A Mexican and a white guy in a box

5/14

For the first time since the Occupiers have been here, I find myself sweeping the steps myself again. Good to remember what that feels like. It’s why I feel so much a part of the building, problems, karma and all.....

John H comes in, excited, emotional. Wants me to think again about the vision. Not let it get lost. As the brutally honest business voice I so often need, I appreciate this coming from John.  This day calls for a new reality. What it could be, Christians, Jews, Muslims sharing a building together with a commitment to justice and a home for the arts. He believes we can still have it all. You have all the pieces, he says, they’re all there.  John sees things. When everyone else thought OWS was a distraction, he felt it could help center the church. He was right. 

Teddy has just waked up. A bit sleepy. But ready to dig in for today’s work. The clearing up, cleaning out phase has turned up some very strange finds in unexpected places.  It’s all being timed for the next city pick up days. 

Chris and Runi come in for a consultation, join Teddy in the work. I do not want them on the steps.

Sandy comes in. She’s got a lead on some property upstate. Woodstock area. Possibility of growing flowers. She still has the dream of an Occupy intentional community. She was one of the first to come in to West-Park with a work crew. And a dream. It got overwhelmed. But she has never lost sight of it. The Coop that came together came close. Her idea was right. I catch her up on what’s been going on. Sadly, even if they had all stayed together, keeping a Woodstock community together, paying the bills, wouldn’t happen. Maybe there’s still a way to gather a select Occupy group more interested in the social movement than the protest movement. How to do it?

Hugo and Arcadia come in to plan their wedding. This will be a true celebration. A real moment for our community. While we are talking, a man comes in. At first I think he’s speaking Spanish, but as we all look at each other, we realize it’s not. Turns out it’s Romanian. His name’s Dmitri. Looking for the Romanian Orthodox  Church. Hugo and I figure it out. It’s on 87th. Arcadia draws a little map. Hugo takes him outside to point him in the right direction. 

Sekou has arrived early. Sandy has cornered him. Chris and Runi are here again. Someone is playing the piano. Steve talking about the Chicago bus trip. Before I go in to meet with another couple, Sekou says, I’m tastin your world, my brother. They should set up a hazing program for new ministers. Make em spend a day with you. Anyone makes it through, get in...and he laughs his full body laugh. 

This is an interfaith couple. Referred from the Interfaith Community I still advise.  At first, I think its simply a question of planning  a service, but I can see from the woman’s face there’s more to it. How much do you have to sacrifice? How do you give up wanting your kids to believe that Jesus is your personal lord and savior and necessary for salvation? When you can’t imagine life without the one you love?  Lots to talk about. This isn’t one conversation. Hugo and Arcadia. Chris and Runi. This couple. Couples. 

Finally time for Bible study. Sekou shares his letter responding to the black clergy that have been on Obama’s case for proclaiming his support for marriage equality. (That’s what it is...civil rights...) I answer Anna ‘s question from last week. Turns out the fishers of men is not just about organizing. It picks u on an image fro Jeremiah about bringing judgment to rich and powerful. This is not about evangelism as we think it is. It’s a direct action campaign. The call repentance is a call to turn your back on all the powers of the structure that is, the structure of domination and control. Not only turn around, but turn away....

We get into exorcisms, healings. The demons know Jesus. And he knows them. That training in the wilderness. 

And then the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law. A widow. A cut off one. It is restoration. And that restoration, that rreclaiming of one’s life, is followed by service, we pass it on. 

He keeps healing. Casting out demons. Keeps them silent.Tactical choice. Don’t draw attention until the time is right. Time to gather the forces en las montanas. 

Anna has been right on target again. Marsha sees the connections with IAF. Bobby has come in, wearing m NYPD hat from 9-11. How’d that happen? Yes, I know, Condaleeza Rice is a concert pianist. He won’t rest until I get her here. John brings in teBivle study fro another church, another perspective. Always wants to know how it helps anyone live a better life. Teddy says, Let me get this straight, this is the very beginning right? We nod. I got it, he says, Zucotti Park, September. I got it.

That’s it. Outside, there’s a Mexican and a white guy in a box I’ve never seen before.

Jamie says, Yesterday would’ve been the perfect day to sneak in the blessed Mother. You know, Mother’s Day. She needs to be here...

She’s welcome, I say, just need to find the right place. Her own altar/prayer place. I need all the help I can get. 

Don't let it ruin your day

4/30

Rachelle is standing near the 86th street door, a full shopping cart in front of her, her Daisy Buchanan hat on, wearing her surgical mask. I look at the cart. I have recieved many donations, she says. 

Chris is standing in the sun. I tell him he looks like a watchman. Teddy tells me  that Con Ed has been by to see if the old boiler pipes are shut down and all is cool. Steve is staffing a table by himself, looking to sell off the remaining t-shirts. Ellen a photographer from the Village Voice has been wandering through the church taking pictures and is now hanging and talking with Steve.

A man named Greg comes in, he’s clearly just hit Danielle up for money. Asks to speak to me privately. Wants money for the subway. Goes through the whole I don’t do drugs, don’t drink deal... I have a look of pain on my face. I stop him. Look, I got no money in the bank and $5 in my pocket. That’s it. 

Chill man,he says, don’t let it ruin your day.  And he heads out the door. 

Jay comes in wearing his army t-shirt. His leg still has a ways to go. Being an Iraq veteran hasn’t helped him much. 

John H has heard from the Tiffanty dealer.  We need to name a price. Do I really want to do this? How can I use this information in a different strategy?

Mim, knowing the pressures of the multiple crises, has come by to be supportive. Help us think through some things. She is always there when we need someone, well, just to be there. A phone rings, possible legal help. But time is short, who can catch up that fast?

A man who calls himself Lucky and I don’t know why. Teddy brings in a woman who speaks only Spanish. Que necesita? I ask her. Ropas, zapatos... I tell Teddy she needs clothes, shoes, do you have any? And he says, Yeah, I think we do. Tell her to wait. Por favor esperarse, mi hermana, I say.  Soon Teddy comes back with Little Chris, the house fashion consultant, to take her to the clothing room. Soon she has some pants, shirts, and yes, shoes. 

There are people sitting in the sanctuary. Looks like they’re in prayer. I want to join them. One of them is Steve. (Later he tells me he fell asleep.)

Patrick De Warren, a French documentary filmmaker, is doing an Occupy doc. He wants to interview me. We go to the Session room and talk for an hour. I tell him the whole story from Thanksgiving to now. 

No time to go home for a walk. Time for Bible study. What a group. Marsha, Hope and John from West Park. A whole group from the Sekou-West night. An older former believer who still is drawn to Jesus the man. Marc from Interfaith. And Steven and Teddy. Marco, who’s following Sekou for a documentary is there, too. 

We begin with particularities. Every theology, every scripture, comes from a specific place and time. God chose to come to earth in Jesus, a Palestinian Jew born to an unwed mother in a backwater corner of the Empire to a working class family. Sekou says the word carpenter in Greek is actually handy man. Jesus was  a handy man. That’s how we begin. And we all share our particularities. 

And we experience the thickness of the first few verses. The begining, genesis, meaning a new beginning. Gospel, a take on a Roman victory convention. The quoted Isaiah passage. A signifier that this is a message from an exiled people to an internally exiled, occupied people. John the Baptist, fugitive from his father’s tall steeple church, the Temple. The synagogue vs. the Temple. Baptism as a judgment on the status quo. So why repentance from sin? It’s about coming to terms with yourself, we say. If you’re going to take on the empire, you got to be ready. And my occupiers nod. 

Bobby came in a while back. Teddy took him upstairs for some food. He’s come down and joined us. As we wrap up, he takes me aside. Like he’s got a secret. Listen, he says, Condaleeza Rice is a concert pianist. You need to get her here to play a concert. Yeah, well, she’s a presbyterian, too, I say. 

Hope is telling Sekou, this is exactly what we should be doing. I recall hearing John Dominic Crossan on NPR. They asked him if he prayed. After a pause he said, I study. And when I study, I feel close to God. I know that feeling. 

Elizabeth is setting up her photography equipment to shoot those she missed in January. 

I’m outside talking with Teddy and Steve. Sekou walks out. So here’s where all the cool kids got off to, he says.

Elizabeth at work shooting Teddy

I watch Elizabeth as she shoots her portraits. One by one she shoots with great care. Teddy wants Bobby to get his taken as an honorary occupier. And I get a reshoot, too. Elizabeth’s off to Egypt soon, a follow up on her women’s series. 

Teddy has found Antonia outside and brought her in. Wesley was arrsted a week or so ago, Antonia headed for the hills. Or at least Riverside Park. Where the rangers took all her stuff. Maybe good in the long run. Brought her back here. It’s Teddy’s plan to kepe her inside for the night. Call Reachout first thing in the morning. Get her hooked up with housing before Wesley gets out. 


Laila has come in. It's many months since I have seen her.  She had cafred about Tracy. One of our early steps people. She'd established contact with one of  his children. But we lost contact with him after he entered the system.

Outside, I talk with Rafael. he’s come bac to pick up a few things. He and Steve exchange muted greetings. The close out meeting I wanted to have tonight, lifting up all that was good is not going to happen. There’s a sadness about that.

Patrick is back with his video camera. 

There’s a silent man outside in the south doorway who appears and disappears, every few days, sitting like a sentinel.