We lost one of the great ones that had a big effect on my life. Fr. Paul Berg is gone. Fr. Berg seemed agless. He was old when we were in school. He was old when we left school, and he was old when I saw him a couple of years ago. The great ones are leaving us, which means we must be getting old.
I have great memories of Fr. Berg, hitting golf balls on the ballfield, shooting free throws in the gym, and he was the official SHS College basketball coach, and playing lots of handball. But my fondest memory of Fr. Berg was from Philosophy class. I ended up with Philosophy being my Minor in school.
We had a series of classes with Fr. Berg and we were discussing being and existentialism and I was having a hard time conceiving the concept, especially being. One night I went to his room for a conversation and told him of my difficulty understanding the concept. We talked quite a while and I still didn't get it. Finally, frustrated, he said to me, "Being is being because it is, non being is non being because it ain't, what is not cannot be and what cannot be isn't." It made all of the sense in the world to me and Fr. Berg opened up a whole new world.
He also taught me that there is no such thing as motion or progress. Since all things in the world are made up of points, line segments, and lines, he stated that movement was a perception and not a real thing. I asked him how and he said that since all things are made of of points, line segments and lines he could prove it. He asked me for the definition of a line and imagine me going from Detroit to Chicago. I said that the definition of a line was the connection of two points. He asked what were those points. I said a beginning point and an endpoint. He asked if there were a mid point. I said that yes, for every line there was a midpoint. He asked, what was that called. I said a line segment. He asked what was the midpoint of the line segment, I said another midpoint. He then asked the distance between the first point and the first mid point of the first line segment. I said that it was infinity He said correct and because you could never reach the first midpoint of the first line segment, there was no progress and therefore no such thing as motion.
Do you think that this guy had an effect on my life? LOL
Rest in Peace Coach.
Amen Bill --
ReplyDeleteThere were thousands of us whoe lives were touched by Fr.Berg.
This past year he celebrated 60 years of priesthood. I sent him a crad and he responded with a note, saying thanks for being one of the faithful. That was misplaced because who was more faithful than Fr. Berg? When I left the sem. my first job was as a bartender at a junky bar in Flat Rock - hey it was a job. Whenever I saw Berg after that he always wanted an update on the "latest" and in fact he affectionately called me "Flat Rock" He was also part of the social conscience of the seminary - he talked tyhe talk and walked the walk. His funeral was quite a reunion - quite a celebration of his life.