Columnists
|
Columnists
|
|
February
27 , 2002
Jack admits that his life hasn’t gone as he had planned. And he’s genuinely grateful for that fact. A little over 20 years ago, Jack was serving as vice president of a Fortune 100 company, luxuriating in the comfortable life style a six-figure salary can buy, looking forward to finishing up a successful career with his company and enjoying a comfortable retirement. But all that changed when, on a business trip in Western Canada, Bohuslaw took a swim in the pool of the upscale motel where he was staying (a regular habit both for stress reduction as well as exercise). He and his doctors believe that it was in the pool that he contracted an unusually virulent virus that affected his hearing. In a matter of months, Jack was profoundly deaf. The virus turned the skin in his ear canal to “mush,” making hearing aids ineffectual. Over a period of two years, doctors in Boston performed a serried of experimental surgeries grafting tender skin from his upper arms into his ear canal and making it possible for Jack to regain some hearing through two hearing aids. But that was too little, too late for his employers; after all, Jack explains, “How can you be a Vice President of Marketing, when you can’t hear a thing people are saying?” To add insult to injury, after only four years, Jack’s company went through a downsizing and he was let go. That was the blackest period, Jack reported recently. “That was hard. I had always been a person who was an optimist,” he said. “All my life, if I wanted something bad enough I could work for it and achieve it. And here I was, handicapped. It felt pretty hopeless.” Jack admits he “went through the valley of darkness.” A big part of his journey was learning to forgive himself. “I asked myself every day, ‘what did I do wrong? What did I ever do to deserve this?’” He took a big step in the recovery of his faith when he convinced himself that he wasn’t being punished by an avenging God. “Then,” Jack reports, “I realized I’d have to re-invent myself. I had to set new goals.” But before he could move ahead on his new goals, he had to take an important step. “I discovered the virtue of humility. I realized I could still do good things, maybe not where I’d be making a ton of money, or winning awards, but I’d have personal awards. I figured I must have some skill that God wanted me to use to serve Him.” So Jack set out on his new life. He started by volunteering in a literacy center, and then in a program teaching immigrants English as a second language. He went back to school for a Master’s degree. It was while he was in school that he realized he was a good writer. After graduation he got a job as a cub reporter for a local newspaper, and over several years worked his way up to the position of Features Editor for The Catholic Transcript, one of three diocesan newspaper papers in Connecticut. In his spare time, Jack does research on his pet project, the anti-Catholic sentiments in Revolutionary America. His book is titled, “Patriotism, Politics and Anti-popery,” and relates an account that most Americans have never heard. “The stories in this book will not be found in any secular text,” Jack said. “They are buried in the torn pages and broken backs of texts in a few archives and libraries.” Most of us are unaware of this important part of our history and using historical documents and quotes from such leaders as Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Samuel Adams. Bohuslaw proves without a doubt that one of the major aims of these well-loved heroes was to keep America from Catholicism. Today John’s outlook is cheerful and upbeat. He’s content with his lot in life and has an important life-goal. “I know I’ve been given a lot by God and I haven’t really given much back. I’m still trying to give something back.”
|
