a glimmer of hope in a weary world

yesterday was inspiringly eventful. this entry is long, but worth the read.

jo kat and i all hopped into MamaMazda (jodi's car) at around 2:30 on our way to philly for
the ani difranco concert! jodi knew this guy Chris who lived in Camden, NJ who was a friend of
the church/their family and who had just stayed at their house last weekend.. and so we had
planned to stop and get dinner at their place and have them show us around the neighborhood.
Now if you're familiar with NJ, you'll know that Camden is literally the ghetto. Until
about 2 years ago, their neighborhood was completely neglected by the government, and
absolutly no funding was designated for their area. It was looked at as a lost cause. and
it practically was.

Almost two years ago, there was this group of about 10 young people at a church in a suburb of Chicago who were informed of the area and all that was going on. They were led by their faith in Jesus Christ as their role model to this city, to this neighborhood, to this 3 story appartment located in the middle of horrible crime, prostitution, polution, and drugs and that had been abandoned for 6 years. They decided they were going to renovate this run down apparment, and make it into a home that would be the basis and network for positive and helpful deeds in the area.

When we got there (after getting lost for a great while), Chris and his wife Cassie were
standing outside the appartment waiting for us and directed us into their graveled drive way
that had a refigorater turned on its side where they threw all of their kitchen scraps until
they composited into mulch. (they were also growing all sorts of vegetables in their half-rock-filled soil) They brought us into their home and explained their vision to us. Just to quote them
correctly, part of their vision from off of their website CamdenHouse.org states, "Any
member in the house might be involved in any different type of work toward seeking justice
and/or care for the needy, addicted, orphaned, widowed, or just depressed—recognizing that
often we do not always bring the gospel to the poor in our service, but they bring it to us
in "Jesus' distressing disguise.""

I mean, I'm not religious, let alone christian, but that really really doesn't matter. What these people are doing with their lives is incredible and so inspiring, no matter what their original drive may be. It takes such courage on so many levels... from the realness of their
own safety to the hardship of hope and encouragement to keep going. So let me tell you more of what exactly they're doing.

As the man showed us around his home, one of the things he pointed out to us was a row of about 12 bikes lined up that they had collected for local kids. They started kind of a match-maker program in the neighborhood, paring up kids and bikes. After the tour of the home, we got going on the tour of the hood, and it was just crazy. About a block and a half away from their rowhouse, was a huge sewege plantation and also a licorish plantation where they made mulch. the odors were servere and pungent as we listened to chris give us a small history lesson by the water. Next stop was at a maybe 15x30 square foot fenced off garden that was basically in people's back yards. The group planted onions and mushrooms and other assorted vegetables there in hopes to bring life to a once dying area. We went to a greenhouse bought by the group after that with basically the same goal.

I can't go on in detail about all of the wonderful things they're doing (mainly because i don't know the details and i don't want to misrepresent this mission).. but being there was just amazing. we had no clue that that was what we were in for (or at least i didn't), when they said we could come get some dinner and they'd show us around their neighborhood. But the experience was definitely eye-opening. Just whitnessing the way these people lived.
Their home is communal, their meals are all communal, their praying is done in group, and
their focus is on their faith, their religion, and their love for one another, rather than
focusing on themselves. It was really beautiful to see... the whole thing was like a spec of
light, a little glimmer, that refuses to stop growing in a very dark and weary fog. They
were committed to their life style and to their hope for improving the lives of others.

The experience made me feel very much like i'm not doing enough with my life. So i hope
that through reading this, some of you may be inspired to do more for those less fortunate
than yourself... or at least be able to recognize where you stand amidst this society of
people, and how lucky you are for being there. Because that's what this whole event did for
me.

Now I didn't know that a person could feel much more inspiration in the time span of one
day, but with an ani difranco concert on the schedule, it's almost impossible to not feel
inspired. We were late for the show, so Chris and his wife sent us in the car with a tupaware of broccoli, crumpetts, grahm crackers, pretzles, some chocolate, and apples and pares for dinner. it was awesome. haha.. but after getting lost numerous more times, and asking several different people for directions, we finally arrived at the Keswick theatre! and it was beautiful. old fashioned, artsy, and in the middle of a very new england-like small town.

Ani was just incredible. She just stood there and played her heart out with her bassest at her side plucking away. As she sang I just kept thinking, 'this is a person not afraid to excell at who she is'.

I think that so much of society and so much of ourselves are telling us to conform, to be well rounded, to be stable and under control.. but i really don't believe that we're all made to be that way. ani really is an inspiration to say yes to that little voice inside your head that's begging to be acknowledged, to act on your instincts and live forth your intuitions... to go in the direction of who you are, rather than what people want or expect you to be.

am i really going to college in the fall? all this anticipation is crazy for the mind.

i really have to say thank you to kathleen and jodi for sharing so much with me and encouraging so much of who i am. i love you guys.

i could go on forever.. but i'll stop here.

make something of today