Having taken the month of August off from blogging to focus on creating my collection for the YYP Competition, my creative energy surge to complete another collection has turned retrospective. I started thinking of the poetry that I have written throughout my life. I remembered when I thought that all good poetry rhymed as Shel Silverstein's Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout was brilliant to me. I loved Silverstein and Seuss. I set out to rhyme everything for a couple of years. It was a great game to play.
Gamesmanship is not a lost art in people's lives. Unfortunately, some like to play with other people. I have been honored these past weeks to observe a couple of people though.
First, while I was on the bus, I saw and met a homeless man. He was awesome. He was encouraging all of the people around him to have good and productive days. He wanted to buy a cup of coffee for another man on the bus who was having a difficult time finding work, but he was housed and fed. He was sad that he didn't have work. Yet, the homeless guy found work wherever it was to include encouraging the other man on the bus. I understood him as a Christ figure. He was there to encourage and care for those around him instead of asking for anything. It was counter to what is normally experienced in that situation.
Secondly, I met Jimmy. Jimmy is a student who is working towards having a better future in his life. He is studying to pass his courses and is working to leave a halfway house. He is a white collar ex-con who is now choosing to live life differently. I was honored to hear his story about consistently choosing freedom while experiencing his new space and options and share with him the information about being a university student.
While we were all on the bus, some people were opposed to the first guy far more than anyone was opposed to Jimmy. Homelessness is game where I currently live. It seems that it is more of an issue here than anywhere else I have lived, or at least, it seems to be so. There are prisons here, a lot of missions to help people, and only about 100,000 people. I have met some people who seem to try to make other people homeless here. Perhaps, I am recognizing it more than before since there are far fewer people than I am used to being around. I live in a city that is a tenth of the size than the one before I moved, and while it isn't necessarily a Cheers episode, people know people here.
These were experiences that were living poetry in my life. I found beauty in these people and what they had to say. I found poetry in the acceptance of the other people around them. It was community that appeared within the community. No had to make a show of anything. It just was -- community. The key is knowing two things: when to Build an Ark and when to Dare to be a Daniel. I have had some great experiences in the past few weeks that illustrate how community can sing in its own poetic forms as we just go about living our lives. It was also incredible to me because it reminded me of the ways that we view other people.
Too often society looks at something and thinks that it knows what it is. Just like David and Goliath, the giants we fight fall, but we use our own ways to make sure that we are able to be safe in the fights. It is in our best interest to do so. People also seem to think of themselves as mighty warriors such that we even have giants to slay. At some point, people don't need to create giants. The giants we fight are generally of our own making. We make giants of the unknown. Because we don't know everything, we think our creative narratives are everyone's reality.
The number one way that people do this is questioning everyone's motives. I was given a recipe to make a cleaner out of bleach and Pine Sol. When I told someone the story, the motive was questioned. Why does someone give something to the other person? Well, I was using Lysol and didn't like the results, so I was looking for something different. I asked the neighbor who does maintenance in apartments about what they use (ya''ll know how people are), so he shared the information. Why is his motive questioned for sharing? It's a regular thing for neighbors to do. It's called: "being neighborly."
Paranoia is a huge problem for people. It's normal to ask for help and beneficial. Not everything is a personal attack or motivated to harm another person. Paranoia is a huge giant as is greed. Trust issues plague our society. I was asked why I owned something that someone else didn't. Why isn't it okay for one person to have thing and another not to? Why would someone go into another person's house and say "where did you get that?" in an accusatory tone? What is the real problem in those instances? Envy.
I met a person who wants everything done for him but doesn't share or reciprocate in anyway. Instead, the person claims that he is being taken advantage of when he is actually more ahead of the game because others are sharing with him. We have the adage that No Good Deed goes unpunished. The problem with it is that not everyone is out to get everyone else. The real issues is that there are people playing games trying to control other people within our society. I try to remember that there was a time in my life before I knew most people in it now, and I'm still here which means I will probably be in my life after that person. I am realistically the only person from whom I can't get away.
People tend to forget that when they want to punish someone then it is because that person is acting as the judicial system instead of using the judicial system. It leads to a pity party most of the time. "The poor me's I helped someone" syndrome is a real problem. Some people are incredibly toxic, but the ex-con and homeless man I met on the bus were healthier than some of the others around them. Doing service work actually causes people to feel better and motivate those around them to do better.
It seems that some are out to erase hope. Some are out to make sure that they can trample everyone else. At some point, it's only when people know that I have or intend to go to a Temple that they start getting upset and refusing to help me while presuming that I am there to serve them. I know a lot of people on the margins of society while I know others in high positions who can't handle a simple conversation.
Those with nothing seem to be able to be hospitable while others talk sideways. It's really simple. Greed is a self-centered choice. Sharing is not. Friendship is okay. For someone who has been accused of not knowing how to have and keep friends, it seems that when I have friends their involvement in my life is a problem for others I know. It is a sign of a controlling and toxic relationship.
Friendship is normal. Isolation is not. Some can make friends in any walk of life, and others seem not to be able to do so. Genuine community isn't planned. It just happens when people are hospitable to others and are able to trust other people. It happens when people share with one another. Sharing builds relationships. Friends aren't mythical creatures. Friends are awesome and in our lives to share in community, have experiences, and understand each other in only the way that continual choice can.
May we befriend those on the margins of society and those within accepted society.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Grace and the Law: Who's the Boss
While I continue to study and write about grace and the law, I find that the social experiences I have are tempered with, not only the information that I am learning and have been for about 18 years, but also the socioeconomic consequences within the world. The main issue that I yearn for people to understand is that leadership is not management. Leadership is not limited to title or position in an organization. Leadership is founded in lived character traits. Character traits don't understand rank, position, titles, paychecks, clothes, cars, or any other man made means by which people decide another person's social status. A character traits merely illumine the inner training of a human being to the outer world. In short, they are the living results of a sacramental life.
Second to what leadership actually is, considering what love is sieved through a leadership colander is a better means through which to live with one another. We are told that Jesus said, by St. John the Divine in John 13:35, that "By this they will know that you are My disciples, that you love one another." This verse directly links leadership with love. However, if a reader has been taught that love is people pleasing and putting on a strong face in order to please Jesus and show that Christians love one another, then love and oppression have been confused. Lots of people confuse love and oppression just as they confuse leadership and management. Management, often, turns into micromanagement. The difference between guiding someone and oppressing someone is the retention of choice. Leaders empower choice.
Being a part of an English department creates a necessity to use words wisely as most people in the room are going to question that person's word choice or phrase regardless of what someone else says. Higher education has a defined hierarchy and often those who work as adjuncts are used as bargaining chips or as superfluous. This doesn't happen everywhere, but it does happen in some places. The test for it is if someone reading this says to themselves, "we treat our adjuncts right" or "we don't do that at our _____________," then your school has a problem. Nonetheless, Biblical leadership provides the measure through which to balance the mean colleagues and people in organizations intend upon finding was to micromanage another person's life.
Paul writes the Letter of Timothy primary about contending with false teachers. He writes, "These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, then they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain" (NIV Tim 6:2-6).
When I got to the point in my life when I could honestly say, "I am content," people thought I was going crazy. I didn't want enormous house and all of the trappings that go with it. What did it for me was not chasing money and not trying to find ways to please other people. I know that when God looks at me; He sees ME. All of me. It seems to me that others are more bothered by my socioeconomic standing than I am. I will state it plainly. I know rich people, and I am poor. I know a lot of middle class people who are more concerned with my socioeconomic standing than the rich people I know. In another way of stating it, people with tenure are not worried about up and coming adjuncts.
So, Who's the boss?
People of faith do not have money because they are in God's favor. Money is an object; it's not God. Working to make decisions to decide what someone else should own is wrong. Constantly deciding that another person is not good enough because you are not content with your own life is wrong.
I am content. I play in dirt. I walk my dog. I color. I sing. I dance. I work. I write. I study. I sleep. I breathe... I belong.
I am content.
Contentment is one of the most difficult things to find. Busyness creeps in on our lives when we least expect it. The constant chase is not good for us. Looking at another person's life by examining what remains doesn't give the full value of the life or experience.
When I die, I want people to say that above anything else that I was content. It is better to hear from the afterlife that did not seek the approval of the world, but that I was content. That I was a man of godly character and love. That I lead without distinguishing one person's worth over another's. May people say that I was a leader with balanced scales and discernment. Perhaps by the time I die, I will be able to say that I grew content with the responsibility and trust that God had in me. May all of us.
I have been blessed with new work opportunities. It's wonderful to have them. I know want work and pay to become what I seek more than God. I would rather seek the heart of a Loving God than His creation. May I strive to lead in the work I have been given to do.
A prayer for the middle of the week:
God, give me contentment in my blessings. Let my blessings not turn to curses as I grow into these new responsibilities. Let these open doors bring joy, mercy, and above all, contentment in what has been bestowed on all in a similar situation. Let us all be in Your presence throughout the rest of the week. Hold us in your embrace to teach us contentment in Your Faith in us. Amen.
Second to what leadership actually is, considering what love is sieved through a leadership colander is a better means through which to live with one another. We are told that Jesus said, by St. John the Divine in John 13:35, that "By this they will know that you are My disciples, that you love one another." This verse directly links leadership with love. However, if a reader has been taught that love is people pleasing and putting on a strong face in order to please Jesus and show that Christians love one another, then love and oppression have been confused. Lots of people confuse love and oppression just as they confuse leadership and management. Management, often, turns into micromanagement. The difference between guiding someone and oppressing someone is the retention of choice. Leaders empower choice.
Being a part of an English department creates a necessity to use words wisely as most people in the room are going to question that person's word choice or phrase regardless of what someone else says. Higher education has a defined hierarchy and often those who work as adjuncts are used as bargaining chips or as superfluous. This doesn't happen everywhere, but it does happen in some places. The test for it is if someone reading this says to themselves, "we treat our adjuncts right" or "we don't do that at our _____________," then your school has a problem. Nonetheless, Biblical leadership provides the measure through which to balance the mean colleagues and people in organizations intend upon finding was to micromanage another person's life.
Paul writes the Letter of Timothy primary about contending with false teachers. He writes, "These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, then they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain" (NIV Tim 6:2-6).
When I got to the point in my life when I could honestly say, "I am content," people thought I was going crazy. I didn't want enormous house and all of the trappings that go with it. What did it for me was not chasing money and not trying to find ways to please other people. I know that when God looks at me; He sees ME. All of me. It seems to me that others are more bothered by my socioeconomic standing than I am. I will state it plainly. I know rich people, and I am poor. I know a lot of middle class people who are more concerned with my socioeconomic standing than the rich people I know. In another way of stating it, people with tenure are not worried about up and coming adjuncts.
So, Who's the boss?
People of faith do not have money because they are in God's favor. Money is an object; it's not God. Working to make decisions to decide what someone else should own is wrong. Constantly deciding that another person is not good enough because you are not content with your own life is wrong.
I am content. I play in dirt. I walk my dog. I color. I sing. I dance. I work. I write. I study. I sleep. I breathe... I belong.
I am content.
Contentment is one of the most difficult things to find. Busyness creeps in on our lives when we least expect it. The constant chase is not good for us. Looking at another person's life by examining what remains doesn't give the full value of the life or experience.
When I die, I want people to say that above anything else that I was content. It is better to hear from the afterlife that did not seek the approval of the world, but that I was content. That I was a man of godly character and love. That I lead without distinguishing one person's worth over another's. May people say that I was a leader with balanced scales and discernment. Perhaps by the time I die, I will be able to say that I grew content with the responsibility and trust that God had in me. May all of us.
I have been blessed with new work opportunities. It's wonderful to have them. I know want work and pay to become what I seek more than God. I would rather seek the heart of a Loving God than His creation. May I strive to lead in the work I have been given to do.
A prayer for the middle of the week:
God, give me contentment in my blessings. Let my blessings not turn to curses as I grow into these new responsibilities. Let these open doors bring joy, mercy, and above all, contentment in what has been bestowed on all in a similar situation. Let us all be in Your presence throughout the rest of the week. Hold us in your embrace to teach us contentment in Your Faith in us. Amen.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Leftovers: The American Remnant
It is necessary as a citizen of any country to consider the social constructions to maintain independent sustainability. If I am born a freeman and desire to remain so, then striving to maintain the freedom of those around me helps maintain my own freedom. Just as the legend tells us of Betsy Ross sewing the first American flag from leftover remnants of material, the United States was founded on, not what we find as contemporary Protestant Christian ideals, but on the leftovers of wars, tyranny, conquests, and piracy propelled forward by what seemingly was a traditional government caring for the colonists. It was the Founding Fathers, their wives, children, and slaves who were tired of subsiding on the leftovers from the ruling class, the troops that took over their homes, and distant religious authorities who chosen to embrace the reality that they were living, not fully, but on what was leftover.
Still today, as the United States has just celebrated Independence Day, American society is full of leftovers. We continue to live lives that are leftover from the battles that each person has in his or her own life. We still continue to live with leftovers from the ruling class, our troops, and distant religious authorities attempting to control the freedoms granted to every American citizen. Fortunately, the remnant still rises in this country working to maintain independence and fight off the replacement of our rights with slavery, the replacement and removal of our wounded from society, and the replacement of our chosen theologies, disciplines, and religions with another's decision for us.
Socio-economic challenges within American Society as people have "Occupied (wherever)" throughout the country during President Obama's tenure have brought the working poor into the media more than ever before in my lifetime. I am the working poor and am not ashamed of my socioeconomic status, even when verbally attacked by others for being so. I know that as I served others even less fortunate than me and as fortunate as me at The Kelly Memorial Food Pantry. I served with the working poor, the rich, the retired, the young and underage, the fixed income person, the unemployed, and everyone else. The beauty of a global mission is the attempt at the equalization of socioeconomic status for at least the moment that people are being cared for and served in community. I haven't found a new place yet where I live now to give of my time, talents, and treasure. I will choose to do so in time, but this time, I think I am going to look into another part of the realm to serve in. Global missions provide for stewardship opportunities that people cry out for in their hearts without giving themselves permission to partake in.
Giving ourselves permission to live into the fullness of our freedom in this country, for some, means to served in the Armed Forces. The servicemen and women of this country often give everything they have, including their lives, to protect, serve, and continue the freedoms that every citizens here and abroad enjoy. The Wounded Warrior Project, Operation First Response, and Puppies Behind Bars help the soldiers who've returned from war zones changed by the reality of their service lives. They have more options than they think from time to time. Caring for our servicemen and not allowing their lives and homes to be controlled by their experiences gives Americans a chance to live the Third Amendment of the Constitution by not allowing intruding memory to "seize and control" the home of an American soldier. Foreign armies and experiences should not maintain control of our active duty service people and veterans by replacing wholeness with injury. The leftovers from war and crime working together training and using the same service dogs in Puppies Behind Bars gives leftovers, the remnants new life just as Betsy Ross, by at least legend, gave the country its flag. What was leftover and harmed turned into a banner for each human being.
Nothing is more harming to a human being, in my estimation, than a distant religious authority attempting to control and replace another person's theology with his or her own. The Freedom of Religion is inherent and necessary within every person's life in order that the individual have the ultimate freedom embraced in the Love of that person's deity or lack thereof. It is united in this freedom that replacement theology is un-American. I don't think about another person's religion or religious practice when I meet another person. I wasn't taught to do such a thing when I was younger and still don't now that I am more focused on what I think God has asked us to do: beyond walking mercifully and humbly with Him. For this reason, World Faith and other interfaith groups like it serve to education and provide experiences for people to learn to break the habit of replacing what another person believes with a self-chosen and adhered to belief. Working to force belief on another person is dangerous.
When religious leaders chose to keep themselves away from their assemblies and chose that people need to modify their behaviors to be more in line with what a specific individual believes, then a combination of psychological and spiritual abuse exists. What is leftover is remnant theology attempting to hold people who have been removed and targeted by religious leaders for any reason at all, usually: thinking and behaving from their own consciences. Remnant theologians strive to accept difference without a need for dualistic construct. People do not choose between one thing and another. If behavioral adherence is being chosen above individual freedoms, then a religious leader is working at removing a person's freedom to relate with a deity freely. One true faith and one true religion is an attempt and creating slaves and further oppression. The remnants of those harmed by religious leaders and group eventually bond together to heal, harm (unfortunately), and kvetch about their experiences. In time, people accept differences in the communities that they are in after trying to replace diversity with sameness. It is better to chose to be a useful remnant than replace another's point of view and belief.
Independence has been a theme for me in the past year. I am grateful that it has been. I have far more stringent boundaries than I have ever had in my life. I am a better person for it. Embracing remnancy and living life as a leftover, being done with several organizations in my life, has caused me to move forward towards and complete several of the goals that I have. Often, leftovers are better than the original when the original was trying to be contained inside of a stringent thought box. I am pleased that I have become choosey...
This past 4th of July, I didn't buy fireworks or roast hog dogs at a barbeque. I didn't spend time at a lake or reminiscing about times past with people I've know forever. I spent the day unpacking from my completely legal move, hung an American flag in my home, and watched the fireworks over the neighborhood with my schnauzer, Rumi. He's never lived where people were allowed to have fireworks of their own before due to fire hazards. He was brave and watched them for a little while. Then, when the commotion picked up and they were being set off over several houses, he wanted to go back inside, so he did. He gets to choose.
I am happy to live with leftovers in a country where, even Rumi, can pick and choose where he wants to be.
Still today, as the United States has just celebrated Independence Day, American society is full of leftovers. We continue to live lives that are leftover from the battles that each person has in his or her own life. We still continue to live with leftovers from the ruling class, our troops, and distant religious authorities attempting to control the freedoms granted to every American citizen. Fortunately, the remnant still rises in this country working to maintain independence and fight off the replacement of our rights with slavery, the replacement and removal of our wounded from society, and the replacement of our chosen theologies, disciplines, and religions with another's decision for us.
Socio-economic challenges within American Society as people have "Occupied (wherever)" throughout the country during President Obama's tenure have brought the working poor into the media more than ever before in my lifetime. I am the working poor and am not ashamed of my socioeconomic status, even when verbally attacked by others for being so. I know that as I served others even less fortunate than me and as fortunate as me at The Kelly Memorial Food Pantry. I served with the working poor, the rich, the retired, the young and underage, the fixed income person, the unemployed, and everyone else. The beauty of a global mission is the attempt at the equalization of socioeconomic status for at least the moment that people are being cared for and served in community. I haven't found a new place yet where I live now to give of my time, talents, and treasure. I will choose to do so in time, but this time, I think I am going to look into another part of the realm to serve in. Global missions provide for stewardship opportunities that people cry out for in their hearts without giving themselves permission to partake in.
Giving ourselves permission to live into the fullness of our freedom in this country, for some, means to served in the Armed Forces. The servicemen and women of this country often give everything they have, including their lives, to protect, serve, and continue the freedoms that every citizens here and abroad enjoy. The Wounded Warrior Project, Operation First Response, and Puppies Behind Bars help the soldiers who've returned from war zones changed by the reality of their service lives. They have more options than they think from time to time. Caring for our servicemen and not allowing their lives and homes to be controlled by their experiences gives Americans a chance to live the Third Amendment of the Constitution by not allowing intruding memory to "seize and control" the home of an American soldier. Foreign armies and experiences should not maintain control of our active duty service people and veterans by replacing wholeness with injury. The leftovers from war and crime working together training and using the same service dogs in Puppies Behind Bars gives leftovers, the remnants new life just as Betsy Ross, by at least legend, gave the country its flag. What was leftover and harmed turned into a banner for each human being.
Nothing is more harming to a human being, in my estimation, than a distant religious authority attempting to control and replace another person's theology with his or her own. The Freedom of Religion is inherent and necessary within every person's life in order that the individual have the ultimate freedom embraced in the Love of that person's deity or lack thereof. It is united in this freedom that replacement theology is un-American. I don't think about another person's religion or religious practice when I meet another person. I wasn't taught to do such a thing when I was younger and still don't now that I am more focused on what I think God has asked us to do: beyond walking mercifully and humbly with Him. For this reason, World Faith and other interfaith groups like it serve to education and provide experiences for people to learn to break the habit of replacing what another person believes with a self-chosen and adhered to belief. Working to force belief on another person is dangerous.
When religious leaders chose to keep themselves away from their assemblies and chose that people need to modify their behaviors to be more in line with what a specific individual believes, then a combination of psychological and spiritual abuse exists. What is leftover is remnant theology attempting to hold people who have been removed and targeted by religious leaders for any reason at all, usually: thinking and behaving from their own consciences. Remnant theologians strive to accept difference without a need for dualistic construct. People do not choose between one thing and another. If behavioral adherence is being chosen above individual freedoms, then a religious leader is working at removing a person's freedom to relate with a deity freely. One true faith and one true religion is an attempt and creating slaves and further oppression. The remnants of those harmed by religious leaders and group eventually bond together to heal, harm (unfortunately), and kvetch about their experiences. In time, people accept differences in the communities that they are in after trying to replace diversity with sameness. It is better to chose to be a useful remnant than replace another's point of view and belief.
Independence has been a theme for me in the past year. I am grateful that it has been. I have far more stringent boundaries than I have ever had in my life. I am a better person for it. Embracing remnancy and living life as a leftover, being done with several organizations in my life, has caused me to move forward towards and complete several of the goals that I have. Often, leftovers are better than the original when the original was trying to be contained inside of a stringent thought box. I am pleased that I have become choosey...
This past 4th of July, I didn't buy fireworks or roast hog dogs at a barbeque. I didn't spend time at a lake or reminiscing about times past with people I've know forever. I spent the day unpacking from my completely legal move, hung an American flag in my home, and watched the fireworks over the neighborhood with my schnauzer, Rumi. He's never lived where people were allowed to have fireworks of their own before due to fire hazards. He was brave and watched them for a little while. Then, when the commotion picked up and they were being set off over several houses, he wanted to go back inside, so he did. He gets to choose.
I am happy to live with leftovers in a country where, even Rumi, can pick and choose where he wants to be.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
A New Way: A Response to Bp. Pierre Whalon's Reflection "Welcoming the Stranger"
On Facebook, I was given this reflection written by Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, D.D. My response is based on my own experience and education as I agree and disagree with his statements. Fortunately, Bp. Whalon has been gracious enough to write these reflections for bloggers like me to deconstruct and consider how the lessons within his text may be or may not be relevent to our lives. While he has written on a global and national level, I tend to write on a more interpersonal level. I start with the understanding that as individuals operate so will their nations. Every individual is a global country and community unto themselves. I have chosen to write this response specifically because I spent years focusing on the phrase "a stranger in a strange land" from Exodus 2:22; I had a cat named Gershom to help me focus on this concept.
From the beginning of his reflection, Bp. Whalon exposed the problem. He wrote, "As hundreds of migrants continue to drown in the Mediterranean, European leaders wring their hands and plan to 'do something.'" People like to make plans. When a person is a refugee, they don't really have plans or the means to follow through on plans that they may be given. Being a refugee is a status that no one wants and far too many people have. While teaching refugees, I sought out their understanding of where they were after being being separated so quickly from their native countries and families. Interestingly enough, none of my students understood themselves to be foreign or strange to where they were. They became a part of where they had been placed by whatever agency had moved them. I had also just moved and didn't find myself to be a stranger where I had moved since I stayed within the United States. To the others, we were strange indeed. I found myself, without planning, identifying more with the Muslim refugees than with the American Christians around us. The difference was not necessarily being the stranger; rather, we didn't have everything planned out. Thank God!
Unfortunately, the local community that we had moved to did have it planned out. They liked things the way that it used to be. They were very busy trying to teach us how to live in this new place as though we had never seen snow, experienced a community of people before, or knew how to live at all. We had, apparently, moved because we were either criminal or had an ulterior motive to seek out something we hadn't deserved. We were certainly not a part of the way it used to be and that upset every strategically placed apple cart there was when entering into the new community as an equal. Refugees and migrant people tend to move because of the way it used to be. The good ole' days that were being referred to hadn't happened for those who were the strangers.
I disagree with Bp. Whalon's statement, "We are on a journey, pilgrims, wayfarers, and when we arrive, we will recognize our destination." Yes, dear Bishop. We are on a journey. We are pilgrims and wayfarers. We even attempt to keep from piracy; however, we don't ever really reach our destination. Once we arrive, the journey has ended. I believe that we are called to be wayfarers on our journeys without a specific destination. I believe so because I want to be of earthly good. I am not someone who is heavenly-minded, probably even to a fault. I like multi-purposed practicality.
Our faith calls us to welcome the stranger. When we do that, it is important to realize that some people don't want to be welcomed. I greeted my new neighbor when she moved in. She found it to be intrusive. She took it as a contest. She decided that I needed to be as she wanted because she didn't know me. I do agree with Bp. Whalon that the home grown threat is greater than that which we understand to be the stranger. She claims to be a townie. A townie who has now tried to run me over with her car because she has decided to teach me how to live my life. She's close to half my age, I have nearly completed two graduate degrees, I chose to welcome her at the beginning, and she has tried to control the whole environment since she showed up. Yet, we are countrymen, apparently. Unfortunately, she found what we had in common was a threat more than community. She is planned.
Economically, welcoming the stranger has been a good experience in my life. I have been able to learn and grow a garden which was a beta prototype for mission urban farming in my future life. The community taught me to do what I couldn't find in a text or on Youtube. They gave to me what I didn't have to be able to build and thrive as we both welcomed the stranger. In order to welcome the stranger, people have to actually trust what is new. People who live out of their woundedness tend not to welcome new people as they have been harmed. The unknown equaled lazy to some people. Economically and socially, I have been blessed by those around me whom have wanted to share without needing to probe for motive. Actual hospitality doesn't seek a motive. It cares for the human being through dignity. It doesn't even need to probe for poverty or wealth.
Sharing doesn't even require trust. Sharing requires inclusion and a lack of dependency on material wealth. Those whom need a caste system to live and promote their own greed, vanity, and fill a Godless voice within them can't share. Welcoming the stranger doesn't require a specific protocol unless a title is necessary to people. False piety requires more pomp and circumstance than anything else. Trying to cover up the insecurities that we all face in our daily lives show that we are in need of being welcoming.
As I tear the garden I built apart, I have thought about the strangers whom I have welcomed in the past several months. The problem we face in our faith and in our communities is that we welcome the stranger and even give gifts at the beginning. At some point, giving me an object doesn't mean that I need to change my life to be what you want it to be. If welcoming someone means that the person has to change to be someone else's expectation, it because it is inhospitable. To give me something to build so my basic needs and the needs of others are fulfilled, but to look the other way when violence it taking place is unconscionable. To only plan is neglect. To turn away from the outcry of real problems is merciless. To hand me a trinket and not care about my humanity or to hold presumed protocol above human life denigrates every person living on the planet.
Presumption changes whether or not a person is welcomed in the long run. If I am new and the result is that I owe my life story to a group of people, then it is because they presume that they know better than I about how to live my life. My neighbor probably thinks that I owe her now. Because she was welcomed, she thinks she owns life. Bp. Whalon also wrote, "And good manners require not only these, but also to do everything in such a way the person does not feel ashamed to be so needy." St. Vincent de Paul had the same point of view. He said that people needed to love the needy so much that the didn't resent them for their help. The neighbor resents me for including her as an equal and for understanding her as an adult from the second I met her. Why? I am beneath her in her estimation.
Children, whom haven't been taught to share, need everything their way. Adults whom try to train other adults to be their definition of what this are still frightened of the stranger. If I had to choose, the better way to love people as we are called to do is to care less about whether or not the person has good manners and more about whether or not the person is cared for. If the person is rude, but is starving. Cure the hunger. Rudeness normally subsides. Beyond the golden rule in Bp. Whalon's document is an ethical call for human dignity.
Whalon's reflection brought this to my mind from Eucharistic Prayer C in the Book of Common Prayer:
Some people don't seem to understand that they have not created the world. Most refugees know that they did not create the universe and cling to their faith. My faith compels me to consider when I think of welcoming the stranger with God's help. It causes me to reflect and question:
Who made me as I was knit together in my mother's womb?
From the beginning of his reflection, Bp. Whalon exposed the problem. He wrote, "As hundreds of migrants continue to drown in the Mediterranean, European leaders wring their hands and plan to 'do something.'" People like to make plans. When a person is a refugee, they don't really have plans or the means to follow through on plans that they may be given. Being a refugee is a status that no one wants and far too many people have. While teaching refugees, I sought out their understanding of where they were after being being separated so quickly from their native countries and families. Interestingly enough, none of my students understood themselves to be foreign or strange to where they were. They became a part of where they had been placed by whatever agency had moved them. I had also just moved and didn't find myself to be a stranger where I had moved since I stayed within the United States. To the others, we were strange indeed. I found myself, without planning, identifying more with the Muslim refugees than with the American Christians around us. The difference was not necessarily being the stranger; rather, we didn't have everything planned out. Thank God!
Unfortunately, the local community that we had moved to did have it planned out. They liked things the way that it used to be. They were very busy trying to teach us how to live in this new place as though we had never seen snow, experienced a community of people before, or knew how to live at all. We had, apparently, moved because we were either criminal or had an ulterior motive to seek out something we hadn't deserved. We were certainly not a part of the way it used to be and that upset every strategically placed apple cart there was when entering into the new community as an equal. Refugees and migrant people tend to move because of the way it used to be. The good ole' days that were being referred to hadn't happened for those who were the strangers.
I disagree with Bp. Whalon's statement, "We are on a journey, pilgrims, wayfarers, and when we arrive, we will recognize our destination." Yes, dear Bishop. We are on a journey. We are pilgrims and wayfarers. We even attempt to keep from piracy; however, we don't ever really reach our destination. Once we arrive, the journey has ended. I believe that we are called to be wayfarers on our journeys without a specific destination. I believe so because I want to be of earthly good. I am not someone who is heavenly-minded, probably even to a fault. I like multi-purposed practicality.
Our faith calls us to welcome the stranger. When we do that, it is important to realize that some people don't want to be welcomed. I greeted my new neighbor when she moved in. She found it to be intrusive. She took it as a contest. She decided that I needed to be as she wanted because she didn't know me. I do agree with Bp. Whalon that the home grown threat is greater than that which we understand to be the stranger. She claims to be a townie. A townie who has now tried to run me over with her car because she has decided to teach me how to live my life. She's close to half my age, I have nearly completed two graduate degrees, I chose to welcome her at the beginning, and she has tried to control the whole environment since she showed up. Yet, we are countrymen, apparently. Unfortunately, she found what we had in common was a threat more than community. She is planned.
Economically, welcoming the stranger has been a good experience in my life. I have been able to learn and grow a garden which was a beta prototype for mission urban farming in my future life. The community taught me to do what I couldn't find in a text or on Youtube. They gave to me what I didn't have to be able to build and thrive as we both welcomed the stranger. In order to welcome the stranger, people have to actually trust what is new. People who live out of their woundedness tend not to welcome new people as they have been harmed. The unknown equaled lazy to some people. Economically and socially, I have been blessed by those around me whom have wanted to share without needing to probe for motive. Actual hospitality doesn't seek a motive. It cares for the human being through dignity. It doesn't even need to probe for poverty or wealth.
Sharing doesn't even require trust. Sharing requires inclusion and a lack of dependency on material wealth. Those whom need a caste system to live and promote their own greed, vanity, and fill a Godless voice within them can't share. Welcoming the stranger doesn't require a specific protocol unless a title is necessary to people. False piety requires more pomp and circumstance than anything else. Trying to cover up the insecurities that we all face in our daily lives show that we are in need of being welcoming.
As I tear the garden I built apart, I have thought about the strangers whom I have welcomed in the past several months. The problem we face in our faith and in our communities is that we welcome the stranger and even give gifts at the beginning. At some point, giving me an object doesn't mean that I need to change my life to be what you want it to be. If welcoming someone means that the person has to change to be someone else's expectation, it because it is inhospitable. To give me something to build so my basic needs and the needs of others are fulfilled, but to look the other way when violence it taking place is unconscionable. To only plan is neglect. To turn away from the outcry of real problems is merciless. To hand me a trinket and not care about my humanity or to hold presumed protocol above human life denigrates every person living on the planet.
Presumption changes whether or not a person is welcomed in the long run. If I am new and the result is that I owe my life story to a group of people, then it is because they presume that they know better than I about how to live my life. My neighbor probably thinks that I owe her now. Because she was welcomed, she thinks she owns life. Bp. Whalon also wrote, "And good manners require not only these, but also to do everything in such a way the person does not feel ashamed to be so needy." St. Vincent de Paul had the same point of view. He said that people needed to love the needy so much that the didn't resent them for their help. The neighbor resents me for including her as an equal and for understanding her as an adult from the second I met her. Why? I am beneath her in her estimation.
Children, whom haven't been taught to share, need everything their way. Adults whom try to train other adults to be their definition of what this are still frightened of the stranger. If I had to choose, the better way to love people as we are called to do is to care less about whether or not the person has good manners and more about whether or not the person is cared for. If the person is rude, but is starving. Cure the hunger. Rudeness normally subsides. Beyond the golden rule in Bp. Whalon's document is an ethical call for human dignity.
Whalon's reflection brought this to my mind from Eucharistic Prayer C in the Book of Common Prayer:
At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of
interstellar space, galaxies, suns, planets in their courses,
and this fragile earth, our island home.
By your will they were created and have their being.
Some people don't seem to understand that they have not created the world. Most refugees know that they did not create the universe and cling to their faith. My faith compels me to consider when I think of welcoming the stranger with God's help. It causes me to reflect and question:
Who made me as I was knit together in my mother's womb?
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Graceful Sunflowers
My interest in grace and the law began this blog. I hope that it continues to drive it into the future. While I have spent more of my life these past few months in a garden, I also spend time teaching my blended English courses and find that the balance of technology and nature is quite like the law and grace.
It seems that everything can be used against other people in every way possible. Technology is meant to aid our lives. It is meant to be assistive and not master. It is meant to empower and not enslave. The law is meant to do the same. The law is meant to empower and not enslave as well; it is to be balanced with grace.
Grace is just given. Whether we ask for it or not, grace is there. God gives more to us than any of us will ever be able to say or understand whether or not be know it or care. Grace is grace. It is because of the contract that God has written on all of our hearts to belong as a part of creation in balance with creation that we know the law without even studying it. It is through studying the law that we understand how much grace we have.
God Shine on Us. It seems that we need the light of God more than anything else in the world that we live in. It is such and because we need the light of God that I love Son-Flowers. I think sunflowers are beautiful; they are a balance of masculine and feminine while unapologetic for being so. They are as God intended. Strong, beautiful, bountiful, and lovely in the sun.
Sunflowers grow quickly and slowly. Mine have been growing for a few months now. They are waist high. I have noticed that my favorite sunflower in the garden follows the sun. In the morning, the head of the sunflower in flat towards the sky. By the end of the day, it nearly directly faces the sunset. It follows the sun all day and begins again in the morning.
Sister Sunflower teaches us to follow the light; Brother Sunflower teaches us to praise upright towards the stars. How graceful the sunflowers are as they look always to the light! Even when they are not in bloom, they know to follow. They are created to do so just as we are. It is written inside of them as their own contract with God. Their covenant is to teach us all to stand tall, take nourishment in the light, and feed God's creation in the harvest.
While it is forming a bloom, I may move. I don't know how far away the bloom is from showing how God has created my sunflower to shine. It is the sharp edge of the law to move before the harvest. Grace will come to my garden and my life when I do again. I will have peace once more.
When I think of the song, All Creatures of Our God and King, I think about plants. Plants grow like animals, yet we don't think of them as necessarily a part of us. Mine have become a part me just as much as my beloved schnauzer, Rumi, and cat, Lyric.
In a duet, both musicians accompany one another. Rumi and Lyric, grace and the law, and technology and nature have to balance one another and have one another to fully thrive. There is no real soloist except the light.
It seems that everything can be used against other people in every way possible. Technology is meant to aid our lives. It is meant to be assistive and not master. It is meant to empower and not enslave. The law is meant to do the same. The law is meant to empower and not enslave as well; it is to be balanced with grace.
Grace is just given. Whether we ask for it or not, grace is there. God gives more to us than any of us will ever be able to say or understand whether or not be know it or care. Grace is grace. It is because of the contract that God has written on all of our hearts to belong as a part of creation in balance with creation that we know the law without even studying it. It is through studying the law that we understand how much grace we have.
God Shine on Us. It seems that we need the light of God more than anything else in the world that we live in. It is such and because we need the light of God that I love Son-Flowers. I think sunflowers are beautiful; they are a balance of masculine and feminine while unapologetic for being so. They are as God intended. Strong, beautiful, bountiful, and lovely in the sun.
Sunflowers grow quickly and slowly. Mine have been growing for a few months now. They are waist high. I have noticed that my favorite sunflower in the garden follows the sun. In the morning, the head of the sunflower in flat towards the sky. By the end of the day, it nearly directly faces the sunset. It follows the sun all day and begins again in the morning.
Sister Sunflower teaches us to follow the light; Brother Sunflower teaches us to praise upright towards the stars. How graceful the sunflowers are as they look always to the light! Even when they are not in bloom, they know to follow. They are created to do so just as we are. It is written inside of them as their own contract with God. Their covenant is to teach us all to stand tall, take nourishment in the light, and feed God's creation in the harvest.
While it is forming a bloom, I may move. I don't know how far away the bloom is from showing how God has created my sunflower to shine. It is the sharp edge of the law to move before the harvest. Grace will come to my garden and my life when I do again. I will have peace once more.
When I think of the song, All Creatures of Our God and King, I think about plants. Plants grow like animals, yet we don't think of them as necessarily a part of us. Mine have become a part me just as much as my beloved schnauzer, Rumi, and cat, Lyric.
In a duet, both musicians accompany one another. Rumi and Lyric, grace and the law, and technology and nature have to balance one another and have one another to fully thrive. There is no real soloist except the light.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Conversations: Building Community
As I have been reflecting on the past week, I have thought about the phrase "building community" because I don't allow people in my home. The reason I don't allow people in my home is that I have been to too many churches whom won't allow people to be in the congregation or join one without a tour of that person's house.
Ultimately, they don't build community. These tours are for shopping and class purposes. Further, I currently have a home that requires a person to walk through my bedroom to get to the only bathroom. I am a single adult; therefore, no one else should be in my bedroom. The amount of privacy that is violated when someone else enters into another person's home to see what that person has, usually under the guise of building community and getting to know one another, is completely volatile to me. Even trying to come into my house is volatile to me when I have known the person for a long time.
If it is about including me in community, then it shouldn't be about what I own. If placement in a community is about a person, then getting to know that person can be done by being around that person. There's a reason why we all have different houses. It would be for me to invite someone to my home and not a requirement to have someone in my home. It's just like illegal search and seizure.
It follows under the same understanding that when I have a relationship with someone that I don't have any physical contact with that person. I am at an age when I get to choose whom I would be with for the rest of my life. I am the only person to choose that person. I am also happy that I have decided that I don't want a member of the clergy to even be there should I get married. I believe in the separation of church and state that much. Clergy members shouldn't be signing for tax deductions. Even then, I wouldn't necessarily want a marriage license since I believe that matrimony is about a prayerful commitment. I think that people should have to get a license for marriage, and if the couple wants it, they can then have a blessing ceremony with a member of the clergy. It's an individual's right in this country to have the separation of church and state in that person's life.
Building community can be done far better in conversations. Having activities that people volunteer to be there are the best way to build community, especially when they are finding ways to serve others at the same time. Being a person who doesn't have contact with a lot of my relatives, because I actively choose not to have toxic people in my life, I believe that community building has to be founded in honesty.
The number one thing I can think of that has happened in my life that is an immediate violation of honesty and trust to me is when I have an appointment to meet with someone, for example, at a coffee shop or an IHop and that person also makes an appointment with another person who sits at another table. Usually, that person will chime in part of the way through the conversation that, from my point of view, isn't actually part of the conversation. If I am not aware that other people are going to be a part of the conversation, then that person won't exist to me. I will completely ignore that person. It's a power game for people to play against other people to demand one person has to be in the same place with another one. It happens because of ego. It's a game to remove the unknowing person's freedom of choice to make it appear like everything is okay when it isn't.
One of the definitions of morality that Bishop Spong has given me, that I am very grateful for as it clarified the issue, is that morality builds up and immorality tears down. A lack of honesty and the removal of another person's freedom of choice tears down the dignity, maturity, and humanity of that person. When everyone has the choice to be a certain place, then the conversation can be holy and intimate. Other than that it is a power game for appearance and political purposes.
It's the same thing that happens when a person adds criteria for outreach in certain ministries. When people become hospital chaplains, the criterion is for education and internship experience in hospitals (CPEs). The criteria for socializing at someone's home is made up. Having to give gifts to a congregation is made up. The criteria to go on a retreat without the about ability to choose whom would be in that person's bedroom is made up and completely unsafe. Lots of churches even expect that person to sell half of what that person owns in order to give money away in the name of God. Except, then it really isn't a donation. It's a fee that ultimately causes more poverty. People have all of these different self imposed criterion on other people in order to make sure that they are living an expectation that is not his or her own.
I just don't allow people in my house. My place is mine. It is my sanctuary. So, I get to choose that. It's about healthy boundaries.
Ultimately, they don't build community. These tours are for shopping and class purposes. Further, I currently have a home that requires a person to walk through my bedroom to get to the only bathroom. I am a single adult; therefore, no one else should be in my bedroom. The amount of privacy that is violated when someone else enters into another person's home to see what that person has, usually under the guise of building community and getting to know one another, is completely volatile to me. Even trying to come into my house is volatile to me when I have known the person for a long time.
If it is about including me in community, then it shouldn't be about what I own. If placement in a community is about a person, then getting to know that person can be done by being around that person. There's a reason why we all have different houses. It would be for me to invite someone to my home and not a requirement to have someone in my home. It's just like illegal search and seizure.
It follows under the same understanding that when I have a relationship with someone that I don't have any physical contact with that person. I am at an age when I get to choose whom I would be with for the rest of my life. I am the only person to choose that person. I am also happy that I have decided that I don't want a member of the clergy to even be there should I get married. I believe in the separation of church and state that much. Clergy members shouldn't be signing for tax deductions. Even then, I wouldn't necessarily want a marriage license since I believe that matrimony is about a prayerful commitment. I think that people should have to get a license for marriage, and if the couple wants it, they can then have a blessing ceremony with a member of the clergy. It's an individual's right in this country to have the separation of church and state in that person's life.
Building community can be done far better in conversations. Having activities that people volunteer to be there are the best way to build community, especially when they are finding ways to serve others at the same time. Being a person who doesn't have contact with a lot of my relatives, because I actively choose not to have toxic people in my life, I believe that community building has to be founded in honesty.
The number one thing I can think of that has happened in my life that is an immediate violation of honesty and trust to me is when I have an appointment to meet with someone, for example, at a coffee shop or an IHop and that person also makes an appointment with another person who sits at another table. Usually, that person will chime in part of the way through the conversation that, from my point of view, isn't actually part of the conversation. If I am not aware that other people are going to be a part of the conversation, then that person won't exist to me. I will completely ignore that person. It's a power game for people to play against other people to demand one person has to be in the same place with another one. It happens because of ego. It's a game to remove the unknowing person's freedom of choice to make it appear like everything is okay when it isn't.
One of the definitions of morality that Bishop Spong has given me, that I am very grateful for as it clarified the issue, is that morality builds up and immorality tears down. A lack of honesty and the removal of another person's freedom of choice tears down the dignity, maturity, and humanity of that person. When everyone has the choice to be a certain place, then the conversation can be holy and intimate. Other than that it is a power game for appearance and political purposes.
It's the same thing that happens when a person adds criteria for outreach in certain ministries. When people become hospital chaplains, the criterion is for education and internship experience in hospitals (CPEs). The criteria for socializing at someone's home is made up. Having to give gifts to a congregation is made up. The criteria to go on a retreat without the about ability to choose whom would be in that person's bedroom is made up and completely unsafe. Lots of churches even expect that person to sell half of what that person owns in order to give money away in the name of God. Except, then it really isn't a donation. It's a fee that ultimately causes more poverty. People have all of these different self imposed criterion on other people in order to make sure that they are living an expectation that is not his or her own.
I just don't allow people in my house. My place is mine. It is my sanctuary. So, I get to choose that. It's about healthy boundaries.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Ownership
It has been a interesting few weeks. It seems that the theme in my life really has been ownership. Who owns what has become so important because I teach online. I have the ability to be home a lot of it I want to be.
For some things, it's simple. Since I have the receipt, I own it. Once money comes to me in the form of a paycheck, I own it. It isn't an allowance; it's paycheck. It's also MY paycheck and not the neighbor's paycheck. If I pay to fix something or have it and the neighbor steals it so I can't use it, then I can take it back because I have the receipt and am the rightful owner. I shouldn't have to explain that having my own belongings isn't theft since I can prove ownership of it.
We all own our own time. I can choose to use my time. If I want to draw until my hands feel crippled or plant vegetables until my body is sunburned, then it's my choice. I shouldn't have to explain to someone else that I want to be doing it because I like it. It's fun. I can choose to use my time as I want to in the United States. Adults get to do that at 18. My graduate degree empowers me to have teaching possibilities that free up my time in highly beneficial ways.
We own our own objects. If I sell, then it really should be assumed that it is because I don't want it and not because I am poor. It's like I am waiting for the next person to decide that I have to tell them why I should have to get their permission to sell my own objects. I sold some things from an old relationship that I didn't want to have around anymore, and it seems that it strictly because I'm poor to other people. I don't actually have to sell any of my belongings; I chose to though. I didn't want them. As I continue to go through my belongings, I have been sorting more of what I want to sell. I don't know one person not in a monastery who doesn't have extra things to get rid of.
I'm not going without anything. I'm not hungry or homeless and neither my pets. They are vaccinated and well taken care of. It's as though if other people don't know where I get every penny I spend, then it is because I am ripping them off. I re-use almost everything.
My kitty litter bottle now holds fertilizer for my garden that was graciously given to me. I wouldn't have known what kind to purchase as it is done my numbers on the bag. This is 16-8-8. Had I known what kind to buy, then I could have gotten it myself. I re-used vines that ivy grew on to help beans and peas grow to the permanent fence that I am also using as a trellis. It seems that doing so also means that I am too poor for some people. Being at home also meant that I was unemployed during the past few weeks. It's been weird.
Ultimately, it is about who owns whom. We all own ourselves in this country. It seems that people want me to have to explain to them why I am allowed to be outside but won't even tell me their names. Demanding information from me while attempting to remain anonymous is really about trying to control and own another person because someone else would have an perceptual need to do so.
People are odd when they think that they have the upper hand over someone else. The mere idea of having the upper hand to scold another adult that I've never met is grotesque to me. I don't understand why it isn't to other people except for a presumed ownership of other human beings.
For some things, it's simple. Since I have the receipt, I own it. Once money comes to me in the form of a paycheck, I own it. It isn't an allowance; it's paycheck. It's also MY paycheck and not the neighbor's paycheck. If I pay to fix something or have it and the neighbor steals it so I can't use it, then I can take it back because I have the receipt and am the rightful owner. I shouldn't have to explain that having my own belongings isn't theft since I can prove ownership of it.
We all own our own time. I can choose to use my time. If I want to draw until my hands feel crippled or plant vegetables until my body is sunburned, then it's my choice. I shouldn't have to explain to someone else that I want to be doing it because I like it. It's fun. I can choose to use my time as I want to in the United States. Adults get to do that at 18. My graduate degree empowers me to have teaching possibilities that free up my time in highly beneficial ways.
We own our own objects. If I sell, then it really should be assumed that it is because I don't want it and not because I am poor. It's like I am waiting for the next person to decide that I have to tell them why I should have to get their permission to sell my own objects. I sold some things from an old relationship that I didn't want to have around anymore, and it seems that it strictly because I'm poor to other people. I don't actually have to sell any of my belongings; I chose to though. I didn't want them. As I continue to go through my belongings, I have been sorting more of what I want to sell. I don't know one person not in a monastery who doesn't have extra things to get rid of.
I'm not going without anything. I'm not hungry or homeless and neither my pets. They are vaccinated and well taken care of. It's as though if other people don't know where I get every penny I spend, then it is because I am ripping them off. I re-use almost everything.
My kitty litter bottle now holds fertilizer for my garden that was graciously given to me. I wouldn't have known what kind to purchase as it is done my numbers on the bag. This is 16-8-8. Had I known what kind to buy, then I could have gotten it myself. I re-used vines that ivy grew on to help beans and peas grow to the permanent fence that I am also using as a trellis. It seems that doing so also means that I am too poor for some people. Being at home also meant that I was unemployed during the past few weeks. It's been weird.
Ultimately, it is about who owns whom. We all own ourselves in this country. It seems that people want me to have to explain to them why I am allowed to be outside but won't even tell me their names. Demanding information from me while attempting to remain anonymous is really about trying to control and own another person because someone else would have an perceptual need to do so.
People are odd when they think that they have the upper hand over someone else. The mere idea of having the upper hand to scold another adult that I've never met is grotesque to me. I don't understand why it isn't to other people except for a presumed ownership of other human beings.
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