So his name is Geoffrey....

2/19

Press conference at Saigon Grill

Saigon Grill press conference

On the way to church, stop by the press conference in front of Saigon Grill. The Sweat Shop Free Upper Westside Movement has a victory to celebrate. The court has decided that Saigon Grill owes the workers more than 1 million dollars in back pay and damages. The question is whether they will make arrangements to pay up or go chapter 11 to avoid paying. At any rate, the decision sends a clear message: you cannot exploit workers, documented or not, for the sake of profits. 

They ask me ot speak and  i do, emphasizing that every consumer’s decision we make, where to shop, where to eat, which salon...every decision is a choice for or against economic justice.

Tracy and I meet for coffee afterwards. Through these conversations, and having seen and experienced some of the dark side of unmediated ideology, there must be something more, something deeper. Something that migt be found in communities of inclusion, equity and mutuality, communities based in relationships....a transformative way of being that seems to be the path Jesus is describing. I describe the political worship,(in German it’s a better expression..) I’d heard about in the old steel town of Duisberg, Germany. weekly meetings for study, reflection, discernment, critical analysis and prayer...wondering what it would take...She’s got an ides of her own idea centered around films, workers, reflections...

Martin stops in for numbers crunching and looking at dollars...

Meanwhile, Cara is playing the piano, Amanda improvising wordlessly over Cara’s music...

The prophet comes in and sits down in the narthex. Writing his cryptic notes. Danielle says Hello, Geoffrey. And I discover that he has opened up to her, shared his name. So  the prophet is Geoffrey. And so much still remains a mystery. 

In RL’s studio, RL, Poet Tim and Mandola Joe are in conversation. Amanda joins us. Soon she and Joe and I will head ti the Village, to the Living Room to hear our friend, Matt Turk. And Cara walks with us in the cold wind to the subway where she wil ride awhile....