•Placing bread and coffee under a house will protect it from ghosts.
•Two people who part ways on a bridge will never meet again.
•A broom left outside on a Saturday night will likely disappear as it will become bewitched and follow other brooms to a witches coven.
•The last person in a community to die near the end of the year will become a symbol of death and will be seen by those in the community's who are fated to die in the coming year.
•Never give away or sell a cradle when your child outgrows it, or you will surely have another chid soon.
•Suicides, murderers, and other criminals were commonly buried at a crossroads. That way if the spirit rose from the grave it would be confused, and unable to find its way back home.
•Drinking a tincture made of dandelion was believed to help cure madness, and restore color to the hair that had turned white.
•To cure an infant or child's earache the mother must pour a small vial of her urine into the affected ear.
•Never allow the front door and the back door to be open at the same time. This invites malevolent spirits to enter the home.
•Doors and windows should be left open during a thunder and lightning storm to let the lightening out incase the house is struck during the storm.
(Shared from the Mountain Times. Photo via Pinterest)
Give us O God, the vision which can see thy love in the world
In spite of human failure Give us the faith to trust goodness In spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge to continue to pray with understanding hearts. Show us what each of us can do to set forth the coming of the day of universal Peace
My Lord God, I have no idea where I’m going I cannot see the road ahead And I do not see for certain where it will end Nor do I know myself And I think I am following your will Does not mean I am actually doing so But I believe my desire to please you Does in fact please you And I hope I have that desire in all that I do You will lead me by the right road Though I may know nothing about it Therefore,I will trust you always Though I may be lost in the shadow I will not fear For you are ever with me.
I have not thought much about the post-holiday period as a time for sadness. I mean, I live in an area of the country where the rain comes down, the sky is gray and a certain kind of cold gets in my bones and won't leave no matter how high the thermostat gets set or how much wood gets burned in the fireplace for what seems like six months in a row. I have come to accept that and just try to power through. I welcomed the recent snow just for the break in routine and I was rewarded with a couple of blue sky days with snow on the ground and some blessed quiet. But here you can see and feel people getting depressed and short on joy and compassion and thankfulness as the rain and cold go on. It's called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and it's real.
The great folks over at The Bluegrass Situation have a somewhat different take on things than I do, and I'm glad that they do. They're keyed into helping with our post-holiday "Winter happy-'sads'" and they have at least a partial cure for what some of us are going through, whether it be SAD or feeling kind of down because the holidays are past, time is passing, we're kind of cooped up, and the dopamine rushes of giving and receiving and feasting and drinking are wearing off.
Their cure for it all is music, of course. They have six great special music videos that get right to the business of cheering you up or cheering you along or just helping you get through. I can't say that I have a favorite of the six, but Etta Baker's "Railroad Bill" is just so cleanly played that I want to share it from their post.
I had not heard of Pharis and Jason Romero before, but that's my kind of music, too. I'll say the same about the Earl White Stringband.
There is just something about finding new music and new food and getting some new clothes to help me through the dark days. I hope that that is true for you also and that you're able to pull through. I made this dish the other day:
Now, I based that dish on two recipes that I found at Camellia Beans but I messed around and added some ingredients and didn't do some of the other things that they suggested and that dish above has 21 ingredients in it and I'm eating it with yellow rice and Texas Pete pepper sauce. I promise you that no one is paying me for product placement. Camelia Beans does have some great recipes up and you could probably spend all winter and spring eating your way through and enjoying most every meal.
For some brand new clothes I went to Red Kap and got myself some coveralls and to the Belk on-line store for some shoes. The Belk stores are an old favorite of mine.
Don't worry--I only bought myself two pair, but...
The only big mistake that I have made in all of this is that I wasn't watching what I was doing and I ordered a case of Dixie Lily corn meal when I meant to order just a few bags. Thank goodness that I can always use corn meal for something and that I can give my extra as gifts.
The other tried and true things for me to do are to keep some Christmas lights up, to pray, and to read. I need to hang out some with friends and to do things that connect me with others, like going to protest and union rallies, poetry readings, and on-line learning sessions. It helps me to know before I go to sleep each night that I am helping someone or somebodies.
All of that said and done, I don't want to give the impression that anyone should try to purchase their way out of the blues and hard times that hit in these months. Buying stuff gives folks that dopamine rush that I referred to above, but it won't solve your problems at hand, and it may create another problem by running up your credit card.
Make sure that you're sleeping and getting up on a regular schedule that works and keeps you going and happy. This is a tough one, I know. Take your vitamins and eat.
If you still need some help here, turn to someone and talk about it. Don't hit the bottle or the pipe if you can help it. Call 988 if you think that you need to or if someone tells you that they think that hat is what you should do.
The following post comes from Sabeel, Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem and was authored by the Center's Executive Director Jonathan Kuttab. This post raises important questions about where Christians stand in relation to the war in Palestine/Israel. To raise the questions of where are the prophetic Christian voices in the United States at this moment and where are the actions that God demands of us in moments such as these is to begin to take on the damage done to our faith and belief by living in a relatively well-off country and the damage done to our faith and belief as well by Christian Zionism (and see this).
We need to reframe things, but where do we start? We tend to think that the Israel that we are hearing about in the news descends from the Israel that we encounter in our reading of the Hebrew Bible (the "Old Testament") and we tend to accept the logic that God gave that Israel victories and that He is doing so again and that those who "curse" Israel will be cursed by God and that those who support Israel will be loved by God. We go further by linking that to our Christianity, and then linking our Christianity to Americanism. It takes a nuanced and close read of the texts to see where this has gone off the tracks and how thinking like this has taken us off the tracks as well. And it is a difficult discussion to have with people who accept this thinking and who don't believe that they're off the tracks.
Please keep trying to have those conversations if you're having them, and know that you're going to make some mistakes along the way as you go. Those conversations are vital. We do need pastors and clergy to step up and take some risks here, and we need to be sensitive to the risks we're asking them to take and support them.
I think that where this is heading is towards a time where right-thinking and justice-and-peace-minded people are going to have to take prophetic action in order to arouse the church and fellow Christians to action. That might mean doing more of what a dedicated group of Mennonites recently did in Washington in support of a ceasefire or it might mean less dramatic forms of witnessing that draw attention to what is going on---wearing a kuffiyah and being prepared to explain to others what it is and why it matters, letter-writing events, a fundraising dinner for Anera or another worthy organization, sending the money you will save if you observe Lent as a fasting period to one of those organizations, going to pro-ceasefire rallies. My point is that whatever Christians do at this moment should be seen and done in light of the prophetic thinking and action that are needed and that we learn how to do our theology as an analysis of present-day conditions, as a means of grasping what God wants us to do now, and as a means of understanding the Kairos moment that we're in.
Here is the Sabeel reflection by Jonathan Kuttab:
As we have now passed 100 days of ongoing genocide and the number of named victims exceeds 25,000 (not counting those still buried under the rubble), the scale human suffering has long reached unbearable dimensions. Over ten thousand children have been killed and continue to be killed at the rate of about 100 per day; over 1,000 children suffered amputations, many without anesthesia. 50,000 pregnant women struggle to survive and give birth, sometimes by cesarean section, without enough milk, food, or water, much less sanitary conditions. An entire population is being starved, 90% of them are homeless, within just a few miles of a full convoy of trucks filled with supplies not being allowed in to provide food and water. Entire neighborhoods are razed to the ground. The continuous bombardment has exceeded within three months the entire tonnage of bombs used by the US in Iraq over six years. Meanwhile, the people of Gaza have no air defenses, bomb shelters, or escape. For people of faith, this agonizing reality forces us to confront serious theological challenges.
The Holocaust in Germany generated a crisis of faith for many Jewish individuals and theologians. Recurring questions include:Where was God during the holocaust? Why did God allow these atrocities to occur? How could a just God allow such evil to persist? How can God abandon innocents facing genocide?
Many individuals lost their faith in God altogether. Similar questions are being raised by people of faith these days in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
I must be honest, Muslim Palestinians have shocked me with their response to the atrocities. Even ordinary people recount their losses and suffering yet always end up with the same phrase: “I have lost my father and two children. My home is destroyed. I have no food or water and nowhere to go: Alhamdulillah, May God be praised.” Despite destruction, untold suffering, and pain, there is a resignation to God’s will and acceptance of his ultimate sovereignty, echoing the position of Job in the Old Testament. Perhaps this, as much as anything, explains Palestinian resilience in the face of insurmountable odds. We thank God, anyway, and in all situations.
The expression, “Allahu Akbar,” repeated often by Muslims, should not be translated as “God is Great,” but more accurately, “God is Greater than . . . ” Indeed God is greater than the awesome might of the Israeli army, its massive destructive weaponry, and the full force of the United States and Western countries marshaled against the hapless people of Gaza. God is greater, indeed, than Tel Aviv and Washington, than the Sixth Fleet and its aircraft carriers, than Israel’s technology of destruction, or its high tech wall and surveillance equipment. God is greater than the silence and complicity of international institutions in the face of well-documented massacres and is greater than the failure of Palestinian leadership or their supposed Arab allies. The deep and genuine faith in God’s ultimate sovereignty over the affairs of this world puts to shame all the rest of us monotheists, who believe the same things but seem to forget when catastrophes and genuine losses occur.
As I reflect on the current situation, my own question as a Christian is not, “Where is God during the Gaza Genocide,” but rather, “Where are God’s People?” With a few notable exceptions, the response of the American church has been utterly disappointing. A few tepid statements from church leaders, expressing some humanitarian concern, but reluctant to even call for an end to the fighting, for fear of upsetting Israelis, who have made annihilation and the utter destruction of Gaza their legitimate and openly stated goal. The reasons for this failure are many: Guilt over past anti-Jewish antisemitism, which has morphed into giving Israel a pass no matter what it does today; Confused end-times theology among many evangelicals, which also transfers into uncritical support of Israel; but mostly, A comfortable acceptance of a dominant narrative, which isolates, punishes, ridicules and sanctions those who dare to deviate from it.
Hamas, this narrative tells us, is an evil that needs to be eradicated. All civilian suffering involved, therefore, is a collateral by-product that in all cases should be blamed on Hamas. There is a near-total absence or willingness to take a prophetic stance or even an independent outlook that may run against the prevailing views promulgated in the mainstream corporate media.
To be sure, there have been strong Christian voices calling for an end to the genocide, for an end to occupation and Israeli apartheid, and for the implementation of a just solution. I am encouraged by such groups as the newly formed Mennonite Action that has been very active in taking a prophetic position on this issue. In addition, the Catholic Pax Christi has been vocal in their opposition since the very beginning, as well as the multiple denomination-based grassroots Palestine-Israel Networks (PINs), which have been amazing in their principled witness. Local and regional FOSNA, Kairos, as well as independent groups have been active in their communities demanding action and accountability from local leadership. On social media, numerous new Christian pages advocating for a ceasefire and an end to genocide have been established. And, activist-influencers like Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Walton, and of course Dr. Cornel West, as well as many leaders in the black church have been phenomenal. But, the shameful silence and timidity of most of Christian leaders at this time of crisis is something the Church will have to come to terms with for many years to come.
This is a post about togetherness and creation. My friend Sarah Rohrs in Salem, Oregon provided the first part of this post by passing on a post from Peter Brouwer about dogs on Facebook. I greatly appreciate the line that says "As I trace the imprints of their paws on the pathways of my heart, I recognise that these canine companions were not just pets; they were cherished co-pilots on the journey of self-discovery" because this has been so true in my own life.
How lonely we would be without the dogs and cats and birds and the rest of God's creation, and how desolate our lives would be without people to remind us of them.
The second part of the post---the section with the bird photo---comes from my friend Alan Felts in McDowell County, West Virginia. The photo is his and he has full rights to it and it is one of many that he posted on Facebook with the note that I have attached here. Alan excels at many things, and photography and getting the meaning out of things are just two of the the many things he does extremely well. Indeed, birds do go birding and brawling in McDowell County, West Virginia. Could we expect anything else from them there?
Sarah and Alan and Peter Brouwer (who I don't know) are connecting with something essential here. Creation is not something apart from us and so, if we're open to it, creation will teach us, comfort us and help us grow into full human beings and then, perhaps, into something beyond the human that touches the divine.
Our traditional prayers for the dead include lines that say "O Lord, how lovely it is to be your guest. Breeze full of scent; mountains reaching to the skies;/Waters like a boundless mirror,/Reflecting the sun's golden rays and the scudding clouds. All nature murmurs mysteriously, breathing depths of tenderness,/Birds and beasts bear the imprint of your love,/Blessed are you, mother earth, in your fleeting loveliness/Which wakens our yearning for happiness that will last for ever/In the land where, among beauty that grows not old,/Rings out the cry: Alleluia!" Another traditional prayer seems to say that creation is in some sense greater than us, or more prayerful and obedient to God, because "I see the rising sun rejoice in You, and I hear the chorus of birds raise a hymn of glory. I hear the forest mysteriously rustling in Your honor, the winds sing of You, the waters murmur and the stars proclaim You as they move in harmony for ever in Your infinite space. What is my poor worship? All nature obeys You, I do not..."
These are awesome lessons to learn and absorb.
In the rich mosaic of my own journey, I find myself pausing to cherish the distinct colours and textures that each dog brought to the canvas of my life. From the lively chaos of my first furry friend's puppyhood to the serene companionship of the wise elder who shared the twilight of our days, each one left an indelible mark, a unique brushstroke on the portrait of my life.
Their joyous barks and affectionate nudges spoke a language of love that transcended the barriers of words, creating a silent dialogue between us. In the quiet moments of shared glances and the gentle touch of a paw, I uncovered lessons that went beyond the ordinary, revealing the depth of patience, empathy, and the profound connection forged in the simplicity of coexistence.
As I trace the imprints of their paws on the pathways of my heart, I recognise that these canine companions were not just pets; they were cherished co-pilots on the journey of self-discovery. Their unwavering loyalty and the unspoken bond we shared unveiled the beauty of devotion, reminding me that life's most meaningful lessons often come wrapped in fur, accompanied by wagging tails and an abundance of love.
— Labrador Forums
The birds were birding today.... actually they were brawling County style for a minute too! Check out these little fellas today! Hope you all have a good evening and Be Blessed!! Friday is almost here!
Let's consider the cartoon below. It is apparently being circulated by Christian pastors and others who may be trying to make a point about declines in church membership and active participation and engagement. But from my universalist perspective there may be a counter-argument to be made here and a reasonable explanation as to why someone might find this cartoon offensive.
Let me say right now that I believe in joining and engaging with whatever religious or spiritual organization that you feel comfortable with after you have gone through time for discernment with God, taken some time with it, and your membership and participation have been determined to bless and benefit everyone in the circle. This is about faith, belief, and doctrine, to be sure, but it is also about how we view long-term commitment.
With commitment in mind, then, I want to lay out a few controversial points that I think the pastors and others passing this cartoon along will disagree with. Uniting oneself with a congregation or community will not work if you or that community come to the point of considering membership in a transactional way. If either side in this is thinking about some kind of exchange taking place, or in terms of a sale being made or a client-therapist-buyer-seller-sinner-preacher relationship being established, in order for things to progress then at some point someone will become dissatisfied and the relationship will suffer or end. We live in a world governed largely by competition, transactions, sales, profits and losses. Those in power often maintain their positions by encouraging dependency. People seeking the solace and strengthening that faith and faith communities can provide are often seeking an alternative to the harsh and cold world and the means of coping with and overcoming the violence that has been done to them in that world. We, all of us, need solidarity, not capitalist ethics and relationship dependencies in the pews.
Tithing has its roots in our communal religious and spiritual traditions and has come down to us as a form of fasting and as a form of generosity or charity ("solidarity lite"). But there are legitimate questions here about a proper Biblical approach to fasting in the first place. Is it Biblical to require the poor and the oppressed---the Lazaruses of our present day---to fast and to give? Is their life not already a story of fasting, faith and generosity? Yes, there are the accounts of the poor widow's offering and Christ's observations in the moment (Mark 12:41–44, Luke 21:1–4), but here I think the accent is on Christ condemning the wealthy and the powerful and not arguing that the poor must be squeezed.
We know that "people with means...are substantial givers. Middle-class Americans donate a little less. But the lower-income population surprises by giving more than the middle—and in some measures even more than the top. (As a percentage of available income, that is. In absolute dollars, those in higher income groups give much, much more money.)" The lower-income folks have an expansive definition of tithing, and one that I think is essentially correct, at least in terms of social practices. Someone may cover the mom in line at the supermarket who comes up short, or put up money for a son-in-law's tires so that he can look for work, or help someone make their rent. In my experience the people who are so generous do not often think of wat they are doing as charity, though they may not know the word "solidarity" or what it fully means or implies. Still, they model the concepts of solidarity by giving without the expectation of getting back and by giving in order to strengthen the social fabric that wraps around them as well. Instead of being transactional and talking about tithing, then, we should think about how we teach and model solidarity and where we find it in Scripture. The Bible is full of lessons on solidarity. The three that come readily to my mind are Hebrews 11, Acts 4: 32-5:11, and Christ's resurrection. Once solidarity is institutionalized and is communicated as an expectation and lived out daily, and once transactionalism is overcome, the tithing and sacrifices will likely come.
Well, it may be said, the folks in that cartoon are white and middle-class and seem to be squared away. I want to ask fellow Christians to seriously engage with the work of Marcus Borg and take up the project of doing economic analysis from a Christian perspective. The people in the pews may not be doing as well as fellow parishioners think they are. We live in a society that makes talk about things that matter and the struggles that we're going through uncomfortable and humiliating. Either people never talk about these hard truths of theirs or they abandon boundaries and go on as if theirs are the only and the most important problems and as if what they are suffering through is not the outcome of systemic inequities. So, in addition to not being transactional, engaging in solidarity, and doing economic analysis we also need to develop and teach healthy boundaries before we get deep into pushing church membership and tithing on folks.
I'm coming from a place here of thinking about joining and fully engaging with a religious or spiritual community in terms of relationships---a marriage, say. You know that if you get married thinking "Well, we can always get divorced if things don't work out" then your marriage will likely not work out. The same holds true when you consider joining a religious community. You had better go into your marriage knowing your partner's faults and shortcomings, and both of you need to bend and be vulnerable to the other. Something similar happens in religious communities. Your heart will break and be broken and both you and your community will need to be flexible and take the long view. You know that if you get married but still keep up with old partners or go around looking at others as potential partners then you're not being fully faithful to the person you promised faithfulness to. Something like this applies to you joining a religious community as well; it's either a monogamous relationship or it won't last. It's okay if you can't do that now, "dating" is fine. You know that if you get married and you're not sharing the household tasks and paying the bills together and budgeting together then your marriage won't last. Most divorces start with fights over money. Again, there is a corollary with joining a religious community: plan, work, struggle and share the burdens to make it work, even if it means smaller communities made up of the blessed poor that God so loves. You don't want to marry someone who talks only about themselves, who is struggling with alcoholism or drug abuse, who is always deep in drama, who can't manage basic living skills without trouble, who can't handle their own power or work with someone else's in rational ways or who abuses their power and your trust. You also don't want to join a religious community where people with such issues proliferate and hold the keys to heaven and hell. And if you have been through a bad marriage or two you're probably not in a hurry to jump into another marriage. The same is true of joining religious communities; let God speak to you and study on how to bring that into focus, be rational about it, take your time.
For most of us, I think, the good traits and the most difficult problems that we bring to marriages and other relationships will be much the same as what we bring to any organization or effort we engage in, religious and spiritual communities included. Most of us have to work very hard to deconstruct what is negative in us and this is a lifetime project for many more of us than want to admit it. The capitalist society that we live in makes us unnaturally competitive and unable to find balance and cooperative paths to power. Churches may look at these conditions as sinful, or they may honor this with a gospel of prosperity, but neither approach finds the needed understanding. Our practical challenge is to make deconstructing ourselves and rebuilding ourselves a radical and social act of partaking with one another in the divine nature, or theosis (See Psalm 81/82, 2nd Peter 1:4. See 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and Matthew 25: 37-40 as aids). Is your religious community a place for rebuilding and healing?
By this point I have probably lost the preachers and many readers. I'm going on too long and this is abstract. I do want to close with an additional point.
Many of the preachers who are circulating this cartoon and others like it claim in their sermons that they are swimming against the tide and say that they are risking their livelihoods and freedom by their strong teaching. I think that they are swimming very much with the tide by not taking on those in power who bring us a bit of hell (employers, banks, the prison-industrial complex, healthcare run for profit are examples), exaggerating their counter-cultural stance, and preaching an eternal hell because it is one way of preserving order in a society that jumps from crisis to crisis. Where is their attack on the systemic evils that oppress the people in the pews?
On the other hand, there are some pretty brave Christians out there who really are challenging the oppressive powers and are paying a price for doing that and aren't posing as being counter-cultural. A committee of Mennonites led a peaceful demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Palestine/Israel last week and about 150 people were arrested at that demonstration. Where is the church in talking accurately and with love and solidarity about Palestine and supporting those who were arrested? Fellow believers cry out for justice but we're not listening. Where is the church in supporting the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and Repairers of the Breach when Bishop Barber says, "On March 2, our moral movement will be in Washington D.C. and at 30 statehouses across the country, launching a period of mass mobilization to the polls of the nation’s 85 million poor and low wealth voters leading up to the election in November. If mobilized around an agenda to address and end poverty and low wages, there is not a state where–if just 10 to 20 percent of poor and low-wage voters who did not vote in the last national election come to the polls this time around–they would not be able to swing the election and elect leaders who would vote for living wages, health care and voting rights."?
I think that the following prayer comes from the Midnight Mom Devotional that I used to draw from often on this blog.
Tonight we pray for the momma who is worried. Her heart is heavy. She's having trouble sleeping. She may even be crying inside but putting on a smile for others. Lord, there are so many things that we as mommas worry about daily and even nightly. You asked us to give it to You. Tonight, we give You our worries. We ask for Your peace. We thank You for taking care of all our needs. Please help this momma to find community and any help that she needs. Please grant her sleep tonight. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
This photo comes from Ward Weems on Facebook. The accompanying caption says, "A tenant family who lived in the Camp Croft area and was removed, The man was employed working for a neighboring farm and loses employment when moved. Near Pacolet, South Carolina, March 1941 in photograph by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress."
This photo also comes by way of Ward Weems. The caption reads, "Decosta famile mother and children, Portuguese immigrants, and Farm Security Administration client borrowers, Little Compton, Rhode Island, December 1940 in a photograph by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress."
Millions of people the world over are leaving their homes in search of safety and work. Many are fleeing the effects of global warming and climate change and must take their children with them as they go. Some never find what they are looking for and perish along the way and only God and their families know their names.
These photos remind us that it was not so long ago that many families in the United States were forced to move, traveling north or west in order to escape bad conditions. Political and economic refugees from fascist governments came as well, and are still coming. We should remember their struggles and trials when we consider the mommas and families seeking sanctuary in the United States today and include them in our prayers.
The photo above came from the History and People of the Appalachian Mountains Facebook page. The accompanying caption says "Post said Granny Healing Women Of Appalachia."
I think more about the grannies and healing women and men as I get older and as the doctors try to convince me to take more medications. I wish that I had someone to turn to who I could trust and who knew how to use the old-fashioned remedies.
Central Appalachia was known for its healing women and men. Sidney Saylor Farr's great book More Than Moonshine has a chapter given over to healing, remedies, superstitions, and calendars. Anndrena Belcher, one of our great storytellers, used to tell a tale about an old granny lady who lived back in the hills and how she helped a girl discover her path in life. I have lately been looking at a reprint of Ossman and Steel's Classic Household Guide To Appalachian Folk Healing that takes in many of the old healing remedies and practices used among the Pennsylvania Dutch and German "powwowers." These people were present in rural Pennsylvania and in the state's anthracite mining districts and had quite an impact on coalfield cultures. Karol Weaver's book Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region, 1880-2000 tells us quite a bit about them. I believe that Ms. Weaver has also done some work on the historic role of healers in Saint Domingue and the role they had in the Haitian revolution and helping to free Haiti from French colonialism. The "powwowers" and "passers" of Pennsylvania used, and perhaps still do use, prayers and incantations, amulets, objects, medical techniques, and healing rituals, and it has been said that some of these means of healing were given to them by friendly indigenous people centuries ago or through visionary encounters with indigenous people. Certain "powwowers" and "passers" have cured people far away from them. They perform their works of healing at no cost to those being aided. Their practical connections to certain religious-cultural communities is fascinating.
I'm certain that different racial, ethnic and national groups all have their unique means of protecting people from misfortunes, healing practices and types of healers. A recent article in The New York Times covered the new generation of curanderas who are anchors in their communities. Working rootshas never gone away,but it seems to be having a resurgence. "Bone crunching" as a practical form of preventing and healing all kinds of ailments was widely practiced in Northern Italian immigrant communities where people worked in the mines or factories and construction. I have not read it yet, but Jake Richards' book Backwoods Witchcraft seems to bring some of the traditional ways of healing and protection in Central Appalachia back into focus. The list goes on, and its a very long list.
I have had at least three experiences with the old healers, wise women, and healings. A strega nona---an old wise Italian woman who was a friend of my grandmother's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania---predicted my life's path for my grandmother in the back room of her candy store when I was a child. The old woman listened as I talked, walked around me, and felt my head. Her prediction was quite accurate. She, or another strega nona, gave my mother a tragic prediction for her life just a short time before my mother died.
When I lived in West Virginia I had a neighbor who practiced some of the old forms of prevention and healing. I had a job interview over in Baltimore for a job that I needed, but I felt a bad head cold coming on the day before the interview. It was a bad cold coming on. My neighbor came over and did a kind of interview with me and determined that I had a "bear cold" coming on, and she mixed up a powder that I took and I was fine and clearheaded forty-five minutes later (and I got the job).
I once ended up in the emergency room in West Virginia with a bad case of poison ivy. A young intern scoffed at me and argued when I said that if I could make it home I had frozen cubes of jewelweed in my freezer that I could use as a cure. An old doctor overheard our conversation and interrupted to tell the intern that I knew what I was talking about, he didn't, and the old remedies worked as well or better than the meds the intern wanted me to take would. I knew of jewelweed through some who practiced home healing and I kept jewelweed cubes in the freezer. It did cure me as I lightly applied the cubes to the poison ivy rash. The use of jewelweed comes to use from Native Americans.
One problem here is that the old ways of preventing and curing maladies have been undermined not so much by medical science, which may or may not validate the old ways, but by the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies and by medical professionals who seem to be men with vested material interests in determining who controls access to health and well-being. These nay-sayers have grown in number and in power as healthcare has become more of a business and has developed into an industry run for profit by a relatively small number of wealthy people who seem to be among the ethically challenged.
We pay for health insurance, not care, and some of that money goes into blocking national health care, convincing us that we need this system and the men running it, and into developing drugs and kinds of care that don't really cure us so much as they do build dependency on medications and on a system that doesn't center care for us.
I get aggravated when I hear researchers, doctors and spokespeople from the pharmaceutical companies on the radio exclaiming about how they're discovering that certain medications sometimes have unpredictable effects when given to women and men or Blacks and whites because the standard subjects for research for so long have been white males. People are different for many reasons and everyone is entitled to care. The too-slow-in-coming acknowledgement that doctors and insurance companies have dealt with pain experienced by Black patients differently than they have with white patients tells us what many of us have always suspected or known and justifies the bitterness about how healthcare is managed. The fact that Black women have the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States should bring people out in the streets in protest. Only recently have sweat lodge ceremonies begun to get some (grudging) respect by nonnative medical providers, addiction treatment providers, law enforcement and some in the prison system. It's clear that some folks would be better off getting needed care from healing practitioners who share their contexts and cultures. Dr. Mutulu Shakur came to an understanding of this well before many others did, and I'm grateful for his compassionate healing work. He was kind enough to send me a CD at one point and I made sure that it made it into a youth prison.
Dr. Mutulu Shakur, November 1987. (Jim Hughes/NY Daily News
Another problem is that not every malady can be prevented or cured by the old means. We suffer from diseases and conditions that have been brought to us by stress-filled working and living conditions, by deliberate neglect, or by the deliberate encouragement of people in power, and by the introduction of toxins into our food and into our environment. The old rural and country means of surviving and thriving are often swamped by these factors. The old healers represented pre-industrial or early-industrial worlds, but that isn't what we have today. Could they heal an Appalachia where overdose-related mortality rates for people ages 25–54 was 72 percent higher in the region than the rest of the country two years back, an Appalachia that lives under semi-colonial conditions?
We can't find many of the plants and substances that were used in the past. We lack the spiritual or religious faith that helped us believe in the cures and follow the advice of the healers. Many of the incantations, amulets and ingredients used in the old healing practices alarmed the clergy and some people of faith. In the transition from pre-industrial to industrial societies these people often asserted their control over religion and spiritualities, and over healing as well. Most, but not all, connections to the past have either been lost or are in need of repair.
It does not help that some people with modern New Age and "earth-based" spiritualities try to graft themselves on to healing paths that were the mainstays of pre-industrial Jewish, Muslim and Christian societies or to paths that had their origins in societies that became Jewish, Muslim and Christian. There were almost always people present in those societies who had enlarged or broader definitions of their spiritualities than the clerics and their dogmatic followers were comfortable with. Surely we can honor their legacies within the bounds that they would have found acceptable and humbly follow their paths. We cannot recreate pre-industrial or immigrant-ethnic or long-past rural contexts and subcultures, but something of their paths is still available to us.
If the old cures and healers are not always available to us, I am sure that many means of prevention are. A fundamental practice---one that I fail at---is knowing the traditional agricultural and astrological calendars and organizing basic life tasks around them. Discreetly wearing a cross or a religious medallion, carrying a rosary, having a prayer card with you, having certain icons in your house and car, certain tattoos, using holy water, and daily anointing are popular forms of seeking protection that many people take for granted. There are other means available as well. I'm sure I knew people who had Himmelsbriefs, the "Letters from Heaven," when I was child. These letters had a common text and some kinds of "hex signs" and were carried by people or posted in homes to ward off evil and disasters. Carrying the names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (or Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) with you is said to be a worthy safeguard. The Ossman and Steel's book mentioned above gives these names as "AWNANIA, AZARIA, and MISAEL." There are particularly helpful Bible verses that can be used and daily rites that can be practiced. Chalking your door at Epiphany is a good practice. Jews, Muslims and Christians have means of warding off the evil eye, but most clergy frown on this and priests and imams will tell you that the evil eye is a superstition that comes from the devil. Still, many believers seek protection from the evil eye.
What we want to avoid in all situations is the use of cultic images, false idols, idolatry and commercializing our faith, spirituality and religion. The theologians Pablo Richard, Frei Betto, and Hugo Assmann have written quite well about this in the book The Idols of Death and the God of Life. Idolatry is destructive to human beings and nature, and it clouds or acts against "the transcendent and liberating presence of God" (Richard). We live in a "profoundly idolatrous world," and so, following Richard, "(i)dolatry is a question of politics and faith." Idolatry leads to death, God leads to life. It is God acting through human beings and saints and angels, faith, need, and creation who protects, sustains, and heals.
Reading certain poems and singing certain hymns can also help. I read Danita Dodson and Alberto Moreno and I encourage you to read them also. The Thomas Hymnal and the Sweet Songster can be read as poetry or sung if you know the melodies. I found this helpful poetic fragment by Yehoshua November in my papers recently:
Before the Silent Prayer
some slip the hood of their prayer shawls
over their heads,
so that even among many worshipers
they are alone with God.
Primo Levi wrote about the sadness of
"a cart horse, shut between two shafts
and unable even to look sideways..."
Let me be like those pious ones
or that horse,
so that, even amidst a crowd,
no other crosses the threshold
of my dreaming.
From Wikimedia Commons
On a good day this blog reflects my religious-spiritual and political universalism and encourages someone in their faith and in their struggles. As I think about this post I'm challenged to think about whether we can put together the many different ways of doing traditional prevention, protection and care or not, or if we should even try. There is so much here that might bring people together who have justifiable grievances against the healthcare systems and whose traditions have sometimes intersected and gained from crossing paths. So many people are suffering and need care. But are we too far off from the shores of solidarity to provide help to one another?
I think of being in the presence of a poor woman who was grasping to hold on to her sanity and shouted her testimony and wept in an Abyssinian Baptist Church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She had recently moved back to the Eastern Shore from a northern city that had seemed foreign to her, another way of keeping time and another way of organizing daily life. She wanted to rebuild her life, recover and find her roots once more. The AIDS crisis was slowly being acknowledged for what it was and the semi-rural Eastern Shore was encountering that, experiencing forms of gentrification, and had a painful absence of living-wage jobs all at one time. Ever-present racism and despair wore hard on people. That woman's church---and particularly the women in her church---tried healing her when no one else could or would. Didn't she and women trying to help her deserve more in the way of resources and support? Can we be open to crossing racial-ethic and sectional lines in order to heal and be healed? And doesn't this path lead through politics because we are contesting with systemic oppression in this world and with "the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens..."
Can any of these ways of protection, care and healing help you in your life and in your struggles?
I want this blog to be thought of as a means to encourage others. I hope to be regularly posting an "Encouragement" message here of one kind or another. If that's what you're looking for, go down to the tag at the bottom of this post and hit the one that says "Encouragement."
I don't know that this story making the rounds is true or not, but it does have truth to it...
A pastor transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning. He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service. Only 3 people said hello to him, most looked the other way. He asked people for change to buy food because he was hungry. Not one gave him anything.
He went into the sanctuary to sit down in the front of the church and was told by the ushers that he would need to get up and go sit n the back of the church. He said hello to people as they walked in but was greeted with cold stares and dirty looks from people looking down on him and judging him.
He sat in the back of the church and listened to the church announcements for the week. He listened as new visitors were welcomed into the church that morning but no one acknowledged that he was new. He watched people around him continue to look his way with stares that said you are not welcome here.
Then the elders of the church went to the podium to make the announcement. They said they were excited to introduce the new pastor of the church to the congregation. "We would like to introduce you to our new Pastor." The congregation stood up and looked around clapping with joy and anticipation. The homeless man sitting in the back stood up and started walking down the aisle.
That's when all the clapping stopped and the church was silent. With all eyes on him....he walked up the altar and reached for the microphone. He stood there for a moment and then recited so elegantly, a verse from the bible.....
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.’
After he recited this, he introduced himself as their new pastor and told the congregation what he had experienced that morning. Many began to cry and bow their heads in shame. "Today I see a gathering of people here but I do not see a church of Jesus. The world has enough people that look the other way. What the world needs is disciples of Jesus that can follow this teachings and live as he did. When will YOU decide to become disciples?
He then dismissed service until the following Sunday as his sermon had been given. Amen.
The following article by Mark Pattison for the Catholic Labor Network shows how some workers used the traditions they are familiar with in their fight for social justice. Such struggles have so much to say to us: workers have real material needs, they can be creative and united in fights to win justice and equity, God has a preference and a special relationship with the poor and the oppressed, and thisis salvific work that gives us a taste of God's Kingdom.
Thousands of workers at two dozen hotels in the Los Angeles area won contracts by the end of 2023 as UNITE HERE Local 11 has waged a campaign since April to win improved pay and benefits for union members – but thousands more are still waiting for an agreement.
“The salary has been a main issue because we are not paid enough to live,” Salcedo, a native of Michoacan state in Mexico, said through an interpreter. “What we’ve also been fighting for is health insurance, a pension fund when we retire, and opportunities for growth.”
To prepare for a strike, UNITE HERE members at the Hilton Pasadena walked out four different times, for shorter durations. They also brought attention to their situation to the larger community by giving a new twist to “las posadas,” a nine-day devotion popular for centuries among Latin Americans that re-enacts Joseph and Mary’s quest to find an inn where the Christ Child could be born.
The hotel workers didn’t need nine evenings to make their point. Instead of selecting houses to play the role of inns, “we made different stations. The Hilton Pasadena was the first place, the Hyatt Place Pasadena and then at City Hall,” Salcedo said. She served as a reader at the Hilton.
“We were working on Colorado Avenue. It’s the main thoroughfare in Pasadena where we were doing the procession,” she added.
“It was an experience like no other. We thought it was relevant. We were looking for peace in our homes, and it was an experience that brought us and our coworkers together.”
Community support is tangible. “People come out, sometimes they bring us water, they bring us burritos. We appreciate people from outside the union who have shown their support,” Salcedo said.
While UNITE HERE urges would-be hotel guests to cancel their reservations if they find that their hotel has been struck – some hotels are using an app to recruit scabs – hotel chains are actually operating fewer of the hotels that bear their name, and make their money licensing their brand name. The Hilton Pasadena, for instance, is operated by a company called Aimbridge Hospitality.
Salcedo believes the workers’ actions will ultimately convince Aimbridge to come to terms. “Yes, of course. Claro que si. I have total faith that they’re getting close,” she said. “I hope this will push the company to finally sign a contract.
Workers at the Hilton Pasadena went on strike for the fifth time on New Year’s Eve, just in time to throw the hotel into chaos on the eve of the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, one of college football’s premier events. Like the previous four walkouts, it’s a short-term strike, but nobody was saying how long they intended to stay out.
“A lot of the guests, once they go back in,” Salcedo said, “have been very supportive. I believe that we’re fighting for our rights, and that we’re entitled to those rights.”
I saw this photograph on Travis Chumley's Facebook page yesterday. The caption accompanying the photo indicates that it was taken in Powell Valley, Claiborne County, Tennessee, in the 1940s and also says "Photograph of six women standing around a table saying grace. They are outside and the table is full of food. The women have gathered together to spend the afternoon working on a quilt. Photo: Joe Clark HBSS - Clark Family Photo Collection - Special Collections Library - University of North Texas." The photo at the bottom of this post comes from the same sources.
Coincidentally, National Public Radio (NPR) ran an interesting story on quilting that touched on matters of faith yesterday. The story summary says "For some Black Americans, family histories can be hard to find. Slavery and the discriminatory laws that lingered years later prevented the documentation and record keeping of Black Americans. Today, a group of Black quilters from across the Northeast honor their ancestors through bold and colorful quilts, illustrating their experiences and telling their stories."
Photo from NPR/Connecticut Public Radio
One of the women featured in the NPR story said, "Quilting is also a way to connect with the past, while wrestling with ongoing injustice today. When things happen, like George Floyd, you know we make quilts about that...When loved ones pass away, we make quilts. We honor them with fabric that they wore.” Her name is Love, which seems so appropriate.
You can learn more about the women featured in the NPR story by going to this 2022 Where We Live interview with the group co-founder Susi Ryan. According to a Connecticut Public Radio note, that show also features textile artist and author Jen Hewett, who talked about her recent book featuring hundreds of creators of color who were interviewed about their relationship to making.
There is much to say here or be silent with. I know some women quilters who either do their work mostly alone or who go to quilting stores for companionship and inspiration. Quilting still seems like what we used to respectfully call "women's space." I'm glad that quilting still goes on, and most cold nights I sleep under a quilt made by a woman in McDowell County, West Virginia who used old bluejeans and simple fabric combinations to come up with something that well represents her region. It has handy pockets in it for stuffing things. Her name and address are on the quilt but I have not contacted her. I also have a quilt made out of my old union tee-shirts many years ago and that quilt holds more than a decade of union struggles in it.
I hope that women continue to gather in groups away from businesses and do their quilting with some praying or spiritual work and eating and getting along with one another.
My heart just prays for a time when we can tear down some of the barriers that separate us and pray together or share our spiritual paths and share our creative work.
Claiborne County, Tennessee, 1940s... Caption: Four women are shown working together on quilts. Several completed quilts are shown hanging on a building behind them. Photo: Joe Clark HBSS - Clark Family Photo Collection - Special Collections Library - University of North Texas
I don't think that most of my friends would argue with the statement above, but I have a "Yeah, but..." reaction to it that I want to share.
God has many qualities and attributes, or we give God many qualities and attributes, but kindness and love are two among many. In another post I borrowed from Gregory MacDonald's book The Evangelical Universalist in reminding that God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent and then went beyond MacDonald to remind that Muslims have 99 names for God that describe God's qualities and that this is something for Christians to take into ourselves.
Perhaps it is true for many of us that in reacting to upbringings in which we were told only of an angry God who dwelt in retributive justice, or in trying to make a living in a hierarchical and competitive society as adults, that we overreact by taking an opposite position if we go on as believers at all. Many of us over-emphasize or particularize a God of love. This has started to feel to me as presumptuous and as imposing my will and definition on God.
Let's consider that kindness and love are excellent qualities to have and that they come from God and are parts of our experience in heaven on earth right now and today, but let's also look at a wider picture and recall that God has other qualities as well and that these also show up in our lives.
And what if you're not kind and loving and can't manage grace or giving grace? Are you really outside of "the theology of Jesus"? Is that a bad and dooming thing?
Those who have strayed were sought by the master He who once gave his life for the sheep. Out on a mountain still He is searching Bringing them in forever to keep.
Here is something that I do to get myself on the road going to being kind and loving and giving grace. If I can remember to do it, in that moment before I'm angry at someone or being unkind to them I say silently to myself "You are blessed and you are beautiful!" and direct that thought at them and then, sometimes, at me as well. Sometimes I just look around me and direct that to the people going about their business.
Maybe much of the time I don't feel this or mean this when I whisper it to myself. Someone may cut me off in traffic or in a line or cause me offense. My first thought is not to be kind. Maybe my second thought isn't, either. I may not mean "You are blessed and you are beautiful!" if I even get it out in those moments. So what? It's still a good habit to develop and your heart will mean it if your mind doesn't. Sooner or later, if kindness and love are given to you as gifts to pass on with grace, you will likely mean it. All of you will mean it.
Doing this is a little like doing the Jesus Prayer and Hesychasm. Don't force it, do it in the contexts of your relationship to the world and with God, let your heart learn it and do it. The "theology of Jesus" will come as a gift or you will get other gifts or you will realize that you have had gifts all along and be happy with those.
actually they were brawling County style for a minute too! 
Check out these little fellas today! Hope you all have a good evening and Be Blessed!! Friday is almost here!
