Thankful

I went to a luncheon yesterday hosted by the Niagara Foundation (a fantastic group of Turkish Muslims) downtown. The President of Elmhurst College spoke about the importance of interfaith in higher education. He wondered out loud why interfaith cooperation, and sometimes just religion in general, is remaining marginal in academic enterprise and discourse when it has taken on such a conspicuous role in society. I thought that was really interesting. So many times people of any sort of faith are written of as irrelevant by academia. President Alan Ray was arguing that religion is a public phenomenon and that fact needs to be accepted as the new reality in America. He said that all faiths, including secularism, are living realities influenced by living people and concrete communities; and they should thus be incorporated into the conversation more than they currently are. Basically he was arguing that marginalizing religion in fact hinders liberal learning, and then he discussed the steps his university has taken to embrace different faiths and ensure his students can openly discuss issues of religious diversity. Not an opinion I hear often from leaders in higher education. And the crowd loved what he had to say. Also not something I expected. Most of us in the audience were all interfaith leaders from diverse backgrounds, but still. In the large scheme of things, interfaith is not a very popular idea in a lot of the circles I run in. I was glad to be there, and he mentioned Eboo Patel a lot (the Executive Director at Interfaith Youth Core) as an inspiration.

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for a lot of different things than I have been in previous years. I am thankful that what I am doing is difficult for me, and I feel uncomfortable on a daily basis wrestling with issues of faith and diversity and global engagement. I am thankful that in the last year I have learned so much about other faiths, and grown to respect and admire many people who follow other various traditions. I am thankful I work with a fantastic Muslim organization, and that my roommate is the coolest Jewish girl (just one of the coolest girls in general) I have ever met. I am thankful that I live in a diverse community, and get to talk/think about tough issues of racial/ethnic/socioeconomic reconciliation with people who are actually living it out every day. I am thankful for people who are optimistic that we can end deaths from malaria, and that there are thirty of us in this program (along with the hundreds of other people in other organizations) that are working tirelessly to make it happen.

And I am thankful that I finally got a good coat, because it is supposed to snow tomorrow. The first time of the season.

song

This is a song I have been listening to quite a bit the past few days. It's by Jonathan Foreman, the lead singer of the Christian band Switchfoot. It's off of his solo album. When you read the lyrics it sounds pretty intense, but it is actually really slow and not really that angry sounding. I think it is really beautiful. It is obviously written specifically at his frustration over Christianity, but I think it could apply to hypocrisy in any faith. It has been a good reminder to me to make sure my actions match up to what I say I am doing.


"I hate all your show and pretense
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stomp on my ears when you're singing 'em
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show

Your eyes are closed when you're praying
You sing right along with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There's blood on your hands
You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don't fit in your plan
Quit playing religion games
There's blood on your hands

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show

Let's argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let's argue this out
You'll be one of the clouds
Let's argue this out
Quit fooling around
Give love to the ones who can't love at all
Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can't stand at all, all
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show"

contrast

Another week gone by. Time is moving really fast. I think as I get older I see that happening more and more. I don’t like that it gets dark at 4:30 now. We try to leave as quickly as possible once work ends because being in this neighborhood after dark is not the best idea. I saw some people getting arrested on the drive in a few days ago. There are such interesting power dynamics here with the cops. It is pretty much always a white cop arresting a younger looking black male. I heard the other day from a co-worker that a house in this area five years ago went for $120,000 and is now not selling for $40,000. Things are tough all around for the people in this neighborhood. I have had several appointments at doctor’s offices for various things the past few weeks, and something I am learning is that if you are poor or seeking services in a poor area, you wait a long time for things and people are not nice to you. Going to a public health clinic for any reason means I am inconveniencing the people who work there, and I can expect to wait an hour after my scheduled appointment time before I am seen by a professional for services. They get through me, and anyone else there, as fast as they can. We are numbers, not people. Which means we don’t warrant kindness. It is so different from middle-class white America. And I am uncomfortable and frustrated with how drastic the difference is.

At work we share an office with a great woman named Veronica who does lots of job training and computer classes here so there are always people coming in and out to talk to her. Its sad how common the story of “I’m living on food stamps as a single mother and don’t have any income” is. There is this one guy named Patrick that comes in often to help out. I think he used to be homeless, and his teeth are black on one side because he was struck by lightning. Veronica calls him St. Patrick because of how kind he has been in the face of massive difficulties. He has a crush on Rebecca and I and sometimes buys us sweets from the gas station. He also frequently tells us we are cuter than a basketful of puppies. We don’t know who we will meet when we go in for work every day!

We are hosting a blood drive on November 23 with the University of Chicago interfaith Club. I am pretty excited about it. Every two seconds a person in the USA needs blood, and we are going to have educational stuff about malaria as a blood borne illness and what people can do about that. I think it is a creative connection between the local and the global and people can tangibly help our neighborhood by giving blood. I would lead the way and give blood myself, but having had malaria means I can’t which is kind of a bummer. We are hoping quite a few people show up.

Perfect weather this weekend in Chicago. I am afraid I am too used to fall and have still not bought any winter clothes. I am going to hate myself the first time it snows, but until then I am not buying a coat!

local to global

Belated Happy Halloween! I was a butterfly. My whole small group here were insects. There were a lot of Halloween festivities, and everyone in Chicago seemed to be out and dressed up.

Some of my time during the day here that I love is when I get to do online research and gain inspiration from malaria news and other cool things people have done to raise awareness. I found this great website yesterday (thecausemopolitan.com) and I wish I would have known about it before Halloween so I had time to plan a cool party like that. I also found a great article written by Rick Reilly a few years ago that is fantastic and worth a read. It was quite inspiring to us. (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/rick_reilly/04/25/reilly0501/index.html)

Rebecca and I had the chance this weekend to attend an interfaith Baha’I music devotional service. It was a fantastic time to connect with some of our Baha’I friends and have an awesome jam session (I got the maracas) while people read various scriptures of inspiration from their various holy books. Rebecca sang a Jewish prayer (Shalom Rav), and I read some from Psalm 36. We have connected with some of our co-workers at the Muslim organization over excitement about the new Twilight movie, and it looks like we might be going to see it together at midnight. An interfaith Twilight party! Rebecca and I are also working hard to set up a HUGE event in Chicago in the spring for World Malaria Day. There are so many steps that go into planning a monster event, and we are working on getting permission from various government officials. I’ll give you more details once we know if it will actually go through.

I think Chicago decided it was November and there is definitely a distinct chill in the air these days. I bought Payless snowboots in preparation. Five months from now it will be warm again! I am slowly becoming a South Sider here. I am excellent at parallel parking, I don’t always pull all the way over for sirens anymore (since it is so common and no one else does either) and I have eaten all you can eat sushi to the point where I thought my entire body was going to turn into a sushi roll. Basically, life continues, and I am adjusting to being a Chicago-an. The biggest challenge we are currently facing is that of connecting the global issue of malaria to the local level where faith communities actually see the importance of eradication to the point that they get involved. If you have any advice, shoot me an email. My website is http://www.faithsactfellows.org/amy.