Blagojevich's silence

Well, it's finally over: Rod Blagojevich is now a plain old citizen.

If you want to see the full video of his closing argument, you can watch it here. (Be warned: he talks for about 46 minutes.)

The part I want to focus on is the last minute. Watch it if you can.

If you're too lazy to, I'll spoil it for you and reveal what happens: silence.

It occurred to me that sometimes the best way to appreciate what I have is to see what happens to those who do not.

There are so many people who spend their entire lives defending themselves and in the end it will mean absolutely nothing. All of their resistance to acknowledge the truth, their refusal to admit to their standing with it, will be met with a deafening silence.

When I bear down on the thought of being met with infinite silence at the end of my life, I realize how that is just a scratch on the unfathomed surface of what hell really is.

I am grateful to be one who has someone to defend me, in my stead - whose testimony and pleas demand a ruling in my favor and secure an eventual greeting that will put all the applause that President Barack Obama has ever heard to shame.

Now my struggle is to go beyond this whisper of heaven and to genuinely desire this privilege to be extended to many more.