Living in coronavirusworld 193: Anything can happen

10/20

Fall Central Park

Harlem Renaissance Garden 111th Street

Checking for signs of fall in Morningside Park, I learn that I need to stop looking for the riotous colors of the maple country upstate and look closer for more subtle changes. Like when I discovered what OI called deep fall in the Osage in Oklahoma. Subtle but distinct changes. Lek our slow progressive through this covid crisis.  

The Presbytery Cabinet is trying to wrestle with what happened at the last Presbytery meeting when the chasm of understanding of where we are related to racial realities became so painfully clear. Some can only think of the analysis in terms of our polity, our rules. But there is a deeper understanding that there are issues of culture that go so much deeper than issues that can be resolved by rules. The reality of whiteness transcends rules and goes deep into history. And we need to explore these realities outside the context of official meetings bound by polity. Otherwise, it’s about win and lose and not understanding. Meanwhile, one court case involving the resolution of property issues has consumed $223,000 already. As more and more churches, starved of income by Covid, continue to go down, with only property sales to sustain them, and as Presbytery faces its own covid induced crisis, there will be more and more of these cases.

I get to Mike Geffner’s “Inspired Word” Open Mic just in time. Play my fall songs, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay and an old song that references Pittsburgh, and the fall. I feel good and the chat comments make even happier:

Damn! Bob Dylan in here tonight? Beautiful song…

—and—

Nah, Johnny Cashing out! Love the strumming and picking…

Mike speaks of the intimacy and interchange we have here in ZOOM we don’t in the bars. We engage each other more. These events may continue even when we go live again. And Mike shares some wisdom with us. Less selling, more story telling. If people get to know you, they will be interested. And not guilted into supporting you. Mike has over 30 years of experience and over 10000 published stories worth of experience.

10/21

Mazeroski #9

Today I have a 1960 Bill Mazeroski jersey and hat to commemorate the 60th anniversary the his walk off home run at 3:37PM on October 13th. Defeating the indomitable Yankee dynasty of those years. I stood at the pencil sharpener in my 5th grade class room with the game on our PA. That moment changed my life. Made me believe anything can happen. Miracles can happen. What you wish against all odds can become reality. I share the story of those who gather at the of old Forbes Field wall every year to listen to the recording of that game. This year, they couldn’t due to covid restrictions.  So the Pirates invited them to hear the game over the PA at PNC Park.  That game was why I became a Yankee fan wen I loved to New York. They were the other side of the story. A story important to hold onto this year.

I learn that while I listened in Pittsburgh, my friend Stephen P listened somewhere in New York. In his classroom.  And both our school day began with Bible readings the (Protestant) Lord’s Prayer and the pledge to the flag. A priest friend back in Pittsburgh told me they always called the public schools the Protestant schools.

We return to our discussion of Tutti Fratellii. How Francis says that the purpose of private property is for the common good. That everything that God has put here is for the common good. That everything has a social reality. We are ultimately not owners, only guardians. (As Steve H puts it…) We wonder about the misuse of greater good, as per Soviet Russia. And then are reminded by Sam that St. Gregory said that when we give to the needy we are only returning what already belongs to them. Meanwhile, the very rich believe that they are the moral spine of the world and the poor victims of their own failings. Francis is very clear about confronting the nature of international market capitalism.

Dre wants to know if we need to redefine power. That something needs to happen. We need reengage an adversarial relationship. Ownership has no rational reality.  Meanwhile, 47% of people can’t even afford a $250 housing related fee.   And CEO compensation compared to common workers has grown from 20 to 1 to 400 to 1, a ratio that is ultimately unsustainable. 

Our competing understandings are the difference between single and complex and movement versus frozenness. 

We note the historical significance of Francis’ judgment that just war is no longer possible given the potential destructiveness of a nuclear war. And that war is often rooted in revenge. And it’s not new for us to see that we need the skills to initiate dialogue, not debate.

This week Russ sees our job as conversion. Gathering together those who affirm the idea that all people are created equal. Drawing more in. 

105th Street

I go to visit my friend Beppe. We sit on his terrace, enjoy a craft rye. He talks about the sadness around the loss of the New School as an innovative ,progressive alternative to traditional university education. With a faculty driven school with horizontal governance. Somewhere along the line, they decided to become like a "real school" and invest in high salaried administrators, consolidated campus, etc. And now covid and an already tenuous financial situation becomes disastrous. And of course, massive layoffs ensue. Some faculty have spoken wit the school's HR department. Others are afraid to speak because of fear of retaliation. And so it goes. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/nyregion/new-school-nyc-endowment-layoffs.html) 

The Center at West Park holds its gala virtually this year. With picnic baskets available for pick up from Amelie restaurant. Among the various moments of a moving event, I am profoundly moved by Martin Santangelo of Noche Flamenca paying tribute to my role in their success and what the Center could be. I am happy that the idea that there can be a place where beauty and justice and ethics and esthetics can meet to inspire and inform the transformation of the person and society. We can’t lose that. 

My friends at the Gluey Zoomy Show have a comedy group (the Axis Powers) lampoon the debate and Vince Tozzi of We Eat Monsters plays his strong "Crumbs." We are doing what we can to get out the vote.  

Living in coronavirusworld 192: the most important commandment

 

10/19

Central Park Reservoir

Halloween window..Central Park West

first fall colors

I decide to make an intentional  search for colorful fall leaves. Surely even in the city….so I head to the Central Park Reservoir. But no bright leaves to see. I do note that the Reservoir track is finally open again. It had been closed for months to keep runners from running too close together. …I do see my first real Halloween window. With peace sign, thank you very much…and there finally.my first colored leaves. There are not many trees down here in the city.

Serena's story

I am reading a story on the window of Lido, one of my favorite Harlem restaurants. About their chef, Serena Bass. And I hear a voice behind me say, “I see you are reading my story” and I turn to see a spry and feisty octogenarian with white hair and smiling eyes looking at me. And it is Serena. From London through her self-named bar in the Chelsea Hotel, catering for all the pop glitterati, tv, books…a celebrity  on her own rite…right here in Harlem…I love stories like this. 

Tonight we are studying Matthew 22:34-46, also found in Mark 12: 28-34 and Luke 20: 41-44. Pharisees out to trick Jesus again. And question him as to what is the most important commandment? He answers with Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.  

7 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and [a]foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus then turns the tables on them by asking a question about David and his relationship to the Messiah which leads to bit of a brain teaser of rhetorical argument and logic. 

On first response, Marsha says "Jesus kind of sums it all up.” As for the second, more problematic part of the pericope, she says it reminds her of men in the Bible always trying to best each other. When I ask about “…loving God with all your soul…”she says it has to do with intention. To be clear on purpose and let that guide through.

When we talk about soul, Russ of course goes to soul music, that music made famous by Aretha, born in the church and taken to the clubs and the street. Soul music. Soul Train, etc.

Marsha sees that Jesus must go to the cross, If he just hung around the focus would be on him and the point is we have to care for each other.  Loving each other is the whole deal. Amber Lee responds with  a story of her own discovery of what “neighbor” means in a recent interaction with someone that had surprising results. She had discovered the mutuality of loving neighbor. 

Jesus’ response is classic. He quotes the shema, the single most  basic prayer of Judaism, prayed every day and every night, “… the Lord is one..”  Prayed every morning  and night and publicly on shabbat. And we spend some time on his saying that the second is “like unto it. ”  Which in the end means that loving God and loving neighbor are inextricably bound together. Jesus’ answer is straight from the heart of tradition. 

In Jesus’ table turning question as to relationship of David and the Messiah, Jesus is revealing that for the Pharisees, outcomes outweigh relationships. Everything is transactional, not relational or even experiential. It comes down to the question who is Lord?

There are revealing statistics. In the last (2016) Presidential election:

81% of evangelical Christians voted for Trump

61% of Mormons

60% of Hispanic Catholics

58% of all Protestants

On the other hand….

24% of Jews

20% of unaffiliated

29% of all other religions

Large numbers of Christians were willing to set aside all the personal immorality of Trump in pursuit of banning abortion and gay marriage. (“On these two hang all the law and the prophets?”)  The bottom lime os inescapable: Christian Americans  were responsible for the election of Trump.

We ,let that sink in awhile. There are two weeks to go. Work to be done. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Living in coronavirusworld 191: God was already there

 

10/17

please....

Volunteer day in the park

Cleaning the park

coronavirusworld

It’s Volunteer Day in Morningside Park. Teams of volunteers clearing leaves, raking, sweeping, cleaning trimming….neighbors caring for our common back yard…..the weekly Farmers’ Market with its mandatory masks. Fall produce. Craft whiskeys from Yonkers. Fresh meats from the farms, including a special Bolognese sauce. Artists, including one artist’s impression of coronavirusworld….I wish there was more fall leaf color. 

Remembering Chile

W gather on ZOOM from around the world to honor my friend Dennis Smith and his wife Maribel on Dennis’ retirement after 40 years of mission service for the Presbyterian Church.  I first met Dennis in 1982 in Guatemala City. I recall sitting in a hotel room with music on the radio turned way up to cover our conversation from the suspected “bugs” in our room. It was in the midst of the genocidal reign of Efrain Rios Montt, icon of Reagan and American evangelicals. It’s moving to see another colleague from that first visit in the room as well as two from my most recent visits.  Years later, Dennis would bring a group of Waldensians from Argentina and Uruguay  to West Park to explore urban ministry and this set the stage for my two years of consultant work in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. It’s good to see my friends Carola and Dario form Rio Plate in their ZOOM box and remember Dario’s magnificent backyard barbecue.  And I remember how it was just one year ago that I was privileged to be in Chile during its estallido (explosion). Tear gassed five times. Profoundly moved by the power of the people to raise their own voice and the power of creativity, especially of music, and Victor Jara, to inspire and sustain resistance and struggle. In remembrance. I drink form my mug commemorating the 55th anniversary of the founding of Comundad Teolgia Evangelica de Chile celebrated in the midst of the social upheaval. The much anticipated vote to authorize the drafting of a new constitution, schedule for April, has been put off until later hits month. With many questions unresolved. We watch Chile so closely because their Pinochet constitution is the model of what the radical libertarians behind Trump want for this country. Dennis laughs and lets me know the jean jacket I left in a movie theatre in Buenos Aires was found by Maribel and is now with him in Oregon. 

In reflecting on their years, Maribel speaks of the infrastructural changes that have taken place.  Dennis speaks of the persistence of violence over the decades. Even following “peace.” People are still, and perhaps even more subject to the experience of violence. The society (like ours) is highly polarized and there is a profound danger of the reality becoming ever more detribalized. The challenge on confronting the  basic fundamental issues has become even more difficult. When Dennis began his work, missionaries saw themselves as God bearers, bringing God to the unsaved.  Now we know God was already there. Now mission work is to listen to learn. To share. Our salvation is abound up in learning from others how God is at work in their lives.To know we are not to be leaders but to walk alongside.  And to be a bridge between peoples.  There is a beautiful song by David LaMotte. 

                                                  "We are each others' angels"

After recounting her struggles with English, Maribel encourages us all to lesrn another language. And there are virtual abrazos fuertes all around. 

10/18

Russ is leading the West Park worship the morning.  Sharing Jackson Browne’s Rebel Jesus. (

                                                         Rebel Jesus

And reflection on Matthew 22: 15-22.  And how in the “Give to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s, in the end it is all God’s." During the conversation, Hugo states  that now Nicaragua is 9th in the world in proportionate covid fatalities with 6000 dead.

looking for a four

The 115th street crap shooters have left a stray die on the sidewalk.

I am honored to take part in the third Peoples’ Music Network  TransAtlantic Song Swap with artists from the US and Canada sharing with colleagues from the UK: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. “Songs of Freedom and Struggle” can heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1d0ivyTTk.   I shared my Black Lives Matter Song”How Long” and even got mentioned in a freestyle rap by Kurley, who sounds like a real life Ali G.  Moving to hear from both  sides of the Atlantic how we struggle with the pandemic and the older pandemic of intuitional racism. 

friends

The day ends in the patio garden of an Upper West Side Italian restaurant with two pastor friends. My Catholic priest friend has ambivalent feelings about the Barrett Supreme Court nomination.  My Lutheran pastor friend has no  question about where she stands. And we all are filled with anxiety about the coming election.

.  

Living in coronavirusworld 190: The value of a second opinion and keeping sane

 

Please....(Wadleigh High School)

0/15

A beautiful sunny day. Meet up with two friends at a local coffee shop. Sitting outside enjoying a latte and croissant. Both musicians, including my rabbi friend. And both  are frequent collaborators. We talk about Mike’s new web comedy/horror series. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrGZiY4F8Uk) and music production as I’m working on my next release. This is a way to feel normaler. To keep sane. And avoid awhile what inevitably commanders our conversation, namely the upcoming election and the  deep dread…and hope…that comes with that conversation. Later, I’ll meet up with another friend for late afternoon drink and conversation, Her film, Compassionate Release,  is currently paying in the Chelsea film festival. (https://www.chelseafilm.org/) They had their opening night gala last night, of course with no traditional red carpet. So it is these days. We talk about her auditions and her recording. As the sun goes down and the air chills. A day spent with friends beats any other kind of day in coronavirustime.

I’m wearing a t-shirt that declares from “Lament to Hope” referencing Lamentations : 20-21.

Oh…we also talked about my relearning the importance of second opinions. The Apple genius desk had told me my iMac pro would  cost almost $500 to repair. So I went to a indy Tech store in Chelsea. The tech guy checked “preferences” and found a “mute” button had accidentally been switched. Push a button, fixed. Free. (He also liked  my demo which had popped up when he was checking for sound...a good sign.....)

10/16                              

The big event of the day is the tech rehearsal for Sunday’s “Trans-Atlantic Song Swap:  Songs of Freedom and Stuggle" ..(https://www.facebook.com/events/1147512078976421 ). Performers from the US People’s Music  Network will team up with colleagues from the UK for a live ZOOM show streamed on  Facebook. I’ll be doing my Black Lives Matter song, How Long.....

The ongoing challenge is how  to keep my mom sane in quarantine in a rehab facility.                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Living in cornavirusworld 189: Siblings all....

 10/14

.....as you love your neighbor

Today I’m wearing my VOTE shirt and a Brooklyn Cyclones “Dead” hat….

Vote...

Someone suggests that to understand the conflict going on in the gospels, the Pharisees were the Democrats, the Sadducees the Republicans and Jesus AOC. (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)

Our main topic of discussion is Fratelli tutti, which is not as Clyde joked a pasta dish but Pope Francis’ latest encyclical. Its topic is active brotherhood.(sic) That we are all siblings and need to live that out. Through action. And celebration.

Steve H talks about the issue of passing the peace in socially distanced worship services When we’re wearing masks. The importance of eye contact. Instead of handshakes or embraces, everyone looking into the eyes of everyone else round the circle. In the midst of the lock down, I remember my nurse organizer friend Tracy recognizing me by my eyes at the health workers demonstration at Harlem Hospital. You can see smiles, even when wearing a mask.

The pandemic has brought to light the basic conflict Francis explores, between individualism and community, a theme we have been exploring for some time. Institutions, by their very nature seem to run counter to the witness of Jesus. Institutions are of necessity focused on long term survival while the mission of Jesus is to live the day. The pandemic has revealed greater emphasis and expressions of people committed to both individualism and community. They each make their own demands and we live in the midst of that conflict.

We reflected on Fratelli’s treatment of war. Nationalism as a highest value seems to lead inevitably to war. Joe points out the since the time of Augustine, Christianity has lived with an ethic of just war. But in our time, the consequences of war are so devastating, especially for the innocent, so generally destructive, that the conditions, the limits of a just war are simply no longer possible. Thus the statement is of historic significance.

It leads to a discussion of what constitutes violence in defense of the innocent or even public order. Especially when confronted by someone who is severely disturbed. Violently disturbed. I remembered when a crazy person took over our worship service and began approaching me as I preached. Rafael, an Occupy Wall Street security person, approached him and offered a hug. When the person hugged him, Rafael wrapped his arms around him and simply carried him outside and remained with him until the ambulance arrived. Andre, who had been afraid the situation would trigger another brain aneurism, said it was the most loving use of physical restraint he had ever seen. Is any use of physical force inherently violent?   A lot of edges too that conversation. 

We talked about compassion, sympathy and empathy. Feeling with, feeling for, and feeling into, a sifters another’s feelings were one’s own. Empathy means you have the same feelings. Sympathy mean you can feel for. Understand the feelings. Compassion means you feel with and take action. Small groups can be capable of this. We can sit shiva (mourning ) with each other. We can gather for 8 day of novenas. 

Our feelings are clearly with Norm, famed Biblical scholar, currently in residence at the Community of Living Faith at Stony Point. At 92 and with doctors in New York, he’s got to think about returning to Berkeley either now or March. Institutional lack of vision. 

The discussion of Fratelli Tutti will continue next week. 

The Presbyterian Health Educational and Welfare Association board is filled with anxiety on the Supreme Court appointment hearings. Especially our  Reproductive Options network. And even more so the election that looms ever closer. As Covid not only doesn’t go away but is spiking in many states, networks like HIV and Disabilities and Domestic Violence feel ever more pressure. 

We are nowhere near the end.....

Living in coronavirusworld 188: The day begins and ends with music

 

10/14

heading out  to record

Spend most of the day in a recording studio in Queens. Recording my first collection of “topical” songs. One basically anti-trump, “We don’t roll that way;” one against walls, Berlin, the Rio Grande or Israel/Palestine; one about Covid 19 and another about Black Lives Matter. The hope is to get it done before next week’s “Vote” concert on Thursday night next week. I enjoy the process and Paul of Side Car Studios is bringing his own unique touch to the songs. It’s hard work, but as I listen to what we did, it’s getting  there. When I returned to writing music a few years ago, I didn’t write these kind of songs. Or sing them. I started feeling the need to start singing them with the 2016 Republican Convention. And this President pushed me into writing. Three this year. I feel more than ever the responsibility of artists to use their work in resistance to the power that stand in negation of beauty and truth. 

The President has called a halt to the census by which proportionate numbers of Congressional representatives are assigned. One more move dismantling democracy. Something new every day.

My mother has been moved to  a rehab facility. For her its completely disorienting. We can’t be with her to help her adjust. Covid quarantine. 

I sat on the short wall on the street in front of the Newtown Presbyterian Church for an Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing ZOOM meeting. The mayor is determined to remove the persons housed in the Lucerne Hotel. And have them  moved to the Wall Street area. I thought this might  be happening when I was in the Wall Street area Saturday and saw recruiting posters for the  Guardian Angels to “protect our neighborhood.”  Just like they did on the Upper West Side. A NIMBY (not in my backyard) group is forming in the Wall Street area with more money than the UWS NIMBY group.  The homeless persons in need of shelter are not wanted in Manhattan. And probably every other borough as well. If the mayor couldn’t handle the Upper West Side, how will he handle Wall Street?  Where else will our people in need of safe shelter be shuffled? 

Timmy's back

The egret may have gone, but Timmy the trombone player is back again. 

After 6 months of no music, Michael Geffner, former Village Voice music critic and open mic impresario with his Inspired Word series, has finally gone virtual. His shows draw almost equal numbers of spoken word and songwriters. And maybe the most reflective of the city’s diversity of any of the mics. Michael himself was down for several weeks with Covid. He considers himself blessed in his recovery.  We keep moving on. But so does the virus. 

The day begins and ends with music.

Living in coronavirusworld 187: Give to God what is God....and Columbus Day thoughts

 

10/12

fall....

Columbus Day.

As we begin Bible Study, I share a few thoughts on Columbus Day. It has become increasingly politically correct to refer to the day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I’m checking out pictures from Pittsburgh where the Schenley Park Columbus statue has been shrink wrapped in plastic to be ready to be removed and replaced in a private Italian community location. I recall being in Parana, Argentina where a rediscovered forgotten Afro-Argentinian neighborhood has become the center of an annual anti-Columbus Day indigenous festival with music and dance from the many cultures that make up South America.I remember being in Central America where this day is known  as el dia de la raza…the day of the race…celebration of el encuentro, or the encounter of Europeans and the indigenous people of this hemisphere.The vast majority of South Americans are mestizos, a mix of Spanish and native. The masses of campesinos see this encuentro as what created them as a people. I can tell Michael was  getting anxious and defensive about Columbus and can feel him relax as I speak of the complicated nature of the conversation. I also recall how we now know that many of those who accompanied  Columbus and the later conquistadores were Marranos, Jews who had converted to Christianity as a way to avoid the 1492 expulsion. And how today New Mexican families are rediscovering their Jewish roots. And also  that the Columbus celebrations  were a way for Italian  immigrants to claim  their place in the American cultural landscape in the midst of prejudice and exclusion. Yeah, it’s complicated. 

The world is a richer place for el encuentro. And for all our intermixing. The world is better off with African-Americans and their gifts.And the mestizo peoples of South America.  I have thought that this was all inevitable. Despite all that came with it. But I have been  rethinking that. We could have had the rich interweaving without the accompanying genocide. Like how we now believe that the so-called lost colonists of Roanoke Colony , Virgina actually joined their Croatan neighbors when their English colleagues were so delayed in returning. Learned new customs and foods and intermarried, just became one people.It could have gone like that and still produce the richness we have inherited. Like the Silk Road in Asia. Stretched out across an ocean. Let’s keep the conversation going. And see what we can learn.

Tonight we’re looking at the continued controversy between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. It’s the famous “paying taxes” question found in Matthew 22: 15-21. (And Mark 12: 13-17 and Luke 20: 21-26.) Pharisees and Herodians have come together to lay a rhetorical trap for Jesus. On first reading, Marsha says it “looks like he dodged a bullet.” Michael sees Jesus as making a point about “….reality, the way things are, God and Caesar with get theirs. After all, the Romans are providing roads and other infrastructural benefits”…. Leila says “You can’t buy your way into heaven.” And Amber Lee sees something about the nature of buying into a system of money. ( We also take a moment to wish her a happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Canada’s creative to the Columbus conundrum.)

The Herodians and Pharisees ask Jesus if paying taxes to Rome is “lawful” (Jewishly speaking.) The census tax is highly rented by the occupied Jewish community. If he says “lawful” they will feel he has betrayed them. If he says not lawful, the Romans can accuse him of sedition. He asks to see a coin and says “Give to Caesar what s Caesars and unto God what is God’s.”  Traditionally, this has been seen as Jesus taking a middle path that provides approval of Christians supporting civil authorities. But actually, that is out of character with Jesus’s teachings and lifestyle related to religious, social and economic issues.

What’s going on here? First of all, this is san unlikely coalition. The only thing Pharisees and Herodians had in common was wanting to get rid of Jesus . Pharisees were those who believed God did not five in the Temple but in the Torah and wherever God;s word was, God was. Herodians were followers and supporters of the Roman installed ethnarch Herod, who served as king at their indulgence. And it  was Herod who had built the Temple whose last remaining Western Wall is so beloved today. (This is the only place in the Gospels the word Herodians appears.) The key to Jesus response is Psalm 24:1 : “ …the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who live in it…”. All of it is God’s. But there’s a trickier reality here. Something I haven’t noticed in 40 years of Bible study. He asked to see a coin. The coin  has Caesar’s image on it. The whole reason there were money changers in the Temple for Jesus to drive  out was because the Roman coins were forbidden in the temple. They had  to be exchanged for Temple moneys  as it were. So Jesus’ opponent are exposed in having carried  forbidden coins into the temple. His answer is actually radical. In essence he says, You belong to God or you belong to  Caesar. One or the other. And you have already chosen. 

Those  seek to be his followers today in our own world have to make the same choices ourselves. What does our checkbook say about who we are? What if that were our biography? How do we spend our time? Our gifts? It is all God’s. We are, as we saw last week, all tenants. We are called to be stewards of God’s creation. We cannot own it. We must care for it. And for all who live in it.  The existential realities of that are hard on 2020. But the choice is there to be made. As Election Day grows ever closer…to whom do we belong?