Going to San Diego, CA!

http://www.sdiworld.org/educational-event/2016-emerging-wisdom-educational-events/online-streaming

I am going to this Spiritual Directors International Conference in San Diego this weekend with a good friend from Corpus Christi, Mary Tom. We are going to be visiting with our friend Mary Jane, who used to live in Corpus Christi before moving to CA. Father Gregory Boyle will be one of the main speakers.

We leave on Thursday and return on Sunday night. I am getting excited!

What's Wrong with This World

"There is an idea that has taken root in this world, that is at the root of everything that is wrong with this world, and that idea is that some lives matter more than others. At Homeboy Industries, the most important thing that we do is to say: you matter, you count, you are worth something." -- Fr. Greg Boyle

This was on Facebook yesterday. I liked the quote so much that I wanted it on my blog along with this picture of Father Gregory Boyle affirming this young man. I admire him and his organization of Homeboy Industries very much.

If you have not read Father G's book Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, you should! Anne Lamott says about this book:

"An astonishing book . . . about suffering and dignity, death and resurrection, one of my favorite books in years. It is lovely and tough and tender beyond my ability to describe and left me in tears of both sorrow and laughter."

She aptly describes how I feel about this book.

Aim Your Flashlight!

Still in Vologda.


Here is another story from Gregory Boyle's book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion:

While Pedro was in rehab, his younger brother Jovan committed suicide. When Pedro returns from rehab, Father G. tells him about a dream he had about Pedro and himself: They are in a dark room, with no light. Then Father G. retrieves a flashlight from his pocket and turns it on:

". . .I shine this narrow beam of light on the switch. I don't speak. I just hold the beam steady, unwavering. Pedro says that even though no words are exchanged, he knows he is the only one who can turn this light switch on. He thanks me for happening to have a flashlight. . . He arrives at the switch, and takes a deep breath, and flips it on. The room is flooded with light."

And this is what is going on while Father G. is relating his dream:

"He (Pedro) is now sobbing at this point, in the telling of the dream. And with a voice of astonishing discovery, he says, 'And the light. . . is better . . . than the darkness.'

"As if he did not previously know this to be the case. He's weeping, unable to continue. Then he says, 'I guess. . . my brother. . . just never found the light switch.'

Possessing flashlights and occasionally knowing where to aim them has to be enough for us. Fortunately, none of us can save anybody. But we all find ourselves in this dark, windowless, room, fumbling for grace and flashlights. You aim the light this time, and I'll do it the next." (127-128)

Boyle, Gregory. Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. NY: Free Press, 2010.

Our love and friendship shine the light for for both ourselves and others. Acting in love is how to aim the light outwards.

Love Melts Away

If all went well, we will be arriving in Moscow today! And we hope our luggage will get there with us!

From Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Gregory Boyle:

Among all the stories told, there is one about a young man named Fabian, who tries to accept others in different gangs through Homeboy Industries:

"Fabian was spectacular at building good and enduring friendships with his 'enemies' at Homeboy. His tenderness knew no equal, really. He would visit an enemy undergoing brutal chemotherapy and supply him with videos to distract him from the ordeal. He'd do reconnaissance of the hospital area to make sure that none of his enemies were also visiting at the same time.

"His enemies wouldn't understand. Once, Fabian was stuck in the backseat of a car filled with his homeboys who were giving him a ride home.

"'Hey, look,' one of them screams in the car, 'that's that fool, Froggy.' The alarmist in the car is pointing at an enemy walking by himself on First Street. 'Let's bomb on his ass.'

"The car pulls over, and Fabian works his magic. 'Kick back, you guys. That's my primo.'

"'Serio, he's your cousin?'

"'Yeah--my tia's son.'

"And the car swerves back into merging traffic. Froggy was an enemy Fabian had come to know from our office. They are not related.

"I just don't know how Fabian managed it.

"With more mystery than I can explain away, Fabian locked on to the singularity of that love that melts you. It doesn't melt who you are, but who you are not. Turns out he wasn't all the abuse he endured. He was something else, astonishing and glorious." (102-103)

Boyle, Gregory. Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. NY: Free Press, 2010.

When I look at changes in my life, especially concerning habits or reactions, I can see that LOVE melted who I was. I hope LOVE keeps on melting me into my true self!

Tuesday Trivia

I haven't done a bullet-like sequence of my stuff for awhile, so I guess that's what is up for today:

• Cold fronts are finally blowing through to the Gulf of Mexico, so we are getting some dry and cooler weather. I feel happier and more energetic with this promise of cooler weather, which always reminds me of Bellingham (WA) summer days. It is lovely to have temperatures below 78 degrees F. in the mornings!

• I made applesauce today (also including five pears). This brought back memories of making applesauce in cooler weather with my four children around to eat it. It was good to use up various apples from the refrigerator, some of which were in lone plastic bags.

• Two weeks from right now, I will be with 15 other women on a jet heading to Russia! This is for the Russian Initiative of the United Methodist Church. It is interesting to learn that this began in 1991-92, which is when I first vaguely heard about it at the Morristown, NJ United Methodist Church. I never imagined I would be involved in this.

• The Wisdom Class met today and we discussed chapter 6 "Jurisdiction" in Tattoos of the Heart by Gregory Boyle. The word "jurisdiction" is used by gang members in east LA to indicate the so-called "gang territory" for each gang. Here is something from this chapter:
  

"Sometimes you're thrown into each other's jurisdiction, and that feels better than living, as the Buddhists say, in the 'illusion of separateness.' It is in this place where we judge the other and feel the impossibility of anything getting bridged. The gulf too wide and the gap too distant, the walls grow higher, and we forget who we are meant to be to each other. . . . Bridging the gulf of mutual judgment and replacing it with kinship is tricky indeed." (133)

• I got the next book for the Wisdom Class from Amazon this afternoon and have started reading it: The First Christmas by Crossan and Borg. They are stressing that (they believe that) the two nativity stories in Matthew and Luke should be read as parables, giving meaning to Jesus and his time and our current civilization. (Empires in both!)

• For our Wisdom Class meditation, I copied yesterday's post of Stephen Colbert (underneath this one). We have both liberals and conservatives in the class and that prompted a good discussion before we even got to the book. I am still thinking about the comment that helping the needy is from a position of power, unlike the equal acceptance of Gregory Boyle. But can a nation only proceed from that position?
  

Tattoos on the Heart

Recommended Books!

On our long driving trip, I took along a bag full of books and then bought some more. It was nice to have the space in the car to have real books! I read a lot, but I am not recommending everything I read, just the best. Oddly enough, three of the four books I am going to mention were discovered in Seattle!

The first one was discovered in the Summer 2011 issue of Parabola, which I bought at the University of Washington Bookstore. The interview with Father Gregory Boyle was eight pages long and so interesting that I had to buy the book: Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Gregory Boyle.

Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest, founded Homeboy Industries in 1992. The program is intended to assist at-risk youth and gang members with a variety of services, such as counseling, tutoring, and employment. The most distinctive feature of Homeboy Industries is its small businesses, which gives hard-to-place individuals an opportunity to be employed in transitional jobs in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn both concrete and soft job skills. Among the businesses are the Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Café & Catering, Homeboy Merchandise, Homeboy Press and Homeboy Silkscreen & Embroidery.

The stories that Father G relates are simple, bright and sad, showing life and death. He quotes many of my favorite people, including Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, Rumi, and Hafiz. He faces the hard deaths with honest discussion, which pointed out to me that the point of life is to live like Jesus, NOT for the goal of positive RESULTS.

This is going to be the book we will read in the Wisdom Class at All Saints Episcopal Church, the weekly book study that will begin meeting again the day after Labor Day.

My daughters AE and KA really liked reading the first book in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games. I kept seeing copies of the book in bookstores up in WA, so I ordered all three books to be delivered at DC's house in Austin, where we were scheduled to babysit Avery. In between the busy-ness of holding and taking care of Avery, I insatiably read that first book. When I got back to Corpus Christi, I read the other two in quick succession.

Being immersed in the world of North American dystopia captivated me. Katniss is the heroine in this young adult series. (This designation reminds me that the Harry Potter series is also categorized in this way, and I love those books!) Katniss is a flawed and very human character who survives against great odds. This first book is about the Hunger Games: Once a year the government chooses two children from each of the twelve districts to compete against one another in a live and televised reality show. Twenty-four kids and teens enter, and only one survives.

It is a violent book, which shows North America after its people warred against each other, demolishing their world and environments. It is a thought-provoking book that I am still pondering.

Now for the two books I am currently reading but have not finished yet.

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff is the one book that I carried throughout the USA on our travels and did not start reading until I was back in Corpus Christi--after I finished the Hunger Games trilogy.

Schiff researched ancient records, literature, and current information to bring forth this biography of someone who is more legend than anything else. There is little historical evidence of who Cleopatra really was--especially not Elizabeth Taylor from the movie! Stacy Schiff herself admits, "there is not universal agreement on most of even the basic details of Cleopatra's life. So much of this history is simply not known." She sifted through more information than I can imagine to bring forth this fascinating story of Cleopatra. I am mesmerized.

This last book was seen at the Elliot Bay Bookstore in Seattle, highly recommended by one of its staff members. It is a translation of Yogo Ogawa's sweet book, The Housekeeper and the Professor. This may be a future gift to many of my friends!

Ogawa's portrayal of the professor is particularly moving. Injured in a car accident in the early 1970s, he has only 80 minutes of short-term memory and must re-learn relationships and basic information on a continual basis. A brilliant mathematician, he uses math as a primary means of communication - he is most comfortable when talking about numbers and has a gift for making the complex seem simple. While lacking in memory, he has a natural and instinctual affinity for children, and bonds instantly with the housekeeper's son. The boy's presence helps to bring the professor out of his insular world - in fact the child is the only thing that the professor seems to care about besides his beloved prime numbers. The two bond over math, and later baseball, and their relationships nurtures and enriches both of their lives, as well as that of the housekeeper.

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These are four/six books I have greatly enjoyed. They come from different categories of reading material, so perhaps you will find one that interests you!