Patriotism

Students are always asking me bizarre questions. They think I'm a bit strange, so they expect an answer that will entertain them or at the least give them a good laugh. I could explain to them the idea of peaceful resolutions, and a roar of laughter would erupt. In fact I have, and it did. So when I was asked the day before Veterans day if I would celebrate those that chose to protect our country, I had a difficult response in front of me. My dad is a veteran. My grandpa was a veteran. My great grandpa was a veteran. My response took a minute or more, but it ended up being something along the lines of, "I will celebrate those people, yes, but possibly not the actions they performed or the country they served. That I will forever lament"

You see, I won't pledge my allegiance to this country, or any other country for that matter. I joined a Kingdom much larger, and that is the only place/people to whom I give my following. There would be no conceivable way to give my allegiance to two authorities, because those two authorities are bound to contradict. And when they do, I have two separate places I have pledged to serve, and ultimately I have to choose just one of them.

Too many people are trying their hardest to unify their patriotism and faith (their country with the Kingdom of God). An American flag inside a church ring a bell for anyone? The sweet part of God's Kingdom is that it runs through nationalities and across borders. I can have my allegiance to this Kingdom anywhere I travel, to any nationality and in any tongue. I won't have to wonder if the Leader is making the right or wrong decision in regards to His people. It allows me to truly serve and really PLEDGE MY ALLEGIANCE to a People.

In this Kingdom peace is the true action of courage. This Leader has told us that war and retaliation will cause more war and retaliation. This Leader has told us that we have no need to fear an attack on our people, because our people are protected by His blood. This Leader has told us that those who die in His name will create more people who die in his name. This Leader has told us that the courageous action is not what it appears. If our people, in this Kingdom, are killed we have the assurance that has allowed us to live without defenses and retaliations. To live with the Freedom that we can die, at anytime, and spend an eternity with the same Kingdom to whom we gave our allegiance.

So will I pick up Weapons, and possibly kill anyone that could someday belong to the greatest, most invisible Kingdom on earth? No, I will act in courage, going peacefully proclaiming a different way with the assurance of my Leader that if I die, I live. The cowardice that nations instinctively follow will not overwhelm me. Not in this Kingdom.

The McDonalds Employee

Her movements, along with her facial expressions, conveyed her spirit well. There was no doubt really. She took the grassy green leaves and pulled them apart, as if examining someones scalps for unwanted ticks. She took the bucket of water besides her and with great deliberation poured the water across the string-like leaves, making sure the soil did not get too much or too little as the water trickled down to the roots. She picked up her bucket, and moved on to the next set of plants. As she continued the process throughout the room, her face never changed. It carried a gentle smile with eyes that were proud of her work.

I haven't seen anything so relaxing or peaceful in a long time. There is something very beautiful about a content person. If we could all make the tedious, mundane things we did look so easy and enjoyable, things would look very different here. The McDonalds employee has found something that many of us search our whole lives for.

Fluid Motion

With another year, it's easy to see how fast life passes by. While we may mark time in numbers so we can better manage it, it's really just a fluid motion that is impossible to stop and hard to remember. Most memories seem to be lost or stolen by time itself. And for the rare few that are kept and imprinted on the mind, I am so grateful. Whether good or bad, memories serve as a remembrance that life will continue it's motion onward.

The number mark 2008 just helps us to trap those memories in a specific location. For me, it is a location that will be easily remembered my entire life. I experienced one day of complete joy with friends and family that marked the beginning of a new life with Callie. I met new lives that have no limit to potential when Ava and Lucas entered this world. At the same time I saw the exiting from this world when my Grandpa passed away. Then there are the smaller memories that slowly shape who we are and how we act. A honeymoon well spent, a weekend full of laughter, and a week in the hospital with a swollen pancreas. And how can I ever forget the election of Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States and the continued advancement of civil rights at that moment? What a sweet memory for humanity.

Some of those times are so strong and written so deeply in my mind they will feel like they happened "yesterday", 10 years from now. Heck, I feel like the Bears just won the super bowl, but that was 24 years ago now! Just the other night I was walking with Callie on Navy Pier and her spirit was captured in both her movement and beauty to form a memory in my mind that I am capable of carrying forever.

All I can really say is that I look forward to the upcoming moments. I look forward to seeing those glimpses of God's Kingdom displayed here on earth for people to enjoy. Those moments are so sweet they keep carrying us through the fluid motion of time.

A day in the sun always makes a beer in the hand that much better.

the blocked way

I just wrote a blog, and then deleted it. Computers are nice in that way, you don't have to commit to anything you write. If when you're done, you decide the thought wasn't conveyed well or the thought just plain sucked, you delete it and it's done.

Below are the basics of what I just wrote and deleted. Beforehand, it was way too long and way too boring for a blog. Better for a book....maybe, if that book were to be a long incoherant rambling by a PE teacher...

War. Abortion. Child slavery. Human trafficking. Prostitution. ALL OF THOSE go against life and human rights, and therefore I hope someday we will see an end to all of them.

As someone who deeply loves Jesus, I have to consistently ask myself how I am going to be a part of his Kingdom on earth. After all, it's hard to imagine anything great if you've been a slave since childhood, no? How am I going to show a woman who just got pregnant, and doesn't want to be, just a piece of the Kingdom? Do I show her I care for her and her baby by going to the politicians and illegalizing abortion? Or do I show her I care by doing life with her on a daily basis, where she's at (which, ironically enough, is where I'm at)? Do I show I love my enemies in Afghanistan by sending our troops to war ("love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you" are pretty difficult words to manipulate)? And the questions go on and on and on and on.

These are the questions I ask myself living in a new city. We can't claim Christ and refuse to figure these things out! Charity is something, but to be honest it is kind of half-assed. Moving beyond that is the hard part, towards solidarity with the oppressed. As I read recently in a fairly good book,

"Charity wins awards and applause, but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts the social order, that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them."

For some reason I always come back to these questions. I think it may be because I keep ignoring them and going on my way....which is creating this repetition in my life that just can't be shaken until I take them for real.

*if you've commented on past blogs, i have responded under the comments, not in this entry necessarily

Green Line Station Named Laramie

Everyday I get up around 6, mess around for a while, and then head over to the "El" where I board a mini train and head to school. Always with a cup of coffee and a little twinge of anxiety, because I just don't know what is going to take place at school. I can plan and plan from my end (which definitely helps), but knowing students' reactions and attitudes is impossible from one day to the next. Anyways, as I'm on the El, the sights change quickly headed west on the green line. Art slowly disappears and the emergence of trash is alarming. There is one stop deep into the west side of Chicago, however, that has students art posted all over the station. Some of them look like they are drawn by grade schoolers, and others by teenagers. There is one that always grabs my attention, and not because of the picture, but because of what it says.

We Real Cool
We Left School
We Lurk Late
We Shoot Straight
We Sing Sin
We Thin Gin
We Jazz Tune
We Die Soon

This simple poem always leaves me thinking for a little while. Is it a gang member being proud of this pattern? Or is it someone realizing the unfortunate reality of their neighborhood? Either way it was written, I think that it is fairly profound. It all starts with a prideful mentality that step by step destroys a person's life. For most of my students, they live the first six lines of the poem, and have yet to figure out the last two, or the inevitable ending.

I refuse to believe that this is the way it is supposed to be. I have to believe it is the result of a failed system and the oppression that was created by it. Not everyone has the same opportunity. I have no reason to believe that if I (same DNA and everything) grew up in a family where my parents didn't care and where all I saw was hopelessness I would somehow develop a hard-working mentality filled with hope. Magically I would arise and overcome the need for friends in my community and have the knowledge to know the importance of education.

I doubt it. People come out of poor situations because someone else helped them in some way. Maybe with encouragement, maybe with finances, maybe with knowledge, and maybe, just maybe, by example.

People are not created to be lazy. Somewhere the drive was lost and the will was broken (many times in early childhood). The question is: What are we, as individuals, going to do to restore it? We all have our own strengths.

Flashback

As elections come around, I can't help but to reminisce what it was like to talk about politics ALL the time for the short period I lived in Bolivia. Every bus driver, every taxi cab driver, every street vendor, every "Joe, I didn't register to vote, the Plumber" had an opinion on how to make progress and change for the people. It seemed, many times, to be people's only hope. The hope that one day there would be a policy change that thought about the people, the majority people. And in Bolivia's case, along with most of the rest of the world, the majority people are the poor people. The people that by their very nature are blessed by their curse, if you will.

Politics in the states are not the same at all. It's a two party system that forgets its place in the world and its impact on other peoples and nations, not to mention its own marginalized people. But for the first time since I've been a voter, I can say that I agree with a candidate on the most humane level. A candidate that is causing the marginalized and poor people of America to talk and think and most importantly, hope. Take a step back and think along with me for a second, let me take you through a Watson thought process and maybe I can find the nerve that is creating this nostalgia.

How beautiful would it be to rid ourselves of our desires and just be content? To think and really act for others, and not for our own agenda. It would mean we we are no longer striving for something better in our lives, but for the lives of those around us that actually need. I guess that begs the question for everyone to answer themselves: Who are the lives around you? Is it your neighbor? The people in your country? The country next door? Or how about the continent next door that you've only read about? Is it possible to say it's all of humanity? Because at this time in history, life can be seen more clearly on a global context. It is more noticeable than ever before. When our economy struggles, it causes others to struggle as well. We are competing for resources against other people, real people that experience thirst, hunger, pain, loneliness, etc. The unfortunately reality is that we are not a content culture or people, we desire more and more and more, and this desire causes others to have less because of the limited resources this world can produce. Our greed causes other's poverty. Our inability to live outside discomfort causes others to live in discomfort. Our discontent causes a competition that results in LESS for other people. You don't have to like it, but it is true to some extent whether you are willing to face the new global era or not. Our actions and richness oppress others in a worldly context. While we say that we would like to help other countries develop, do we really mean it if it means there will be less for us? That fuel costs, food prices, could increase and we would have to cut back on some of the luxuries?

Judging from how the religious sector of America has responded over the past few months, I would say we don't really mean it. We would rather them struggle as long as life remains easy on the home-front, as long as our costs remain low and our wages high.

So, when I hear a candidate talk about "spreading the wealth", it reminds me of a people that struggle from the bottom with the hope that a policy and a leader will remember them and give them a fighting chance. It's a call to the rich to give a little more of their hard earned money for the poor that didn't have a chance from the beginning. It's a call to be content with the basics. After all, are we not called to carry each others burdens? Spread the wealth, live with less, love with your content spirit, and maybe then we can finally be an example to all the nations and spread the news of a Savior that did not come for the rich, but FOR the broken, marginalized, sick, and poor people of this world (he also came as ONE of those people). We can fight it all we want, but in the end the truth and only the truth will remain.

I am no exception.

denver-reading-chicago

that's my pathway, and my current journey.

denver, colorado tantalized me with her beauty, showing me my direction away from the competitive business world. i left the views in the west and headed a direction i would have never guessed: east.

i picked up my wife in reading, michigan.

and now i head to chicago. cubs, hot dogs, bears, pizza, beer, and woman. it is the exact opposite of what i ever expected, especially the newly bought condo. but it's right, and there is peace.