Living in coronavirusworld 100: You can't be both Micah and Isaiah

7/1

Mornningside

patriotic front

critical analysis

As the underground meets this week, I’m wearing  two items for this week’s July 4th celebration. My hat is last year’s Pittsburgh Pirates July 4th weekend hat. Most significant is that the logo “P” It's from 1903 hat, the first“real” World Series where the Pirates defeated the Red Sox.  My shirt come from the Uni Watch blog. From the front its a great parody of the typical “patriotic” jersey but instead  a name on back is  the word “pandering”and the number 4 indicating what blog creator  Paul Lukas believes to be the reality…these so-called patriotic shout outs are actually jingoistic pandering. 

Clyde brings us a virtual background and I wonder if we will ever meet there again. 

For the first time our roots are being seriously examined. 

As always, there is much to talk about. We talk about Jefferson’s “All men are created equal.” Which never  really meant what it sounded like until Lincoln used it and even then..it lay there until Dr.King brought it out as an unfulfilled promise. The cognitive dissonance of the American truth claim, texts never equaling truth . 

Steve H brings out the  idea of “convergence”and wonders about  the role of the preacher in “convergence.” How it’s the job of the  preacher to pull people out of their comfort zone while  keeping it safe.  (But not too safe...)

(A side discussion:  why did John’s gospel story reference 153 fish? Steve P maintains very little of John is about history. Story, yes, history no. Perhaps there were just 153 members of the community he was writing for…)

We note that the President’s disapproval raring as now reached 58%. 

                                                       'Free fallin'" Tom Petty

Of course the conversation continues about the phrase “new normal”…which I continue to reject because it may be new but it is certainly not normal. Neither should we accept it as such. Certainly part of what’s been going is  what we have, like a people under occupation, come to accept.  Perhaps we are now in a state of free falling and need to  get comfortable with the fact that that is where we are. 

Sam sees it as a time of pregnancy. Breaking us out of out of our smugness and complacency. That maybe Trump had to come to bring this moment for us to see ourselves as we truly are. In a time of the Black Madonna we need to see and ultimately  embrace our dark side. (See Jung? Robert  Bly?) So after today, what do we do tomorrow? After hurt comes  creativity. 

We talk about the loaves and fishes. How it was a miracle of distribution, not  production. The smallest have the power to meet the chaos. How do we create a system that honors the least?

Sam argues for the need of a change of heart. I argue for the power of law to change how we act and as a  result, ultimately how we think. And feel. Maybe starts at both ends and works towards the middle. 

One thing is clear…we must do everything we can to get people to vote. We note that some generals have declared the President a traitor. But it is clear… we must stop looking  for a stare of comfort and peace. 

Later in the day our Presbytrian Health Education and Welfare board meets to review the PC (USA) General Assembly. Clearly there is much work to be done. One friend tells us of the struggle of putting up a Black Lives Matter sign at their  church . We talk about what happens to our friends when they join the bureaucracy. One remembers our old friend of blessed memory, Bill Thomas, who spent his life and ministry  in Pittsburgh’s steel country of the Mon (ongahela) Valley. Bill said you can’t be both Micah and Isaiah.The rough hewn working class prophet vs. the court prophet. (I’ve always believed Isaiah copped Micah’s best line about swords into plowshares…) To hear Bill's name mentioned fills me with warm memories and heart ache...one of the true saints.

I'm noticing friends my age and older are very wary of venturing out, even as life loosens.

Sunset on the Hudson

I meet my friend Beppe in a grassy noll in Riverside Park. He's brought lawn chairs. And cold drinks. In the cool of the evening, as the sun touches the water, life feels almost perfect. For the moment.

The dice shooters are back. The nightly fireworks show continues.