Exceedingly Mundane

I had the TV on and they broke in to show smoke coming out of the chimney at the Vatican. At first, of course, the media being the media, jumped to the wrong conclusion that it could be white, which would signal the election of a new pope. It seems to be black now and of course, the bells are not ringing, so apparently it’s just the first vote. The commentator just said that the shortest conclave in the modern era had 3 votes, so I doubt it will be today or maybe even tomorrow. But I’ll keep watching, I love the ritual and tradition and history of all of this. Oh, and they said about 40,000 people are in the square outside the Vatican watching. I can’t believe there’s that many people out there waiting!