Free!

I suppose it's only fitting for a Pauline... that "free" should be among my favorite words.

When I was in fourth grade, I treasured a white, business-card sized paper printed with filigree 'round the edges and the bold inscription: FREE TICKET. On the reverse, in italics, it continued, "It's not good for anything, it's just FREE." I thought that little piece of paper was hysterically funny. Goodness knows how much entertainment I got out of showing it to people, waiting for them to laugh, too, but...relatively few others thought it was anyway near as funny as I did. Nonetheless, "free" remains high on my list.

It is especially fun for me here in Chicago, where marketing agencies test or promote new products, giving them away by the thousands "on every street corner." Today I was handed a cup of microwave stuffing (just add water and microwave!) on the way to Mass. Naturally, on the way back I took the same streets so I could pick up some more.

After all, it was FREE.

And tonight, there is another FREE treat in store for me and one other person (depending on who returns my call): one of our priest friends provided two FREE tickets to the Chicago Symphony!

There's a reason I like that word so much!