(Below appears a tract I passed out with the Hallowe’en candy in 2007. “Chaos overwhelms the poor” describes that neighborhood. Originally posted here 10/26/13. Reblogged 10/31/24.)
Hallowe’en is the night before a Christian holiday. The name of the holiday is “All Saints’ Day.” Years ago, they called it “All Hallows’ Day,” and the night before, “All Hallows’ Evening.”
(Originally posted 08/06/14. Reblogged 08/15/24.)
Some weeks ago, I stood in line awaiting check-in at the shelter. This place charges $3 a night. I was holding my money in my hand, and someone playfully tugged at it. I snapped. I said, “You don’t value your life much, do you?”
Minutes later, I explained this to someone else. I said, “Don’t take a man’s last dollar.” “Why not?” he asked. I said, ” ‘Cause that’s the one he’ll die for. That’s the one he’ll kill for.”
Don’t take my last dollar. That’s the one I’ll kill for.
I’ve been on hard times since 2004. If I lose, or am robbed or cheated, of $20 or $50, that’s a pretty significant amount. But it doesn’t hurt all that much if I have more, and know more is coming. However, if I lose, or someone robs or cheats me of my last $1 — that’s the one that really hurts. That’s the one I’ll kill for.
These memories came to me as I reflected on Maggie Fox’s 08/29/2013 article, “Poor people aren’t stupid; bad decisions are from being overwhelmed, study finds.”
Continue reading * Chaos overwhelms the poor
The whole hullaballoo about #microaggressions assumes that one can never heal from even the slightest insult. The same applies, frankly, to a ton of what folk obsess on concerning #injustice and #racism.
And certainly I’ve done enough such obsessing myself; in the end it plays a large role in how I became homeless. And have remained homeless.
How I’ve failed to get back on my feet.
In this vein, I often recall Matthew 19:24, about the camel that can’t get through The Needle’s Eye (a particular very narrow gate in Jerusalem). Many people may be “poor” in material things, but exceptionally “rich” in resentments. One must unpack the camel, discard all that junk, if one is ever to enter the Kingdom.
Reblogged 04/11/24.
If I were to bet I would guess that 90% of the “shit” that troubles us is already behind us. In some cases, so far in our past that we are not even sure if we still have the story straight.
“Two monks were on a pilgrimage. One day, they came to a deep river. At the edge of the river, a young woman sat weeping, because she was afraid to cross the river without help. She begged the two monks to help her. The younger monk turned his back. The members of their order were forbidden to touch a woman. But the older monk picked up the woman without a word and carried her across the river. He put her down on the far side and continued his journey. The younger monk came after him, scolding him and berating him for breaking his vows. He went on this way for…
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A grassy lot inspires a vision of what can be when a community cares for itself.
When I take the bus to church in the morning, I normally get off at the closest stop, walk three blocks north and one block east. At the corner where I turn is a vacant lot. I don’t know who owns it. In months past, it has typically been heavily littered.
One morning not long ago, as I approached that lot, I saw that it had been cleaned. I saw this from fifty feet away. The way things are around here, that little bit of beauty nearly knocked me down. It took my breath away. It lifted my spirits.
A tiny bit of beauty can powerfully affect one’s mood. A mere glimpse of a pretty face can make one’s whole day.
I reflected: harmony is the essence of beauty, exemplified in the orderliness of the clean lot as contrasted with the chaos of its previous litter. I reflected on the relatednesses among light, love, harmony, order and prosperity, on the one hand; and darkness, strife, chaos and need, on the other. What does it take to begin to establish harmony? I concluded that perhaps love, or self-love, is the beginning of creation.
What if the whole community cared for itself as someone cared for that lot? Continue reading * For us
These words will scandalize some readers.
Sometime in the future, I will no doubt discuss the same ideas in a more well-ordered way. But I think I need to produce some expression now.
Jesus never called upon his followers to “change the world.” Jesus never confronted injustice, oppression, slavery or “the system.”
He had opportunities to do so.
A new thread at Messiah Truth.
This is most emphatically not Jewish teaching. I expect it correctly to be condemned as not-Jewish. I also expect it to be condemned, correctly or not, as just plain wrong.
The point is to facilitate understanding of what motivates belief in the Christian myth.
Sunday was Palm Sunday. The appointed “Gospel” text this year was Luke 22:14-23:56, which covers from the beginning of the Last Supper up to Jesus’ burial.
The pastor normally reads the “Gospel” lesson. Pastor’s voice quavered throughout this reading, which I found hard to figure since his beliefs are similar enough to mine. We waded through all the problems in the text, e.g. the impossible trial at the High Priest’s house on Pesach. But I also got re-acquainted with why Christians believe so fervently in this text.
The dentist prescribed ibuprofen 800s and, for me to take at night if the toothache became severe, Hydrocodon-Acetaminoph 7.5-325. This is a narcotic. “Pain pills.”
I have a large zipper bag with four compartments. There is a main compartment, which I can lock; a front compartment; a left side compartment; and a right side compartment.
Every afternoon when I sit on my bunk, I empty my pockets and put my phone, debit card, and cash in the main compartment. I take my afternoon meds, which are already in there, and lock it all back up.
Related: Giving it all away
— Brown University junior Emma Hall
This event was no microaggression.
There was no chapel last night, so at 7:15 we had the option to go straight to bed, with or without taking a smoke break first.
Some of us stood in the smoke pit rehearsing the things we don’t like about chapel. This one newcomer said, “The Bible’s all bullshit. If you read that stuff and you can’t tell it’s all bullshit, you must be mentally retarded.”
The entry below for December 30, 2015 was the last straw, moving me to “out” this information as a post.
For some months, I have made a good faith effort to note every headline my Yahoo! News feed captured from Salon.com that touched on religion.
Salon.com holds itself forth as, in effect, the voice of progressivism.
The headlines themselves display a pronounced bias on the topic of religion. Not all, but almost all, are hostile.
Not skeptical. Not indifferent. Not equanimous.
Hostile.
I am struck that this posture cannot possibly be intellectually honest.
My neighbor Jonathan came to this country from Nigeria at least ten years ago. He obviously has never made any effort to acquire an American accent. I dread seeing him come out for smoke break after supper, as that spells a long, loud monologue most of which I’ll find unintelligible.
He’s full of fixed opinions about the Bible. These many books he dismisses as “man-made,” but other verses he holds to with fundamentalist tenacity. It makes no sense to me.
He keeps exhorting me to study the various books that did not find their way into the Protestant canon.
Ain’t gonna happen.
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