7/15
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| Asheville "Hippies" |
This is the week we could have been at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina. So today I open with a “visit” to Asheville. After my trips to the Goose, I would stop in Asheville. Famous for craft beer. And music. I've played couple of spots in Asheville, actually got to play my “Carolina” song in Carolina. And there’s a baseball team, the Asheville Tourists. The play at McCormick Field, carved out of the side of a mountain. Built in 1924, only hallowed Fenway and Wrigley are older. Golf carts scamper around to bring fans up the hill form downtown. Elsewhere in North Carolina, they talk about Asheville as a locale for “hippies.” So as touch of irony, the Tourists take a weekend each year to play as “the Hippies,” tie dye jerseys and all. Even a tie dye “A” logo. (What is it about mountains and hippies?) So that’s my hat and shirt for the morning.
As usual, the Underground surfaces some themes. One is centering, how we center ourselves i the midst of all of this. Steve H talks about his use of prayer. Simple prayer. While breathing in and out. What, if any, is the difference between a Jesus chant and Nam myoho renge Kyo? For some the Lord’s prayer has been a ritual. I recalled how my elementary school day began with the (Protestant) Lord’s prayer, some Bible verses and the pledge to the flag. A Roman Catholic priest friend said that when he was growing up in Pittsburgh they called the public schools “protestant” schools.
Joel speaks of growing up an “evangementalist.” The “toxic dualism” of the mind/body split. Dre speaks of the influence of Alan Watts on his life. We agree that we are not our thoughts and that you can’t meditate wrong.
The meat of our conversation focuses on Isabelle Wilkerson’s excerpt from her book Caste in the Sunday Times. Her comparing of India and the US as siblings of the British Empire is exciting in that it opens up an area of thought I hadn’t considered before. She sees our two countries as the only still caste bound cultures left with caste having power and influence long after laws change. Caste systems predate the construct of racism. She relates how when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr went to India, he was mainly interested in learning about his hero, Gandhi. But he was pushed to meet and understand the Dalits, the untouchables, and learn he was an untouchable too and to begin to study Ambedkar, the Dalit organizer. As he thought about it, King realized that in the US, Blacks were still untouchable. A always, understanding a new angle on the problem doesn't necessarily lead to knowing what to do about it. Our obsession with supremacy is a sign of our fragility.
Not only is Santa Claus not real for adults, his workshop is a Bangladeshi sweat shop.
Mother Theresa called us to three gifts….prayer, leading to love, and love leading to service.
We know we’ve got to learn how to step out of our comfort zones in ways that invite people in. In quiet, not front-page ways. As Gil Scott Heron once said, the Revolution will not be televised.
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| fallun gong was here |
On a hot afternoon, Central Park is filled with people again. Mostly unmasked. The Falun Gong are back again.
Our Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare board meets to plan our next steps in exploring the unique experiences of Black Women and Girls as they relate to our work in HIV, Domestic Violence and Reproductive options. Our PARO people point out that the states with soaring Covid rates are the ones that are led by “pro-life” governors. Apparently the pro-life commitment doesn’t extend to citizens whose lives are threatened by irresponsible behavior in the time of Covid 19. They’d rather kill off thousands of citizens than “hurt the economy” or “give up freedom.” Our soaring Covid rates are beyond any other western nation. And the President is taking the Covid data out of the hands of the Center for Diseaese Controil and brings it to Washington first. If we don’t know about it, it’s not real. And so infections, and deaths, will continue.
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