Better Than I Deserve

When folks ask me how I'm doing I usually answer that I'm doing "better than I deserve." I picked this up from a woman in Letcher County, Kentucky awhile ago and it seems to fit. People who know my story and the stories of some of the men in my life who are closest to me will understand why, but it's also a general statement that I think applies to many more people who I know.

Now, when I give this answer at, say, the grocery store or the gas station here in Oregon I usually get a blank look or no look, and in a natural foods store here I sometimes get some push-back. "Oh, I think everyone deserves the best" is a pretty common response at the natural foods store. Those good people don't know me or some of my friends, or didn't know us at other times in our lives. I appreciate their sense of fairplay and inclusion, though it seems naive to me. In a better world everyone would have the best of everything available and everyone would have the necessities of life, even if it meant everyone having less, so that no one is shut out or excluded. But we're not living in that world yet. One woman at a hardware store here did get it, though, and I knew from her look and her laughter that she's been through a few things.

When I said "Better than I deserve" to people in Central Appalachia I got a different response. I got "Amen!" or some short sermons from folks or a "Bless you, darling!" or a knowing smile most of the time. I love that. And more than loving it, I respect that.

I found this fellow on Youtube last night. You can tell from his look and the way he lays out what he has to say that he has a story. I have not been through the long list of videos on his Youtube channel, but it looks like he's doing some good work. I hope that some of the readers on this blog will look him up.

I didn't know that "Better than I deserve!" is almost a movement, but it makes sense if it is. I'm glad to be a part of that movement---the alternative is far worse.

   

Raising Lazarus by Beth Macy and what compassion looks like as policy

The following are some quotes taken from the book Raising Lazarus by Beth Macy. You may be familiar with her book Dopesick or the Hulu series by the same name. I believe that Raising Lazarus is a needed starting point for people who want to do healing and create new policy paths in our communities and in the United States. The crises of substance use disorders and opioid use disorders are linked to other social crises as well. The problems our families and communities are facing every day are linked to one another, making these crises systemic. But if we going to wait to become experts ourselves, or depend on so-called experts and leaders, before taking action things are going to get much worse. Raising Lazarus gives us the starting points that we need. Think of this book as a compass.

One of our primary problems is in our lack of compassion for people who suffer with substance use disorders and opioid use disorders and their families. Many of us hold to the ideas that someone has to hit bottom before they will want or deserve help, that some people are beyond help, that there should be high barriers to people seeking help, that these disorders are moral failings, and that imprisonment is the best and most socially beneficial form of treatment. Macy makes a good point in her book that when we talk in these terms it is often our own trauma speaking and that the decades-long war on drugs and that trauma are costing us our compassion. This trauma and our lack of compassion, then, excuse us from helping others and saving lives. 

Here are some quotes from the book with page numbers given from the hardback edition (Little, Brown and Company; New York, 2022).

Page xiii: Within the first pandemic year, the overdose count was 29 percent higher than the year before, and the numbers kept climbing. By late 2021, it was clear that addiction had become the No. 1 destroyer of families in our time, with almost a third of Americans reporting it as a serious cause of family strife, and drug overdoses claiming the lives of more than 100,000 Americans in a year---more than from car crashes and guns combined.

Page xvii: in a country that spends five times more to incarcerate people with (substance use disorder) than it does to treat their medical condition, progress was stagnant. In 2019, an estimated 18.9 million Americans in need of treatment didn't receive it. That's a treatment gap of roughly 90 percent. Among the lucky few who do get treatment, Black patients were far less likely than Whites to have access to lifesaving buprenorphine...a medicine that blocks opioid cravings...

Page xv: In Charleston, West Virginia, complaints about vagrancy and needle litter outside the public health department's needle exchange led to its closure in 2018, sparking a 1,500 percent increase in HIV.

Page 13: At one community meeting Mathis attended...a historic-district leader complained repeatedly that her neighborhood had been overtaken by people engaging in around-the-clock drug deals. "We need to tear down those houses and abolish the Fourth Amendment so police can do what they need to do," the woman said.

Mathis listened patiently to a range of stigma-inflicted comments. But at the mention of of abolishing the Fourth Amendment she stood..."Y'all, I just have to ask: Do you know the song, 'They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love'? Well, I'm not feeling the love in this room right now."

Mathis reminded them that that Jesus tended first to people's physical needs because he understood that folks who were tired, hungry, and hurting "wouldn't have ears for what he needed to say." When the civic leader persisted, Mathis politely suggested she fix her neighbors a casserole---people who use drugs sometimes forget to eat, she explained.

Page 72: Fentanyl was present in more than 60 percent of the 2020 overdose deaths reported by the CDC, a quadrupling of the portion it accounted for in 2015. By June of 2021, mortality kept rising as fentanyl and other synthetics were involved in a whopping 87 percent of opioid deaths and 65 percent of all drug overdose deaths.

Page 89: Between 1999 and 2019, the gap between rural and urban death rates almost tripled, growing from 62 per 100,000 to 169.5. That death-rate disparity was bigger now than the disparity between Black people and White people, which academics pinned not just to deaths of despair but also to poor nutrition, lack of exercise, smoking, and uneven access to quality medical care.

Whether they meant to or not, people were literally killing themselves as the hyper-polarized government they hated stood by, and politicians who professed to lead them were engulfed in culture wars about transgender bathroom rights, Stonewall Jackson statues, and critical race theory. "People are making a virtue of going it alone and not depending on anyone, almost as a kind of self-protection," Silva told me.

Or as Nikki put it: "Rigid thinking is what it is, and that's a trauma response."

Page 256: But anyone with walking-around sense now understood that shipping 100 million opioid doses to a county with a population of just 90,000 was not acting in the best interests of that community. Huntington (West Virginia), a small city an hour west of Charleston, had the highest overdose-death rate of any community in the nation.

In 2016, Huntington-based EMS workers had responded to twenty-six heroin overdoses in less than four hours. One in five babies born at the local hospital was exposed to addictive substances. Foster-care placements doubled, and the school system had to install a twenty-four-hour hotline so that the police and schools could communicate about students living in homes where parents had (substance use disorder). The high school now has a dedicated space where traumatized teens can go if they need to talk to an adult or just be alone, no questions asked.

Page 275: People with (substance abuse disorders) are still ignored by policy makers when they often have the most knowledge to offer about their conditions, said Baltimore addiction specialist Yngvild Olsen, who cited a recent survey of 900 people with (substance abuse disorders). Their top three goals, in order, were: staying alive, reducing harmful substance use, and improving mental health. 

Macy provides a few pages of needed policy and political changes at the end of the book. None of them will solve all of the problems quickly, but they all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. When that puzzle has been put together we will see one another and what is within us more clearly. Policy is a test of faith. Can we raise people from the tombs we have consigned them to or not? Is resurrection possible or is it a fable? Macy and the stone-rollers who she writes about believe in resurrection. Do you?   

  

      

A Nonviolent Atonement? - Sharon L. Baker Putt

 

Some affirming reminders...

 

Saint Nicholas Vilimirovich on death and resurrection and an icon with a question

But it is said: "How do the dead stand?" And in what body do they come? (1 Corinthians 35:15).

Paul the Apostle knew in advance and rejects the objections that the unbelievers will make regarding the resurrection of the dead. Even today, the non-believers who have not seen with material eyes the miracle of the natural resurrection, and much more spiritual resurrection, ask: “How will the resurrection of the dead take place? "

And the messenger follows: "I fool! What you plant does not live until it dies. “ (1 Corinthians 36:15). Unless a seed is planted in the ground, the plant will not grow, and in another expression something completely different will come out of the seed. Non-believers see with their own eyes but they do not see, so they ask, “How does a dead man do?” "

How ? The same way Jesus did. He descended to life in the grave and came alive. Even nature demonstrates the resurrection from the dead, in the lord of the living. The universe becomes easier for us and for us to have our resurrection, he himself raised from the grave and before that resurrection he laid up a dead man in the grave four days ago, and the son of a widow of Nayne and the daughter of Yairus.

The unbelievers ask, “What type of body will the dead rise? “In the kind that God wants. With God there are many types of bodies. The apostle Paul divides all bodies into two categories: earthly and heavenly. Therefore, those who died in earthly bodies will wear heavenly bodies: the corruptible will replace the corrupt, the immortal will replace the dead, the beautiful will replace the ugly. In this celestial body man will recognize himself and others around him, and distinguishes himself, whether he is dressed in gay rags or wearing royal purple. O Lord, the fruit of the womb, do not hand us over to eternal corruption, but as sons of royalty, we are dressed in immortality. Amen

The Gospel Upsetters - He Got Up (6/27/21)

 

On the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh and resurrection

The Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was assassinated by Israeli forces on May 11 at the Jenin refugee camp. The following post commemorating Shireen Abu Akleh has four parts. First, there is a brief statement by a Palestinian friend on the article by Amer Zahr. The article follows, and following that is a photograph of Shireen Abu Akleh and a statement from Birzit University. We end up with another post from other friends in Palestine that I will not edit.

This is an example of resurrection, I think. An innocent person has been martyred and the Israeli military, representing the idols of death, continues to inflict hardships and repression on the Palestinian people and deny responsibility for the killing. But the people feel a stirring within themselves that they have felt before, and there is a cry for justice in Palestine and around the world. Birzit University has not let Shireen Abu Akleh die without notice or consolation, but keeps her memory alive by creating a scholarship in her name. The people mourn her, but they also talk of her as a martyr. She returns to life through Birzit University's efforts, the Palestinian resistance, and the solidarity of people around the world,

If it matters, Shireen Abu Akleh is a Christian. Amer Zahr explains below why we speak of  Shireen Abu Akleh in the present tense.    

Wanted to make sure you know our news. Sharing reflection by Amer Zahr because I agree with his words whole heartedly. (American-Palestinian comedian/activist who has performed at Taybeh Oktoberfest)

Shireen

May 11, 2022

Today, Israel assassinated Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Shireen is the face of Palestine for Al-Jazeera, the world’s most-watched Arabic-language media outlet.

Early this morning, she dressed in her press vest and helmet to once again cover the everyday horrors of Palestinian life under brutal occupation.

To be clear, Shireen was not simply executed by a single bullet precisely delivered by a single sniper. She was executed by a racist apartheid movement built on the notion that Palestinians are foreigners in our own land. Based on the belief that we don’t deserve life. And if you’re American, like I am, like Shireen is, that sniper’s bullet, and his elite training, were paid for by you and me, with the full support of our leaders.

Shireen is a daughter of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. She is a voice for the voiceless. An example. She is every Palestinian’s sister. She has told the truth about Palestine for over twenty years. And today, Israel decided that she had said enough.

And yes, I will keeping talking about Shireen in the present tense. I will never say “was” about her. That’s what they want. But they don’t get to steal her from us.

And they don’t get to steal her truth either. As if on cue, Israel immediately started telling everyone she was shot by Palestinians, while a number of Palestinian eyewitnesses and fellow journalists all told the same story: There were no Palestinians, only Israeli military, in the area.

But see, this has been Israel’s game for 74 years. They have always tried to convince you that we Palestinians have all been telling the same, unchanged, coordinated lies since 1948.

While we Palestinians are really smart, no conspiracy is that good.

In the face of a rifle that sees us as unworthy of basic human life, there is only one reason we Palestinians haven’t surrendered after all this time. And that’s because the truth resides with us.

Shireen knows that. That’s why she chose her path in life. And that’s why her work will continue, no matter what happened this morning in Jenin.

That’s why we don’t say “was” about Shireen.

I have met Shireen before. I know her as smiling, supportive, radiant, and charismatic. If you hear Shireen, you will, if nothing else, learn one unmistakable truth. She loves her people. That definitely doesn’t stop today.

That’s why we don’t say “was” about Shireen.

Shireen’s family name, Abu Akleh, means someone who is wise, thoughtful, considerate, gentle. Her love for us and for Palestine embody these things. We are lucky she is one of us.

“Is” one of us. We don’t say “was” about Shireen.

We Palestinians share a bond with one another that I’m not sure others can ever understand. Yes, it is built on a shared despair, a communal suffering, and a collective loss. But most of all, it is built on a united, pure, unshakeable truth.

Shireen knows that. That’s why we don’t say “was.”

So, next time you see a Palestinian, tell them, “I’m proud of you. I love you.” Be like the best of us. Be like Shireen.

Birzit University announces the launch of the "Sherin Abu Aqla Award for Media Excellence", an annual award aimed at Palestinian journalists, aiming to encourage creativity and ethnic media work that is part of the story of Palestine.

This award, which will be announced on May 11 of each year, comes the date of the martyrdom of journalist Sherin Abu Aqla, as a tribute to her national and media role as she contributed to reaching the Palestinian voice to the world.

The University also announced the allocation of an annual scholarship in the name of Sherin Abu Aqla to an academically distinguished media student as an encouragement of academic excellence in the media under the title of "The Martyr Sherin Abu Aqlah Scholarship for Academic Excellence in the Field of Journalism and Media"..

And another post from friends in Palestine:

The house resided by Sherin Abu Aqla.
A humble house in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, knowing that she lives alone without a husband or children, and through her salary she can live in a palace, and because she has American citizenship she can leave Palestine also and live in Wall Street or the Hawaiian Islands, for example.
Did you know that Sherin Abu Aqla supported Ramadan fast breaking for people with special needs.
Did you know that she was treating the poor and needy at her own expense
And did you know that it was stationed throughout the month of Ramadan in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Shereen was not a journalist as much as she was fighting and resisting and she got testimony shaa min shaa abi abi abi, people love for her is only divine love
(If God loves a servant, he calls in the heaven and earth, "I love someone, so love him).

"The trees are coming into leaf..."

 

Where Our Dedication To Social Change Comes From

Stubborn beauty:

The need to investigate and understand the conditions that people live under and work with
every day without prejudice:

The understanding that we are called to freedom and that the tasks of liberation commit us to a long road and a message and work of salvation:

The knowledge that the solidarity of the oppressed, the poor, the working-class, and those who suffer under the present systems of oppression is faith in action and is necessary to all of us becoming our authentic and best selves. From solidarity, authenticity, transformation and repentance, and removing the systems of oppression enemies become cooperators and justice rules:

The knowledge that were fallible, that we need to study and work together, that we need to approach one another and the tasks of liberation with humility and purpose:

That we must speak honestly from our lived experiences and listen to others without interrupted or imposing ourselves and that whatever silences the oppressed is sinful. Compassion and solidarity are our ends and our means:

That if we believe in Christ's resurrection then we must believe in the resurrection of the oppressed and the triumph of a system of life (God's Kin-dom) over a system of death and the idolatry of putting profits and war over people and creation:  

Because we have a great cloud of witnesses urging us forward:

Because we are challenged to live better and more authentic lives and we can't do that by ourselves. We find ourselves in others and through others and we come to see the image of God in others through solidarity, humility, failures and the resolve to do better, taking action and winning, introspection and communal examination and worship, and starting over every day with what we have learned and alongside those who we are traveling with:

  

Encouragement for Ramadan

 

We become God's mission---The Rev. Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski on 4-25-2022 at The Seminary of the Southwest

 

The number of hours we have together...

 

Encouragement for Orthodox Christians on Holy Friday

 

Together, we will rise!

 

Beautiful hymns of the Resurrection in Greek with iconography

 

Salem First United Methodist Church's MICAH Praise Band Performs 'Ain’t No Grave'

 

"He Has Risen — How About You?" with Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar

 

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! Christos Anesti - Christ Has Risen!-- Greek Orthodox Church

Christ is risen from the dead

Trampling down death by death

And upon those in the tombs

Bestowing life!

Christ is risen!

Truly He is risen!

 

Which Jesus are we following and praying to?

Please think about this and then consider the following statement:

"The story of the Resurrection is that 'resurrection' is more of a verb than a noun. It's something we live into; it's not merely a story we remember."--Mark Sandlin 

From St. Irene Byzantine Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon

 

Christ is risen! - Indeed, He is risen!

Христосъ воскресе! - Воистину воскресе! Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! - Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!

Hristos a înviat! - Adevărat a înviat!

¡Cristo ha resucitado! - ¡En verdad, ha resucitado!

基督复活了! 真正复活! !المسيح قام! حقاً قام