How Do You Go the Distance in Daily Urban Life?

I snuck into the office early this morning to grab a few things and to check on a room set-up before my house and the neighborhood woke up. The only person out on MacArthur Blvd. was this public works guy who was painting the new bike lane on the street in front of the church. I paused for a moment, taking in his perseverance. He followed a traced line, with his head down to make sure he stayed between the lines, and occasionally looking up to ensure he knew where he was going. I was struck by the simplicity of the scene and the deep existential challenge/truth that it holds for us that call Oakland home, or who live in urban zones.

It's so easy to give up, to get negative, to get apathetic and to eventually become pathetic - a constant pessimist, low-expectation-holder, someone who retreats into themselves in order to self-protect, self-medicate or self-dedicate. In reading the paper this morning I was inundated with hopelessness: deaths, destruction, a family swept out to sea and then [this] about the current and unavoidable future budget implosion in Oakland. It's so easy to give up, or to want to avoid. I ran into the resident street philosopher of my hood - Corn Dog, aka Crazy57Bus - who in our musings asked why people want to avoid or deny that there is danger and destruction out there? How come we don't talk about murders in our neighborhood - not in the intent to dwell on them - but to ensure, encourage and challenge each other to be safe and to be radical in our mutual solidarity? C57B brought up that we jump on people as 'negative' when in fact they're simply stating the obvious - that we shouldn't forget and that we should look through and past. It's a lot like that street painter...focused on the little lines in front of him, with his head down - but he knows where he's going - that there is a bigger picture - a wider perspective and goal then simply painting a line.

I'm preparing a sermon for Sunday on radical discipleship in Mark 6:1-13 - in fact Jesus seems to tell his listeners who follow him to expect rejection. Hmmm. Maybe Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

One Oaklander's Garbage....

We're nearly done packing and cleaning up our house 

as we prepare to move to France in August.  Our renter is moving in this weekend - so the rush has been on.  It's amazing to realize, or to take in, how much junk we've piled up, saved and stockpiled away, just in case....  Of course that case never seem to have come for most of the stuff.

We scheduled a bulky pick-up for tomorrow morning.   We made the appointment weeks ago in order to cash in on our yearly trash-a-rama freebie.  In our packing frenzy, we finished laying out all of the garbage/recycling in the 3 sections as per Waste Management about 10pm.  As I was transporting everything to the sidewalk a man pulled up, stopped exactly in front of our house and asked if we have any metal and what kind we did have.  It's now 12:15am and another van is just leaving.  The couple has been in front of our house, going through everything for the past 45 minutes. I had a nice conversation with them as they scavenged our garbage for un-discovered treasurers.  I wonder how they found us?  Did they get our address from Waste Management? They sure didn't seem to just be cruising the neighborhoods of East Oakland looking for bulky pick-ups.  If they are, they're lucky to have seen our trash heap in the darkness of our block.  Funny how one person's garbage is another person's treasurer.  I keep coming back to the wondering about how we were found.  Does Waste Management distribute a pick-up schedule and map to professional scavengers in advance?