Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader finds himself getting rather more emotional about things than he ever used to. He is sure that as time goes on he’ll find himself more and more emotional about things that had never, previously, elicited an emotional response. He figures much of this is the result of being a parent and having a longer view of life than he did when younger.

While your Maximum Leader wouldn’t call his parents “old” he recognizes that they are “older.” He reads that 50 is the new 30, which means that 60 must be the new 40. One presumes that 70 is the new 50… Your Maximum Leader’s grandparents are all dead. And he knows that one day, his parents will die. He’s talked, informally, with hisparents about their wishes for burial and such. He wants to know what they want to do so that he may act in accordance with their wishes.

Indeed, your Maximum Leader feels that it is encumbent upon him to respect their wishes so long as he is able to do so. Pretty much, short of some sort of twisted vile ritual dismemberment of the corpse, there aren’t many traditional burials to which your Maximum Leader would object. Even if their choice is not what your Maximum Leader would have chosen, it doesn’t make much difference. It is their choice, not his.

Your Maximum Leader mentions this to frame his mindset when he approached a recent article in the Washington Post. It is a 5 page (on the internet) article entitled “A Family at Cross-Purposes.” The article is about the dispute within the family of Billy Graham about the future burial arrangements for Billy and Ruth Graham.

First off, your Maximum Leader is inclinded to agree with the one commentator who said (in rather purple prose) that after the original Apostles, Billy Graham is the greatest Christian Evangelist in history. (Your Maximum Leader thinks that the commentator actually might have said that after the Apostle Paul, Billy Graham is the greatest evangelist in history.) Your Maximum Leader would put Billy Graham and Pope John Paul II as the two most significant religious figures of the past 100 years - and quite possibly the most significant religious figures in 200 years.

So we know that Billy Graham is an important person, and an inspriation to many. But, according to all accounts, he is a modest and humble man. A man truly touched by the Spirit and mindful of his place on Earth and before the Lord. This makes the news of the article that much more difficult for your Maximum Leader.

Billy’s elder son, and heir to the evangelical empire that has sprung up around Billy Graham, is Franklin Graham. Franklin, it seems, wants to bury Billy in a Disney-esque theme park replete with talking Holstein cows and gift shops. Ruth, Billy’s wife and Franklin’s mother, wants to be buried near a small chapel in the mountains. Other children appear to be taking sides. Billy, who it would seem could take a final decision on this, does not appear willing to do so. (Although it is possible that he may not be mentally able to take such a decision. There seems to be an undercurrent of mental frailty in the article. This is not the same a dementia or such. Just an inability to take such a decision. Your Maximum Leader saw similar behaviour exhibited by his own grandfather at times.)

The story made your Maximum Leader angry. Very angry. Mostly angry at Franklin Graham. (A reaction that was, perhaps, intentionally written for by the piece’s author.) Perhaps if you read the peice you will feel the same. Your Maximum Leader just hopes that Billy and Ruth Graham are buried together near the small chapel in accordance with Ruth’s wishes.

Carry on.