blaming Michelangelo for my fascination with art, religion, and naked men
Restaurants,
comic clips,
cats and dogs,
don’t make it
to the feed
right now.
I open the news
in trepidation.
Who have they
terrorized
today?
Whose fear
brought them
pleasure?
Whose distress
made them feel
powerful?
How can the
church lady
post
Disneyland pics
while her heroes
destroy
her neighbor
as herself?
Nelson Mandela’s death reminds me of all the great men and women who put their lives on the line for peace and justice, especial those of my childhood.
As a kid in Catholic grade school in the 1960s I was very aware of what the “reason for the season” really was. It was something more powerful than Santas kneeling before a manger, a fish on a bumper sticker, or a fight in a mall parking lot over being wished the wrong happiness.
We were taught that the message of the first Christmas was the longed-for good news of the coming of peace and justice to those who needed it most: the poor, the war-torn, the oppressed, and to ourselves when we recognize our humble role in the story. The great messengers of my childhood were not just from MY church or MY country, but from all over OUR world, and these men and women literally risked their lives for it.
I was bullied in grade school. I hate bullying passionately. It breaks my heart. It makes me angry.
But I was disturbed by this story about a Ft. Hood, Texas father who, upon hearing that his son was bulling his fourth-grade classmates, forced him to stand at a busy intersection holding a hot pink sign that read, “I am a bully. Honk if you hate bullies.” The father made the case that “we don’t need another Columbine.”
Continue reading “bullying & empathy: honk if you hate bullies”
The interesting thing for me about this story is how often public responses have included the word “empathy,” raising issue with many conservative leaders’ inability to empathize with anyone who is considered “other” to them.
seeing god naked 