Employment: After some steady temporary employment, I have again hit a dearth of income. This is getting ridiculous. At this rate, I'm not going to be able to stay in this city much longer. And maybe...just maybe...that is the message that I haven't wanted to hear. I don't know...there is such promise here, and I am finally starting to see some light in "recovery" from my depression and spiritual struggles. But I can't take much more of this financial insecurity...it really is a spirit-crusher. And the longer I go without work, and the further behind I get, the more hopeless it looks. It's just getting hard to suit up and show up, as they say. More interviews tomorrow - 8:30 and 10 AM, 1:00 PM CDt. We'll see.
Election aftermath: I almost hate reading the news - especially as I hear the loving "Who's yo' daddy?!?" talk from Catholics and evangelical Christians. Consider this quote from an AP article on Yahoo tonight:
"There is no reconciliation between good and evil," wrote Mary Ann Kreitzer of Les Femmes, an organization of conservative Roman Catholic women. "Voters rejected the party of gay activists, radical feminists, the Hollywood elite, pornographers, death-peddlers, anti-Christian bigots and apostate Catholics."("Liberals Dismayed by 'Moral Values' Claims," By David Crary, AP National Writer, Mon Nov 8, 6:10 PM ET)Well, I guess it's helpful to know where I stand...evidently stuck with the anti-Christian bigots, standing in opposition to the Christian bigots. God help us all.
One hopeful voice, at least, comes from (are you ready? dun dun duh DUH!) the ELCA. In the same article, we read this:
However, the Rev. Stephen Bouman, a New York-based bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, worries that conservative Christians' definition of "moral values" may be too narrow to accommodate those of different faiths and backgrounds, including new immigrants. "One thing Jesus was absolutely clear about was helping the poor, and the welcoming of strangers," Bouman said. "Maybe this election was a wake-up call to have a serious conversation about what morality means, to look at what sort of country we're becoming."Boy, you think?
Life in Chicago: I had the opportunity to learn a great deal about a notorious case of police brutality in Chicago several years ago. I'm not sure what was more horrifying - the idea of what the "to protect and serve" boys and girls can do to a fellow human being, or the blase' attitude of the fellow members of the "focus group" I was a part of. Two things - one, it astonished me how much the black members of the group bought into the concept that a white man in Hyde Park is worth more than a black man on Kedzie Ave. The other thing was that when I asked how this kind of violence was even possible, at least two people visibly shrugged and said, almost as a chorus, "Well, this IS Chicago, after all..."
That was on Friday. Saturday and Sunday, as I walked or biked around Hyde Park, I found myself freezing to the spot whenever a Chicago police vehicle drove by. I found myself just terrified of doing anything - or worse yet, being seen as doing anything - that might attract their ire (or worse, their action). Now, I learned as a wee bitty boy that if someone in authority says "Stop," you stop. But trust me, I'm going to be a lot more careful of what I'm doing when they're around, from now on.
Issues of faith and church: I've stumbled across more than a couple blogs that are arguing the same-old-sameold - is (or isn't) the church the "inerrant" Bride of Christ? Do you really have to believe in that silly resurrection stuff to be a real Christian? Is communion received from a woman "irregular and invalid"? It just makes me wonder, when we argue the things that Paul believed were "as of first importance", we "take our eyes off the prize," and I believe there's weeping in heaven.
That's it, y'all. Keep me in your prayers tomorrow as I go to do the job-interview thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment