* I wrote this yesterday evening 12/1/11. To my great surprise (chronological) baby #2, Matthew, was born at 11:45 last night. It is to him I promise to share his hope and to whom I dedicate todays reflection… Babies Lately, there is a lot of them in my neighborhood. WIthin one mile of my house three babies are being born in as many months. Three. I feel like even I am going to be changing a lot of diapers just by law of odds. I think having babies is an extraordinary act of hope. This is, of course, true because it is some kind of faith in the life beyond…
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29 Days of Hope: World AIDS Day, We Do Not Have To Settle for the Spirit of Death
I graduated a semester early from high school and tried getting work as an actor. I was cast in an educational film which provided the opportunity to meet a person with AIDS for the first time. Something clicked in me and I felt an enormous deep inner compulsion to held ease the suffering, for at the time the best treatments would only add a handful of painful years to one’s life. That was then …
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Turn, Turn Turn: Mexican Bees Know When to Dance on the Graves of the Martyrs
To everything there is a season. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance -Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 The “Desplazados” varied group of Mexican citizens who for a variety of reasons since 1994, including fall out from NAFTA, have been “displaced.” hence the name. You may have heard of the famous masked resistance group called the “Zapatistas.” Since 1994 Chiapas, Mexico southern most state has lived in low intensity warfare, struggling to preserve their ways of life, culture, land and health I went there with a Christian Peacemaking Team to visit the area of conflict and to meet, “Las Abejas,”…
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5 Counterintuitive Things to do to Perfect Thanksgiving.
Be Alone Thanksgiving is a good day to be together and it is an important day to be alone. The pressure of guests and kitchen can make it difficult to really find the deeper levels of gratitude without a little silence or at least quiet. Be especially kind and help make sure your spouse, friends, kids and others get time to leave the house and go for a walk. Be present today to yourself and to God so you can be present to others.
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Taking Cobbler from Family: grace and the everyday gift economy pt. II
A second reflection on grace and gifts: Here is the first: Taking Candy from Strangers. My Aunt Pauline’s peach cobbler, and mysterious. She is one of those magical cooks who does not work from a recipe. She has mastered the art form, knows how to do what she does and does it effortlessly. Several of us in he family, including me, have tried diligently to reproduce the magic without any notable success. For years for my birthday it is the one thing I have asked from her. Not only does she not mind, it honors her. Its like “our thing.”
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“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition. And then admit that we just don’t want to do it.” – Stephen Colbert
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How Colbert’s ‘truthiness’ can teach us that truth telling and lying are both art forms.
Stephen Colbert’s act is a sham, and it is a brilliant one. He executes the act so well that it took an entire segment of America months to figure out it was parody. Colbert’s greatest contribution to American politics is a word he himself coined, “truthiness.”
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Taking Candy From Strangers: grace and the everyday gift economy pt. 1
“Don’t take candy from strangers,” is one of the first proverbial lessons we try to teach our children. Its up there with looking both ways before you cross the street. It is even higher than, “stop, drop and roll.” Its an important precursor to, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” But it is also why my friend Rich thinks that Halloween (not all saints day, not all souls day, not a ‘harvest festival,” but Halloween) is one of the best holidays for Christians and Burners to celebrate, precisely because it is so much about candy and strangers…
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Day of the Deadline
Today is All Soul’s Day. It is a day designated to remember loved ones who have died and to do so with hope and mercy. When you miss someone, like I miss my Dad, you tend go look back with mercy. I don’t forget our little conflicts or misunderstandings but I certainly care less about them, a lot less. I’d take 100 more spats to have him back around for just a little while. Its why I am so fond of All Soul’s Day. It feels like “All Saint’s Day for the rest of us.”
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The Right *Person at the Right Time: What Character has to do with that Person Who Shows When you Need it.
Today my friend Patty threatened to send me a card, a care package, or a small car stuffed with clowns to help me endure the couch induced doldrums I have while mending from having my foot improved. Long time friend Matthew happened to call last night as I was mulling over some difficult transitions in some long term relationships. Noah and Camila came over and carved out jack-o-lanterns in a way that I assumed were carving holiday-themed neuro-pathways in their little skulls as well as little hope shaped etches in my cynical soul. Just when you hit a funk or things get dreary, sometimes a little gem cmes your way.…
