Chapter 25
Thursday, August 16, 2007
In Ah-mare-ee-ca
The residents of my neighborhood are getting restless. I can notice it everywhere. It hasn't been to bad weather-wise, even pretty nice. Overnight temps hover in the 50-60 F range. And the daytime temps only climb to the mid 80's.
But regardless the end of Summer is near. Victory Day is Over, Back To School sales are beginning to occur. Labor Day and the start of the school year are a few weeks away now. That means cooler temperatures are soon following. Less and less time to loiter on the sidewalk and stoops of houses. Fewer nights to stay up until midnight cursing and laughing. The Hell's Angels are revving their motorcycles well after bedtime, shaking (literally) the pictures on the walls of nearby houses.
One day soon the weather will cause this, too, will to cease from occurring. Cars drive by blaring music from regions all over the world: Cuba, Mexico, Korea, Detroit. Soon the windows will have to roll up and the music projection into the community will be stunted for a few months. The ice-cream men will have to stop driving around playing off-tune nursery rhymes (although one does play Christmas Songs, so maybe he'll still continue to circulate as the leaves change).
Yes, my neighborhood is diverse, and as Summer ends it only appears to be growing louder and more present. The resident's are grasping on to whatever they can to make these days last just...that...much longer. ¶ 8/16/2007 07:56:00 AM 0 comments
But regardless the end of Summer is near. Victory Day is Over, Back To School sales are beginning to occur. Labor Day and the start of the school year are a few weeks away now. That means cooler temperatures are soon following. Less and less time to loiter on the sidewalk and stoops of houses. Fewer nights to stay up until midnight cursing and laughing. The Hell's Angels are revving their motorcycles well after bedtime, shaking (literally) the pictures on the walls of nearby houses.
One day soon the weather will cause this, too, will to cease from occurring. Cars drive by blaring music from regions all over the world: Cuba, Mexico, Korea, Detroit. Soon the windows will have to roll up and the music projection into the community will be stunted for a few months. The ice-cream men will have to stop driving around playing off-tune nursery rhymes (although one does play Christmas Songs, so maybe he'll still continue to circulate as the leaves change).
Yes, my neighborhood is diverse, and as Summer ends it only appears to be growing louder and more present. The resident's are grasping on to whatever they can to make these days last just...that...much longer. ¶ 8/16/2007 07:56:00 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
I started listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas a little later this year. It's practically the middle of August. Usually by mid-July the disc has been spun around more than once. Interesting.
¶ 8/14/2007 05:15:00 PM 0 comments
Monday, August 13, 2007
Time to Update
Well I've been back from Haiti for just over a week now, I suppose it's time to update. I've been writing a lot and sending some personal correspondence, which many of you probably received. So I don't feel like there is a lot I want to write here. Just to say that Haiti changed my life in many, many ways. Not just experiencing the country, that was a mere part of it. There was so much more involved in this trip spiritually that has me very raw and feeling very young and moldable right now. It is so good.
There is still a lot I am working through daily, different struggles and ideas. Again it is all good, and I am all the better for it.
That's all.
("I"-count: 7) ¶ 8/13/2007 08:35:00 AM 0 comments
There is still a lot I am working through daily, different struggles and ideas. Again it is all good, and I am all the better for it.
That's all.
("I"-count: 7) ¶ 8/13/2007 08:35:00 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 27, 2007
Island.
I just noticed that if it's not a full moon tonight, it's pretty close. That I'm taking as a good thing. Because full moons are cool.
I wrote the rest of this hours earlier, but the internet went down. Then Nate came over and my entire family called me to talk, nearly one after another, which was very cool.
------------------
I wrote the rest of this hours earlier, but the internet went down. Then Nate came over and my entire family called me to talk, nearly one after another, which was very cool.
------------------
it's exciting to think that in 24 hours I will be back in the Caribbean. I haven't been down since back in 2005, and while last time it was a summer on the wealthiest island this trip will be quite the opposite. Not as many creature comforts, as they say. I'm excited to experience the diversity of life (I'm always excited to experience that, even in Providence. Or Texas. Or wherever I find myself).
Pray for this mission, as it is very good. God has a reason for this connection between the people in Rhode Island and the village of Lamotte in Haiti. Haiti is a scary space from a spiritual perspective. With vodoo such an important part of it's past, even if it is not as rampant spiritually as it once was, it is so steeped in the culture that the combination of the name of Christ and voodoo is very common. From what I hear it is a very dark place, with a great promise of light. We could only be so blessed. God loves Haiti. I know this for a fact going in.
This wouldn't be happening it it were otherwise.
What a different person I am now, too, from 2005. I can say now that if I would have gone to Haiti back then with the Peace Corps as was expected it would have been...well it didn't happen then and it didn't happen for a reason. The timing is right now. Who could have ever imagined?
Eight of us going, a very diverse group, and we're meeting Marie and some of her children down there.
That's all for now. We'll be back in about a week.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
on fasting, and Roy Orbison
I would like to address two subjects tonight. The first is a heavy, complex subject that I know little about but am so amazed to be finding out more about. The other is just pure genius. Well, come to think of it both are pure genius. And gifts from God.
To a certain degree there are things that should be kept private between a man and God. This fact I completely agree with and respect. However please allow me to share a little into my life over the past few hours. For the past week the challenge was presented to the group going to Haiti that today, on the day of our last Haiti team meeting before our departure on Saturday AM, we would fast of something. Food, television, sweets, coffee, NPR. Whatever it seemed that we felt needed to be taken away from us as a daily distraction. Among the things "I chose" to fast was food, and so from 6:00 Monday evening until 6:00 tonight I went without food. It was tough, it totally brought me closer to God as my reliance on food was directed towards putting my energy into a more powerful reliance. And while it seemed like food was everywhere around me today, I made it.
Until 3pm, when I broke the fast and scarfed down a granola bar while sitting at my desk. It didn't come immediately, but it came and soon not only did I feel some deeper pains of giving in, but I soon noticed that also I was full. But it all just felt so artificial. The doubt, the fullness. All of it was unimportant. Yes, even the frustration and doubt. All as unimportant as the fact that God was with me and over me, through the fast and through the stumble. Period.
You know, not only was it that food was around me every day, but food was grossly around me every day. Disgustingly. We forget how gross we are with our consumption practices. From Dunkin' Donuts to greasy breakfast sausages and deep-fried everythings.
More to say, much more to say about that; but not here.
Now onto Topic 2: Roy Orbison. I've been listening to some Roy Orbison lately, it started on Saturday when I got a song randomly in my head and started listening to all I had of his. It blew me away all over again. Roy had the best pop music voice EVER. Nothing beats it, even today. Listen to Crying again and try and argue with me. Try it. Go ahead. I'll save you some time though: you lose! It's organic in how something new about his voice can strike you and move you in ways his music did failed to do the first time around.
Dude, come on. I'm right and you know it.
ok. ¶ 7/24/2007 09:04:00 PM 0 comments
To a certain degree there are things that should be kept private between a man and God. This fact I completely agree with and respect. However please allow me to share a little into my life over the past few hours. For the past week the challenge was presented to the group going to Haiti that today, on the day of our last Haiti team meeting before our departure on Saturday AM, we would fast of something. Food, television, sweets, coffee, NPR. Whatever it seemed that we felt needed to be taken away from us as a daily distraction. Among the things "I chose" to fast was food, and so from 6:00 Monday evening until 6:00 tonight I went without food. It was tough, it totally brought me closer to God as my reliance on food was directed towards putting my energy into a more powerful reliance. And while it seemed like food was everywhere around me today, I made it.
Until 3pm, when I broke the fast and scarfed down a granola bar while sitting at my desk. It didn't come immediately, but it came and soon not only did I feel some deeper pains of giving in, but I soon noticed that also I was full. But it all just felt so artificial. The doubt, the fullness. All of it was unimportant. Yes, even the frustration and doubt. All as unimportant as the fact that God was with me and over me, through the fast and through the stumble. Period.
You know, not only was it that food was around me every day, but food was grossly around me every day. Disgustingly. We forget how gross we are with our consumption practices. From Dunkin' Donuts to greasy breakfast sausages and deep-fried everythings.
More to say, much more to say about that; but not here.
Now onto Topic 2: Roy Orbison. I've been listening to some Roy Orbison lately, it started on Saturday when I got a song randomly in my head and started listening to all I had of his. It blew me away all over again. Roy had the best pop music voice EVER. Nothing beats it, even today. Listen to Crying again and try and argue with me. Try it. Go ahead. I'll save you some time though: you lose! It's organic in how something new about his voice can strike you and move you in ways his music did failed to do the first time around.
Dude, come on. I'm right and you know it.
ok. ¶ 7/24/2007 09:04:00 PM 0 comments
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Walkin' to (from) New Orleans
"And if guilty's the question
truth is the answer I've been lyin' to me all alone.
There ain't nothin' worth savin' except one another/
And before you'll wake up I'll be gone.
Walking is better that running away/
And crawling ain't no good at all."--Walking, Willie Nelson
Back in 1974 Willie released one of the best albums of his career, which makes it one of the best albums ever recorded, an album about a failed relationship from both the male and female perspective called Phases and Stages. Personal failure creeps in on all of us at one point or another and it really stings the heart and soul. Whether it's in a relationship or in our work or in some cases, both.
Take for example tonight. Tonight a nonprofit organization that I volunteer for decided to hold a film discussion, and I chose the Spike Lee documentary from last year called When the Levees Broke. Now, I graduated with a degree in Emergency Management, and a passion that flows in me (since I tend to these days know about disasters professionally) is sharing the knowledge and education and dialogue to/with the public about disasters. About lessons learned personally and professionally; as a community from government as well as social service and personal (familial) concerns. And when you bring up Katrina there can still be some fascinating dialogue that comes about; personal fears of future disasters, real concerns about communities and the causes/effects of disasters.
The idea was to present this as a forum for a wide variety of artists and concerned citizens, and I hoped that many would agree that this topic would be worthy of attention. And five people did.
Don't get me wrong--the discussion afterwards was good; and thorough. They always are. But it just disturbs me that real lack of interest in knowledge about these issues; Katrina which will be ongoing for a long time but also for the community at large here in Providence and elsewhere. Did westside arts fail at promoting it? Certainly we didn't do the best job, sure. But many many people did know about this, and five showed up. Five great people, again who strongly contributed to intelligent conversation about many issues. So I suppose the hours of work I put into it were worth it, if only for that. But again, these were five middle class white folks. School teachers, a fellow who used to work for the UN; a former New Orleans resident. Was this really news to us?
And in work, I make it a point to push disaster readiness education, and am making it a priority of work that will be done by two AmeriCorps VISTA's that will be starting working with me next month. But really, America...do we listen to this? Are we prepared...not from a governmental level but from a personal one...for worldly disasters?
This time next week I will be in Haiti, directly working and serving alongside complete strangers. I don't know what that means, and I want to be clear that I'm saying that as humbly as I can, because there's really no other way to approach it. What is life but to love one another? And what is love? Well, it's serving. Right? And what does that mean? It could mean connecting to the old way of life. The way of community.
Reminds me of another song, one I happened to be listening to on the drive home tonight. Jimmy Buffett once wrote a song based upon Mark Twain's quote of "Be good and you will be lonesome." In his song That's What Living Is To Me he paints the picture:
On a timeless beach in Hispaniola
A young girl sips a diet cola
She's worlds apart; worlds apart.
The spirit of the black king still
Reverberates through Haitian hills
He rules the sea and all the fish
What if he had a TV dish?
And so it comes down to this; I believe that is such a wonderful portrait of the clash of the old world versus the new world. And how every day we get further and further away from the old way of living. And further away from the truth. And while we're treading water to try and keep afloat, we can find peace in knowing that it is possible to truly live with peace in our hearts. I believe that it is natural in us to find and have that peace; but the world gets in the way, attacks our subconscious without us even realizing it, and we can live our whole life without recognizing what is absolutely true and is inside of us all along. The answers to so many of our questions about life can be found right within our hearts and souls; but perhaps the world doesn't want us to recognize that.
Listen to some of the stories of disaster survivors and maybe you'll see what I'm talking about. Could be I'm off the mark. Could be. But I don't think so. I think we'll all be walkin' away from New Orleans for a long, long time until something else wakes us up. And I'm not talking about another disaster. I'm talking about something much, much more powerful. ¶ 7/22/2007 11:19:00 PM 0 comments
truth is the answer I've been lyin' to me all alone.
There ain't nothin' worth savin' except one another/
And before you'll wake up I'll be gone.
Walking is better that running away/
And crawling ain't no good at all."--Walking, Willie Nelson
Back in 1974 Willie released one of the best albums of his career, which makes it one of the best albums ever recorded, an album about a failed relationship from both the male and female perspective called Phases and Stages. Personal failure creeps in on all of us at one point or another and it really stings the heart and soul. Whether it's in a relationship or in our work or in some cases, both.
Take for example tonight. Tonight a nonprofit organization that I volunteer for decided to hold a film discussion, and I chose the Spike Lee documentary from last year called When the Levees Broke. Now, I graduated with a degree in Emergency Management, and a passion that flows in me (since I tend to these days know about disasters professionally) is sharing the knowledge and education and dialogue to/with the public about disasters. About lessons learned personally and professionally; as a community from government as well as social service and personal (familial) concerns. And when you bring up Katrina there can still be some fascinating dialogue that comes about; personal fears of future disasters, real concerns about communities and the causes/effects of disasters.
The idea was to present this as a forum for a wide variety of artists and concerned citizens, and I hoped that many would agree that this topic would be worthy of attention. And five people did.
Don't get me wrong--the discussion afterwards was good; and thorough. They always are. But it just disturbs me that real lack of interest in knowledge about these issues; Katrina which will be ongoing for a long time but also for the community at large here in Providence and elsewhere. Did westside arts fail at promoting it? Certainly we didn't do the best job, sure. But many many people did know about this, and five showed up. Five great people, again who strongly contributed to intelligent conversation about many issues. So I suppose the hours of work I put into it were worth it, if only for that. But again, these were five middle class white folks. School teachers, a fellow who used to work for the UN; a former New Orleans resident. Was this really news to us?
And in work, I make it a point to push disaster readiness education, and am making it a priority of work that will be done by two AmeriCorps VISTA's that will be starting working with me next month. But really, America...do we listen to this? Are we prepared...not from a governmental level but from a personal one...for worldly disasters?
This time next week I will be in Haiti, directly working and serving alongside complete strangers. I don't know what that means, and I want to be clear that I'm saying that as humbly as I can, because there's really no other way to approach it. What is life but to love one another? And what is love? Well, it's serving. Right? And what does that mean? It could mean connecting to the old way of life. The way of community.
Reminds me of another song, one I happened to be listening to on the drive home tonight. Jimmy Buffett once wrote a song based upon Mark Twain's quote of "Be good and you will be lonesome." In his song That's What Living Is To Me he paints the picture:
On a timeless beach in Hispaniola
A young girl sips a diet cola
She's worlds apart; worlds apart.
The spirit of the black king still
Reverberates through Haitian hills
He rules the sea and all the fish
What if he had a TV dish?
And so it comes down to this; I believe that is such a wonderful portrait of the clash of the old world versus the new world. And how every day we get further and further away from the old way of living. And further away from the truth. And while we're treading water to try and keep afloat, we can find peace in knowing that it is possible to truly live with peace in our hearts. I believe that it is natural in us to find and have that peace; but the world gets in the way, attacks our subconscious without us even realizing it, and we can live our whole life without recognizing what is absolutely true and is inside of us all along. The answers to so many of our questions about life can be found right within our hearts and souls; but perhaps the world doesn't want us to recognize that.
Listen to some of the stories of disaster survivors and maybe you'll see what I'm talking about. Could be I'm off the mark. Could be. But I don't think so. I think we'll all be walkin' away from New Orleans for a long, long time until something else wakes us up. And I'm not talking about another disaster. I'm talking about something much, much more powerful. ¶ 7/22/2007 11:19:00 PM 0 comments
Saturday, July 21, 2007
...and I'm back.
hey. short break. had to think outside the world wibe web (I know there's a typo buy I hit b instead of p and I kinda like it that way, so it's gonna stay).
we're one week from departing for Haiti. In fact, this time next week I just might be there. had to take my first Malaria pill today. I'm all typhoid-ed up, and my shots are in order. things are looking good. which reminds me, Monday I HAVE to call Blue Cross to try and get them to pay for all that stuff.
Anyways, one of the last things I need to purchase are a good pair of sandals. I'm talking Teva, son. Went over to City Sports on Thayer to check out their stock. And $80 bucks sure seemed like a steep price to pay for sandals. Sure enough, I come home and pull up the same sandals on Amazon and they are retailing for $39. That means that City Sports had a 50% markup on price. Good thing I didn't buy!
But what intrigued me almost as much as the markup was this:
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
____________________________________________________________________
What kind of people are Teva people? Men who enjoy discourses and lengthy ramblings about physics and musicals of the 1960's. And their wives. (well okay maybe it's the wives that enjoy My Fair Lady) So, pretty much the East Side of Providence. (rimshot)
¶ 7/21/2007 02:57:00 PM 0 comments
we're one week from departing for Haiti. In fact, this time next week I just might be there. had to take my first Malaria pill today. I'm all typhoid-ed up, and my shots are in order. things are looking good. which reminds me, Monday I HAVE to call Blue Cross to try and get them to pay for all that stuff.
Anyways, one of the last things I need to purchase are a good pair of sandals. I'm talking Teva, son. Went over to City Sports on Thayer to check out their stock. And $80 bucks sure seemed like a steep price to pay for sandals. Sure enough, I come home and pull up the same sandals on Amazon and they are retailing for $39. That means that City Sports had a 50% markup on price. Good thing I didn't buy!
But what intrigued me almost as much as the markup was this:
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
 |  Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson  (40) $12.83 |  My Fair Lady DVD ~ Audrey Hepburn (226) $14.49 |
____________________________________________________________________
What kind of people are Teva people? Men who enjoy discourses and lengthy ramblings about physics and musicals of the 1960's. And their wives. (well okay maybe it's the wives that enjoy My Fair Lady) So, pretty much the East Side of Providence. (rimshot)
¶ 7/21/2007 02:57:00 PM 0 comments
