tearing our weak foundations down

when we learn to make do with less,
we are taught to live more
and the beast begins to starve.
every step we take cracks
the foundation of this
oppressive system.

don't throw me away

health of the mind is directly connected to health of body.
what we eat profoundly affects how we think and feel.
it also partly shapes how we view God's creation, which
ultimately decides how we take care of it.

"it is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish"
--mother teresa

starry-eyed

androgenetic alopecia

balding suits with stock options
and retirement pensions waver
under the pressure of BigMoneyMan
weighing down the other end of the scale.
his life is up for sale and the bright future
of the american dream grows pale.
neck-tight neck tie chokes the life
from his tiny, shiny globe.
will he ever know that life
is more than capital gain?
and his children's future
will be just the same...
until he gives up his shame.

"i beg defiance of all oppressive states
i beg defiance for all those kept in line
it's time to rearrange all forces that try to contain
they've always justified power struggles while helpless die
we feel the oppression
the blood is on our hands
compassion is sacrificed for ignorance
that's the price we pay for convenience."
--zegota

frostburg

in frostburg, maryland again and there's a fire truck parade going past gianni's pizza and wings (good food but not nearly as good as the vegan food at gianna's in philly). apparently the parade was in response to a local high school soccer team who had won the state championship. small town sports are an interesting aspect of our culture. such a seemingly trivial thing becomes the center of so many peoples' lives. i guess maybe i'll understand it someday, when i have children of my own.

stewardship

so often we take our blessings for granted that rarely do we truly enjoy them. especially in our consumerist, capitalist society where all things, even relationships, are a commodity. we'll trade our time for status and call it friendship, we'll buy organic food to buy our ideals credibility...
why not stop consuming all together?

brothers and sisters of love

we sat upon the roof-deck tonight, overlooking the city of brotherly love. sharing stories around the campfire, we watched as our brother shane breathed flames into the night air. the l-train cruised across the rooftops behind him and disappeared into the city buildings that slept on the horizon.



"let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by love."--che

art and pain

must an artist be a tortured soul?
are we all spurred further on by the travesties and injustices of this world?
some just give up and leave the tragedy behind.
some just ignore it and pretend everything's fine.
i laugh at the absurdity and hope for the better world that's coming.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, give us this day...


help!

here comes the sun

friendship

one life ends as another begins,
the sun still shines yet another day.
an old friend passes on
as a new one comes to life;
although our Eternal Friend
ever calls us home.

fasting

fasting ignites
a flame that burns
away impurity.
the fire of love blazes brighter
in the absence
of what the body thinks it needs.

struggle

"to proclaim Person without Message, Ressurrection without Cross, or vice versa, is simply to try to manipulate religious concepts in order to make people believe that one's own little view of existence is God's view of existence."

"i conceive a strip-miner to be a model exploiter, and as a model nurturer i take the old-fashioned idea or ideal of a farmer. the exploiter is a specialist, an expert; the nurturer is not. the standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. the exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health--his land's health, his own, his family's, his community's, his country's....the exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, certainly, to have a decent living from his work, but his characteristic wish is to work as well as possible. the competence of the exploiter is in organization; that of the nurturer is in order--a human order, that is, that accommodates itself both to other order and to mystery. the exploiter typically serves an institution or organization; the nurturer serves land, houshold, community, place. the exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, "hard facts"; the nurturer in terms of character, condition, quality, kind." --wendell berry

capitalists are the exploiters of our land. their advertisements shape the landscape we live in and clutter our mental environments with images promoting lust, self-centeredness and materialism. while attempting to shamelessly sell their products to us they try to tell us how to think, act, look, and even smell. we must reject this in every way possible.

if we are to live out the radical life which Christ has called us to, there are many things we have to allow ourselves to be freed from. the first of these is fear. "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. he that feareth is not made perfect in love."--1 john 4:18 we cannot possibly live a life of service to our Lord and to each other if we are afraid of anything. this includes death, persecution, loneliness, even loss and starvation. amen



¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.--ephesians 6:12

desert dream

i stumbled from our gypsy-caravan-exobus expecting to see diesel trucks and gasoline pumps. instead there was a vast sea of cars floating on a bed of asphalt. MEGASTORE CORPORATION loomed over my right shoulder, completely dominating the once tree-lined horizon and crowding out the bright rising sun. as i landed on the black desert ground i noticed a sink sprouting right out of the parking lot beside our bus. thinking nothing of it i walked over to wash my hands. it wasn't until i began washing that i noticed my lack of clothing. i wasn't completely naked but the only thing i was wearing were a pair of leopard-print bikini briefs. no sooner did i notice my near nakedness than an agent smith came walking up to me wearing a trench coat and sunglasses. i immediately acknowledged his presence but something more striking caught my eye. sitting right on top of the bus in front of me was a black and white tabloid magazine. it was sitting straight up on end, like some magical force was keeping it in place. and on the cover was the face of osama bin laden with a headline declaring that another terrorist attack was imminent. however this one would not be delivered by human hands. bin laden now had an army of space alien terrorists whom we would have no defense against. nevertheless i continued washing my hands.

aurora borealis

the other night we saw the pulsating lights of the aurora borealis. the biting cold air numbed my fingers and toes as i stared out the window at the glowing sky. the the hills started climbing higher and the trees grew thicker so i climbed into my frost-laden bunk. even being wrapped up in a few warm blankets and encased within a sleeping bag, it still was difficult to shake the cold. the smell of diesel exhaust burned in my nasal cavity so i had to bury my head beneath the covers. i wished she was still here to hide from the cold with me. i miss the smell of her unwashed skin and hair....don't think i'll ever wash her scent away.

aurora:


more pictures of aurora borealis here

my weary bones have been laid across this barren desert ground...
and the only sound my heart can hear is dry death all around...
a familiar freedom, a familiar enslavement....the strangest place i've ever been,
the most beautiful face i've ever seen, a glimpse of grace caught in between...
somewhere friends and lovers lie waiting yet still wanting.

"Love is substance, lust illusion. only in the surge of passion do they linger in confusion."

"when all the world is in danger, the man who flees from the word of God seals himself off in his solitude, willing neither to see nor to hear anything of what others are doing. his destiny is no longer their destiny. he sleeps..."--jaques ellul

every time i re-enter the so-called everyday life of the rest of the world, i feel more and more like an alien creature. every bar i've ever been in always has the same kinds of people doing the same kinds of things: watching sports on television, chain-smoking, and drinking themselves into oblivion. i can hardly stomach the foggy air and mind-numbing conversations. talk of work, school, relationships...who's gonna win the superbowl? who the hell cares? i step outside so i can breathe again.
surely this sad existence would wake a few dreamers from their silent slumber, could they only break the repetitious cycle of daily habits. work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleep-work-eat-die? i wish i could wake up the world....but maybe i'm the one who's asleep.