Woven

I was taught the chants and the spells -- l was taught how to stop the running of blood from a wound and many secrets. A priest must know many secrets -- that was what my father said.

[from “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét]

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I am convinced that we have become

a culture of our own choosing –

that we are opting ourselves

out of the world as it was intended –

and our sources of information

are one of the primary culprits.

If your "news" only confirms

what you already believe,

feeds your fears, tells you

what you want to hear

and what suits your current

socio-economic forecast,

but never challenges you

to think, believe, act,

or live in a deeper,

more profoundly relational way,

it is not news, but paid advertising

and targeted marketing

for which you are the patsy.

Withdrawal into a compound

of personal anxiety –

a cocoon of homogeneity –

leads us down the path

of communal inbreeding,

of societal self-destruction.

Artwork hanging in Hostel Los Lagos, Guatemala City

The holy call of Other

is to risk self for other;

to celebrate creation’s

amazing interweave

of diversity and difference;

to dare traveling to places

where grace breaks us open

to become bread and wine

for our sisters and brothers.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins