Extremely Expensive to be Poor

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”

~ James Baldwin

"Poverty is brutal, consuming and unforgiving. It strikes at the soul."

~ Charles M. Blow

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/opinion/
25blow.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Make Him a Friend - Abraham Lincoln

"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend."

~ Abraham Lincoln,
from Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount

Mahatma Gandhi and the Sermon on the Mount

"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend."
~ Abraham Lincoln

quotes from "Break the Chain" by Sr. Phyllis Neves:

"They say that Mahatma Gandhi read from the Sermon on the Mount twice a day for the last forty years of his life. He considered these texts the greatest writings on nonviolence in the history of the world. Since he wanted to become a person of nonviolence, he treated these teachings as a basic primer, as the catechism of nonviolence. Don't you think it could make a tremendous difference in our world if more of us had the courage to do the same?

Jesus was not preaching hopeless idealism. He advocated a wise strategy for living in peace. "Love for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world," Dr. Martin Luther King wrote. Nelson Mandela put it this way: "I have never yet met an enemy whom I did not try to turn into a friend." The Christian way to get rid of enemies is to forgive them.

Lincoln, again during the Civil War, made a kind remark about a Southern general, causing a woman in shock to flare up: "Mr. President, don't you realize, that man is your enemy; your job is to destroy the enemy!"

Very graciously, Lincoln replied, "Madam, when I turn an enemy into a friend, haven't I destroyed an enemy?"

Forgiveness, then, is the process of restoring relationships. Forgiveness is the way of bringing back into relationship that which was estranged. Forgiveness is making whole again. Forgiveness is tearing down barriers to re-unite person with person. Forgiveness is a bridge to unity among all people. Forgiveness is the process of allowing kindness to replace bitterness.

So let's take on the Christian challenge, you and I, to break the chain of violence in our world by becoming links on the chain of peace and forgiveness."

Sr. Phyllis Neves
"Break the Chain"
Partners in Giving, Early Summer 2011
www.salesiansisters.org

I offer you peace - Mahatma Gandhi

“I offer you peace. I offer you love.
I offer you friendship. I see your beauty.
I hear your need. I feel your feelings.
My wisdom flows from the Highest Source.
I salute that Source in you.
Let us work together for unity and love.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Rankism

Robert W. Fuller "Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank" (New Society):

"We covet the rewards that come to the somebodies of the world, so we're willing to endure a lot for a shot at the life we see them leading -- even if that shot is a long one. Should we, by hook or crook or sheer luck, acquire fame and fortune, then we too could insulate ourselves from the cruelties of life."

I coulda been a contender

Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront":
"I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am...."

Table Grace

Blessings on the blossoms,
Blessing on the fruits,
Blessings on the leaves and stems,
Blessings on the roots,
Loving hands together as we say,
Blessings on our meal,
and our time together,
and we're grateful for our family.

~ Katia Hetter's blog
(blessing from her daughter's pre-school)
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/12/
my-faith-how-saying-a-blessing-changed-my-secular-family-meals/
?hpt=hp_bn8

In the beginning God created - Gen. 1:1

JPS Genesis 1:1
IN THE beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

TNK Genesis 1:1
When God began to create heaven and earth --

God (Elohim): noun common masculine plural absolute
created: verb qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular homonym 1

Who will go for us? Isaiah 6:8

JPS Isaiah 6:8
And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said: 'Here am I; send me.'

TNK Isaiah 6:8
Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me."

Lord: noun common masculine plural construct suffix 1st person common singular
for us: particle preposition suffix 1st person common plural

Anxiety passes when we break out of ruts

"Life keeps presenting us with a choice between anxiety and depression. Choose anxiety; it passes. Depression hangs on.
"The anxiety is apprehension over breaking with routine ways of behaving and relating. When we break out of ruts, that anxiety passes. When we give in to routine out of fear, we feel helpless and that leads to feeling depressed."

~ Dr. Michael D'Antonio
a Senior Staff Therapist in Council For Relationship's Paoli, PA office

A Test of Obedience and Loyalty

"Charismatic leaders can gain control of people’s minds in sects and pretty much create their own rules," Grumett said. Whatever food edicts a sect founder invents are likely a test of obedience and loyalty to him."

~ David Grumett, author of "Theology on the Menu"
http://blog.nj.com/njv_kathleen_obrien/2011/06/religious_fasting_and_child_ab.html

He Pushed Them and They Flew

Come to the edge, he said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them and they flew.

~ Christopher Logue

"recks not his own rede"

from the Free Dictionary definition of Advice:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/advice

reck one’s own rede

To follow one’s own advice; to “practice what you preach.” Reck ‘heed, regard’ appears only in negative constructions. Rede ‘advice, counsel’ is now archaic and limited to poetical or dialectal use. This expression is found in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede. (I,iii)

Today reck one’s own rede is met only in literary contexts.

the tune the old cow died of

Advice instead of aid, words in lieu of alms.
This expression alludes to the following old ballad:

There was an old man, and he had an old cow,
But he had no fodder to give her,
So he took up his fiddle and played her the tune;
“Consider, good cow, consider,
This isn’t the time for the grass to grow,
Consider, good cow, consider.”

Needless to say, the old cow died of hunger.

"Is everything sad going to come untrue?”

quote from a Timothy Keller sermon:

In the last book of The Lord of the Rings, Sam Gamgee wakes up, thinking everything is lost and discovering instead that all his friends were around him, he cries out: “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead! Is everything sad going to come untrue?”

The answer is YES. And the answer of the Bible is YES. If the resurrection is true, then the answer is yes. Everything sad is going TO COME UNTRUE.

http://davidkpark.wordpress.com/2006/09/26/
timothy-keller-transcript-the-problem-of-suffering/

no worse struggle than the one that is never fought

from a New York Times story on the competition between Mexican central bank governor, Agustín Carstens and French finance minister, Christine Lagarde to become the new director of the I.M.F.:

For Mr. Carstens, long-shot chances are no reason to forgo seeking the position. “It’s essential to take the risk,” he said. He cited a Mexican expression, “There is no worse struggle than the one that is never fought.”

Emerging Nations Warm to Lagarde to Lead I.M.F.
By LIZ ALDERMAN and KEITH BRADSHER
Published: June 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/
business/global/08fund.html

Bidden or not bidden God is present

"Bidden or not bidden God is present."

~ Carl Jung
(written on his door and on his tombstone)

Lobsters

As lobsters grow, their hard shells become too small. in order to continue to grow, they split their shells and crawl out, naked and vulnerable. During the time it takes for their new shell to harden, they face danger without the protection of their shell.
When the new shell hardens it is too big, so it doesn't fit quite right. Eventually the lobster grows into her new shell and feels more comfortable, until she grows more and the cycle starts all over again! During its first year, a lobster molts fourteen to seventeen times, but when it grows older it molts not more than once a year.

get married, get a degree, hold on to a job

The Bloody Crossroads
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times
Published September 7, 2009
http://www.foramericankids.org/documents/9-909.RESPONSE.pdf

Can the state do anything to effectively promote virtuous behavior? Because when you get into the core problems, whether in Washington, California or on Wall Street, you keep seeing the same moral deficiencies: self-indulgence, irresponsibility and imprudence.

Two of my favorite essays in the first issue go right at this problem. Ron Haskins delivers a careful reading of the data on inequality and social mobility and cuts through a lot of the sloppy reporting on this issue. He points out that the surest way to achieve mobility is still the same: get married, get a degree, hold on to a job. Poverty in America is a function of culture and behavior at least as much as of entrenched injustice, he writes.

A good parent self-limits

"A good parent self-limits with his children to help them grow."

~ Rev. Dr. Paul MacMurray, 5/29/11