France

When the first you hear of the news is on a local pop music station, you know it’s going to be bad. Driving to Erie last evening, I first heard of the terrorist attacks in Paris, France. Tweets, television coverage and newspaper articles confirm the horror of the attacks at a concert, hotel and soccer match.

Fear. A typical Friday evening ripped apart by gunfire, bombs, blood, carnage. The random killing of civilians out for a drink, a sporting event, a concert. The randomness of it is chilling because we know it could easily be any one of us, anywhere, anytime. Such is the world we live in.

How do we live? How do we respond?

Some seek to attack --- doing so with blaming, fueling-the-fire postings about Syrian refugees and a larger plot to destroy “our way of life.” Fear so easily removes our heart, our sensibilities, our compassion.

In such chaos, life becomes reduced to the simplest and the smallest details. I turn to the wisdom of Fred Rogers.

Mr. Rogers would often recount the story of when he was a little boy and a tragedy would occur and in his fear his mother counseled, “Look for the Helpers, son. Look for the Helpers, they are there.” Friends stemming the blood of strangers with their t-shirts; doctors staying and helping, offering a calming presence; first responders and police rushing to the scene. Look for the helpers.

Today happens to be the birthday of the renowned Impressionist painter, Claude Monet. The first artist to present and excel in this manner of painting, it was said that Monet saw and painted “life as it felt rather than as it was.” There are no stark, definitive lines in his paintings --- everything is fluid and able to change. Today, we feel frightened, angry, sorrowful; nothing is as it used to be. What is left is how we will respond.

Sj;
Kitetails_sjs©

Dorothy and Margaret

I always enjoy the bits on the radio and in the newspaper that highlight who was born on this day. I think each of us checks to see who is born on one’s birthday in hopes of drawing inspiration and seeking similarities from the stars in those who share your date of birth. Alas, my birthday, January 9, is shared with Richard Nixon…..

For those who have a birthday today it is shared with Dorothy Day and Margaret Mitchell ---- two amazing women: one convicts and one challenges.

Dorothy Day was a bohemian, an activist, a pacifist and one who lived with persons whom are poor offering a shared home for the impoverished in New York City.

Pope Francis lifted up the name of Dorothy Day in his address before Congress stating, "In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints."

She is an example and she convicts me to my core every time I hurriedly walk past a person on East Ohio Street asking for money or whenever I fall to the temptation of writing a check and placing it in the plate instead of being in community with persons who are poor, knowing their names and listening and hearing and responding to their stories.

Margaret Mitchell wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, GONE WITH THE WIND --- it was the only novel she ever wrote. Talk about a one-hit wonder! She started it while recovering from an ankle injury and it took her several years to finish. A fun-fact about the novel is that the original name for the female protagonist was Pansy (!) not Scarlet ---- great save there by the editor!

Mitchell challenges me to commit to opening and fully using my gifts.

When I was pastor of a congregation in Erie in an early sermon I shared about my fondness for M&M’s. That disclosure elicited a slew of M&M themed dispensers, phones and toys from my congregants. So many, in fact, that many of them remained in their packaging sitting on the shelves in my office. One day, Dennis, a parishioner said to me, “Gifts are meant to be opened and played with and used. Seems a shame to both the giver and the receiver to just let a gift sit there.”

A bullseye truth both literally and metaphorically.

Happy Birthday, Dorothy and Margaret ---

SJ;
kitetails©

Seasonal Disorder

When is it too early?

I was at the local mall earlier this evening and as of today, 5 November, they are already in full decoration mode for the holiday season....seriously.

They pushed aside Thanksgiving like a second helping of pumpkin pie by a stuffed diner and have moved right into the Christmas season. A giant wreath is on the main door, decorated trees of assorted themes and wisemen of varying diversity fill a storefront and the ultimate Christmas season shout-out: Santa! Yes, they are ready --- with the fake-snow dusted path, the candy cane markers, the reindeer and the big, red, velvet chair all waiting for Santas with fake beards and insincere good will to arrive and stay for weeks on end.

Clearly, I'm not yet in the holiday mood.

Perhaps it's the amazing run of warm weather (high seventies) that we are experiencing in Southwestern Pennsylvania, yet this took me aback and made me call for a rushing-the-season penalty.

I'm going to go and place a candle in my jack-o-lantern and let her shine!

sj;