Away for the weekend
As much as I try to get things sorted in advance for my travels, I find myself running a bit behind this week. My first term paper is due next week. Courses are keeping me very busy.
Be back on Monday!
Crazy Ideas
I really like anthropologists. They tend to be extremely open-minded and consider non-traditional ideas. This week, I had the ability to sit in on a really fascinating global development lecture. Our speakers have been very critical of international organizations. If the speaker fails to be critical, then the students will certainly be.
After the seminar today, a group of students got talking about how to reform international organizations. We have the options of reforming from in the organizations or from exterior of the organizations. All of this discourse has me thinking: If I were going to a WTO (or G20, or IMF, or really any large organization) gathering, what sort of protest sign would I want to carry? A bunch of students thought that it would be intriguing to create a particular protest section at these gatherings as an alumni event.
So I went to the anthropologist convening one of our courses and suggested that we create a wall of protest signs we would carry at one of these large gatherings here on campus. I targeted the anthropologist because I knew I would likely have a receptive audience.
Sure enough, I was right. But I do think asking a professor if we could create a collage of protest signs at the end of the term is one of my more ridiculous serious ideas I have had in a while.
Seriously though, I am loving the open-minded and creative academic culture here. If we manage to create such a wall by the end of the term, I’ll be sure to post some pictures.
Friday Forum: Creative forms of pizza
This Friday Forum is brought to you by my friend Rae, who has encouraged me to consider a pizza that avoids meat, dairy, fish, wine and olive oil.
Like many people, I enjoy pizza. However, I also have a general disdain for imitation soy products that approximate meat and dairy products. This disdain generally means that I shift my eating during fasting periods of the Church away from meat, dairy and their approximate forms. The net result is that I have to put down pizza eating for the fasting seasons.
Or do I?
Investigations into most forms of pizza dough suggest they meet fasting criteria. Your mileage may vary, but I typically can find suitable bread products. Additionally, many of the ready made tomato sauces work quite well in pizza. I try to buy something with appropriate seasoning or at least add some oregano. Being single and lacking a food processor, trying to create a tomato puree just seems like more of a hassle than it is worth.
So we have our crust and our sauce. But what do we do about our toppings?
If I really wanted to go all out with regards to textures, then I would probably use finely diced mushrooms as my main cheese substitute. My personal experience with mushrooms on pizza is they pair quite nicely with black olives and zucchini. You could also go for the simple take of “all vegetables, all of the time” relative to your toppings, loading up any vegetables that you think go well with tomatoes. Here is someone else’s take on an appropriate vegan pizza; I’m generally not a huge fan of either eggplant and artichoke hearts so I would probably steer clear of this one for my own consumption.
As a single person, I also prefer taking a minimalistic approach to cooking pizza. Your standard oven size is just way too big for me to eat of my own accord. I find ways to cheat a bit by using toasted bread as my crust and assembling from there. Effectively, you can make a pizza as easily as you can make an open-faced vegetable sandwich. My strategy would be to saute the mushrooms and the olives together while steaming the zucchini adding aspects of Italian seasoning. At other times of the year, I make my pizzas-for-one in the same style as a grilled cheese sandwich. All I do is add tomato sauce and use shredded mozzarella.
Taking Care of Business
For the last several months, I have been organizing my blog around culture, education, engineering and theology. The themes give me a wide space to play in, but I have been learning so much about culture. I think it is time to expand my official category list to include development. Development as I will be using it depends on leveraging various resources to create positive change in communities. In many ways, development focuses on poverty reduction and alleviation.
When thinking about poverty, we have some common ideas about where poverty comes from and what we can do to reduce its effects. Arguably, poverty looks different when you have rampant unemployment. When people want to work but cannot find work, we have a huge problem. This problem can manifest itself culturally, but more often we recognize unemployment as an economic issue. Additionally, unemployment leads to rises in poverty.
The question then becomes “What is the ideal state for a nation’s economy?” Certainly, we would find ourselves in a bit of a bind if absolutely everyone was employed at all times because industries could not expand very easily. Yet, equally we find ourselves in a straight-jacket when people who want to work cannot find work. Roughly speaking, we can divide the economy into two sectors that employ people: the private sector and the public sector. When a country faces high unemployment because the private sector shrinks for any myriad of reasons, the unemployed have two options.
One option involves becoming a job creator. Essentially, people can leverage their creative talents to try to create opportunities for themselves. A small group of people can get together to pool resources, finding a small business. These ventures require a substantial portion of risk. In some economies, particularly in countries where the average age of the population is very young and the private sector is comparatively small, becoming a job creator is a fairly reasonable path. A young entrepreneur can fill a void in her or his community.
Another option involves expanding the public sector. The government coordinates this expansion with the fairly expressed goal of leveraging the human capital of its population towards national development goals. Franklin Delano Roosevelt enacted policies to do just that when he enacted the New Deal, putting millions of people back to work. Our state parks generally came from these efforts. While many assign World War II the agent of economic turn-around, the observation about working towards national development goals still holds firm. In the case of WWII, our national development goals concerned national security. Personally, I would not say that the government-led expansion of the public sector has to involve choice jobs that appeal to everyone. Yet, I do think focusing on jobs that put the unemployed into work at a reasonable wage makes a fair deal of sense. Expanding in some public sectors, like education and the military, could create shifting national development goals.
Work plays a pivotal role in a person’s ability to function. Without work, many of us find ourselves without any means of supporting ourselves. Even the simple human act of eating becomes a question. Depending on where we live, we do not generally have the option of putting ourselves to work through farming to solve the dilemma of putting food on our table.
I am struck by the connection between work and human flourishing. One could say that we have been designed to work. We have a deposit of gifts that allows us to participate meaningfully in the world around us while eating the fruits of our labor. Our work adds value overall to our society, and not simply in the economic sense. We become co-creators with our fellow human beings. Who knows what we are capable of?
Manifesting God’s Love
The activity and clear proof of perfect love toward God is a genuine disposition of voluntary goodwill toward one’s neighbor.
– Saint Maximus the Confessor
Input, input!
I have been doing double time trying to keep up on my news feed. Sometimes, being a graduate student feels a bit like this:
There are so many things to read, so little time. Approaching reading with selectivity is hard! I focus principally on keeping up with current events. Yet the world changes constantly. Many of the changes are major. You can never really know what will be important to observe at any given time.
So, I’m reading, reading, and reading. Even though it can get a little overwhelming, I am absolutely fascinated by what I am reading. Different people raise different questions. I see connections between ideas. I live in a scholarly community where people have very diverse backgrounds. It’s really fascinating.
But I can really relate to Johnny going on his input frenzy.
Concept of the day: Organizational hypocrisy
Political scientists have interesting lenses on the world, but today I learned about the idea of organizational hypocrisy. I found it to be an intriguing concept to share with a broader audience.
“Organizational hypocrisy” carries a broad definition that the discourse, decisions, and actions of an organization may operate seemingly independent of one another. In other words, talk does not necessitate action. Particularly in institutions one may observe that vision statements differ significantly from reality on the ground. Investigations and promises of institutional change occur over long time horizons and may placate persons who desire immediate change.
I think the presence of organizational hypocrisy is essential given how reforms can come in various high-pitched waves. Many organizations work slowly to incorporate the latest fad. Like any innovation decision, commitment comes through testing the various ideas. If you can commit to a program in a piecemeal fashion over time, then it is much easier to envision moving more fully towards that program.
Change invites chaos. The more an institution deals with people, the more sense it makes to try to mitigate chaos associated with change. For instance, imagine living in a school district that adopted every educational fad suggested by a parent immediately. The decision process simply wouldn’t work. Sometimes people suggest things to organizations where the best response is politely diplomatic, “Thank you very much for your suggestion; we will consider the matter [relative to the stack of literature that suggests your suggestion would be remarkably bad for our context.]”
The Power of the Cross
This morning, we read about Christ healing the man afflicted from a legion of demons. All of us face an incredible array of temptations sent as arrows from the evil one to separate us from God. How then can we respond?
Consider the words of St John of San Francisco as he instructs us on the power of the cross.
By the Cross, the Son of God having become man, accomplished our salvation. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross (Phil. 2:8). Having stretched out His hands upon the Cross, the Saviour with them, as it were, embraced the world, and by His blood shed on it, like a king with red ink, He signed the forgiveness of the human race.
The Cross of the Lord was the instrument by which He saved the world after the fall into sin. Through the Cross, He descended with His soul into hell so as to raise up from it the souls who were awaiting Him. By the Cross, Christ opened the doors of paradise which had been closed after our first ancestors had been banished from it.
The Cross was sanctified by the Body of Christ which was nailed to it when He gave Himself over to torments and death for the salvation of the world, and it itself was then filled with life-giving power. By the Cross on Golgotha, the prince of this world was cast out (John 12:31) and an end was put to his authority.
The weapon by which he was crushed became the sign of Christ’s victory.
The demonic hosts tremble when they see the Cross, for by the Cross the kingdom of hell was destroyed. They do not dare to draw near to anyone who is guarded by the Cross.
The whole human race, by the death of Christ on the Cross, received deliverance from the authority of the devil, and everyone who makes use of this saving weapon is inaccessible to the demons.
When legions of demons appeared to St. Anthony the Great and other desert-dwellers, they guarded themselves with the Sign of the Cross, and the demons vanished.
When they appeared to St. Symeon the Stylite, who was standing on his pillar, what seemed to be a chariot to carry him to heaven, the Saint, before mounting it, crossed himself; it disappeared and the enemy, who had hoped to cast down the ascetic from the height of his pillar, was put to shame.
One cannot enumerate all the separate examples of the manifestation of the power of the Cross in various incidents. Invisibly and unceasingly there gushes from it the Divine grace that saves the world.
Taken from “The Cross – Preserver of the Universe” available at the Preacher’s Institute.
Catching my breath
On Saturdays, I offer an update regarding my life in England for family and friends so that is why these posts seem a little bland.
Coursework has started in full force. Different institutions do things so differently. While all of my classes involve 3 hours of instruction, we halve the periods with a common lecture lasting an hour and a half and then dividing into smaller discussion groups for the remainder of the time. With the breaks between various sessions, I can almost count on needing to be in the building for a standard working day. I have a 30-60 minute commute depending on what the buses are doing so I find reasons to stick around the building. Then I can go home.
The work-home structure brings some balance to my day. In making dinner and catching up on all of my online communications, I pretty much spend out the rest of my evenings. There is always something to do. I traveled two weekends ago and had an all-day Saturday workshop last weekend. And now I find myself with a weekend to make my flat feel a bit more like a home. Right now it looks more like laundry and some haphazard unpacking of books has hit it.
Academically, I find development a positively fascinating subject to study. I have become quite adept at using Twitter to source various news servers. My ability to read across a wide range of contemporary events comes in handy; I’m grateful both for the high school discipline of learning to ask questions about the news and for the college discipline of keeping up with headlines regularly on my own accord.
It is rather amusing to watch people roll their eyes regarding the importance of reflective learning. And it is enlightening to discover how a different institution encourages people to engage in reflective learning. But this weekend involves finding some space for breathing local air and tending to a range of things.
Friday Forum: Someone else said it better.
Conversations can be difficult when two people disagree about an appropriate course of action. If the conversation has an element broadly understood concerning the morality of a particular action then the conversation will have a troubled trajectory. It can be very easy to frame the discussion in terms of someone being right and someone being wrong. Often it seems that so many people with the “right” position convey their message in a very inappropriate matter. The medium doesn’t match the message.
I have been dealing a lot with these sorts of conversations lately. But today, I think Ashley simply says it better when she invites us to consider “Swagga like us.“
A Practicing Student
Despite claims to the contrary, I do not think that anyone is all that good about being a professional student. Learning is hard work. The best contexts for learning occur amidst space for exploration and pursuing one’s interests. It can be helpful to have a guide, but sometimes the main function of a guide is to point you in the right direction. Being absolutely inundated with mandatory reading can stifle the learning process. The more convoluted the texts, the less likely you are to learn anything.
But I think there are ways to practice as a student. Some are easier than others. And I would be a total hypocrite to suggest that I successfully do all of these things.
1. Consider your courses relative to your goals. Taking time to figure out how a particular course might speak to your goals can go a long way in helping you aim for a learning target. Sometimes the best you can do is to assert a general skill goal such as “I hope this class will allow me to write strong papers about complex ideas.” Other times you can put your goal as a critique, “I hope this class will prepare me to respond when people argue for a use of a particular technology.” At least you have asserted something that guides your process.
2. Read something you’re interested in personally on a regular basis. I’ll admit to being an avid reader. I try to balance what I have to read for classes with something totally unrelated that I want to read of my own volition. Sometimes it is course-related, sometimes it is a non-fiction work that I am generally interested, sometimes it is a devotional resource, sometimes it is children’s fiction. But such a habit keeps me from getting too locked into one perspective, and occasionally my brain makes random linkages between really diverse concepts. Who knows? You may stumble upon the Medici Effect.
3. Embrace questions. Listening to people and trying to discern a question worth asking can be a great way to take advantage of even stale lectures. Hunting for a good question can be like a scavenger hunt. And even the most dry material can take on new life when you try to grease it with a good question.
4. Write regularly. You might have a flash of insight worth following up on even if it is just an awareness that you have a jumble of words trapped in your head that you would much rather vomit out on paper. Word vomit can offer a diagnostic for your thinking. If you think an idea could be worth developing further, write it down. If you have a question that has an elegantly simple sense about it, write it down. If you have a broad concept that you’re trying to think through, start writing. St Theophan the Recluse offers this relative to the writing process: “Always write straight from the shoulder. Write what is on your mind, and take care to state fully the questions which are stirring in your head and begging for an answer.”
Do you have anything to add to my list?
Prayers by the Lake
Simply beautiful. Enjoy.
The Rationale Behind the Numbers
Often, numbers take on a life of their own. They exist in a nebulous space where 2 or .75 is supposed to mean something in and of itself. But numbers tell a story. And the key to the story is often in the calculation.
I have seen countless equations. As an engineer, you learn that the equations behind one process share remarkable similarity to the equations behind another process. It is easy to get lost in the math such that you lose the story in the process. Frequently, it seems economic models lose track of the story. It does not help that statistics can lessen the overall impact of a story.
Poverty, as presently defined by organizations such as the World Bank, tends to be wrapped up in equations. The package has been together so long that people forget to untie the package and discern its meaning. A country’s poverty profile can be reduced to 0.30, 0.50, and 0.70 all sitting in a column without much regard for where the numbers come from or their limitations. For the curious, these three numbers indicate various factors as to how the population interacts with a technically-defined poverty line. As the first number, 0.30 means that 30% of the population is at or below the poverty line. As the second number, 0.50 means that the average income of all of the people below the poverty line is 50% of that of the poverty line [so if you have a poverty line of $500/year, the average poor person makes $250/year]. And as the third number, the 0.70 indicates that the relative distribution of people below the poverty line is significantly uneven [ie you have a lot of people making a lot less than $250/year]. But it is a lot easier to throw these numbers into another equation than to stop and think about their meaning.
After all, thinking about what they actually mean might just lead you to ask the question, “How am I an actor in this story?”
Culinary Adventures
I really like cooking. A student budget also stretches much further when one cooks relative to the expense of eating out daily. After spending some time at home, I received some pointers from my dad regarding different culinary techniques. Additionally, the whole genre of cooking reality television manages to get my attention from time to time.
But sometimes I over-stretch myself in the kitchen and do things that I just know probably shouldn’t be done. A couple of days ago, I tried my hand at a cheese sauce.
Cheese can be exceptionally tricky. It tends to form huge stringy clumps. But apparently, if you melt cheese into warm butter and milk mixture slowly, you can do alright with a cheese sauce.
A key ingredient though in this process is flour. Silly me, I tried to minimize the presence of this ingredient. Bad idea. I had grand plans of serving my cheese sauce over rice and green beans. I didn’t realize how badly I had messed up the sauce until I poured it out on my plate and discovered the lake of separated cheese sauce nearly overflowing my plate. It also didn’t help much that the cheese clumped out right at the end of the pouring.
Lucky for me, I’m a graduate student where “inedible” is quite the unknown category. And I really like green beans so I took time to excavate them from the clump of cheese. The left-overs were truly non-salvageable, and it took just about everything I could do so as to not have an absolute disaster in the kitchen.
But, lake of failed cheese sauce aside, I do seem to be doing a fairly reasonable job on the cooking and eating front. New places carry new adventures. When you throw a national border into the mix, you’re bound to be exploring new things. However, never again will I attempt cheese sauce sans flour.
Where Faith Dwells
There are times when the lectionary throws the Gospel straight at you. Today was one of those days, as the Gospel reading featured the parable of the sower. Just yesterday, I reflected on the ancient deposit of faith reflected in the ancient stones of Canterbury Cathedral. Today, I was reminded that the Gospel does not take root in a rock.
We can get into a problem when we reduce the Gospel to the things of the Church rather than constantly exhorting the Church to be shaped to the Gospel. We get lost in our church-ness. We divorce action from meaning. We confuse preferences with truth. We start seeking conformity rather than conversion. And we mask and obscure the faith.
The thing about the Gospel is that it takes root in human hearts, the site of probably the most stubborn field to plant. We really can only plant the Gospel by constantly exhorting Christ to sow His seed and by seeking our own repentance. If our hearts are hard and closed to His work, then how could we expect to see His work fully elsewhere?
If these stones could talk
I sincerely enjoy traveling. When living in a new place, you are almost expected to get out and take a look around, boldly going where [nearly every] tourist has gone before. Yet, being a tourist is so much better when you can stay with friends. You can almost pass for a local [until you open your mouth, consult a sign, or really just set foot outside of your accommodation]. Last weekend, I spent some quality time wandering around Canterbury.
If you are me, Canterbury leaves little to be desired for a weekend jaunt. You have random old architecture, key places of historic interest, a juxtaposition of the ancient and modern that serves as a form of true comedy, and a testimony regarding the Christian tradition of England. Particularly as I am trying to find my feet in England, it seemed wholly appropriate to spend some time experiencing English Christianity, Cathedral-style.
The picture that accompanies this post is a quick shot of the iconography in St. Gabriel’s chapel off of the main crypt church. [Seriously, one thing that I have never particularly understood about Roman Catholic and Anglican church buildings is this tendency to throw up altars everywhere and have the church within the church (within the church).] Wandering around, I found this chapel dedicated to the genesis of the Gospel and these fabulous murals declaring the story of the faith.
I had the distinct pleasure of attending two Evensong services and one Matins service at the Cathedral. [Additionally, the Cathedral grounds have an access fee unless you are accessing the Cathedral for religious purposes.] The second Evensong service had no truly special features and featured an absolutely phenomenal choir, which left me for a second asking the question whether I was in heaven or on earth. The Evensong expression is fairly uniquely English in form. To experience the service in a choral arrangement was a true gift.
Yet, in the same vein, aspects of the Christian tradition have gotten muddled to the point of comedy. My friend Aideen, who was kind enough to host me, pointed me to this clip immediately before I attended the Matins service. I was off in my expectations of the Matins service: I had hoped that it would be a clear telling of the Resurrection as is the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church, yet the service matched the more standard plain form of a service with some hymns, two readings, and a sermon. Needless to say, when the preacher whipped out his Blackberry at the outset of his sermon all I could think about was the colors of the season. The homily left much to be desired, most notably a clear proclamation of the Gospel. As the second reading was a rather obscure passage from a New Testament letter, the service contained nothing explicitly connected to Gospel. But the point remains that I found myself in a place seemingly hinged on the promise that even if we did not proclaim God’s story in the time and place, the very rocks would cry out.
One image that I’m working with while I am here is trying to image pushing my ear literally against these stones. After all, these stones contain a permanency of faith at which I can only marvel. Depending on where you go, the stones tell a rather tortured history. The icons I found in the chapel of the Annunciation speak to this story. They are chipped, faded, and otherwise falling into disrepair. Yet, despite all odds, they remain.
Friday Forum: Reflecting on the Rosary
The Roman Catholic Church dedicates the month of October to cultivating a consciousness around a very popular, and very Catholic, Marian devotion known as the Rosary. My friend Rae tweeted quite a bit about the Rosary, so I challenged her to post some of her thoughts about the Rosary. In the exchange that followed, we agreed that we would both post something regarding our non-relationship with the Rosary. Since it is as good of topic for a Friday Forum space as any, I’m taking up the question this week.
The Rosary brings together 15, or 20 depending on how you account, different events for Christian reflection. In particular, the Rosary is known almost as a series of “Hail Mary” prayers dotted with some exceptions. Typically, people term the Rosary a uniquely Marian devotion with a high association with Roman Catholic practice. But I think my non-relationship with the Rosary stems principally from a lack of proper information regarding this devotional practice.
The Rosary is not simply about Mary; it is about the Gospel of Christ. Additionally, the prime function of the standard daily Rosary is not to string together 1 recitation of the Creed, 3 “Lord have mercy” prayers, 5 “Our Father”s and 50 “Hail Mary” exaltation wrapped up neatly in a bow with one set of closing prayers. Rarely do I tell someone how to pray, but I do think there is much more to this tradition than simply getting the numbers and the forms right. The strength of a devotion like the Rosary is to bring together a multitude of events in the Gospel through a common point of reflection. In this regard, the Rosary is a uniquely Marian form of prayer because the Christian tries to reflect on the events that the Virgin Mary witnessed. Yet, I would submit that we do not pray to Mary as if she were in front of us, rather we pray with Mary beside us.
The Rosary is fundamentally a Scriptural reflection. Consider the first 5 Mysteries in the West: 1) the Annunciation, 2) the Visitation to Elizabeth, 3) the Nativity of Christ, 4) the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and 5) the Finding of Christ in the Temple. In this regard, these first 5 Mysteries invite the Christian to journey through the first 2 chapters of the Gospel of Luke. Last year, I found a copy of the Jesus Prayer Rosary. This valuable book traces out the events of Christ’s life through providing Scriptures and additions to the Jesus Prayer to foster deeper reflection on the particular event remembered. Even the problematic “Hail Mary” prayer takes on new light against the backdrop of the full contents of the Rosary as it contains the words of both Gabriel and Elizabeth when they greet Mary in the Gospel of Luke. [Additionally, there is a modification of the “Hail Mary” prayer that states simply “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thee among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus, for you have born the savior of our souls. Amen.”] Really, the prayer is about walking through the Gospel.
But I firmly believe that it is okay that the Rosary isn’t everyone’s favorite prayer devotion. Keeping a prayer rule can be quite difficult. Perhaps all that seems reasonable to even commit to regularly is saying the Lord’s Prayer at morning, noon and night. There is nothing uniquely sacred about the Rosary just as there is nothing uniquely sacred about morning prayer. The cultivation of a prayer rule requires discernment and matching to your present context and circumstances. As a matter of fact, my personal staple with regard to reflecting on various aspects of Mary’s witness to Christ has been the Vespers of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Some of the issues regarding learning to pray the Rosary relates to packaging. So many resources I have seen gloss over the Mysteries entirely and offer much more insights into counting the number of times you have said a particular prayer. The prayer is just complicated enough when you start that it’s helpful to have a reasonable guide. My Western Rite Orthodox prayer book has a good section to support praying the Rosary. Additionally so-called “Scriptural Rosaries” can be a helpful resource; I only caution my recommendation as some of these resources take greater liberty with the observation that, as a form, the Rosary brings together 5 distinct Biblical passages rather than sticking to the traditional set of Mysteries.
The Rosary is a longer devotion, but I do think it’s important to try to stretch one’s prayer rule to seek disciplines that call us towards full reflection on the Gospel.
Adjustment continues…
Sorry for the lack of substance today. It’s been a very long day, punctuated by discovering a locked church, learning about poverty statistics, partaking in discussion, brainstorming with students about the merits of various programmes, listening to guest lecturers and chatting with friends about the big move. I’m only just now getting some space in the day, but it’s past the critical “Need to get to bed” threshold.
So I’m going to leave you with a little bit of a link round-up:
- The Marginalized, a new blog that just seems absolutely fascinating regarding the realities of forced migration.
- Living Standards Measurement Study, or how the World Bank calculates poverty.
- Ravi Kanbur, an economist working to popularize development economics and advance inter-disciplinary cooperation.
- The Little Cars that Moved Europe, a wonderful telling of the micro-cars that dominated Europe after the Second World War
- Don’t be Afraid to Share, a look at how colleges are using social media
- HIV-positive teenagers and religion, an illuminating piece about how the discourse of Christian healing can be misappropriated.
- Raisins Give Hope to Afghan Farmers, an article exploring Fair Trade arrangements
Enjoy your reading!
A Prayer When I Feel Hated
Loving God, you made me who I am. I praise you and I love you, for I am wonderfully made, in your own image.
But when people make fun of me, I feel hurt and embarrassed and even ashamed. So please God, help me remember my own goodness, which lies in you. Help me remember my dignity, which you gave me when I was conceived. Help me remember that I can live a life of love, because you created my heart.
Be with me, loving God, when people hate me, and help me to respond how you would want me to: with a love that respects others, but also respects me. Help me find friends who love me for who I am. Help me, most of all, to be a loving person.
And God, help me remember that Jesus loves me. For he was seen as an outcast, too. He was misunderstood, too. He was beaten and spat upon. Jesus understands me, and loves me with a special love, because of the way you made me.
And when I am feeling lonely, help me to remember that Jesus welcomed everyone as a friend. Jesus reminded everyone that God loved them. Jesus encouraged everyone to embrace their dignity, even when others were blind to seeing that dignity. Jesus loved everyone with the boundless love that you gave him. And he loves me, too.
One more thing, God: Help me remember that nothing is impossible with you, that you have a way of making things better, and that you can find a way of love for me, even if I can’t see it right now.
Help me remember all these things in the heart you created, loving God. Amen.
James Martin, SJ
The Marginalized
When people think of working amongst the poor, generally they add a critical and: the poor and the marginalized. Yet, problems emerge when broadening the discourse as now we have to ask “marginalized relative to what?” Generally, the academic solution is to look towards people excluded from structures of government for whatever reason, which winds up drawing the conclusion that anyone other than white heterosexual able-bodied males are marginalized.
I struggle with this idea of marginalization because it generally goes after the mainstream. These publications might as well be an advertisement for progressive groups of all kinds. Recently I read a publication that referenced “Catholics For Choice” because of their general openness to condom use. But is a pro-condom group really a marginalized group? Or is the pro-condom group the dominant voice of the contemporary left?
Do we have alternative ways of identifying the poor who we are to spend particular focus on? Looking through the Scriptures, I see the following ands associated with the poor:
- the sojourner
- the needy
- him who has no helper
- the brokenhearted
- the crippled, the blind, the lame
Maybe we have alternatives here to the option of lack of political representation.
Growing Up is Optional, Provided You Read Chapter Books
I love books. I have this relationship with books that almost reaches to the point of an addiction. Personally, I prefer the label “well-read” but books generally are overly welcome in my places of residence. Reading provides a fantastic window on the world. Authors even carefully construct alternate worlds to explore broader themes of being human. And occasionally, you find an author who just writes for fun. It is hard to create unilateral criteria for bad books.
Unless the book happens to be a picture book. Recently, the New York Times ran an article about parents avoiding picture books for their children. I love my picture books. One of my favorites is “Purple Green and Yellow” by Robert Munch. I can still rattle off “super-indelible-never-come-off-until-you’re-dead-or-maybe-even-later coloring markers” with the best of them. Short stories formed a critical part of my reading repertoire, particularly when learning to read aloud for others. Picture books bring a level of creativity to reading. They open up the creative mind to other forms of communication. Have you ever thought about the critically literate imagination of a renown illustrator?
Recently, I re-encountered Dr. Seuss after a long hiatus. I was amazed at his depth regarding complex themes. The Butter Battle Book is all about the Cold War. The Lorax is all about environmental mindfulness. Literally Dr Seuss is also a ton of fun. I think learning the rules of iambic pentameter would have made a lot of sense under his playful tongue instead of getting lost in the oddities of Shakespearean English.
Chapter books are excellent. Matilda remains among my absolute favorites to this day. However, to assert that a child’s intellectual development accelerates by picking up chapter books earlier and earlier and earlier is absolutely absurd.
So for the love of all things childhood, let’s keep the picture books around. Let’s learn to appreciate this unique literary form.
Seemingly False Promises
As I read today’s Gospel reading, I was struck by how many objections I immediately raised to the story. We read St Luke’s account of Christ raising the dead son of the widow of Nain. The shear idea of a widow having to bury her son just seems like the tantamount injustice. Yet, these scenes happen continually, all over the world. And the young men remain on their funeral biers.
Where is Christ?
In this passage we see a microcosm of the Gospel rooted in Christ’s Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection. We have a temptation to view this story as only a resurrection story. We hear that Jesus touches the coffin and the young man gets up, returned to life. Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Yet, if we stop the account immediately as Jesus arrives on the scene, we hear “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.'” In his compassion, Christ enters into the woman’s situation. By merely being present, He has the power to change the situation. We can be tempted to assert that we know what will happen next, but the reality of Christ means that He can enter into a situation anyway He wants. We can start the rejoicing, anticipating that the son will be raised. But is the son’s resurrection the reason to rejoice? Or do we rejoice because we see Christ entering the situation?
Maintaining a focus on the likely coming physical reality can lead to our creating a promise from God that simply doesn’t exist. God does act in our physical reality by entering. our, reality. The presence of Christ makes the difference.
Additionally, we see Christ’s crucifixion in that He touches the coffin. The Crucifixion resulted in Jesus being in the tomb. Christ’s ability to enter into even our death transforms the nature of that death. Clearly, the Resurrection comes next.
Within five sentences, we see the entirety of the Gospel. We can be lured into the false promise that the Gospel happens in an instant. But our God remains outside of time and space. We rarely see the fullness of the Gospel in 5-10 minutes of our life. These passages can challenge our faith when we pray for those we love who face death. The resurrection of the widow’s son almost feels false. We don’t see dead young men leave their funeral piers.
But this story is our story. And the story begins because Jesus has compassion on the people. Jesus’ willingness to enter into our situation radicalizes the situation. When we overlook God with us, we can easily make the Gospel about something entirely different.
Finding my feet
Moving to a new place can be frightfully boring to people who are interested in where you are going and what you have been up to. Major achievements are things like finding the grocery and one’s way to (and from!) work. I am hoping to soon have an established bank account to make budgeting that much easier. But these seemingly mundane things are quite difficult on arrival.
I am only just now starting to get adventurous regarding the bus system. Comparatively, I do not have a lot of experience with public transportation but I have lived in places where basic knowledge was required. It’s hard when the network is extensive, but I am quite excited that my memory served me properly to the point where I could identify the bus that stops closest to my house after grocery shopping at a new market. I have seen signs for buses that run up the hill I live on, but I didn’t quite trust myself to remember the numbers when I was waiting. Further investigation of the routes revealed that I was correct. So I have managed to figure out how to avoid the walk up the hill when I am carrying groceries. Score one for adaptation.
My next week isn’t so heavily time-tabled so I am looking forward to exploring more of my city. It’s a bit challenging as a lot of exploring has to be accomplished by 700p or so because then the city effectively shuts down. The goal for next Saturday is to post some pictures so you can get a sense of the city… but that means I need to get out a bit more.
Personally, I’m a bit amused that I will know more about some other cities by the time I get around to exploring where I live. Last weekend, I commuted to a nearby town for the purposes of locating the church that houses the local Orthodox community. Presently, I’m venturing a bit further out to visit a good friend for the weekend. In a couple of weeks, I hope to head up to London so rest assured that I’m seeing the country.
Cheers!
Friday Forum: It’s a Gift to be Simple
Today I was chatting with a good friend of mine. In the course of the conversation, the topic of simple living arose. The question of the week is Should we be seeking out simplicity?
Simplicity comes in all sorts of shapes and forms. I generally try to live a simple life by having little, wanting little, and enjoying much. But so much in life pulls counter to simplicity with the broad assertion that we should not be content with what we have. Additionally, my position comes from an understanding that I do have a wide range of choices both in terms of what I have and what I want. Not all people benefit from functioning choice in their lives.
Simplicity often means finding value where you didn’t see it before. Can a friend’s laugh be meaningful? What about a smile? What about simple eye contact? Pushing more and more into the minimalist representations of human life, we are tempted to scream “But that’s not enough!” And therein, I discover the challenge of simplicity. Right at that point, we have an intersection of our needs and our wants that calls us towards protest. Reconciling this protest, in my opinion, gets at the heart of what it means to be a joy-filled human being.
Different people have different reflexes around the questions of contentment. Note here: I am speaking about the issue in terms of contentment, not in terms of true need or in accommodating mistreatment from others. A good friend of mine Brian once declared that a rich man is a person who wants for nothing. A person can have all of the money in the world, but if he or she craves power, influence, material possessions or human relationships, then he or she is impoverished at some level.
Too often, our perceived needs function in the background of our consciousness. We do not tend to search them out actively and consider their general applicability. For most of us, there is simply no need to do so. As an object illustration, today I went shopping. I had a list, but I went shopping at a different grocer. I took my time to consider what was available to me and spoke to the needs I had reflected in my shopping list. Yet, shopping knowing I have to carry everything back with me definitely invites a different consideration than shopping knowing I can put everything in a car. Having to be more strategic in my food choices only stands to benefit me in a range of measures.
So many factors compete with simple living. I recently downsized my entire magnitude of possessions, focusing particularly on my books and my clothes. Yet there are so many opportunities to buy new things! I have to make rather concerted choices to maintain a simple way of life. The adage You can’t take it with you has been so helpful for me as I attempt to navigate some of these new challenges.
I like the way my friend phrased the question: be seeking out because it hints at the active nature of choosing a simple life. But like so many things, a simple life must be chosen, and then chosen again, and then chosen again. Everyday offers a chance at renewal.
A Practicing Human 
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