We are situated on Nebraska Ave. & Lake. Just a block from one of the last remaining 'post war style' housing projects in Tampa. Growing up, before I even knew what Nebraska Avenue was, we used it as an insult in school. Even if I didn't know the actual street, I knew it a a symbol that meant prostitution & addiction. Now it is the neighborhood that I live in and it means beauty & pain, diversity and unity, the need for and the presence of the kingdom of God.
It is forgotten and abandon by the empire that is our American way of life. Our house is sandwiched between a condemned home that is boarded up and a demolished house that was crushed by a tree. Behind us, across the alley, is another vacant home that used to house men in recovery from alcoholism. Here we are in the middle of this abandon corner planting seeds of okra, cucumbers, love, peace, hospitality, and prayers for the kingdom to come. This is what Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day modeled as direct action. In a world that preaches individuality & privacy, we are crammed into a small house living in full view of each other & dependent on one another;in a world that teaches consumerism & materialism, we are having discussions and opportunities to share and give and break the chains that have been ours since childhood; in a world that ignores the poor and doesn't honor their humanity, we have the homeless over constantly for company or dinner or whatever, we know their names, we share their burdens, and we have them as our friends. This action is not so much to our credit as to our salvation. The poor are our teachers; the community, our discipline; the streets, our desert; and this house, our Eden.
No comments:
Post a Comment