Get lost!

I really loved last week's class and our foray into psychogeography. As someone who has lived in Portland most of my adult life, I'm constantly amazed by how much I've never noticed because I'm too busy getting from A to B to enjoy the journey.

In doing a little Google searching to learn more about psychogeography and its applications, I found this app: Drift. It will literally take you on a psychogeography tour through any neighborhood by giving a series of seemingly random directions (turn left here, turn right here, etc.) I am planning to use this over the summer--I'm thinking it will make for way more interesting walks than my normal loop through my neighborhood, and encourage me to explore parts of the city I've never noticed despite living here for more than 20 years. Check it out, and let me know if you'd like to go for a walk!

Here are a few pics from our group's walk last Thursday...

I've driven by Pedro Field hundreds of times but never really thought about it as a place of community. I don't recall ever seeing a baseball game happening there (though I'm sure they've been going on), or any activity at all, so it was fascinating to me to hear Dani share her vivid childhood memories of time spent there. One thing our group didn't share in class is that while we were sitting on the bleachers reminiscing about our various adventures (and misadventures) with group sports as children, which the baseball field and Dani's stories conjured up, a person Lacey knew and hadn't seen in some time (judging by the bit of the interaction I picked up) just happened to walk by. Kind of a cool coincidence, especially in a place that I never think of as particularly pedestrian-friendly despite its close proximity to Back Cove.

Interestingly, the very next time I drove by that field, there were people playing ball (informally) there. I wonder how many times I've missed that because I was too busy to pay attention? 

The Golden Rule

Reclaiming my faith and joining HopeGateWay United Methodist Faith Community at age 40, after living most of my adult life alternating between “spiritual but not religious” and “too smart for church”, has been a profoundly moving and important personal experience. It’s also been very challenging at times, as the hate-filled behavior of people who call themselves Christians (see: Westboro Baptist Church or hundreds of other recent examples) makes me angry and ashamed to be associated in even the minutest way with anyone who claims to follow the teachings of Christ. In fact, organized religion in general gets a bad—and often well-earned—rap for hurting, alienating and shaming people who need to hear the message that they, too, are beloved children of God, the Universe or whatever higher power they may (or may not) believe in.

Today, however, I was proud of my affiliation with HopeGateWay, with Christians and other people of faith throughout our community, as I attended “Neighbors Standing Shoulder to Shoulder,” an event hosted by USM's Multicultural Student Affairs, the Maine Council of Churches, the USM Muslim Student Association, and several other groups. More than 20 people representing a wide array of faith traditions—including Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist, Quaker, Methodist, Unitarian Universalist, Catholic, Ba’hai and many others—spoke about the thread that weaves us all together: the call to love our neighbors as ourselves. A particularly powerful moment among many was when two young Muslim women spoke about the fear that rippled through their community when news of the murders of a Muslim family in Chapel Hill, NC occurred several months ago, and the challenges of having their faith judged based on the actions of people who bastardize Islam and the Koran to justify acts of violence.

One of the pastors of my church, Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, shared the following message written by pastor, poet and composer, Steve Garnaas-Holmes*, that to me was a beautiful reminder that we are more alike than different:

We are not separate things, but parts of one living Being.We are no more separate than the fingers on a hand.There is one body, and we are all it.We serve the poor because they are us.We love the stranger because in them we know ourselves.We side with the oppressed because they hold our wisdom.We honor those who are different because they complete us.We respect those who horrify us, for they are within us.We bring the Other to our table: it is theirs, for we are theirs.We include them in our compassion, for we include them.This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, that in all there is One.
There is One of us, and the oneness, the One, is Holy.

(*I do not have a reference to where this was originally published.) 

 Executive Director of Maine Council of Churches and Unitarian
Universalist pastor, Rev. Sue Gabrielson, welcomes people to the event.

Ashok Nalamalapu, representing the Hindu community, speaks.

For me, this event was an important reminder that faith communities can be vital partners with secular organizations in the work of community building, restorative justice, and social change we have talked so much about this semester.