Life of Chuck, Vigil, Victory vs Love
The Capital lights just went on as we left the vigil on Wednesday. photo credit LeeAnne Watkins
So This is Helping . . .
Reflections from the Vigil at the Capital
So This is Helping . . .
Some reflections on the assignations in Minnesota.
They will know we are Christians by our Love
So This is Helping . . .
And this bit from Jon Stewart. It’s his monologue from Monday. One of his best. Here’s the transcript from what I think is the best part:
One is too many. One is too many. One death. By the way, true. It is too many. Violence should never be accepted. It should never be tolerated. But that's for their issue. In the wake of Sandy Hook, and Uvalde, and Parkland, and El Paso, and Lewiston, and Aurora, and Buffalo, and Boulder, and Binghamton, and Highland Park, and Monterey Park, and San Bernardino, and San Jose, and San Francisco, and the Pulse nightclub, and the Colorado Springs nightclub, and the Little Rock nightclub, and the Borderline Bar in Thousand Oaks, and the Ned Peppers Bar in Dayton, and the Waffle House in Nashville, and Virginia Tech, and UVA, and MSU, and UCSB, and FSU, and NIU, and SMC, and the Sutherland Springs Church , and the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, and the Living Church of God, and the Tree of Life Synagogue, and the Allen Mall, and the Westroads Mall, and Fort Hood, and Lockheed Martin-- and what are we fucking doing? What are we doing?
By the way-- by the way, that is a wildly incomplete list. We kept it to the last 25 years, and it's still not everything. …
Turns out, when it comes to mass shootings, one's not too many. Actually, a shitload isn't too many. And by the way, you can say Second Amendment all you want, but you definitely don't seem to mind throwing out the Constitution when it comes to deportation. And I am legitimately asking this question. This is truly legitimate. Like, I know I can be, like-- but I am genuinely baffled.
Why is it when a foreigner or someone that shouldn't be here kills one of us, we're going to put $150 billion into border security? We're going to militarize our cities. We're going to spend trillions of dollars to bomb and destabilize foreign countries overseas. We're going to ban people from random countries from ever [BLEEP] visiting here. We're going to take our shoes off at the airport forever. But when we do it to ourselves, nothing. Is it that the only acceptable deaths are those that are made in America?
Our only response now is to tally up the psycho scoreboard on whose side the perp belongs to? I honestly would like to know. Like, it makes no sense. It's jarring cognitive dissonance.
-Jon Stewart
So This is Helping . . .
This movie. The Life of Chuck. It’s officially risen to the top 5 of my favorite movies. Seriously. And I’ve had a pretty intractable list for decades. So intricate and beautiful and surprising and hopeful and mind bending and intelligent and non-cynical and just, damn. Go see this movie in the theatre quick before it leaves. I’ve seen it twice now.
Go forth, dear ones, with the time we have, in love. Not victory. Not vitriol. Not violence. Lest we lose our way, here’s a little something to guide us:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”