Wednesday, March 30, 2011

art is life.

art is life...life is art. there is not such thing as imitation. you are living it as you go creating a blob, a masterpiece, a great triumph or a terrible tragedy. you really don't know what art is if you don't think that you are making it each and every day. your words form ideas and concepts and stories. your life continues the weaving of a tapestry whose threads bind together actions, interactions, relationships, and pull and tug upon the fabrics of other's lives. they are all jumbled up together, not in a mess, but in a unique 3 dimensional piece that has so complicated a shape/organic and changing each nano-second. what is that but beauty...art. life is art.

Friday, March 18, 2011

like the wind...

There is supposed to be some mysterious quality about the lives of Christians. I don't mean that we look weird because we go to the same places on Sundays or that we don't live what we preach... I mean that when people look at our lives, they should be asking themselves..."just why do they do that?" "Why do they give up their money like it's nothing?; Why do they hang out with such an eclectic group?; Why do they not fit in to one political ideology or another like the rest of the world?; Why do those people give their time away to vagrants, losers, outcasts, and _________ (you fill in your blanks)."

We should not only look different in our ways, but we shouldn't be conformed to one "human" definition or another of what this world says a Christian should be. We should be so moved by God that we begin to take on God's quality of mystery. What we do, how we live, what we support and who we hang out with should always be influenced by God's Spirit moving within us. And who can know God's Spirit so as to understand it. It is like the wind. We know now where it came from or where it is going...but we feel its presence, and it moves us.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Alabama...land of the incarcerated

Representative Hammond of Decator has been quoted as saying of the bill:

''We're trying not to be punitive and mean, but we do want to accomplish our mission,'' Hammon said. ''We want to discourage illegal immigrants from coming to Alabama and prevent those that are already here from putting down roots.''

This is not such a simple issue. The roots have already been established...some for generations. This is a human rights issue as well as an economic one. The human rights issue is that these persons have bought homes, fill apartment complexes and opened legitimate businesses in Alabama. They have children that are born here and some that have grown up here for many years. These children, both undocumented and citizens know no other culture than that of Alabama.

The economic issue has brought together some strange bed-fellows like business groups and human rights organizations. Both recognize that not allowing families to rent apartments, get license plates for their cars, or even ride the bus to school would not only be punitive, it would be "mean" and "hateful." It would destroy some local economies. The same people who celebrate Latino culture one day and eat their tacos and tamales are ready to throw Latino families out of their apartments and trailers and deny them any legal way to simply exist within the borders of Alabama. This behavior is deplorable. To paraphrase Debs, if one man's very existence is "illegal" then I too am illegal. I will stand with you, fight with you, and give you refuge under my roof.