Living in coronavirus world 197: We don't roll that way

 

10/28

Keep on voting

Pittsburgh strong

Today is a day for Pittsburgh. The hat is a Steeler hat, perhaps the most widely held Pittsburgh icon. The logo originally was from the Iron and Steel Institute. The three hypocycloids (curved diamond shapes— alternative name, asteroids— I love that). One for coal, another for ore and the third for scrap steel. Th elements of industrial steel. Adopted by the Steelers in 1964 at the urging of Republic Steel. (Ironically from Cleveland!) The black and gold also represents coal and ore. As well as the colors of William Pitt, for whom the city is named.) Pittsburgh is the only city where all the teams…baseball football, hockey and soccer…all wear the same colors. Black and gold is Pittsburgh. A Chilean soccer team, los Arcereros de Huachipato /Talacahuano, inspired by the Steelers, have borrowed the same logo. 

los arcereros

Romemu

The real reason though is that the symbol was repurposed in  response to the Tree of Life shootings two years ago where a white nationalist opened fire in the synagogue killing 11 and wounding another 7. The adapted symbol became the image for the city’s resistance to hatred. I remain somewhat annoyed that an Upper West Side synagogue, Romemu, has borrowed the symbol for its own messaging. Taken apart form its Pittsburgh context, it loses its poignancy, and in fact, meaning. 

Russ is wearing a hat from Table Mountain, Johannesburg, South Africa. Steve H who lived there’s says the legend is that is where God and the devil sat down to play cards to decide the country’s fate.

Sam tells a story of being inspired by Stephen P’s story in the Yale Divinity School’s Reflection magazine about hope. About being willing to step into the darkness. And embrace it. How she got trapped driving at night when she can’t see and found her way home by following the tail lights of the car right tin front. Hope beyond our power is prayer. 

I quote form the Dead, (New Speedway Boogie)

Now I don't know, but I been told

If the horse don't pull you got to carry the load

I don't know whose back's that strong

Maybe find out before too long

One way or another, one way or another

One way or another, this darkness got to give

We follow the lights in front of us…

We talk about Marilynne Robinson’s New York Time’s op ed on what it means to love a country, especially in our current context. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/opinion/sunday/america-patriotism.html) It’s a clarion call to not give up on America. To see ourselves as a family. And have the courage to see the importance of not failing   democracy. 

I see her as perhaps the most articulate interpreter of  Calvinist thought writing  today. Beauty and grace in our inevitable imperfection.

Dre suggest that in our confusion, perhaps the best thing to do is to just set a direction and go. Define a problem and get to work. Knowing we are allowed to question and allowed to explore.

I recall how my mentor Philip Newell, describing his work as a church bureaucrat, said that if God wants something to be done in the world, it is already being done. It is our work to find it, support it and connect others with the same vision. Steve P reminds us that the root of the word organization has to do with bringing together different organs, like Paul’s analogy of the body. (1 Corinthians 12: 1-31.)

And Dre opens  up forgiveness again. And we talk about the difference between shame and guilt, As I’ve been learning, guilt is acknowledgment of something you did, shame is a state of being, I consider it harmful, although Stephen P speaks of the danger of having a shameless President and a shameless Republican Party. How in this country, we began with the concept of correctional facilities, where someone be might be corrected. Penitentiaries  where they might  be reflective and repent, penitent.  Reform schools for troubled children. To be reformed. They all were based on a concept of penitence, remorse, compassion and restoration.  Instead what we have is a system of punishment and social control. 

And in countries, like South Africa with its truth and reconciliation  committees. Peoples’ stories being told is absolutely essential in healing a country. In places like Chile and Argentina where amnesty was declared, the wounds remain unhealed and open years later.

It begins in your family. As my boys said, the way we as parents would say, “We don’t do that in our family.” And by extension, the power of churches that can say, “We don’t do that in our church.”

As I said in my song:

We don’t roll that way.

Chi sis not what we believe, not the way we were raised.

I feel like it’s dar and getting dark every day

All I can say is 

We don’t roll that way.

bienvenidos al barrio

Timmy plays the trombone

saints

I walk to East Harlem to get a free taco. ( A World Series based Taco Bell promotion.) I consider the irony of a Taco Bell in an el Barrio filled with real Mexican restaurants and food trucks. As I reenter my part of Harlem, I see the political street signs. And in anticipation of All Saints Day,  portraits of John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And as I near home Timmy is playing the trombone to welcome me back. 

10/28

A wet and cold rainy day. The  early voting continues. People are so anxious to have it count.  There is another Peoples Music Network "song swap,"  primarily North Americans but two UK friends join us. I share my song "Listen" and it's well received.

...and all the people of the earth will hear the birds sing again..

This darkness has to give. 

Living in cornavirusworld 196: Blessed are...

 

10/16

...and I did....

Time to vote

Yes

Know what you are voting for

On a cold damp morning, I see a short voting line and jump on. A few minutes later it’s done. Biden/Harris on the Working Families Party (Democratic Socialist) line. Outside, I meet two canvassers for a City Council candidate. The young man’s sweatshirt has a platform I can support: Unfuck the world. 

Morningside heron

In Morningside Park, it’s not an egret but it is a lone heron stopped by to visit. On the way south? Why so late? What’s the story? Glad to see it…

Tonight our Bible Study is looking at Matthew 5: 1-12, the Sermon on the Mount. (Also found in Luke 6: 20-26 and Gospel of Thomas 54 and 68-9). We hear it in the New Revised Standard Version and Eugene Peterson's The Message. In first responses:

Dion says “Less is more”

Marsha: ‘…Poor in spirit…I sure hope that’s true.”

Amber Lee: “Not trying to control every stage of the development”

Sherryl: “ A little different than the text…only when we step down from judgment do we get it…”

To dig deeper, I point out that in Luke, where the language is more explicit politically, where there are curses (Woe ...= damn you and go to hell), Jesus is addressing the crowd. In Matthew, he has retreated up the mountain (Like Moses: Matthew’s always got his Old Testament paradigm in place) and  is addressing  only the disciples. (Literally, “learners” …so maybe Presbyterians have teaching elders and learning elders and maybe we are all both…)All through the opening verses he is speaking about those in the the crowd, in the third person. Only at the very end  does he speak in the second person in telling the disciples  what is in store for  them (Blesssed are you....) when they seek to follow him. On this  path, rough persecution inevitably lies ahead. Because the Jesus community is a threat to the established order by offering a radical alternative. 

+ Blessed means “Happy or “fortunate”

+ “poor in spirit” is literally broken

+ The Kingdom of Heaven is an already and a not yet

+ Those who mourn, and much of  this “sermon” comes from Isaiah 61

+ Meek has the connotation of humble or powerless

+ When Jesus speaks of “inheriting the earth,” this is literally  the “land” same as was promised Abraham. So far from a future vision, this has existential meaning to the crowds. The powerless shall gain  the land, shall possess it.

+Heart is the region of thought, intention and moral disposition

+"Children” is literally “sons of God,” the same as Romans called their emperor and Christians will call Christ, but Jesus makes us all sons and daughters of God, both redivining and dedivining that word.

+ His reward in heaven is also existential in that there is a direct connection between heaven and earth, what happens in one happens in the other.

Traditionally, this "sermon"  was thought to be an eschatological metaphor but late scholarship has seen a direct connection between the Torah's establishment of Jubilee and this passage. That Jesus was literally saying it was time to make the Jubilee real. And all that that 7 times 7 plus one year event called for. Just like Isaiah 61. That reboot once every half century. Fresh start. NO wealth passed on generation to generation. Time make it real. 

It seems to us that beyond a call to establish a non-violent campaign for social equity and justice, Jesus is saying that the secret of happiness is to open yourself up  and accept life as it is and then live out the compassion and integrity of that witness. 

We can compare Jesu’ platform with that of the Democrats and Republicans, who have  no platform except Trump. And unashamedly  so.  And compare the blessings of the Beatitudes to the curses of the ubiquitous campaign  ads on  television. Jesus walks with us through these last anxious days. 

We finish with Simon and Garfunkel’s Blessed:

                                                                                           

These passages will be read this coming Sunday, All Saints Day…and these blessed, these are the saints…

10/27

A year ago I was performing in a bar in Santiago, Chile, celebrating the lifting of curfew and the ned of a week of estillado, explosion. The Chilesans have just voted overwhelmingly to create a new constitution. Un pueblo undo, jamas sera vencido…Victor Hara, presente..

learning we shall not be moved..

A school class is sitting outside. A special program about protest. They are learning we shall not be moved…

Getting ready for winter

Restaurants are scrambling to create outdoor shelters for the coming winter…

The baseball season comes to an end. Dodgers win, There was a kind of “if a tree falls in a forest.....” aspect to the whole season…

                                              and still say their names...

                                                                                                                              

Living in Coronavirusworld 195: Still radioactive out there

 

10/24

October

The young man who lives with me’s younger sister died—of Covid— in Mississippi.  So he and his sister drove all the way through the night to get there on time for the funeral. Anxious to be back in time for work, he flew back and reported only to discover that because Mississippi is on the “bad list” he would have to quarantine for two weeks. And so he is housebound. 

The morning vote line

As I head outside at 10:30 am, there is a line all round the avenue’s block of people waiting to vote as “early voting” has begun. 

A friend has come from Pittsburgh to celebrate her birthday. We’re meeting to tour the Harlem Audobon Bird Murals. Painted by various artists all through Audobon’s old Harlem neighborhood. (https://www.audubon.org/amp) What I find interesting is our responses to Covid. This is my friend’s first venture out of Pittsburgh. Filled with anxiety about the airport and plane. Mask and goggles. She is the first house guest since the lockdown for her friends from Alphabet City. They come to Harlem via car since neither has been on the subway or bus since March. Slowly …and cautiously…they are beginning to check things out. I find this common among friends my age. We are all more careful. It’s leaving the fallout shelter. But it’s still radioactive out there. 

bluebird

Audobon birds

Diana and her owl

Audobon grave

In the midst of birds, a memorial: we are still dying

The murals…it takes someone from out of town tell you about something you’ve missed right in your own neighborhood. Some are sketchy. Some are spectacular and arresting. Some have been graffitied already.  It’s wonderfully and typically urban in scope and execution. We walk through the streets of this Audubon neighborhood where the immigrant from the Caribbean built his estate neighboring that of his West Indies predecessor Alexander Hamilton. The former 

BeauxArt headquarters of the American Geographic Society was the base of operations for various famous polar expeditions, including  the (Lady)Franklin Polar Exedition, is in the same neighborhood.  We go to the Trinity Church Cemetery to visit Audobon’s grave before finishing our tour. 

after lunch

Eating Seneglese food under the  canopy at Les Ambasades feels like a normal visit. But the car ride with open windows was a reminder it is not. 

Fauci has respect in the hood

Later there’s another walk. Meeting in Morningside, walking through Central Park noting the slowly changing colors as yellow and browns are appearing along with steadily falling leaves. The Public Schools seem to be settling into pattern. But I just heard that my alma mater, after opening, has now shut down again. Both us are filled  with anxiety regarding the election. Earlier at lunch, the other man at the table forbade political talk. 

afternoon line

As I head home, the line still runs around the block. This makes me feel good. 

10/25

Take a morning off from church. As I step out for coffee and the Sunday Times, I see the round the block line again. My neighbor, who sit outside and watches the street, says people began arriving at 7:30AM and where still there, even in the sub 50’ weather. (9’C) Some has waited three hours the day before without getting to vote. 

In our Sunday "international chat"

, our son tells us Germany is up to 900 new cases a day now. He’s more and more convincingly that Covid is there and is not going away and can’t be controlled. Questioning the renewed imposition of protocols. The very thought of being quarantined for two weeks with two preschoolers is daunting. His brothers teasingly accuse him of sounding like a Trump supporter. He replies the difference is that he believes in science and knows it’s real. I know what the protocols are doing to my mom.

Bar 9

It’s cold and drizzling as I make it to Bar9. What once was We Love Songwriters has become something else. Last week there was memo asking us to focus on upbeat covers. This week’s memo banned songs with religious or political references. The owner is worried about business.  He’s now lost some artists without appreciable gain in audience. Only one patron has come indoors. Something about the temperature check and id gathering puts people off. (Though all of us performers have to do it. When I get up to sing, the previous performer’s "mic condom" is still on. I  call on the host to remove it…)The rest of us huddle (well kind of, distanced) outdoors as we drink our beers and eat our wings and talk about recording in these corona days. It’s going to be a long winter. 

Living in coronavirusworld 194: This darkness has to give...

10/22

This darkness has got to give

A busy day going back and forth between finishing my ep and preparing for my virtual concert “VOTE.”  The work of finishing a recording takes listening over and over again, listening to small details, making decisions and deciding when enough is enough. By late afternoon, we are done.

Duck and two turtles

Butterfly in Morningside

Morningside

MorningMorningsideI take a break in Morningside Park. When I see a duck with two turtles on the same rock, I always wonder how consciously aware of each other they are. How much we are aware of what, and who,  is around us.  I take a photo of flowers, and later, like the photographer in Blow Up, see something I didn't when I took the picture: a butterfly. 

I only have time to stop briefly in the Center at West Park meeting as we review the success of the previous night’s virtual gala. All done in under an hour.

word on the street 

I open the ZOOM room. Do sound checks for all my performers. Set up the  Facebook Live stream and get it going. It’s a great group of 10 musicians and 1 spoken word artist. One friend join us live from Switzerland. Another from Pittsburgh. That’s the good part of our coronavirusworld. My friend Ric premiers both a new song and video. At the end,I feel happy about a job well done. We feel like we are doing our part to get the people out to vote. (Though I am not sure in the end we'll  get anyone out who was not ready to go anyways) We share out reflections on the world have been living in. I share an angry song, a hopeful song, a determined song and a preview master track from my new EP. (you can watch the show here…https://www.facebook.com/robert.l.brashear/videos/10158505005848361)

If VOTE is our theme, the sub theme is THIS DARKNESS HAS GOT TO GIVE.

10/23

Roosevelt park

Most of the day is given over to trying to advocate for my mother in an understaffed rehab facility. Phone calls to me every half hour regarding pain.  Calls to the desk. Promises to rend “right now” that never happen. Repeated calls until they do. Irritation at the nurses desk until I  remind them they promised to respond an hour and a half ago, an hour ago, half hour ago…My mother says “if this going to be my life..”  I tell her it is not. IF she chooses. She will get through quarantine. She will get visitor again. She will get through rehab. Return to her assisted care facility. IF she chooses. And she will vote. We need every one. That one seems toggle her s reason to keep going. 

fall in Roosevelt...

Harlem

Upper West Side

I need to go the Gate for a break. See signs of fall in the Roosevelt Park flora. Growing signs of Halloween in Harlem and the Upper West Side. We still have that.

The Open Mic gang gathers again, I am tired, but this is a commitment. I do a variety of songs. It is my 100th performance of the year.

This darkness has got to give…