John --
Welcome back. I've been mostly gone, too, but gca.com remains one of my Home Pages, and I click in once in a while to see if there's anything particularly interesting to me (usually mostly OT) on Page 1.
I'll answer one of your questions.
My balloons -- like the best golf-course architecture? -- would be translucent.
Any God worth believing in, I figure, would forgive my failure to be transparent and reward my success in avoiding opaqueness.
My mother died in July, at 90, after a wonderful life and a miserable decline. Her "brand," like Jim Kennedy's, is her family -- certainly not simple, and perhaps not instantly recognizable, but enduring nonetheless. For her memorial "celebration," all of us (sons, daughters, sons- and daughters-in-law, the nine grandchildren) contributed to a 10,000-word essay that I had the honor of assembling -- all of it testifying to her faith that giving your all to your family is a noble way to spend a life. I share that faith.
Do I have "faith" that she has gone to "a better place"? No, I do not. I do not have faith that there is any other place, better or otherwise. Never have!
But I do have faith that if I'm wrong, and there is a better place, she's there -- and that I'll be there, too, someday, if I live and love as well as she did (whether I believe in that place or not).
Good luck on your journey!
Dan