Category Archives: St. Isidore

Sierra Alpha Alpha Bravo

Last Thursday, I came into the house after plowing the garden.  Lunch smoked and sizzled and simmered and my wife said accented things. With her soft little hands and insistent invitation, she coaxed me to sit and eat.  I seldom knew what she said but I usually knew what she meant.  Sated from an unusually satisfying meal, I headed out.  To the couch.  For a sit and a snore (this she will tell you).  Leaving my worries in the pasture, I began counting sheep.

Later, I heard honking.  Insistent.  Not like the geese but like a birch trumpet poorly played.  Sounds emanating from other than goose.  The far front gate beckoned me.  Ha.  I recognized the iron.  The trapezoidal grill.  An old foreign relic.  Scandinavian, maybe.  Feeling hurried, slipping on my clogs, I trundled out to the rumpus.  An old acquaintance stood stiff, adding oil to the gas tank.  I lurched forward to stop his craziness.  Then halted.  Oh, yeah, it’s a three cylinder and requires oil in the gas.

The man turned and frightened me with a smile.  His familiar face featured a fresh scar, cheek to chin and across his mouth.  Speaking slurred, showing only a partial tongue, he either greeted me or cursed me.  No, it sounded more like he’s selling me peaches.  My well-developed translation skills served me well, despite his alternately pointing and poking a walking cane – at the road and then at my head.  I didn’t know what he said but I knew what he meant: Let’s go for a ride.

Scooting in, I wrestled with the frayed shoulder seat belt, finally latching the rusted relic – just in time! As we sped off, I figured I’d feel sorry for this ride later, but I felt safe for now.  Even with my window open, there was a foul small.  Like swamp.  Like a flood vehicle?  Was this new car smell from wherever and whenever they manufactured this foreign object?

This fella’s reckless reputation filled my memory.  Not for long.  Something jolted my inquiring mind back into the present moment.  Veering off road and off-roading in a farm pasture.  Freewheeling downhill toward a farmer’s stock pond.  Several feet from the pond, tires skidded.  Wheels stopped.  Engine off.  Column shifter in gear (now days we have an emergency break).  The car pointed down… heading toward the pond.  My battle-scarred driver got out without comment. Wobbled across the cow pasture.  Sat on a tree stump.  What next?

I pushed down on the seat belt latch.  I couldn’t figure out any of this mystery auto’s contraptions. My angry elbow hit the column shifter, popping the car into neutral.  Tires started to roll. I pushed again at the belt latch.  Jerked and yelled for help.  My former friend sat agape.  Tongue partially tied.  In a moment of clarity, I looked down.  I saw the decal on the glove box – SAAB.  That’s it, I knew it!

I cried noisily, making loud, convulsive gasps. Suddenly, a soft hand reached through the moving open window.  The little fingers lifted the latch, freeing me.  The delicate hand shook my right shoulder.  Then the other hand slapped my left cheek.  I heard a far-off voice calling my name.  I couldn’t understand the last word.  But I knew what it meant:

“Wake up!”

 

Pub Theology Belief: Lookbacks, Fast forwards, Suspension, Imbued 01/23/2018

Icebreaker:

Author Evelyn Waugh, when asked how he reconciled his private conduct (e.g. stained by offenses against chastity and sobriety) with his public beliefs (i.e. he argued for the operations of divine grace). His reply has become celebrated: How much worse would I be if I were not a Catholic?  How much worse would you be if you were …?  Pick one: (above the law, capable of making yourself invisible, infinitely wealthy, a “made man” (woman), God, a god, a devil-with-a-blue-dress-on)  How do you go about reconciling your private conduct with your public beliefs?

Question of the Night: 

Following an assassination attempt by an insane black woman in 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. issued a press release reaffirming his belief in “the redemptive power of nonviolence ~ I felt no ill will toward Mrs. Izola Currey and know that thoughtful people will do all in their power to see that she gets the help she apparently needs if she is to become a free and constructive member of society.  How hard is it to forgive those who currently and possibly never will acknowledge their misdeeds and will probably die threatening the peace of those who care for them?  For whom are you willing to risk probable personal scars for possible permanent change?

Other Questions:

From Christoph Luxenburg’s The Syriac-Aramaic Version of the Koran (a rare non-Arabic translation): The rewards of a “martyr” in paradise: the heavenly offering consists of sweet white raisins rather than virgins. How would your life be altered if you “found” that your beliefs were a result of “lost in translation”?  Do you seek paradise in sensuality or sustenance?

From Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire ~ The various forms of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people to be equally true, by the philosopher as equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.  On the board of your life, is religion treated as king, rook, or pawn?  What happens to societies when the manipulations of religions go unchecked?

Following an analysis of slavery’s history as influenced by religion, this arguable aphorism emerged: The chance that someone’s secular opinion would cause the denunciation of slavery and racism is extremely high. The chance that someone’s religious belief would cause the denunciation of slavery and racism is quite small.  Why did organized religion play such a small role in slavery’s demise?   Does individual resolve eventually trump financial and power interests in the pursuit of freedom and justice for all?

Fill in the Blanks

Think of a time when someone disappointed you, hurt you or a loved one:

First: You are harmed in some way by _________ (church, family, friends, pub fools, etc.).  Next: You learn that what you attributed to malice is better explained by __________ (stupidity, ignorance, a forgivable error, substance abuse, immaturity, mental impairment, lack of self-awareness, overmedicating, under medicating, etc.).

Finally: Does your new-found understanding allow you to __________ (forgive, move on, discount the incident, cancel the hit, etc.)?

Of Politicians and Polish Sausage

An old popular saying (paraphrased) has it that ~ If you want to maintain your respect for a politician, or your appetite for sausages, you should take care NOT to be present when the former is groomed, or the latter is ground. What might the process of creating a religion look like?  What assumptions might you make about a religion’s origins, keeping in mind that the religion was put together before most people could read?

Pub Theology: Resolution, Gratitude, Pleasure Seeking, Attitude, Poetics, Opium, Razor Sharp, and then we’re done! 12/26/2017

Ice Breaker Question:

New Year’s Resolutions: Do you make them?  If not, why not?  If so…Which one’s may bear fruit this year?  Which one’s have made the list before?  Which one’s are paradoxical to your current lifestyle or beliefs?

Question of the Night:

From his memoir American Drug Addict, Brett Douglas ~ I used drugs to elevate my mood.  Gratitude does the same thing.  If gratitude was indeed a guaranteed positive mood alterer, everyone would be a user.  How can one inject gratitude into one’s stream of life?  When gratitude does not deliver the desired effect for you, how do you react?  How do you correct your expectations or reactions when gratitude fails to gratify?

Other Questions:

Greek philosopher Epicurus (paraphrased) ~ Seeking modest, sustainable pleasure without pain and fear constitutes happiness in its highest form.  What words might you insert or append to this declaration to make it more realistic, attainable, or cogent?  How successful have you been (would you be) in trying to moderate your pleasure(s)?

William (George) Miller’s prophecies of the Second Coming did not occur as expected in the 1840s, yet a religion, the Bahá’í Faith, holds the attitude that his predictions of 1844 events were accurate (with varying explanations like Miller had the wrong continent, wrong year, and wrong Second Coming).  When a belief ignores visible evidence, is it because of the light or dimness?

John Clare (1793 – 1864) was “the greatest laboring-class poet that England has ever produced. However, in midlife, Mr. Clare was committed to an asylum. Dr. Matthew Allen wrote: He has never been able to obtain in conversation, nor even in writing prose, the appearance of sanity for two minutes or two lines together, and yet there is no indication of insanity in any of his poetry.   Poetry was John Clare’s conduit to making connection with community.  What other paths do complicated, intense, or timid individuals take to soulful expression?  Is it expressed in their work?  Their compassion?  Their effusiveness?  Their silence?

Karl Marx is often identified with the condemning quote: Religion is the opiate of the people.  To be fair, the entire metaphor reads: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”.  With a clearer and more complete understanding of another’s conflicting beliefs, what happens to your view of that person?  With a complete acceptance of a person, what happens to your prejudices toward their behavior?

Very Hairy (You’ll need a sharp razor)

Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses includes an allusion to a possible incident in Islamic teachings where the prophet Muhammad mistook “satanic suggestion” for divine revelation.  The effect of publishing this book caused extraordinary international mayhem, seemingly out of proportion to the cause.  According to Hume’s razor: “If the cause, assigned for any effect, be not sufficient to produce it, we must either reject that cause, or add to it such qualities as will give it a just proportion to the effect.”  What are your thoughts on this particular historical episode or other events (whether personal or historic) where “cause doesn’t balance out effect”?

Optional (You’ll need a strong constitution)

Once upon a time, a young mother, named America, had a precocious child, named Maryland, who’s declaration to her fellow citizens stated: “Profane words concerning the Holy Trinity are punishable by torture, branding, and, at a third offense, death without benefit of clergy.”   Young America reprimanded her precocious Maryland with a paddle fashioned from the strong fibers of Article VI of her Constitution and the cohesive threads of her First Amendment.  This analogy can be applied to many young nations.  What are the signs that a country’s age has weakened the fibers and diluted the threads which, in the nation’s youth, required government by all of its people and tolerance of all of their beliefs?

Pub Theology:Burning Truth, Hare on Fire, Age and Youth, Heart’s Desire -12/12/2017

Ice Breaker Question:

Headline 12/7/2017 MSNBC: Man rescues rabbit from wild fire in California.  Did you see this?  A man hopping up and down in hairy panic, focused on something or someone, with the raging wildfire in backdrop.  A tiny wild rabbit (probably a hare), marched across this flaming stage unhinged (presumably singed), into the arms of a man named Oscar (possibly a future Tony) and disappears into the night (surely daytime, but with all the smoke…).  What was your gut reaction when you first saw this or heard about it?  The comments on this news story contained some maligning of the harey Samaritan. What detriment did he done did?

Question of the Night:

Mahatma Gandhi ~ “Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.”  Describe the ripple effect of contentment with the accommodation of a lie.  Describe the immediate disruption for pursuit of an unpopular truth.  Which has more prevalence?  Which has more impact?

Other Questions:

From the book ‘Autumn,’ by Karl Ove Knausgaard ~ To turn 40 (pick an age) is to realize that one’s limitations will last one’s whole life through, but also to know that all the time… new layers are being added to one’s character… What limitations of “self” do you believe are being referred to?  How does added character manifest itself over time?  If sterling character can be added over time, what are the personality flaws that might tarnish one’s character with age?

 Donald Trump ~ I’m automatically attracted to beautiful. Not surprising, we all are – by definition.  In Richard Prums’ new book, The Evolution of Beauty, he surmised that Darwin believed aesthetic mating choices were made largely by females. How does this idea scan with you?  What is your theory on who chooses who in a significant relationship?

Is Darwinism the culmination of Martin Luther questioning orthodoxy, rendering concepts like heaven and hell irrelevant?  If Darwinism trumps Creationism, what happens to heaven and hell?

Have you seen the Lactaid commercial?  A lactose intolerant woman drinking her Café au lait, is surprised by a sarcastic talking cow (is there any other kind?) who mo(o)cks her unsuppressed gastrointestinal stress by imitating flatulence, disturbingly, by slowly releasing air from an inflated party balloon.  A noble bovine appears and boots sarcastic cow out, then introduces the product Lactaid and states, “Try Lactaid, it’s real milk!”  How is food real if it is adulterated?  If nature joins compounds together and man puts then asunder, who is being served?  What is being served (Parkay?)  How can whole foods be of benefit when they are halved?

Not Recommended (if you scare) In 1973, Frenchy Fuqua, of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, exhibited an obscure fetish (possibly Finnish).  He would wear platform shoes having see-through heels that contained water and a live tropical fish selected from his aquarium to match the color of the day’s outfit. In 1979, Steve Martin made us aware of the popular Mexican sport of cat juggling in his movie, “The Jerk”.  In 2006, Dubai hired a law firm when they were accused of trafficking boys to be used as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates.  Exploitation of vulnerable populations, though evolving and inventive, remains popular and robust even today.  What are the ingredients of exploitation that make its consumption so enduring?  What forms of exploitation or degradation do you find yourself standing up against?

Optional (if you dare) Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s book, “Flight Behavior” ~ You stepped out from a flourishing hill top on a moon lit evening into a mysterious valley and chased an alluring butterfly into the darkness until the phases faded from waxing enchantment to waning endurance and, finally, to the impossibility of a return.  What were the circumstances you left?  What were you chasing?  How do your current conditions compare to those once flourishing on the hill top in the moonlight once upon a time?

Noah and the Flood Story Retold

And it came to pass that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  Also, the grifters, deficient and the affected caught a break.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.  And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.  Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.  And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.  Also, don’t forget the grifters, deficient and the affected.

Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.  Thus, did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.  Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.  Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.  Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth. Also, don’t forget to include seven pairs of the grifters, deficient and the affected.

To this last inclusion, Noah objected.  Seven pairs of the grifters, deficient and the affected.  Really?  You want these rejects to foul the ark for half a year?  Seriously?  God, this is where I put my sandal down.  Just like the unclean, which they are, only a single pair of the grifters, deficient and the affected.  God reluctantly acceded.  And Noah said:  Mark my words, this is a big mistake.  You shouldn’t try to save everybody, because you can’t.

There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.  They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.  And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.  However, God noticed not every pair was there.  And He said unto Noah: Wait a sec, where are my grifters, deficient and the affected?  And Noah said unto Him: Whoopsie, I didn’t think you’d notice their absence since you’re over there busy destroying all of mankind.  Oh well, I’ll put them in the ark, only a single pair of each like we agreed.  But I won’t hold them.

And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.  Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.  And the grifters, deficient and the affected immediately set about plying their dark arts.  The grifters making deals with man and beast which they would not or could not fulfill.  The deficient giving a hot foot to the orangutan, short sheeting the giraffes, etc.  The affected laughing hysterically as they mocked to death the turkeys for their bizarre physiology, the baboons for their crimson asses, ad nauseum.

And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;  And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.  And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and went and looked for every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, to offer burnt offerings on the altar.

But there were no clean pairs left of the seven pairs saved.  Through deceit, cruelty and ridicule the grifters, deficient and the affected destroyed the beasts of the boat.  Watching the display for one hundred and fifty days, even the unclean felt dirty.  However, after allowing the grifters, deficient and the affected to join the unclean, the unclean were now their minions and set about populating the earth accordingly.

As for Noah, it would be bad.  Without something clean to sacrifice, God forsook him.  He died quickly after this fiasco.  His dying words to God were: Told Ya.

To provide for sacrifices is the reason more of the clean animals were to be taken into the ark.

Pub Theology Questions 10/24/2017 – The Folly of Fanaticism of Every Kind

Ice Breaker Question:

 

Winston Churchill ~ A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.  You must be (or must have been) a fanatic about something, what is it?  Talk about the whats and whys?

 

Question of the Night:

Lee Gruenfeld ~ Religious fanaticism comes not from deep faith, but from a lack of it.
Fanatics – Beware! Being zealous for the Lord of Hosts [1 Kings 19] is not the same as being a fanatic. Fanaticism is a serious spiritual dysfunction.  What are some symptoms of religious fanaticism referred to here?  What specific examples of religious fanaticism have you witnessed?  Describe.

Other Questions:

 5 Plays by Moliere

Synopsis The Imposter ~ A pious fraud has incriminated himself beyond all help, yet his believers refuse to act to exile him.  Describe a life situation where your fanatic belief in a person or entity led to impossible choices or dreadful consequences.  How did the situation resolve?

 

Synopsis The Misanthrope ~ The cynic is tremendously unpopular, and he laments his isolation in a world he sees as superficial and base.  Talk about your experience of living by high standards in an earthly society.  When has isolation or escape worked to resolve social conflicts?

 

Synopsis The Middleclass Gentleman ~ Aspiring to something you can never be, brings mockery and exposes vanity, grifters who flatter you openly while despising you secretly and who seek to take your money.  What vulnerabilities and related calamities surfaced when you chose your path to high aspiration?

 

Synopsis The Hypochondriac ~ If you believe in a single system for a cure or a single person for all of your answers, your remedy will be the death of you not your illness. Talk about blind allegiance to the opinions of experts (Medical, Legal, Financial, Religion, Psychiatric, etc.) and actual or possible consequences.  What could be an antidote to fanatic allegiance to the vested interests of professional expertise?

 

Synopsis The Learned Ladies ~ Education and academic achievement become merely pretention and obsession when they overlook true desire and free will.  Reflect on the pursuit of education and the satisfaction or disappointment it has brought.  What learned ideal might you pursue today, given the opportunity?  Why?

 

Humor

 

Bertrand Russell ~ The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Pub Theology Questions 10/14/2017 – Disagreements, Dustups, Donnybrooks

Ice Breaker Question:   Tom Petty ~ Even the losers get lucky sometimes…

Diffusing the term loser, talk about a brief wondrous time in your life, a time that became way more than you expected and attends your memory even today.

Question of the Night:

Caleb Keeter (after the Las Vegas massacre) ~ I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life, until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was.
Talk about a once held righteous belief – you know you have them – that became a wrong reality when the deity of life coldly touched you.

Other Questions:

An MGM producer exposed himself to a 12-year-old child star at her first interview with that studio.

If you are the parent, this crime exposes what primal instincts?

If you are the studio executive, this producer exposes you to what corporate liabilities?

If you are the 12-year-old female child star, what sentiments might you secrete and to which must you adapt?

 

Psychological Theory 1 ~ Genius and madness are in no way incompatible.

Psychological Theory 2 ~ The time will come when science will be capable of “correcting” the brain of a psychopath, but this is unfortunately not yet possible.

What do you think about these two statements, or are they just craziness?

How might correcting a madman corrupt a genius, or do I need to dumb this down for you?

 

American journalists in North Korea ~ We also heard some people say that while they hate the American government, they harbor no ill will toward Americans and would prefer to live in peace. One woman was nearly in tears describing her mixed feelings about the United States.

Each of us has the capacity to distinguish between a nation’s people and a nation’s government.

What thoughts, emotions, puzzlements emerge when you think of North Korea, Russia, Iran?

What realities do the citizens in these countries have of Great Satan, Duke Nukem, Uncle Scam?

What causes dovish personal beliefs to morph into weaponized political agendas?

 

Lao Tzu ~ People often spoil their work at the point of its completion.  With care at the end as well as the beginning, No work will be spoiled.

Forty years ago, this October, the revered and reviled revolutionary Che Guevara met his fate in Bolivia when his adopted guerrilla tactics failed to adapt to local peasant sentiments.

In your experience, what personal or historical events have you witnessed where People … spoil their work at the point of its completion.”

 

Democrats are concentrated in cities.  The House is controlled by the country.

If you have a home where the buffalo roam, is Rome just a big city infatuated with past glories, ruled by a complacent, greedy elite, and hopelessly powerless to respond to changing conditions?
Humor? History? Headlines?

Spain’s autonomous region of Catalonia, in a surge of nationalism, voted for secession recently.

Historically, Catalonia’s nationalism emerged haltingly when this sparsely populated domain on the Iberian Peninsula grew wildly and with difficulty.  In 878, King Louis II “The Stammerer” talked Charles “The Bald” into naming Wilfred “The Hairy” to head the nation of Catalonia.

Now, in 2017, nationalism seeks to denude Spain of its climacteric Catalans via secession.

Why do thriving states in secure nations seek secession?  If nationalism leads to autonomy, and autonomy leads to secession, what does secession lead to? Great nations rise from poverty through united progress and individual prosperity.  What naturally follows?

Pub Theology Questions September 2017 – Disagreements, Dustups, Donnybrooks

Ice Breaker Question:

Social media exploded last week when the president of North Korea out-Englished our president by tagging him as a DOTARD (dō-tərd).  Name-calling is a substitute for rational, fact-based arguments against an idea or belief.  In Paul Graham’s “Hierarchy of Disagreement”, he lists Name-Calling as the lowest type of argument in a disagreement, even behind Ad Hominem (attack on an opponent’s character).  What clever or archaic name-calling have you heard, used or remember from school, work, family or politics?  Describe the effect of name-calling in your experience.

Question of the Night:

Ephesians 4:29 ~ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

When do hurtful words evolve into corrupt acts?
Do you consider laughter the distinction between hurtful hostility and harmless humor in sarcasm?
Which is more important to you in debate, intelligent thought or tactical intent?

Other Questions:

Last year, before the election, a solitary NFL footballer, Colin Kaepernick, took to one knee during the national anthem in protest of police brutality against black Americans.  He is currently unemployed. Last week, our president said players who kneel during the anthem should be “fired” immediately. This past weekend, twenty-seven players from two NFL teams dropped down and took a knee on the field as “The Star-Spangled Banner” began.  No white players took a knee.  A journalist remarked, “The kneel will now become a sign of opposition to Trump.”  Is the formula for protest always a matter of growing numbers over exploited time?  Has last year’s “kneeler” lost his job and his social point (racist police brutality) to the now winning political stand of opposing Trump?

On this day in 1950, United Nations troops recaptured Seoul from North Korean forces.  However, China’s support enabled North Korea to fight the “police action” to an armistice and the two communist countries’ mutuality remains strong to this day.  Why? -> The North Koreans had provided great support in the previous Chinese Civil War between the Communists and the Nationalists.  They say Americans never learned history and their enemies and allies can’t forget it.  How important is history in understanding current events?  When has Nationalism been a result of selective forgetting?  Should history gain more emphasis in our schools?

In 1900, the War of the Golden Stool began in west Africa when the ruling British governor disrespected the local people by sitting on their Sacred Golden Stool.  Do you have “sacred” possessions or traditions in your house which when abridged make you fighting mad (or at least piqued)?

P.G. Wodehouse (creator of the fictional character Jeeves) ~ It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. How do you score apology as an advancer or detractor in relationships?

Robin Bates ~ Work can ennoble, but not when we sacrifice our humanity to it.  Robin reached this conclusion after reading Rhina P. Espaillat’s poem Find Work which includes the lines…

[Her life]…spent in the lifelong practice of despair.
her country tongue and country heart anaesthetized and mute with labor. 
Have you found your labors at once economically sufficient but painfully self-sacrificial?

2017 – A Grifter in Every House

If I opened my doors to anyone in need, who would get in line?  First, oh yes, would be the grifters.  Money for nothing and nothing for free.  Next, the rejected, for sure.  Nobody wants them a second time around and so you got ’em and their bad behavior.  At the end of the line slouch the young, they never grow old.  Couch surfing without gratitude, rudely swaggering in and out, taking everything that can be carried out, returning nothing but calculated promises, and bitching about any impediments.   You might think that my musings reflect a bad year with worse people.  How about another year with the same type of people?

Why would I keep relationships with those who have rendered themselves useless?  Think of it this way: If every home housed a homeless, homelessness would disappear from the headlines.  If the destitute turned the wealthy into the impoverished, there goes the wealth gap.  Greed was once again put solely into the hands of the desperate, there would be much less for the rich to covet.  As for an individual purpose, it is hard to rationalize.  But as remedy as to what is wrong with this society, country, and world, you should be able to see the merit.  Take from well healed earners and give to undeserving slackers in order to make this a more sustainable world for all.  What’s the first step?

This idea has to be law, sermon, and fact.  From government to church to education make believers out of the moneyed populace or take money from them.  They have no choice.  Concern should be given to those who have been taken.  A community that has level wealth has level fiscal health.  The rapidity of decline in the upper class when grifters, misfits, and young start working in this world (to justify their new found welfare).  Think of it.  Getting less but paying more.  Quality is no longer a requirement, it is only found in museums and historical documents.  Showing up is optional.  Trust is all but quaint.  Lying is expected if not mandatory.

 

Exempt from the “Don’t Be A Jerk Rule”

I admit that I willingly entered the world I’ll refer to as “OpenArms”, where everyone is welcome and no one is turned away, and all souls are equal.  Except there must be order.  There must be a plan.  There must be funding.  With these truths self-evident, there is a hierarchy.  This hierarchy will have its automatic positions of royalty in the form of family and friends of hierarchical elites.  There by making some more equal than others.  Planning and funding are not the fortes of all who pass through the arch.  There by meaning those with credentials manifested by initials after their name or deep pockets expressed through generous tithes are more equal than individuals with no trailing inits or meager shekels.  These realities allow for unintended exemptions.  Exemptions from the “Don’t Be A Jerk Rule”.

The view downward from the high hierarchy must contend with cloudy awareness and self imposed myopia.  Informal royalty can scowl and growl at plebeians who entered the gates, commoners fully expecting to be welcomed by all and treated with appropriate decorum for a spiritual entity.   Credentialed critics, however, troll the words and actions of true believers unchecked because their designations protect them from admonishment.   Another group, broadly identified as the infirm, get away with inappropriate language, grifting, bullying, and even aggressive contact because of known conditions of mind, addiction, orientation, emotion, and vulnerability.  Ok, so who is left?

No true believer is totally exempt from attack by the DBAJR categories listed above.  However, most congregants in OpenArms respect the tenets of community and spiritual expression.  Live and let live.  Listen as well as talk.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Being human, we all have our hiccups.  But when someone of status trolls the words and actions of another, seen as subordinate,  in a clearly malicious way, in a sustained attack, action would seem to be in order.  But who will bell the cat?  Those in the hierarchy risk losing credentials or funds and therefore admonishment is not something to be undertaken in a knee-jerk manner.  On the other hand, when the pastoral setting becomes aware of “dogs in the manger”, there is more to lose than status and shekels.

The first of the innocent to fall should signal symptoms of an illness within the organization.  It can be ignored as an anomaly or characterized as a person’s prerogative to leave but it is the beginning.  Spiritual communities don’t rot only from the top down but also from the inside out.  Once the cancer begins, it will spread increasingly while ignored.  What can the first harmed individuals do?  Try to survive until awareness sparks in someone who cares.  Until that distant time dawns, avoid the menace, continue the work, contain impulsive emotions that demand fight or flight.  Not being a position to win at this point, one must hang on, hunker down, hope for a quick resolution to a slow deterioration.  If there is fault on the harm-eds part – then resolve it.  If there is over reaction to injury – then heal it.  Watch the spectacle as a phenomenon rather than a personal attack because there will be others who will be hurt and perhaps far worse.

Another caution is the spread of terror as the aggressive person recruits others, inside and out, to carry out this onslaughts in the innocent.  These minions of menace migrate towards this minor power source like tiny bugs to a putrid light.  Pleasing the prince of evil by punishing the parish becomes an end in itself.  Malleable, shallow, and mean, they swallow whole the discharge of their defacto leader and seek to destroy the very haven they covet.  Not powerful but tenacious, their insidious actions turn away those who they do not know and have done no harm.  The soldiers of sinister escape an isolation from humanity only to start down the path that got them isolation in the first place.  The stronger but silent victims of this transgression may leave or distance in order to avoid contact even if it means losing contact with the vessel that gives them succor.  How do a minority of insincere and weak minded infiltrators defeat a mass of commitment and dedication?