here's sherry instructing a group of kids at the london ferrell community garden yesterday. a large VBS group visited exploring what it means to be "stewards of creation". thanks to seedleaf and christ church cathedral the kids a had a great morning. sherry chatted with the kids and read "frog belly rat bone" (a brilliant book given to us years ago by the dear gladdings...check it out).
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
sleepless in lexington
go here to find out more about this event
Sleepless in Lexington is a unique and meaningful fundraising experience designed to help end homelessness in Lexington.
Dollars raised from Sleepless in Lexington will go to raise awareness of homelessness and also support local non-profit organizations dedicated to helping the homeless and poor.
Organizations supported by Sleepless in Lexington include the following: Catholic Action Center, Church Under the Bridge, Lexington Rescue Mission, Lighthouse Ministries, Nathaniel Mission, Room in the Inn, ROSM, Salvation Army, and Step by Step
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Update from Africa
Hello to everyone back home and to all our friends in various places. I'm sorry that I have not been able to post another update about our Africa trip until this point. We've had a chance to rest this weekend in Pretoria, South Africa and catch our breath before the beginning of the Amahoro Conference in the Johannesburg area tomorrow. The conference will last all next week and will conclude (for me) with a weekend field trip to Cape Town that ends Monday morning. Greg will be leaving for Dakar, Senegal on Saturday and will be spending another day with Daniel before heading back to the US on Tuesday. I will be spending the remainder of Monday in Johannesburg and will be flying back on Tuesday evening. The last three weeks have been an amazing experience but I'm definitely glad that we're beginning to wind things down.
It is hard to know where to begin in describing the last two weeks of travel through Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa. There is so much to say and consider. I will try to briefly highlight a few things. The first thing is that being away from my family for over three weeks while being in these circumstances has really underscored for me the immense difficulties faced by internally and externally displaced people around the world. I am getting an incredibly small taste of what that is like. But it is enough. Our visit to the informal settlement (slum) of Kibera in Nairobi, opened a new doorway of understanding for me into the global struggle to cope with mass migrations of people, hyper-urbanization, political corruption and the incredibly pernicious effects of colonization (to name just a few). Somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million people live in Kibera, and often times you will have 8-10 people in a mud hut as small as 100 hundred square feet. We visited a primary school that is being sponsored by a ministry in Kibera that had close to 100 children in a mud building that was maybe 300 hundred square feet. So many things to think about and consider.....
Also, we visited a group of women in Kibera who are using shredded recycled paper and cardboard to make very beautiful and creative greeting cards. The initiative was begun by an Australian woman and helps give women from Kibera an opportunity to begin their own business. That was a deeply inspiring visit for me. Also, we visited a sight that a local theological college has in the middle of Kibera and listened to them tell us how they are helping to train students in this context. It gave a new meaning to the term "ministry house." These and many other visits around Nairobi gave us a lot to ponder.
After concluding our time in Nairobi we flew to Kigali, Rwanda where we spent 2 1/2 days with the wonderful folks at ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries). ALARM's focus is helping facilitate reconciliation between the people of Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 genocide. We spent a good amount of time interviewing people from ALARM and others, visiting the Genocide memorial in Kigali and travelling to a site in the eastern province to visit a school project sponsored by ALARM. The museum in Kigali was an unforgettable experience. Almost 260,000 of the 800,000 to 1 million victims of the genocide are buried on the grounds. We saw very graphic and profoundly disturbing images of the events of 1994, including cases full of the often fractured skulls of some of the victims (many children included). We walked away in a daze. What possesses people to do this to their own neighbors, to their own parishioners and to children?
But the principle question that I walked away asking was how could the world simply stand by and watch this happen? The warning signs were as plain as day and a large part of the Hutu elite's plan was predicated upon western indifference. But even more than that we learned anew that the false ethnic divide created by the Belgian colonists between Hutu and Tutsi is what fueled the fires leading to 1994. And sadly, many within the Christian church were deeply complicit in what happened.
In all these respects the visit to Kigali was very heavy. But I can't end on this note. Greg and I were really quite amazed at the job that the people of Rwanda have done rebuilding their country. Kigali is a very beautiful and clean city and you could scarcely imagine that something as horrific as the genocide happend just 15 years prior. The government has really made investing in the city a top priority, and it seems like the west has made an effort to help promote and sustain this initiative. Many of the people here call these funds from the West "guilt dollars." I love it! Anyhow, some pretty amazing things are happening in Rwanda. I think that some questions still remain, but those are for another day.
So, after leaving Rwanda we flew to Johannesburg, South Africa where Greg led a seminar on his book at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. That went well and we were able to spend some quality time with several of the professors and students from UNISA. This gave us a great opporunity to learn from them about what is happening in South Africa and all of the challenges they are facing in the aftermath of Apartheid and the deep divides that it crreated. On Thursday and Friday we visited several groups working in Johannesburg and Pretoria on a broad array of issues including HIV/AIDS, orphans, housing, reonciliation, education, and environmental activism. Though very tired by this point, all the visits were extremely beneficial. It is astounding to think about (just like Rwanda) how much circumstances in South Africa have changed in the last 15 years. I think that many of the changes are profoundly positive and perhaps some of the others are mixed. There are still lots of questions but the opportunity for reconciliation is there, is being embraced by many and is really inspiring to see.
So, perhaps that is all that I should relate at this point. It has really been a remarkable journey and I thank all of you for your prayers. I have definitely felt them when I needed them the most. This has been a great learning experience for me and I've really felt the Spirit's witness both within and without. The people of Africa are amazing and it is an honor to be able to be in life with them and with you. I think that Africa provides a great mirror into which the West needs to look to learn and consider a lot of things about itself. The same holds true for me, and I'm trying to see those things. I look forward to seeing all of you soon.....and a special thanks to those of you who have helped to care for my family during this time..........keep going.......
It is hard to know where to begin in describing the last two weeks of travel through Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa. There is so much to say and consider. I will try to briefly highlight a few things. The first thing is that being away from my family for over three weeks while being in these circumstances has really underscored for me the immense difficulties faced by internally and externally displaced people around the world. I am getting an incredibly small taste of what that is like. But it is enough. Our visit to the informal settlement (slum) of Kibera in Nairobi, opened a new doorway of understanding for me into the global struggle to cope with mass migrations of people, hyper-urbanization, political corruption and the incredibly pernicious effects of colonization (to name just a few). Somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million people live in Kibera, and often times you will have 8-10 people in a mud hut as small as 100 hundred square feet. We visited a primary school that is being sponsored by a ministry in Kibera that had close to 100 children in a mud building that was maybe 300 hundred square feet. So many things to think about and consider.....
Also, we visited a group of women in Kibera who are using shredded recycled paper and cardboard to make very beautiful and creative greeting cards. The initiative was begun by an Australian woman and helps give women from Kibera an opportunity to begin their own business. That was a deeply inspiring visit for me. Also, we visited a sight that a local theological college has in the middle of Kibera and listened to them tell us how they are helping to train students in this context. It gave a new meaning to the term "ministry house." These and many other visits around Nairobi gave us a lot to ponder.
After concluding our time in Nairobi we flew to Kigali, Rwanda where we spent 2 1/2 days with the wonderful folks at ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries). ALARM's focus is helping facilitate reconciliation between the people of Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 genocide. We spent a good amount of time interviewing people from ALARM and others, visiting the Genocide memorial in Kigali and travelling to a site in the eastern province to visit a school project sponsored by ALARM. The museum in Kigali was an unforgettable experience. Almost 260,000 of the 800,000 to 1 million victims of the genocide are buried on the grounds. We saw very graphic and profoundly disturbing images of the events of 1994, including cases full of the often fractured skulls of some of the victims (many children included). We walked away in a daze. What possesses people to do this to their own neighbors, to their own parishioners and to children?
But the principle question that I walked away asking was how could the world simply stand by and watch this happen? The warning signs were as plain as day and a large part of the Hutu elite's plan was predicated upon western indifference. But even more than that we learned anew that the false ethnic divide created by the Belgian colonists between Hutu and Tutsi is what fueled the fires leading to 1994. And sadly, many within the Christian church were deeply complicit in what happened.
In all these respects the visit to Kigali was very heavy. But I can't end on this note. Greg and I were really quite amazed at the job that the people of Rwanda have done rebuilding their country. Kigali is a very beautiful and clean city and you could scarcely imagine that something as horrific as the genocide happend just 15 years prior. The government has really made investing in the city a top priority, and it seems like the west has made an effort to help promote and sustain this initiative. Many of the people here call these funds from the West "guilt dollars." I love it! Anyhow, some pretty amazing things are happening in Rwanda. I think that some questions still remain, but those are for another day.
So, after leaving Rwanda we flew to Johannesburg, South Africa where Greg led a seminar on his book at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. That went well and we were able to spend some quality time with several of the professors and students from UNISA. This gave us a great opporunity to learn from them about what is happening in South Africa and all of the challenges they are facing in the aftermath of Apartheid and the deep divides that it crreated. On Thursday and Friday we visited several groups working in Johannesburg and Pretoria on a broad array of issues including HIV/AIDS, orphans, housing, reonciliation, education, and environmental activism. Though very tired by this point, all the visits were extremely beneficial. It is astounding to think about (just like Rwanda) how much circumstances in South Africa have changed in the last 15 years. I think that many of the changes are profoundly positive and perhaps some of the others are mixed. There are still lots of questions but the opportunity for reconciliation is there, is being embraced by many and is really inspiring to see.
So, perhaps that is all that I should relate at this point. It has really been a remarkable journey and I thank all of you for your prayers. I have definitely felt them when I needed them the most. This has been a great learning experience for me and I've really felt the Spirit's witness both within and without. The people of Africa are amazing and it is an honor to be able to be in life with them and with you. I think that Africa provides a great mirror into which the West needs to look to learn and consider a lot of things about itself. The same holds true for me, and I'm trying to see those things. I look forward to seeing all of you soon.....and a special thanks to those of you who have helped to care for my family during this time..........keep going.......
Saturday, June 06, 2009
pea pickin' party
great gathering at the london ferrell community garden today. thanks to sullivan culinary arts students, seedleaf and the community gardeners we witnesses the whole garden-to-plate process. go here to see more pictures...
Friday, June 05, 2009
a couple of books
just finished up a couple of great books and thought someone out there might be looking for something to read.
the first one is called "hunting for hope" by Scott Russell Sanders. this is a beautiful and short book. Sanders is challenged by a conversation with his teenage son to share some hope about the world instead of his usual despair about the state of the environment and the decay of our western world. Sanders comes up with (among others) 'wildness', 'family', 'fidelity', 'skill', simplicity', and 'beauty'. the book is poetically written and a compelling narrative of a father-son mountain camping trip holds it all together.i highly recommend this book if you are looking for a tonic in the oftentimes hopeless sustainability discourse.
there are many quotable paragraphs - Sanders is certainly a poet at heart. here's one that gave me pause in the chapter on simplicity:
The simplicity I seek is not he enforced austerity of the poor, which I have seen up close, and which I do not glamorize. I seek instead the richness of a gathered and deliberate life, the richness that comes from letting one's belongings and commitments be few in number and high in quality. I aim to preserve, in my ordinary days, the lightness and purpose that I have discovered on my clarifying journeys.
The second book is called "the brain that changes itself" by Norman Doidge. thanks to Dan for the tip on this one. incredibly helpful in understanding some of the ways we humans fail and succeed in our moral lives. Doidge argues (convincingly!) that the brain is plastic at every stage of life and many of our beliefs about being "hardwired" are in fact completely false. the most fascinating chapters deal with love, intelligence, sex, taste, imagination, and culture. Doidge proposes that so many of our impulses are not set in stone (as we often argue - "it's just the way i am") but pliable and replaceable with other ways of being. these are not just thought tricks but physiological renewal of the brain. at over 400 pages this is not a quick read but well worth the effort if you have any interest in how humans behave (that should be all of you :) his research on pornography and the internet and the damage done to marriages is alone worth reading.
(geoff)Wednesday, June 03, 2009
on church and state
this remarkable link came from 'anon' in the comments section of the last post. is it okay for a church to sponsor a celebration like this? perhaps this is just good contextual mission?
Open Carry Celebration, June 27th 2009In Celebration of July 4 and our rights as Americans, New Bethel Church will be hosting an OPEN CELEBRATION CHURCH service for all who support 1st and 2nd Amendment rights. It will be held on Saturday June 27th, the weekend before July 4th. It will begin at 5PM and picnic food will be served. We are asking responsible handgun owners to attend this service openly wearing their sidearm. This will be a Cold Range Carry meaning handguns must be unloaded and in a secure holster.
Area gun store/firing range owners will be invited to attend and tell about their services. There will be patriotic music and short presentation concerning responsible gun ownership and 2nd Amendment rights.
There will also be a raffle to win a handgun. All that is asked is that you bring a sidearm, a friend who has a sidearm and a canned good for local food bank.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
the value of work
i found this article very interesting and not a little provocative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emthe value of the work we do is a deeply theological issue - see this book and others by Robert Banks for more on this.
i liked this quote from the article:
my own experience working part time in construction has taught me the value of working with my hands. read the article and comment here if you care to.A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world. Academic credentials do not guarantee this.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Hello from Africa
I just wanted to take a minute to say hello to everyone and give you an update on our travels in Africa. Greg and I arrived this morning in Nairobi, Kenya after flying overnight from Dakar, Senegal. We said goodbye to Daniel and Mary after spending one full week with them in Senegal. During that time we were able to get a good tour of Dakar and the surrounding areas in addition to spending 2 days in the town of Tivouane where Daniel lives and the village where he works (as a Peace Corps volunteer). Aside from shaky and at times sickly stomachs (to be expected), our time in Senegal went very well. Daniel has done a tremendous job learning Wolof and French and moves pretty easily between both languages. It was really neat to see him interact with the friends that he's made in the Peace Corps and among the people of Senegal. Daniel made it easy to enjoy our time and make the most of it in circumstances that would have been incredibly challenging without him.
This was the first time that I've been in a country that identifies itself overwhelmingly as a Muslim nation. Instead of churches everywhere you see mosques everywhere and almost every public taxi or bus has a picture of the driver's "meribou", or religious leader, posted prominently. This was a good experience for me. We had some good conversations with some of the muslims that we got to know and felt warmly received.
Our time in the village was one of the highlights of the trip. Daniel has been working with the women in the village to help them develop a fairly traded export market for the beautiful baskets that they make. He's done a great job and it was really wonderful to visit with them and watch them work together at this beautiful craft. I also enjoyed getting to see the amazing "Baobob" trees that grow to enormous thicknesses in the very dry climate. But is was sad to hear about the problems that Senegal is having with desertification and the rapid encroachment of the awesome Sahara Desert.
Along with the visit to the villages another major highlight was the trip that we made to Goree Island on Saturday. Goree was one of the major embarkation points for the West African slave trade. They estimate that more than 2 million human beings were horrifically shipped to the America's from this island. Many of them never even made it off the island as they were kept in miserable conditions without any medical care or necessary nuture. I am sure that many of them simply died of broken hearts. When they died or were very ill they were often dumped into the ocean. Visiting this place was certainly one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The most memorable part was looking out onto the waves crashing over the rocks through the "door of no return." This was the door that led from the prison where the slaves where kept right out onto the shoreline from which they were shipped. It was an unbelievable experience to look through that door and imagine. All I could think about at that moment as I looked down at the rocky shoreline was the scripture that talks about the "rocks will cry out........" It reminded me of when Maria and I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and were able to look down the stairs where hundreds of thousands walked to their deaths in the gas chambers. Incredible......
We didn't get much sleep on the overnight plane flight from Dakar to Nairobi (about 4000 miles across continent). But we hit the ground running with my friend Richard's Aunt Phyliss visiting the orphanage (Ahadi) that we're helping to fund and the surrounding area. We got to meet some of the kids and witness the incredibly challenging circumstances in which they have to function. They've got a lot of love and support from Ahadi, but many or their stories are heartbreaking and the conditions they have to abide daily are very humbling. It is very easy to feel overwhelmed by the scope of many of the problems here. But I think that God is helping to mature and refine me in this process. And there is, of course, a tremendous amount of beauty, faith and inspiration in the people and places here. It is a great honor to be able to share in life here and learn so many things vital things.
Tomorrow we will begin a week exploring Nairobi visiting some of the Shantytowns, universities and various ministries and relief efforts here. I'm really missing my family and all of you back home. I hope this update helps yo uto share a little bit in our experience. Please keep praying for us as we pray for you......love, keep going....
Billy
This was the first time that I've been in a country that identifies itself overwhelmingly as a Muslim nation. Instead of churches everywhere you see mosques everywhere and almost every public taxi or bus has a picture of the driver's "meribou", or religious leader, posted prominently. This was a good experience for me. We had some good conversations with some of the muslims that we got to know and felt warmly received.
Our time in the village was one of the highlights of the trip. Daniel has been working with the women in the village to help them develop a fairly traded export market for the beautiful baskets that they make. He's done a great job and it was really wonderful to visit with them and watch them work together at this beautiful craft. I also enjoyed getting to see the amazing "Baobob" trees that grow to enormous thicknesses in the very dry climate. But is was sad to hear about the problems that Senegal is having with desertification and the rapid encroachment of the awesome Sahara Desert.
Along with the visit to the villages another major highlight was the trip that we made to Goree Island on Saturday. Goree was one of the major embarkation points for the West African slave trade. They estimate that more than 2 million human beings were horrifically shipped to the America's from this island. Many of them never even made it off the island as they were kept in miserable conditions without any medical care or necessary nuture. I am sure that many of them simply died of broken hearts. When they died or were very ill they were often dumped into the ocean. Visiting this place was certainly one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The most memorable part was looking out onto the waves crashing over the rocks through the "door of no return." This was the door that led from the prison where the slaves where kept right out onto the shoreline from which they were shipped. It was an unbelievable experience to look through that door and imagine. All I could think about at that moment as I looked down at the rocky shoreline was the scripture that talks about the "rocks will cry out........" It reminded me of when Maria and I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and were able to look down the stairs where hundreds of thousands walked to their deaths in the gas chambers. Incredible......
We didn't get much sleep on the overnight plane flight from Dakar to Nairobi (about 4000 miles across continent). But we hit the ground running with my friend Richard's Aunt Phyliss visiting the orphanage (Ahadi) that we're helping to fund and the surrounding area. We got to meet some of the kids and witness the incredibly challenging circumstances in which they have to function. They've got a lot of love and support from Ahadi, but many or their stories are heartbreaking and the conditions they have to abide daily are very humbling. It is very easy to feel overwhelmed by the scope of many of the problems here. But I think that God is helping to mature and refine me in this process. And there is, of course, a tremendous amount of beauty, faith and inspiration in the people and places here. It is a great honor to be able to share in life here and learn so many things vital things.
Tomorrow we will begin a week exploring Nairobi visiting some of the Shantytowns, universities and various ministries and relief efforts here. I'm really missing my family and all of you back home. I hope this update helps yo uto share a little bit in our experience. Please keep praying for us as we pray for you......love, keep going....
Billy
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
whoa!
i'm interested to see this movie
wonderfully provocative promo comments...
Bowling for Columbine did it to the gun culture.
Super Size Me did it to fast food.
Now The God Who Wasn't There does it to religion.
The movie that has been astounding audiences in theaters around the world is now available on a high-quality, feature-packed DVD. Own the taboo-shattering documentary that Newsweek says "irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed."
is religion really an analog to fast food and guns? Lord, help us if people generally believe this to be true. i hope faithful people of God overturn this perception with gracious lives of love and justice.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Slow Money
A couple of weeks ago on my drive back from the farm I heard this NPR story on promoting local economies.
I jotted down the book that was mentioned "Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money" and decided to check it out. While the author is a venture capitalist who talks about economics, the book is far from being overloaded with dry jargon. His journal-esque way of writing is inspired by people like Joan Gussow, Wendell Berry, and E.F. Schumacher.
You can catch excerpts from the book here and the Slow Money Alliance website here.
I jotted down the book that was mentioned "Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money" and decided to check it out. While the author is a venture capitalist who talks about economics, the book is far from being overloaded with dry jargon. His journal-esque way of writing is inspired by people like Joan Gussow, Wendell Berry, and E.F. Schumacher.
You can catch excerpts from the book here and the Slow Money Alliance website here.
Monday, May 04, 2009
sharing our voices
Please join Dr. Aminata Cairo, Dr. Rosalind Harris, their students and immigrant community researchers as they discuss their experiences and findings from their community research project conducted over the last semester. Students were paired with community researchers from various immigrant communities in Lexington to record their experiences and feelings about adjusting to life in Lexington. This community engaged research
project is part of an ongoing effort to improve experiences and services for new immigrants in the Bluegrass. Please come hear what refugees and immigrants in our community have to say so we can all do our part to improve services and make Lexington a stronger community! Please see the attached flyer and distribute widely!
Isabel
Isabel Gereda Taylor Multicultural Affairs Coordinator
Lexington-Fayette Government Center
200 E. Main Street
Lexington, KY 40507
Phone (859) 258-3824
Fax (859) 258-3406
Saturday, May 02, 2009
urban orchard piece
check our local paper for this article about our urban gardening work. communality folks were a huge help last weekend and seedleaf gets a mention.
http://www.kentucky.com/150/story/781906.htmlFriday, May 01, 2009
Heartbreak and Hope........
One of the fundamental things that I've learned over the last eleven years of living in community with the beauty and dysfunction of life is that heartbreak and hope always go together. They cannot live without each other; they cannot be separated. As horrendously irreconciliable and opposed as they often seem, they are ultimately as symbiotic as soil and water. I had a couple of different experiences today that made me have to account once again for this tumultuous marriage of heartbreak and hope. In relating them I want to invert the order of their occurence. That is one thing that we can control, and is often times the only way to make sense of the sequence of at once difficult and divine events.
So, I decided this morning to visit an old neighbor who recently called me and told me he was working at a local machine shop. He sounded content and it seemed like he'd really found a good job situation. I got to know him pretty well while we were neighbors and we spent quite a bit of time together. Through various circumstances (many within his control) he became homeless and lived for quite some time at the Hope Center. He was a regular at Phoenix Park and I occassionally spent time with him whenever passing through on my way to the bank. He did some work for me and through it all we managed to remain connected and encourage each other, largely due to his initiative. So, I stopped by his shop this morning and learned that he was no longer employed there. "He's one of the folks that got caught up in the lay-offs," said an office employee politely. I walked away feeling shaken and disturbed. The reality of the current economic crisis just became a lot more personal for me. I will not say more here........
Earlier in the morning, as I was leaving home, I saw one of my neighbors, garbage bag and tongs in hand, picking up small pieces of trash along our street and the Meadowthorpe Mall that fronts our neighborhood. She and her husband do this and many other things for the neighborhood routinely. They are an amazing example of servanthood and civic commitment. As I watched her picking up the trash my mind immediately went in several different directions. I thought about writing a note to thank her and her husband for their sterling example. At the same time I thought about all of the time that I've spent in poor urban environments where trash is regularly thrown on to the streets and vacant lots quickly become de facto junkyards. I found my thoughts ensnared quickly in a quandary. Can I honestly expect people in poor, essentially forgotten about neighborhoods, to pick up trash like my middle-class neighbors? Can I honestly expect them to display an attitude of "civic duty" when they're struggling to survive the next mortgage/rent payment, find the next job, overcome the next illness, recover from the last deadbeat boyfriend,..........? Can I honestly expect them to care about the appearance of a corner on which someone they knew personally got shot, or about a city and a society that does not pay them a livable wage, discriminates against them, and only seems to think about their neighborhood when it is time to talk about redevelopment? The only reason that my neighbors pick up trash is because they have the time, they have the luxury, they have the means......right? My neighbor's sense of duty and commitment flows from a life of relative privilege, a life of security, opportunity, a life without discrimination or excessive reasons to renounce hope....right? When you strip everything else away the "cleanliness" and "beauty" of wealthier neighborhoods only masks the dirt and filth of unjust and discriminatory societal structures that are used (at the expense of others) to make sullied lives look clean.......right? These questions are overwhelming at times for me. I'm sorry if this relatively raw discourse upsets any apple carts.......but it is upsetting mine......mostly in the right ways....I think?
Anyhow, I took hope in watching my neighbor pick up trash this morning and do things for our neighborhood that I'm always too "busy" to do because I'm trying to "do good" somewhere else. And at the same time I'm heartbroken about my friend who fought his way up from homelessness only (or is it only?) to "get caught up" in the Tsunami of lay-offs (confirmed victims in the millions).....and I'm heartbroken about all the neighborhoods where trash lies strewn in the streets and the people have no time, resources or reason to pick it up...because they're just struggling to survive...and where boarded up homes are abandoned while people sleep on the garbage strewn sidewalks.....it is definitely far easier for me and my neighbors to pick up the trash-so is there any real value in our efforts? I believe that there is and always can be....no matter where you are...but that is easy for me to say......right?
So, I decided this morning to visit an old neighbor who recently called me and told me he was working at a local machine shop. He sounded content and it seemed like he'd really found a good job situation. I got to know him pretty well while we were neighbors and we spent quite a bit of time together. Through various circumstances (many within his control) he became homeless and lived for quite some time at the Hope Center. He was a regular at Phoenix Park and I occassionally spent time with him whenever passing through on my way to the bank. He did some work for me and through it all we managed to remain connected and encourage each other, largely due to his initiative. So, I stopped by his shop this morning and learned that he was no longer employed there. "He's one of the folks that got caught up in the lay-offs," said an office employee politely. I walked away feeling shaken and disturbed. The reality of the current economic crisis just became a lot more personal for me. I will not say more here........
Earlier in the morning, as I was leaving home, I saw one of my neighbors, garbage bag and tongs in hand, picking up small pieces of trash along our street and the Meadowthorpe Mall that fronts our neighborhood. She and her husband do this and many other things for the neighborhood routinely. They are an amazing example of servanthood and civic commitment. As I watched her picking up the trash my mind immediately went in several different directions. I thought about writing a note to thank her and her husband for their sterling example. At the same time I thought about all of the time that I've spent in poor urban environments where trash is regularly thrown on to the streets and vacant lots quickly become de facto junkyards. I found my thoughts ensnared quickly in a quandary. Can I honestly expect people in poor, essentially forgotten about neighborhoods, to pick up trash like my middle-class neighbors? Can I honestly expect them to display an attitude of "civic duty" when they're struggling to survive the next mortgage/rent payment, find the next job, overcome the next illness, recover from the last deadbeat boyfriend,..........? Can I honestly expect them to care about the appearance of a corner on which someone they knew personally got shot, or about a city and a society that does not pay them a livable wage, discriminates against them, and only seems to think about their neighborhood when it is time to talk about redevelopment? The only reason that my neighbors pick up trash is because they have the time, they have the luxury, they have the means......right? My neighbor's sense of duty and commitment flows from a life of relative privilege, a life of security, opportunity, a life without discrimination or excessive reasons to renounce hope....right? When you strip everything else away the "cleanliness" and "beauty" of wealthier neighborhoods only masks the dirt and filth of unjust and discriminatory societal structures that are used (at the expense of others) to make sullied lives look clean.......right? These questions are overwhelming at times for me. I'm sorry if this relatively raw discourse upsets any apple carts.......but it is upsetting mine......mostly in the right ways....I think?
Anyhow, I took hope in watching my neighbor pick up trash this morning and do things for our neighborhood that I'm always too "busy" to do because I'm trying to "do good" somewhere else. And at the same time I'm heartbroken about my friend who fought his way up from homelessness only (or is it only?) to "get caught up" in the Tsunami of lay-offs (confirmed victims in the millions).....and I'm heartbroken about all the neighborhoods where trash lies strewn in the streets and the people have no time, resources or reason to pick it up...because they're just struggling to survive...and where boarded up homes are abandoned while people sleep on the garbage strewn sidewalks.....it is definitely far easier for me and my neighbors to pick up the trash-so is there any real value in our efforts? I believe that there is and always can be....no matter where you are...but that is easy for me to say......right?
bus stops and missio dei
sherry and i continue to be formed by our attempts at mission in our household. one of the lessons we have learned over the last five years is the high value of bus stops. our home sits on a corner with two bus stops and we are daily given the blessing of meeting people for the first time and deepening relationships with regular commuters. a simple "hello" or longer conversations serve our love of "neighborliness" as we go about our work to "seek the welfare of the city" (jer. 29).
so, if you are looking to rent or own, we encourage you to consider this as a factor as you wonder about a place to make your home. as is so often the case, these 'ordinary' factors become well springs for the holy work of loving a place and its people.
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