I love the country but I can't stand the scene...

We are now hanging in the East Village until Wednesday.  We have a small, very Zen 6 floor walk up on E. 12th just a few blocks from Tompkins Square Park.  We are getting a work out both coming and going to say nothing of the fun of exploring this great neighborhood.  For an overview of this day, please go to Jazz for the Journey @ https://jazzforthejourney.wordpress. com/events-list/ Di is posting some great pictures of each day at that site too, so please check it out.

(our temporary residence)

Two odd thoughts have been swimming around in my head since we left yesterday.  First, watching the demonstrations in both Baltimore and Philadelphia on TV - and then switching channels to see all the hawking BS that fills the airwaves most of the time - I was reminded once again of the HUGE gap that has been growing between rich and poor. I am not saying anything new or wise, but this has been brewing for a long time.  I can remember being in seminary riding to a pastoral visit with mentor Swartzy. As we drove by small clusters of young African-American men standing around various corners and shops he said BACK IN THE EARLY 80's:  Almost nothing we do seems to help - and it is going to get much worse before it gets better.  As everyone wrestles with how to make things better, it feels as if we are getting closer to hitting bottom than ever before. I pray for our cities and our people - those who are pushing the envelope of racial and economic justice along with city administrators and law enforcement staff - as summer grows closer.

The other thought comes from Leonard Cohen who once said:  I love the country but I can't stand the scene.  I get that. It rings true to me, too. I love the promise and possibility of my homeland, but Jesus there is so much that is broken, decadent and violent within and among us. I've decided that in all the places we stop during this first phase of the trip I'm going to ask the people I meet along the way to "tell me some of their story." I want to hear how our people talk about their lives. Yesterday, a clerk at the hotel said that he had moved away from Kingston, NY for work five years ago. "I learned a lot - I worked for a consulting firm - and I wouldn't trade a day for it. But after a while living out of a suitcase in a hotel got old. And having no social life outside of work got real old, too. But mostly I missed the beauty of the country and being close to my family. So now when I get done for the day, I drive out past the reservoir and just smile as the sun goes down. Life it too short to waste, man..."

I will share more stories as I hear them - and hold them all close in prayer - maybe you can, too?