The Unclad Soul

I saw him as I pumped gas in my car at the Shell Station. It was hot outside and he was sitting in the shade in front of the convenience store. An older man, thin, African American, with a scruffy two or three-day growth of white stubble and shaggy salt and pepper hair. As I walked into the convenience store to get a soft drink he smiled at me with uneven teeth. There was a warmth in his smile. He didn’t ask for anything. But I knew he was there to accept any change anyone might give him. I returned to my air-conditioned car and stared at him for a minute. As I drove out I went around to where he was and rolled down my window. I motioned for him to come over. He slowly got up and walked to my car. “Yes sir?” he said. I handed him some cash and said, “What is your name, friend?“ He said, “Carl.” I said, “You have a good day, Carl.” He smiled and put his hands together and bowed and said, “Oh, God bless you, sir. God bless you.” I don’t know his situation. But whatever it is I f...

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,  for they shall be filled. Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novels and now movies, “The Hunger Games,” are set in a dark future following the moral and economic destruction of North America. Survivors comprise the wealthy and the poor and the vast distance between them. The wealthy class hunger for entertainment and have devised a cruel form of it requiring games of death. “Tributes” are selected in a national lottery, mostly poor teens, who are pitted against other teens in dangerous settings that eventually allow only one surviving winner. The rest are killed off by each other one by one. The poor class of course sees no humor or entertainment in these games and hunger instead for survival, for justice, for some way to end the madness. It’s a world of twisted values and wasted living. There are, however, parallels to this and the words of Jesus. There have always been those who crave wealth and power, who tolerate m...

     “Here's a secret: Everyone, if they live long enough, will lose their way at some point. You will lose your way, you will wake up one morning and find yourself lost. This is a hard, simple truth. If it hasn't happened to you yet, consider yourself lucky. When it does, when one day you look around and nothing is recognizable, when you find yourself alone in a dark wood having lost the way, you may find it easier to blame it on someone else -- an errant lover, a missing father, a bad childhood -- or it may be easier to blame the map you were given -- folded too many times, out-of-date, tiny print -- but mostly, if you are honest, you will only be able to blame yourself.      One day I'll tell my daughter a story about a dark time, the dark days before she was born, and how her coming was a ray of light. We got lost for a while, the story will begin, but then we found our way.”   ―   Nick Flynn , American Playwright/Poet ...

Before anything else is said this needs to be said. Suicide is not a stain on anyone’s name or life. Suicide is a human tragedy and like any death we mourn it as an incalculable loss. There are many reasons, often legitimate reasons, why someone chooses to take their own life. It is not a cowardly act. I can’t imagine anything more difficult to do.  And the truth is we all have the right to that choice if we decide to take it. I’ve heard all of the clichéd prohibitions to suicide and I reject them all. Religious people have often been carelessly insensitive about this, condemning suicide as a sin. Sincere but misguided ministers, of all faiths, and others can be too quick to weigh down the families of suicide members with guilt and shame claiming it an unforgivable act and making references to Judas selling out Jesus and then hanging himself. Death is always a deep human loss in whatever form it comes. Suicide should not be compartmentalized into some extreme form of d...

I find it astonishing that in this country we have political and religious leaders who seem perfectly fine creating a society that dismisses the poor, the sick, children in crisis, and the frail elderly who don’t have enough resources for their many medical and prescription needs. These leaders have no interest in providing a safety net for the most vulnerable people in our country. They talk about cutting social spending but are fine with bloated defense budgets.  They want the government out of their lives but are happy to get Medicare. They want to pay little or no taxes but then scream the loudest when the system doesn’t work for them.  They are fine shutting down agencies of care for people desperate for help, all the while they tell us how righteous they are. They quote random Bible verses and use them as validation for their indifference to others. They lift themselves up in pompous claims of religious fervor even as they detest those who differ from them in co...