doing their jobs.   Putin gives asylum to a traitor and bullies our President six ways to Sunday all the while luring his victim into committing ground troops to Syria according to Putin's time table.

My friend asked me " How can you continue to live in the most corrupt city in America?"  I love it here.  Sure,  there is an astounding set of policies and those who support those dictates that ignore the murders by decrying despair as merely 'gun violence.' Sure, there are friends of mine who continue to devoutly believe that President Obama  is working to help the American Middle Class by doing everything in his power to obliterate it.  Sure, people who want my continued vote listen more carefully to Planned Parenthood PACs than people. Those folks 'evolved.' However, these are my people.  I am no stranger to bad choices, but with time, prayer and attention to circumstances have managed to defeat despair.  Likewise my evolved neighbors and friends.

 This Evolved Sensibility tells them that sticking with social sciences is the only sure means to alter chemistry, biology. physics, economics, and theology.  History is diminished.  Literature is deconstructed. Faith? Meh! Therefore, President Obama makes more sense to the evolved, who can parse away abortion and procreation, than history and common sense.

President Obama 'restored' America's standing in the world to pre-War of 1812 heights: thirty American embassies are closed only a three years after what cynical gents like me called his World Apology Tour.  Catholics for Obama helped HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebillius make war on religion by calling it Health Care.

We are yet a free people.  The world has always had bullies and grifters.  If we read history we know this and try to live accordingly.

Iran is a threat to world peace and so North Korea and so is Al Queda and so is Planned Parenhood and so is Vlad Putin and so is . . .Iran was called Persia up until the 1960's.



At one time a piece of work by the name of Xerxes hand whole world in his hands. Xerxes was a one man European Union.  There were Greeks for Xerxes who wanted a share in his New World Order that rolled over Babylon (Iraq), Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia ( Dafur & etc.) and most of Greece.

Xerxes armies slaughtered the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae only after only losing twenty thousand souls.  Xerxes how ever was a master of soaring rhetoric and political theater.  He ordered the burial of the twenty score thousand Persian dead, cut the head of Spartan King Leonidas from its corpse and left the rotting bodies of the Greek slain in the pass they had defended and encouraged Organizing for Persia to conduct tours of the battlefield for the more timid Greek populations.

Most Greeks did not buy the cam into the Persian media campaign and understood that a few tough Greeks could make a difference.    They abandoned Athens to Xerxes and went to across the pond to Salamis.  Should they fight, or flee,  or evolve?

When the commanders had assembled at Salamis from the States which have been mentioned, they began to deliberate, Eurybiades having proposed that any one who desired it should declare his opinion as to where he thought it most convenient to fight a sea-battle in those regions of which they had command; for Attica had already been let go, and he was now proposing the question about the other regions. And the opinions of the speakers for the most part agreed that they should sail to the Isthmus and there fight a sea-battle in defence of the Peloponnese, arguing that if they should be defeated in the sea-battle, supposing them to be at Salamis they would be blockaded in an island, where no help would come to them, but at the Isthmus they would be able to land where their own men were.
50. While the commanders from the Peloponnese argued thus, an Athenian had come in reporting that the Barbarians were arrived in Attica and that all the land was being laid waste with fire. For the army which directed its march through Boeotia in company with Xerxes, after it had burnt the city of the Thespians (the inhabitants having left it and gone to the Peloponnese) and that of the Plataians likewise, had now come to Athens and was laying waste everything in those regions. Now he had burnt Thespiai 3101 and Plataia because he was informed by the Thebans that these were not taking the side of the Medes.
51. So in three months from the crossing of the Hellespont, whence the Barbarians began their march, after having stayed there one month while they crossed over into Europe, they had reached Attica, in the year when Calliades was archon of the Athenians. And they took the lower city, which was deserted, and then they found that there were still a few Athenians left in the temple, either stewards of the temple or needy persons, who had barred the entrance to the Acropolis with doors and with a palisade of timber and endeavoured to defend themselves against the attacks of the enemy, being men who had not gone out to Salamis partly because of their poverty, and also because they thought that they alone had discovered the meaning of the oracle which the Pythian prophetess had uttered to them, namely that the "bulwark of wood" should be impregnable, and supposed that this was in fact the safe refuge according to the oracle, and not the ships.
52. So the Persians taking their post upon the rising ground opposite the Acropolis, which the Athenians call the Hill of Ares, 32 proceeded to besiege them in this fashion, that is they put tow round about their arrows and lighted it, and then shot them against the palisade. The Athenians who were besieged continued to defend themselves nevertheless, although they had come to the extremity of distress and their palisade had played them false; nor would they accept proposals for surrender, when the sons of Peisistratos brought them forward: but endeavouring to defend themselves they contrived several contrivances against the enemy, and among the rest they rolled down large stones when the Barbarians approached the gates; so that for a long time Xerxes was in a difficulty, not being able to capture them.

The Athenian Themistocles was like an old timey big city Tammany Hall politician who could toss bribes with the best of them in order to stop Xerxes.  He was surrounded by thoughtful, safe, considerate somewhat evolved community activists and elected officials who wanted to go along to get along retain their interests.  Themistocles understood that most people are blinded by self-interest, ignorance and timidity - who am I to say? types.

Themistocles heard them out -

So when they were gathered together, before Eurybiades proposed the discussion of the things for which he had assembled the commanders, Themistocles spoke with much vehemence 36 being very eager to gain his end; and as he was speaking, the Corinthian commander, Adeimantos the son of Okytos, said: "Themistocles, at the games those who stand forth for the contest before the due time are beaten with rods." He justifying himself said: "Yes, but those who remain behind are not crowned."

Themistocles went all NPR for a while -

60. At that time he made answer mildly to the Corinthian; and to Eurybiades he said not now any of those things which he had said before, to the effect that if they should set sail from Salamis they would disperse in different directions; for it was not seemly for him to bring charges against the allies in their presence: but he held to another way of reasoning, saying: "Now it is in thy power to save Hellas, if thou wilt follow my advice, which is to stay here and here to fight a sea-battle, and if thou wilt not follow the advice of those among these men who bid thee remove the ships to the Isthmus. For hear both ways, and then set them in comparison. If thou engage battle at the Isthmus, thou wilt fight in an open sea, into which it is by no means convenient for us that we go to fight, seeing that we have ships which are heavier and fewer in number than those of the enemy. Then secondly thou wilt give up to destruction Salamis and Megara and Egina, even if we have success in all else; for with their fleet will come also the land-army, and thus thou wilt thyself lead them to the Peloponnese and wilt risk the safety of all Hellas. If however thou shalt do as I say, thou wilt find therein all the advantages which I shall tell thee of:—in the first place by engaging in a narrow place with few ships against many, if the fighting has that issue which it is reasonable to expect, we shall have very much the better; for to fight a sea-fight in a narrow space is for our advantage, but to fight in a wide open space is for theirs. Then again Salamis will be preserved, whither our children and our wives have been removed for safety; and moreover there is this also secured thereby, to which ye are most of all attached, namely that by remaining here thou wilt fight in defence of the Peloponnese as much as if the fight were at the Isthmus; and thou wilt not lead the enemy to Peloponnese, if thou art wise. Then if that which I expect come to pass and we gain a victory with our ships, the Barbarians will not come to you at the Isthmus nor will they advance further than Attica, but they will retire in disorder; and we shall be the gainers by the preservation of Megara and Egina and Salamis, at which place too an oracle tells us that we shall get the victory over our enemies. 37 Now when men take counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."

Still no good -  he went all Mark Steyn on the lads -

61. When Themistocles thus spoke, the Corinthian Adeimantos inveighed against him for the second time, bidding him to be silent because he had no native land, and urging Eurybiades not to put to the vote the proposal of one who was a citizen of no city; for he said that Themistocles might bring opinions before the council if he could show a city belonging to him, but otherwise not. This objection he made against him because Athens had been taken and was held by the enemy. Then Themistocles said many evil things of him and of the Corinthians both, and declared also that he himself and his countrymen had in truth a city and a land larger than that of the Corinthians, so long as they had two hundred ships fully manned; for none of the Hellenes would be able to repel the Athenians if they came to fight against them.

Finally, Themistocles unloaded common sense on the waxed-up ears of the timid -

62. Signifying this he turned then to Eurybiades and spoke yet more urgently: "If thou wilt remain here, and remaining here wilt show thyself a good man, well; but if not, thou wilt bring about the overthrow of Hellas, for upon the ships depends all our power in the war. Nay, but do as I advise. If, however, thou shalt not do so, we shall forthwith take up our households and voyage to Siris in Italy, which is ours already of old and the oracles say that it is destined to be colonised by us; and ye, when ye are left alone and deprived of allies such as we are, will remember my words."
63. When Themistocles thus spoke, Eurybiades was persuaded to change his mind; and, as I think, he changed his mind chiefly from fear lest the Athenians should depart and leave them, if he should take the ships to the Isthmus; for if the Athenians left them and departed, the rest would be no longer able to fight with the enemy. He chose then this counsel, to stay in that place and decide matters there by a sea-fight.

Xerxes outnumbered the Greek Fleet by three to one.  Xerxes' fleet was smashed. The bully retreated.

Our Canadian/Chicago phone chat included a very poor redaction of my reading of Herodatus.  The guy on the other side of the wireless network is a very smart man and understood what I was trying to say about our world seemingly controlled by pagans, narcissists, bullies, incompetents and grifters - Now when men take counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."

God helps boat loads of tough Greeks in narrow waters.

Happy Father's Day History Lesson from Old Herodatus - Who's Happy?

Happy Father's Day Dads!  I hope you are happy . . .well maybe Dads in Boston might be really . . .pleased, after power playing the Mighty Blackhawks in OT last night.  Pleased, not happy.

Who's happy?  Me.

Why?  I have three kids on the edge of all grow'd up ( 18-27), all gainfully employed, almost out of the house . . .almost.   I have a couple of nickels in savings and enough for the bills in checking.  I have a job that I love these past forty years and remain, I do not know how, in good health.

My kids asked the Hallmark question, " Dad. . . .serious;y; What  do you want for Father's Day?"

I rejoined, "What could you give that I do not already possess?"

They shuddered,  " He's off on his Mr. Hickey act."

"Beloved Fruit of my Loins, Silence and sit!  Long before cable TV, Smart phones and Apps, when Hawks tickets were stocking stuffers for the children of working men, I taught scores of children to read and write and so doing learn the common thread of the Humanities, Faith, and Service," I prologue'd. To continue, " One text I used with my students was Herodatus' Histories.

" That black book with the yellow pages you got in your Dad John in the basement?"

" That very text."

" You gonna talk normal?"

" Not a chance of it.  Book One of that ancient manuscript translated by Aubery de Selincourt, tells of the great king Croesus of the island power of Sardis, Croesus ( like CREESUS in his panst) was said to be the richest king alive.  We, or some of us, say one is as rich as Croesus.  A wise man by the name of Solon of Athens, not yet a great world power, visited Croesus and wowed the crowd royal with his stories and insights.  Croesus asked the much travelled gent, who would be the happiest man alive .  Here is the passage from Herodatus -

 So Solon, . . . .came to Croesus at Sardis.
 Having there arrived he was entertained as a guest by Croesus in the king's palace; and afterwards, on the third or fourth day, at the bidding of Croesus his servants led Solon round to see his treasuries; and they showed him all things, how great and magnificent they were: and after he had looked upon them all and examined them as he had occasion, Croesus asked him as follows: "Athenian guest, much report of thee has come to us, both in regard to thy wisdom and thy wanderings, how that in thy search for wisdom thou hast traversed many lands to see them; now therefore a desire has come upon me to ask thee whether thou hast seen any whom thou deemest to be of all men the most happy."
 This he asked supposing that he himself was the happiest of men; but Solon, using no flattery but the truth only, said: "Yes, O king, Tellos the Athenian." And Croesus, marvelling at that which he said, asked him earnestly: "In what respect dost thou judge Tellos to be the most happy?"
 And he said: "Tellos, in the first place, living while his native State was prosperous, had sons fair and good and saw from all of them children begotten and living to grow up; and secondly he had what with us is accounted wealth, and after his life a most glorious end: for when a battle was fought by the Athenians at Eleusis against the neighbouring people, he brought up supports and routed the foe and there died by a most fair death; and the Athenians buried him publicly where he fell, and honoured him greatly."

"My son, what did Herodatus say to you?"

"Nothing, Wasn't that talks between Croesus and Solon?"

" Yes, as recorded and presented by Herodatus.  Now, what does History, from the Father of History, say to you?"

" A bunch of random stuff that happened."

" Indeed."

"How about that? Now, ask me again, what I could possibly ask for  more that I do not already possess?"

The trio of babes smiled , " We got you a gift certificate from B Dubs."

I could not be more pleased.