The WAY to WOW Shows
Columbus Day Celebration
October 13, 2025
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[0:02] Who are you and where are you going? What do you want? [Music] Hello and welcome to this special edition of the Way to Wow shows. I'm your host Kevin Bemel and today we are celebrating Columbus Day. So it is the uh 13th of of October uh 2025 and um this day marks um really a a uh

[0:43] recognition of uh the voyages of discovery uh on on on which uh Christopher Columbus embarked um but also the the contribution uh to this country that Italian-Americans that Italians who have um immigrated here, become Italian-Americans, I suppose, um have made over the uh you know, the last what umund roughly 150 years. So, uh I'm going to do two things today. For those of you who watch these special editions, you

[1:20] know that uh I look at um both uh the historical aspects of of a particular holiday uh and then do a reading. And I'm going to do both here. So, I'm going to give you a a a somewhat uh detailed summary of Christopher Columbus's voyages and and then um my my reading uh for this uh Columbus Day is um from uh uh um

[1:56] from uh from Washington Irving. Sorry, I I spaced out for a minute. uh Washington Irving in 1828 wrote a book called The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. And so I'm going to be reading a short excerpt. Uh Irving Washington Irving of course being one of the great uh early uh writers uh here here in the United States. So, uh, Christopher Columbus was born in well, so if if you're a child, uh, from my era anyway, you learn in in 1492, Columbus

[2:32] sailed the ocean blue. That's how you remembered, uh, the date of of his voyage. Uh, he was born though in 1451 in Genoa, Italy. And he grew up in a maritime environment. He gained experience as a sailor and a navigator in the Mediterranean Sea um and also along the Atlantic coast of Europe. His he was exposed to the trade and the trade that was going out on at the time and also the exploration and this fueled

[3:08] his desire to find new routes to Asia. So middle of the 15th century uh the Europeans were uh engaging ever farther out into trade. Um quite some time before that. Marco Polo uh you know if if one and there are I know there are some who who doubt this as as history but Marco Polo opened up the Orient uh to trade with Europe and there were

[3:43] basically uh two routes to trade with the the the east. Um, and that was uh what was known as the Silk Road overland traveling east uh through Asia or to sail from Europe around Africa the the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean and on to China etc. uh both were uh long, hazardous. And so Columbus

[4:20] theorizing that the world was round, he he concluded that if he sailed west from Europe, he would encounter um the Orient. And so that was really the the motivation for his for what became his voyages of discovery. So Columbus went to pardon me several European monarchs um in the uh mid to late 15th century

[4:56] including Portugal, England and France to get funding for his exposition. uh and he was rejected by all of those countries. Finally, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain uh agreed to support his journey or his his expedition um and and they were interested in expanding trade um but also in spreading uh Christianity in particular uh the Roman Catholic faith. Uh so they had the

[5:32] the kind of you know dual goal if you will um that they uh that that they felt Christopher Columbus could help could help uh in in in meeting. So um the ships that he secured for his first voyage and and Columbus made uh three voyages of of discovery uh to to the new world. Uh I'm sorry he made four voyages of discovery. I was I was just double check. I was saying, wait, three didn't sound right. Yeah, four voyages of discovery uh to what became known as the new world. In his first voyage, he

[6:08] sailed with the Ninia, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The Ninia and the Pinta were what were known as caravls. And the the the Santa Maria was his largest ship and it was his flagship. Uh and u but but they they all were pretty small. Now just to give you an idea, okay, a caravl is a a type of sailing ship that was developed by the Portuguese in the 15th century. It was widely used um during the age of exploration. Um and its key

[6:45] features were first of all it was its size. It was small and light usually between 500 and 150 tons. Now you may say 500 I'm sorry 50 to 150 tons. Wow that sounds huge. Well uh by comparison today uh a US nuclear aircraft carrier I think weighs in at something like a 100,000 tons. Okay. So it gives you an idea of just how small these uh ships of Columbus were. They had a shallow draft that allowed them to sail close into

[7:21] shore and navigate rivers as well as as open oceans. They also had what were called lanteen, otherwise known as triangular sails, which made them very maneuverable and able to sail closer to the wind than a square rigged ship. So they were more efficient sailors. Uh and um now some caravls um did combine square sales with the Lantine sails. Uh and I I think that was the case with the Ninia and the Pinta. Um compared to uh

[8:00] larger ships like Carrick, caravl were faster, they were easier to handle, and they could be run with smaller crews. So they were less expensive uh to to man as well. And this made them particularly good for exploration and especially mapping coastlines because they could get into the coastlines as well as long ocean voyages. Uh and and so um and then as well given their size they could carry a moderate amount of cargo. Uh they were not used as cargo vessels.

[8:36] They were used more as vessels of exploration. Um, and they weren't used as warships either. They didn't mount heavy cannons. They didn't have the the ability to do that. But so you can see that that these ships that that with which Columbus sailed were very small. So his first voyage departed uh Palos, Spain on August 3rd, 1492, a day before I was born. although many centuries hence although you know you look at my hair and you go well maybe maybe he was alive in 1492. Okay. His

[9:14] crew uh include a mix of sailors, adventurers and as was common at the time men pressed into service. Um towns people and family members gathered to bid them farewell. And given the nature of the voyage really saying sailing off west across the Atlantic, many feared that they would never see uh the sailors again. So uh they initially sailed along the Spanish coast. They followed the southern coast of Spain um navigating toward the Canary Islands and and this

[9:49] gave them a chance to sort of check out the ships and and and um you know determine their seaorthiness. Uh and and they they um repaired uh minor damage and route. Um when they got to the Canary Islands, they were able to affect more significant repairs and take on supplies. uh Columbus and and his he spent about a month in the Canary Islands uh for what was anticipated to be a long ocean crossing and and the stop also allowed him to observe local

[10:25] navigation techniques and and and get a sense of the trade winds um that would help him in the voyage. So he hit first landfall on October 12, 1492. So, you know, a little over a month about a month and a half uh or so after he a month to a month and a half after he left uh the Canary Islands. Um and he reached an island in what became known as the Bahamas uh named uh which he

[11:00] named San Salvador for Saint Salvador, one of of course many uh saints in in the Roman Catholic faith. Um they believed that they had reached the coast of Asia uh not realizing that they had discovered a new continent and and this did mark the uh the first um European encounter with the Americas in the modern era. So several centuries previously, Vikings had landed on the

[11:35] coast of what became known as North America. Uh but that was around, I think, the year 1000, I I I want to say. Um and and so uh Columbus marked the the the the sort of you could call it rediscovery, but really the discovery of of the Americas in in the modern age. um mistaking mistakenly believing that he had reached Asia uh when he uh happened upon native inhabitants of the Americas, he referred to them as

[12:12] Indians. That's that's where that term comes from. Again, if if you know from my like in when I was a child that we we learned that just as as a matter of course. Uh Columbus continued to explore the area. Um after San Salvador, he explored parts of present-day Cuba and Hispanola. Um he of course encountered local populations there. He assessed resources and he sought suitable locations for future settlements, laying the

[12:47] groundwork for Spain's uh colonial ambitions in the Caribbean. So um the the Santa Maria uh Columbus's um flagship ran a ground in Hispanola and leaving Columbus with without his flagship um and he he used it the wood from it called its timbers he established a small settlement called La Navidad um and and and it was the idea was to maintain a Spanish presence in um

[13:23] the Caribbean. Um however, the the the the settlement pretty much from the get-go faced a lot of internal strife um as well as uh resistance from the indigenous population there. So, uh he returned to Spain in March of 1493. Um um he got there uh um um on March 15th. as a as a matter of fact, the eyides of March 1493. Um, and bringing news of new lands, gold, and and native

[13:58] peoples. He received a hero's welcome. He was celebrated at court and he was rewarded with gifts and titles and his his reports sparked widespread interest in um exploring this what um they realized was a a new continent. So later in 1493 uh Columbus mounted a second voyage. This time, of course, he had no trouble uh financing the voyage. He had uh 17

[14:34] ships as opposed to three, and he had hundreds of colonists um aimed at and and the idea was to establish personal settlements. He returned to the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, uh Jamaica, and the lesser Antilles. And um and the goal was uh you know again to expand the Spanish presence but also to begin the process of converting the native peoples to Christianity. So um during the second voyage Columbus

[15:10] struggled with a number of problems including supply shortages. Uh by the way the voyage lasted until 1496. So it was a three-year voyage. Um and he there was internal conflict and continuing resistance from the indigenous populations. Uh his people suffered disease, hunger and misunderstandings created tensions within the colony. And yet despite all of these difficulties, he he persevered in exploring and uh securing uh Spanish claims

[15:45] uh and and and again returned to Spain in 1496. In 1498 he mounted a third voyage to the new new world and this brought him to the South American mainland. now um reaching um Orono the Oronoko River in present day Venezuela. Um and the discovery uh confirmed the existence of a massive landmass previously unknown to Europeans. However, um his leadership

[16:24] um began to be questioned at this point um due to his mismanagement of the colony of Hispanola. Uh and and in in the in 1500 he returned to uh Spain. So in that year um due to complaints about how he had governed Hispanola, Columbus was arrested um and and u his his return uh to Spain was actually as as a prisoner. Um he was later released but his reputation did

[17:00] suffer. he lost many of his administrative privileges and um the event really highlighted the difficulties of colonial administration. Now you know today we're so used to essentially instantaneous worldwide communication. It's hard to imagine a situation in the the situation in the 15th century where you know if if you were a sovereign King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella you sent you know what am what amounted to an envoy to another

[17:35] location that person acted with a very very high degree of um discretion in terms of what they did uh because it could be months or longer for a letter to get, you know, from their envoy back to Spain and then months again to for a letter a response to go get back to the envoy. There was no telephone, telegraph, all of those of course uh were not were not invented until the 19th century, 400 years hence. And so uh

[18:13] you know it was it was easy or well it was easier let's say for you know a colonial administrator because he had so much authority uh to to act in in uh what people may have thought considered to be a dictatorial manner. uh you know as long as he had the support of the military there wasn't a whole lot that other people could do. Um hence you know systems of patronage and such uh developed so that people could have uh so people could um uh you

[18:51] know get on essentially the good side of of the ruler and and and you know see that their objectives were met. Uh and so uh after you know being released and and sort of doing what he could to rehabilitate his reputation uh Columbus uh conducted his uh fourth and uh final voyage uh in 1502 um to and and and this time he was intent on filing a westward passage to Asia. So he explored parts of Central

[19:27] America including the coasts of uh modern-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Um and and the expedition face storm storms, shipwrecks, and hostile encounters with uh indigenous populations. And in the event uh Columbus did not find uh a route heading west from Spain to get to Asia uh that that took uh future explorers to do. So um during the fourth voyage um which lasted until 1504,

[20:02] Columbus and his crew uh found themselves stranded for months in Jamaica after a shipwreck. um they survived through ingenuity and trade with the locals and really just sheer uh perseverance um and and the voyage really tested his resilience and leadership under extreme conditions. So, you know, despite the somewhat uh controversial nature of of Columbus's uh life and and career, indeed, he he uh exhibited a tremendous amount of u of uh

[20:42] stickuitiveness and and a great deal of leadership as well. Um in 1504, Columbus returned to Spain. At this point he was aged. He was physically weakened. So um if you recall he was born in 1451. So at in in 1504 he was really just 53 years old. But given the wear and tear and and and 53, you know, back in the 15th century or very early 16th century was of course a lot older than it is uh

[21:18] today. He spent his uh final years trying to regain his titles and wealth um while maintaining um the belief that he hadn't well while well while sort of trying to create this idea that in fact he had reached Asia when in fact he hadn't um and and among many despite his struggles he did he he was respected for his uh daring achievements um in 1506 uh Columbus died in Valald Dolid uh Spain and uh at at the age of um uh 55.

[22:00] Um he he still had it in his mind that he had found a route to Asia when in fact of course he did not. Um but his voyages permanently connected Europe and the Americas. Um and um uh you know his his legacy includes sort of the kickoff of this new age of European exploration. Um and the profound and complex relations

[22:36] uh between uh Europeans and the indigenous populations of North and South America. a a um an issue that is still um uh being discussed and worked on today. Um you know there are uh many people who you know look at Columbus as you know horrible human being as as the progenitor of of genocide and and and they've created indig indigenous people's day to replace Columbus Day. I

[23:12] think that's a an incorrect reading of of history. Uh but but nonetheless uh there's there's no doubt that um the clash of civilizations um between uh those of uh the Americas and and Europe uh was was real and and there were there were uh you know difficult consequences uh for for mankind as a result of as there is any time there's a clash of civilizations.

[23:48] So I I I think that you know there are some some takeaways um that that we can uh that we can adopt on this Columbus Day and and one is a a a a sense of the courage uh that it takes to explore the unknown. And that exploration does not have to be uh geographic. It can be economic. It can be uh um um idealistic

[24:23] and and something that I I I I I hope we would inspire within ourselves in the sense that uh we would feel impelled to grow, to learn, to take risks in developing ourselves both uh or or not both but uh professionally ally, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, all of any kind of human development

[24:58] entails risk because as we develop, we we leave our old selves behind with a hope that the new self that we create will be better. So to to digress for just a minute, um I'm reading a book. Uh I've really found it hard to put down. Uh and so I end up reading it instead of getting a good night's sleep. Uh it's written by uh Moren McCormack. It's it's called Here's the Story. Uh

[25:34] for those of you who are familiar with a TV show called The Brady Bunch, uh Moren McCormack played the oldest sister, Marsha, Marsha Brady. And as she notes in the beginning of the book, Marca Brady was the uh the girl that that every girl of that time wanted to be and every boy of that time wanted to date. And I will raise my hand. Yes. Right. I wanted to date Marcia Brady. was the coolest. Uh, and and in deference to Maren McCormack's uh, comment in the book about admiring Susan Day, who was

[26:12] the eldest daughter in the Partridge family. Nah, sorry. I mean, she was fine, but but you know, Marcia Brady was the one. The book is an an exploration of her life. if it's a memoir. And one of the things that I've taken from reading her book that I think applies to the ideas that I'm discussing here on Columbus Day is her acknowledgment of the fear she had in letting herself

[26:50] grow beyond the persona that she was as as a girl and a teenager playing this role on television, this iconic what became an iconic role on television. Um, and for decades really not having a sense of who she truly was because she knew she was not the character despite uh meeting people and and having them recognize her and calling even calling her Marsha instead of Moren, which was her name. and and

[27:28] feeling that she could not she was not only wasn't she this character. she was sort of inauthentic because she couldn't be this character and the kind of pain that it caused her uh for again for decades and the pain it caused people in her life until she could finally gain the courage partly through the support of her husband and her mother and and and other friends to

[28:03] risk moving beyond this idea she had in her mind of who she had to be took tremendous courage on her part. One might argue it took as much courage as it did for Christopher Columbus to face this idea of of of traveling into, you know, the unknown. I I I think we sometimes uh poo poo the kind of emotional and spiritual courage it takes to move beyond

[28:40] ourselves into our greater selves. But indeed it it can take tremendous courage and and I think that the exploration of who we can be is perhaps the most important voyage on which each one of us can embark. And and and so uh I I I highly recommend to you Marie McCormack's book again. It's called Here's the Story. Uh I I don't

[29:15] think it's currently in print, but I I would I bought a copy on Amazon. It is very well written. Uh it is um revealing, but not in a purant way. I think it's authentic. Of course, I I've never met Marie McCormack. uh but but I I I it's it's it's an excellent uh an outstanding vehicle really through which we can learn how better to do the kind of emotional and spiritual exploration that

[29:51] all of us need to do. may be inspired by uh Christopher Columbus and facilitated by those who by any measure I think uh Marie McCormack had a much uh much much tougher journey of of self-standing than certainly uh anything uh on which I've ever had to embark. So I think the one idea we should take from Columbus Day is is the necessity of being courageous in exploring

[30:27] um uh again ourselves in in in exploring the uh opportunity in our professional lives in in um building exploring how to better build relationships with family members, with loved ones, and in exploring how we can better serve our communities. All of these are journeys of discovery, of exploration on which we can all sail to the betterment of not only ourselves but

[31:02] but our fellow citizens. I think another lesson that we can take from Columbus Day is the power of good leadership. to lead men, even men who were up for a big adventure, on a journey that many people thought would would never, you know, would never work out well, it was it was not only bound to failure, it was essentially a road to their demise. And to keep that crew together, to keep them

[31:38] uh focused on the goal is a letter a level of leadership that while we may not all be able to reach uh it's one that we can uh with which we can be inspired and one to which we can attempt to reach even if we never get there. And you know there's a lot of of of of talk I've talked about this on my various shows before this idea of of servant leadership. Uh certainly there

[32:13] there is an aspect of service to leadership but leadership fundamentally is about setting an example and an inspiring example about how people can make can improve their lives and the lives of others improve their communities. uh whether the the community is a a local community like a city, whether it's a professional or work community, uh whether it's a a a worship community.

[32:48] So, I think we've somehow gotten away from the idea that leadership should be inspirational. And I think Columbus Day is a good time to remember that. leadership has to be well let me let me be careful how I say this uh true good leadership has to be inspirational okay it has to create a sense in people that they want

[33:25] to be more that they can be more that they can do more so it's not just a servant function it's it's it's greater than that. And I think that uh Christopher Columbus who persevered despite the the vicissitudes of life, despite despite the challenges of shipwrecks and and hunger uh and setbacks, uh is an example of inspired leadership that we can all adopt. And then finally,

[34:02] I think that Christopher Columbus Day and and the life of Christopher Columbus is as well an opportunity for us to consider uh what are the results of what we do. So to have a to be devoted to a goal while it's it's a a a crucial aspect

[34:37] of our life discovery, we need to be mindful of how the pursuit of our goal impacts other people. Okay? And I'm not saying that Christopher Columbus did or didn't do that. I I I I don't know. Um and and this gets back to what I was mentioning about the criticisms of him and his voyages. Uh and and because five centuries later, more than five centuries later, that aspect of Christopher Columbus's

[35:14] voyages is still controversial. It should give us pause as we pursue our own goals to think about what impact does the pursuit and the achievement of these goals have on other people, on the members of our family, our friends and loved ones, the our our fellow members of our communities, our nation. we we we should we should take those

[35:50] into account. Now uh do we need to set other people's needs above our own? Well, I think that depends. That's that's a balancing that we always to for for which we always need to be mindful. Okay. So, we don't need to subtend our own lives to that of others. But at the same time, we can't be so selfish as to deny other people um or or as to ignore I I I think is a better way to put it. Ignore other people and our

[36:27] impact on them in a you know single-minded even blind pursuit of that which we want. So, I I I I think those are three uh lessons, if you will, that I I I hope you'll you'll take away uh on this Columbus Day and the the the necessity to uh even today go on voyages of discovery even if we don't leave uh you know the vicinity in which we currently uh live. uh the idea that

[37:05] inspirational inspiration, the ability to inspire is a crucial part of true leadership. And again, that uh we need to consider the impact on others as we pursue our goals. So, I'm going to end up I'm going to conclude this show, I should say, with the reading that I mentioned at the beginning of the show. Again, it's from Washington Irving's A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher

[37:40] Columbus, written in uh 1828. Okay. And um just I've got I've got I'm going to preface preface it and and close it with just real short remarks and and and uh here we go. So, um, today as we observe Columbus Day, uh, we look beyond the controversies controversies of history to consider the spirit that animated one of mankind's boldest undertakings, the crossing of an unknown ocean in search of uh, a new route um,

[38:16] but what turned out to be a new world. So Washington Irving, often called the first great American man of letters, uh wrote the earliest full biography of Columbus in English. And in this passage, he portrays not only the courage of one man, but the pace, the faith and perseverance that made discovery possible. So as you listen, imagine the scene at Palos, the the small harbor from which Christopher Columbus and his crew set forth at dawn. Three small

[38:54] fragile ships, a handful of sailors, and really one unshakable belief that the horizon did not mark the end of the world, but indeed its beginning. On Friday the 3rd of August 1492, Columbus set sail from the bar bar of Saltace in the port of Palos with three vessels. Two of them called caravls were light vessels without decks in the center and only covered at the prow and

[39:30] stern. The third was a larger ship called the Santa Maria, completely decked and on board of which Columbus himself embarked. When the signal gun was fired from the little fortress, the mariners gave a parting cheer, and the crowd on shore returned it with loud acclamations. Many wept, for they knew not whether they would ever see their friends or country again. Columbus stood upon the deck of his vessel, his eye fixed on the land he was leaving. The surge of the tide bore him

[40:07] slowly from the shore, and the breeze soon sprang up, which was to carry him across the unknown seas. For many days they were driven forward by a strong east wind. The coast of Spain gradually faded from sight. the mountains of Pharaoh, one of the Canary Islands, where the last land beheld. Then came the solitude of the ocean, vast, limitless, and mysterious. The seaman looked around with awe upon the boundless expanse, and felt as if

[40:42] they were launching forth upon a world of waters where human foot had never trod, and whence perhaps they might never return. Columbus alone was calm. His mind filled with high and solemn thoughts seemed born above all earthly anxiety. The spirit of discovery, the hope of bringing new nations to the knowledge of the gospel and the glory of his sovereigns, all combined to sustain him. Each evening he observed the heavens with pious attention. Each morning he

[41:17] gave thanks to God for the protection of the night. As the voyage advanced, the compass was observed to vary from true north, a phenomenon that had never been before been noticed. The seaman were alarmed, fearing that nature herself was changing to deceive them. Columbus, with admirable presence of mind, explained the mystery in a manner that calmed their fears, though he himself was secretly troubled by the occurrence. Days lengthened into weeks. Vast fields

[41:55] of weeds covered the surface of the ocean, impeding the progress of the ships. The seaman murmured that they were approaching the verge of the world where the sea, they said, was thick and motionless, and that they would be swallowed up in its stagnant depths. Columbus encouraged them with cheerful words, representing these weeds as signs of land, and promising that each day's voyage would bring them nearer to the end of their labors. On the evening of the 11th of October, after sunset, Columbus took his station

[42:30] on the top of the castle of his vessel and kept a vigilant watch, for he suspected the proximity of land. About 10:00, he thought he beheld a light glimmering in the distance, as if from a torch waved to and fro. He called to Pedro Gutierrez, who also thought he saw it. Others looked, but the light disappeared. It reappeared once or twice as if in motion, but so indistinctly that Columbus was uncertain whether it was a signal from land or a

[43:06] trick of the night. At two in the morning, a a gun from the pinta gave the joyful signal of land. A cry of tiara ti resounded through the ships. The dawn soon revealed the shore of a beautiful island with verdant verdant with trees and watered by innumerable streams. The inhabitants, naked and simple, gazed with wonder upon the strange visitors, while Columbus, in the rich dress of a Spanish grande,

[43:42] bearing the royal standard, descended upon the beach, and took possession of the land in the name of his sovereigns. He named it San Salvador in token of the divine mercy which had conducted him in safety across the perils of the ocean. Kneeling upon the sands, he returned thanks to God with tears of joy. His followers joined him in hymns of praise and thus was accomplished the great event which gave two civilized man a new

[44:17] hemisphere. So Washington Irving wrote these words more than three centuries after Columbus's voyage, but they still speak to the courage, faith, and vision that drive discovery in every age. So on this Columbus Day, I hope you're flying your flag. Uh, I put mine out at about 7:30 this morning. And I hope that we'll remember that the greatest journeys begin with conviction that even

[44:52] across uncharted seas, human hope has always found a way forward. So, I thank you very much for joining me on this Columbus Day. I wish you a meaningful celebration time with family and friends and look forward to seeing you uh on my next show. I have the next two days off for the last of the two Jewish holidays this fall. And signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you're my bell. Courage,

[45:28] especially in discovery at all times, my friends.