First World Problems

With at least 2 billion people on this planet living on less than $2 a day, most of my day-to-day problems fall under "first world problems".

In other words most of my "problems" aren't really problems in any scheme of reason...but are a result of a luxurious lifestyle made to my comfort and a product of mind numbing waste and excess.

Just about any problem I face every day is probably directly related to living my rich lifestyle.

It's shameful.

Come now and join the feast, right here in the belly of the beast.

So were the words that stuck with me when we spoke in our prayer this morning at 6 a.m. from our Common Prayer book. They were familiar words to me since they reminded me of the band Psalters who sing a song called "Dumpster Diving"...I've embedded the song here for you to listen to it-

Psalms 115:14-18 are added:

May the LORD cause you to flourish,
both you and your children.
May you be blessed by the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

The highest heavens belong to the LORD,
but the earth he has given to mankind.
It is not the dead who praise the LORD,
those who go down to the place of silence;
it is we who extol the LORD,
both now and forevermore.

A lot has happened since I've written any post of substance...quite a bit.

I finished my thesis, 98 pages that explored the prospect of a future filled with great technological and scientific advances that may bring huge socioeconomic inequality which would de facto mean political inequality. That was turned in the begininning of December.

By January 2011, I had committed myself to attending The Highway Community church in Palo Alto, CA.

In February 2011, I joined an intentional community in East Palo Alto called The Cypress House. It is located at 1280/1290 Cypress Street, EPA CA. The community is awesome. It's been around for about a year, two houses with 5 women living in one and 4 men living in the other. We're from an eclectic background and we work in a wide field. I absolutely love it and can't believe that I've gone from talking about and researching intentional communities to joining one...but it's amazing and loving each part of it despite the fact that we have bit off way more than we can chew. But chew we will, with the grace and strength of God.

In February/March a conversation developed with some individuals of the church I attend about an internship of sorts that would involve working with nonprofits in East Palo Alto. It's in the works, and come this Sunday you shall hear if I can raise the necessary funds for it to become a reality.

Also, never to have a boring life...I may have a small cancer growth in my right lung...but who knows yet for sure!

I'm exhausted and I'm waking up at 6 a.m. again to pray.

Grace and peace to my readers.

Post-Thesis Stunted Rambles

I'm Trying to figure out my direction while simultaneously feeling the weight of my future.

I want to write a story. A story about some colonialists who land and settle a new planet that turns out to be difficult to inhabit. Meanwhile the motley group of settlers have to deal with inner conflicts that raise theological, philosophical and political questions that haven't been given much recognition in our current world.

However, I also want to explore my love for law. Figure out whether I want to go to law school and get a degree in law that I can use to help non-profits/charities/underprivileged individuals.

At the same time I want to be involved in a community, in my surrounding community. I'd like to surround myself with friends who I can continue to talk about things that swim in my brain and desire melodic-form. I'd like to facilitate and propagate a culture of cooperation.

Meanwhile I've started to read Loaves and Fishes by Dorothy Day and got to send my subscription to the Catholic Worker itself (25 cents for 1 year subscription!)

I'd like to share some verses from Peter Maurin's Easy Essays would espouse back in the 30's (Peter Maurin helped found the Catholic Worker with Dorothy Day).

People go to Washington

asking the government

to solver their economic problems,

while the Federal government

was never intended

to solve men's economic problems.

Thomas Jefferson says that

the less government there is

the better it is.

If the less government there is,

the better it is,

then the best kind of government

is self-government.

If the best kind of government

is self-government,

then the best kind of organization

is self-organization.

When the organizers try

to organize the unorganized,

then the organizers

don't organize themselves.

And when the organizer

don't organize themselves,

nobody organizes himself,

and when nobody organizes himself

nothing is organized.

The Catholic unemployed

should not be sent to the Muni

[municipal lodging house].

The Catholic unemployed

should be given hospitality

in Catholic Houses of Hospitality.

Catholic Houses of Hospitality

are known in Europe

under the name of hospices.

There have been hospices in Europe

since the time of Constantine.

Hospices are free guest houses;

hotels are paying guest houses.

And paying guest houses or hotels

are as plentiful

as free guest houses or hospices

are scarce.

So hospitality, like everything else,

has been commercialized.

So hospitality, like everything else,

must now be idealized.

A Case for Utopia

The world would be better off

if people tried to become better,

and people would become better

if they stopped trying to become better off.

For when everything tries to become

better off

nobody is better off.

But when everyone tries to become better

everybody is better off.

Everyone would be rich

if nobody tried to become richer,

and nobody would be poor

if everybody tried to be the poorest.

And everybody would be what he ought to be

if everyone tried to be

what he wants the other fellow to be.

Summer Post

I'd like to apologize to my readers for some time has indeed passed by.

Every Friday for the past three weeks I've been gardening down the street at the Charles Street Garden. People in the sunnyvale community can grow food there in plots, but I've been volunteering at the Food Forest part...which involves growing planting/nurturing/weeding/watering plants in permaculture (permacultural?) plots. It's pretty cool too because the food grown there is donated to local charities that feed folks.

I've been reading books as well...two books that especially struck me was The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed , both by Ursula Le Guin. I liked the second so much I bought it (for a whopping $0.10 from Amazon, hoorah!)

The plot of the second book is brilliantly creative and well written. It involves a genius physicist named Shevek and two worlds that revolve around each other (both being the other's moon). One world, Annerres is an anarchist world while the other Urras is split up into nations and having authoritarian and capitalists systems. Anyways...I highly recommend it if you like science fiction at all and would like some good thinking fiction that goes by pretty fast.

As for right now, I'm currently in the middle of Ammon Hennacy's The Book of Ammon. It's a good read, but because it's like his diary (and was published when he was in his 60-70's) it's pretty long.

Two things that I wanted to share (I know I'm not following the structure I had outlined for myself in earlier posts). I just learned today that Erik Prince is a staunch Roman Catholic who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Focus on the Family, Calvin College and Christian Freedom International: who are described as "an American human rights organization based in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, whose stated mission is to "help those who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ."

Erik Prince is the founder of Blackwater, now known as Xe. It is one of the biggest private security firms...which is fancy language for "private army". They essentially are in the mercenary business and have enormously benefitted from contracts with the federal government and other nations. The company has been heavily involved all around the world and is especially notorious for it's corruption/murder/raping of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan (which led to them changing their name).

I also just wanted to quickly share the story of a man named Adam Montoya. The 36 year old male was imprisoned for counterfeiting. He recently lost his life due to (wait for it) hepatitis, HIV and cancer. The only medication he was allowed was some "over the counter pain reliever" despite his many recorded pleas for medical assistance and pain relief. Story link

---Moving onto some more positive things--

There was a quote from The Dispossessed that went along the lines of:

"Excess is excrement, ... Excrement retained in the body is a poison."

...and such words coincides with this awesome video and story of a woman in Portland who lives in an 84 square foot house (size of a parking spot) in the backyard of one of her friends. Watch the video. You'll smile and be inspired. She did it to save money and have more time. It really makes you wonder about getting rid of "stuff".

Finally, to end this post I would like to share a lovely story of a german missionary priest named Sebastian Obermaier. The guy helped build churches, build health centers (acted as a doctor when he first arrived in the area), built a hospice, a shelter for rape and sexual abuse victims, low-cost senior housing, HIV treatment centers and schools (approximately 30 schools and 30 churches). Pretty humbling to read.

In grace and peace.

A little overdue—by like 4 weeks

I feel like making a regular structure to my posts where I still start out with presenting current event news pieces, both good and bad, followed by short snapshots of noble persons and then progress to subjects that may or may not be related, but I otherwise feel the need to express and communicate. I've become compelled to do this because I otherwise tend to get very distracted and go all over the place.

Current News

Associated Press just reported that according to recent congressional estimate, nearly 4 million US citizens will have to pay a penalty of $1,000 for not buying health care coverage. The reason for them not buying the coverage is because they will not be able to afford it. Unfortunately this will mean paying 1k to old Uncle Sam.

On April 17th, there was a Neo Nazi rally in Los Angeles. About 40-50 members of the National Socialist Movement (a self-acknowledged white supremacist neo nazi group) marched in Los Angeles. Violence erupted when the overwhelmingly larger group of anti-nazi protestors began throwing branches, rocks etc. at the Nazis. Police made a number of arrests of the protestors.

On the subject racism, just two days ago, a man shot up a bookstore while yelling "White Power!".

It's troubling to acknowledge that racism is still alive and well in America. It's troubling too that people use physical differences as a mean to differentiate between cultures...which in the grand schemes of things, are incredibly small in comparison to what we hold in common.

Also, a recent development though a little differently than American racism (although its a subject which still has racial and cultural undertones)...is the amendment Israeli Military order #1650, which "could soon stipulate that residents of the West Bank without I.D. cards may either be expelled from their homes or jailed for up to seven years." This would also affect foreign born residents in the West Bank who are involved in peace movements. This means that the Israeli military will essentially be empowered to immediately deport any non-violent foreign resistors who might be protesting the demolition of houses or ill treatment of Palestinian civilians.

Note: It is important to know that 60% of the populations currently residing in Palestine are aged 19 and younger. Whatever your beliefs regarding the justification of the treatment of the Palestinians because of their insistance to use rockets/violence to further their goals...the brutal, savage and inhumane treatment of children and non-violent resisters is never justified.

Noble people

Albert Schweitzer

I first saw a bust of Albert's face outside of Chapman University library. I had forgotten about him until more recently when I was interviewing Peter Bergel of Oregon PeaceWorks and he remarked that he had grown up in Orange, CA and his parents had been ardid followers of Albert (and had founded an organization in his name in Orange). Small world. Anyways, Albert is a crazy man. He was a great organist and had the potential and possibility of becoming one of the best organists in his time—however his dive into theology led him down the road towards a position of philosophical-scientist (theologian and doctor). He eventually ended up in Gabon where he established a hospital and worked with his wife and others to treat Gabonese. He also wrote the The Reverence for Life for which he got the Nobel Peace Prize in the 50's. Here is a quote from there

"Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live thoughtlessly and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to give it true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will to live.

At the same time the man who has become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give to every will to live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own.[....] This is the absolute, fundamental principle of ethics, and is a fundamental postulate of thought.”

— Albert Schweitzer

A moving philosophy. He also created some music that is a mixture of J.S. Bach and Gabonese music. I actually got a CD of Lambarena music from Jeani. It was a pretty funny coincidence to have both Peter and Jeani talk to me about Albert within the span of a week. Very funny and a little strange.

Connie Blackwell

A pretty awesome story. A 20 year veteran nurse (a grandmother too!) couldn't tolerate seeing people go without care and so decided to open up a clinic with some other nurses. They've helped premature babies, kids who have gone deaf from hearing loss and kids who need physicals for sports.

Subject of Today: —will be dealt with in coming posts.

A quick note on government [and my criticisms thereof]

When I highlight and point out mistakes, horrors and problems with Governments I do so for several reasons:

1) To raise awareness

Almost everyone believes government is necessary, or at the very least a necessary evil. This attitude is so taken for granted and pervasive, that it often leads to de-facto censorship and ignorance regarding the alarmingly profound injustices perpetrated by those with legal and political authority. Often this unfamiliarity and refusal to acknowledge these injustices stems from our own endorsement and support of government. It is difficult to accept that we support institutions that actively hurt and harm individuals that deserve grace and compassion. By raising awareness, I aim to awaken people to the reality that we support oppressive systems—systems that are cruel, that upon accepting the certain realities, one begins to question its necessity.

2) To provoke and encourage creative and innovative thinking

Immediately following my first goal, I hope to stimulate the minds of my readers so that they may begin to think about different, righteous and just solutions to both the problems perpetrated by Governments, and the problems that require the Government's response. For example, in criticizing the Government's treatment of prisoners, I hope to inspire both new approaches to the treatment "criminals", as well as new approaches to the societal causes of crime.

What I do not wish to do:

1) I do not wish to languish in the stale, bitter land of static criticism:

Everything is a lot more complex than it appears. I do not wish to be the cynic who has a problem with everything because everything is far from perfect. There are many problems in the world and this means that there is a lot of work to be done—there is a also a lot of good in this world, and an endless supply of people who actually care and are constantly addressing aforementioned issues, there are also a countless number of good ideas to explore and to try when dealing with those problems. While there is much bad, there is also much good and everyone—everyone deserves grace and understanding in their faults. A government like the United States often comes off as faceless because of the overabundance of faces supporting it. It is always important to remember that all of those faces are actual human beings with similar hopes, fears and faults. Not everything is black and white as it is made out to be—even as I make it out to be. Please know that I am a glass-half full of water & the glass is half full of air too...and several grains of salt always come in handy.

While I would call myself an anarchist (see linked blog post), I am also (first and foremost) a follower of Jesus Christ. It is actually because I am Christ-follower that I ascribe to anarchism. The mixture of these two results in a tedious balance between respecting those in the government, and acknowledging that they my equal, and that all are equal with the capacity to be corrupted and with the capacity to love. The current unjust and unequal system can only be subverted with total and unabashed love and care for our brothers and sisters—regardless of their position in life.