Poetry is beginning to infuse our society once again with subversive themes and tones that rage against the machine we’ve become so accustomed to. This is one of those pieces that challenge us and call us to think for ourselves instead of swallowing whole what the massive media machine/industry tells us to believe and what we should be thinking about any number of topics.
How much has the church been influenced by this? What things have we allowed to win control of our minds? Makes Romans 12.1-2 seem all the more pertinent for the church to heed and follow through on.
Baseball season is upon us and it’s time to unfurl my annual pre-season predictions for this the 2009 baseball season. I’ve been waiting with great anticipation for this season because of the flurry of off-season activity between many of the teams which should make for some really interesting division races in the AL East (a three-team run), the NL East, the AL West and NL West. This years picks are much harder to select, but here goes nothing!
American League
EAST: Boston Red Sox
CENTRAL: Cleveland Indians
WEST: Oakland A’s
WILD CARD: New York Yankees
National League
EAST: Philadelphia Phillies
CENTRAL: Chicago Cubs
WEST: Arizona Diamondbacks
WILD CARD: Atlanta Braves
Reasoning AL East: Even though the Yankees spent a whopping $441 million this off-season to upgrade their team who missed the playoffs for the first time in forever, they’re in the toughest division in baseball. The Red Sox made small, quiet moves to bolster their starting rotation which boasts Brad Penny as their #5 starter and John Smolz as their #4 starter come mid-season. I don’t think the Yankees starting rotation will stay as healthy as the Red Sox throughout the season Wang, Pettite, and Burnett will more than likely go down at some point throughout the season and that’ll be that. I also prefer the offense of the Red Sox to the Yankees, as Lowell and Ortiz are coming back healthy (they were absent down the stretch last year) and the addition of Rocco Baldelli and the swap of Jason Bay for Manny should prove to make a more stable team. I like the Red Sox to win the division and see the Yankees taking the Wild Card in a heated battle with the Tampa Bay Rays. (The Sox also have some extra cash to spend mid-season, a luxury not many teams have.)
AL Central: The Indians battled a lot of injuries last year but certainly have the most talent in the division. I think we’ll also see a rebound of the Tigers this year but don’t count out the White Sox who I think are being overlooked this year. I think there will be a good battle in the Central this year but the Indians will see rebound years by Haffner and Martinez to put them over the top by 3-5 games.
AL West: The Oakland A’s have made some pretty major upgrades to their offense adding Holiday, Giambi, Cabrera, Nomar, and a healthy Chavez. This team is going to put up some big numbers offensively. The major question mark for this team is their starting rotation. The same could also be said of the Angels because of injury concerns. Even though the Angels are the favorite to win the division, Oakland is my darkhorse team to win the division. Look for Billy Beane to make some moves with the extra cash reserves he’s amassed come mid-season to bolster his pitching staff if the A’s are in contention.
NL East:This will be an unbelievable three team race and you can’t count the Braves out, which is why I think they’ll slip past the Mets and pick up the wild card slot. I like their rotation, and as long as Chipper Jones can stay healthy and the back end of their bullpen can pull through they’ll be tough. I’m not a big believer in the Mets revamped bullpen, K-Rod coming off a tremendous year is a question to continue in the limelight of New York, not to mention he’s bound to have a down year after having so much success. Putz isn’t a lock to do a great job either in the closer role and there are still massive holes in their rotation not to mention question marks in the outfield. I think the addition of Sheffield will help shore things up, but not enough to overtake the Phillies amazing offense led by Howard and Utley. The addition of Ibanez and a full season of Jayson Werth over Geoff Jenkins in right field is a big bonus. Their bullpen is strong and they’re the team to beat in the NL East.
NL Central: I don’t think there’s really much competition for the Cubs in the Central, they’ll probably run away with it by 10+ games. If there were a darkhorse team to watch for, it’d be the Cardinals, just because LaMullet (Tony LaRussa) seems to figure out ways to win with what he’s got. Carpenter and Wainwright coming back healthy this season are the keys to success for the Cardinals this year.
NL West:I think the NL West can break any number of ways, but the one thing I’m sure of–the Padres will finish in last. The Dodgers are the favorite to win the division, but I’m going with the dark horse Diamondbacks to win the division. They’re a young team with a great pitching staff, solid bullpen and good offense. I think the Dodgers let too many pitchers go from last season to really be as solid as they were. I still think the Giants are one big offensive player away from winning the division, but for some reason they stayed away from Manny and Sheffield, which I think either one would’ve put them over the top. Pitching wise the Giants are untouchable in the NL West, but their offense is pitiful and even though they made some upgrades they’re still expecting Molina to match or exceed his career year from last season–not to mention a Pujols like year from Sandoval. If the Giants add a player mid-season that’s an offensive force, they’ll win the West.
World Series:Last year I had the Cubs winning it all… this year I’ve learned my lesson… or have I? I see the Cubs and Phillies in the NLCS with the Cubs over the Braves and the Phillies over the D-Backs. This will be a 7 games series with the Cubs coming out on top and visiting the WS for the first time in 64 years. I’ll take the Red Sox as the AL Pennant winner over the Indians in a 6 game series. The Indians will dispose of the Yankees in 6 and the Sox will take care of the A’s in 5. My pick for World Series Champion? The Red Sox in 6. Cubs just won’t be able to put it all together yet again… but at least we’ll have gotten one step closer.
Thanks to Duane Chew for recommending Joe Pug and his nice slice of Americana… I also found myself returning to some Springsteen and old school Beastie Boys this week.
I’ve long been a fan of the raw, authentic, transparent nature of slam poetry but no one has captured my attention more than Anis Mojgani. Recently Soul Pancake did an interview and included a couple of videos of him in action. I highly recommend checking them out and listening to the thoughts of life, spirituality and relationship that run deep within. Below is an excerpt of the interview that Soul Pancake did with Anis on spirituality and religion. Very thought provoking responses…
On spirituality, God, and (gulp) religion…
SP: Is spirituality a trend?
AM: Sometimes I think it is. Our society is weird: It’s a non-secular society that pretends it’s secular and is filled with a people that want the benefits of religion without recognizing religion as being something beneficial. We have all these things that supply us with what we hunger for—new clothes, tasty food, hot kicks, movies, television, music—but there are aspects of our make-up that don’t get fulfilled. We’ve created a society where it’s not even kosher or cool to discuss the emptiness, the unexplainable longing that passes in and out of all our lives. I feel that is connected to the spirit. There are these moments in all of us when we are inexplicably joyous or sorrowful, but we’ve boxed ourselves up so as not to talk about this as freely as we may discuss 30 Rock or Seinfeld.
That’s why spirituality becomes trendy. There is a hunger that many of us have for some divine and spiritual connection, but there is no arena to have that without committing to a religion, which a good number of us hold zero interest for. So what to do? Well, here’s this thing “spirituality.” And it allows me to feed my soul and commune with my spirit without having to deal with the connotation of organized religion.
SP: Chanting, chakras, and chopras aside, what does being “spiritual” really mean?
AM: I believe it to refers to maintaining a connection, a communication, a relationship, with the inner mechanics of the world—the same mechanics that power us.
SP: Where does God play into all of this?
AM: God is the builder of those inner mechanics.
SP:Then why is talking about God so awkward?
AM: Cuz it’s abstract! We want to be right in our thoughts and our beliefs, and for many of us, the thought of discussing that could mean that we are wrong. And that would be bigger than being wrong about a math problem—it’s being wrong about our entire structure of being.
SP: Have you ever had a moment when you felt God?
AM: I was riding a bicycle in Savannah, Ga., and something clicked. Things made sense. The blades of grass and the size of them and how small and how big they are, and it felt like I was in the lap of something bigger than all of this. I started crying—just bawling—and then I started laughing at what a sight I must have been, crying and biking in the middle of the day, and the tears came down even more and the laughs came out even harder, and the whole time, I felt him.
SP: Do we need religion?
AM: We need a new definition of religion. I think ours is outdated? Maybe too small. I need what religion actually is, which is a way to reveal to humanity how to exist as strongly and nobly as we can—and how to maintain that.
SP: What gives ‘religion’ such a bad name?
AM: People.
SP: Would the world be better off without religion?
AM: Based on the results of what we have done in the name of religion, yes. But based on what I feel religion actually is and has the potential to be, no.
She stood there with her head hung low and a scarf over her head as she held a sign in her hand. At first I couldn’t quite make out the words but then, almost instantly, they became clear: “Sick with cancer, no health insurance. Selling crafts for treatment.” She didn’t look homeless, in fact she was recently showered and clothed in a sun dress, but the frailness of her body showed the signs of a long bout with chemotherapy and a disease that was ravaging her life.
I walked on by.
I walked by trying not to make eye contact (an easy feat considering she was looking down at the ground), unsure of what to do, trying desperately to blend into the rest of the crowd that was walking along with me to get inside the church building for Sunday worship. Together we stood, we sang and we prayed, watched some baptisms and listened about the upcoming Compassion Sunday, we listened to a sermon and were challenged by the concept of Sabbath rest and prayed again for the poor and destitute in our society, sang another song and were dismissed. We walked out the doors and again, there she stood holding a basket, head hung low, looking even more frail than she did the first time I saw her. As we got a little bit closer, Tracy prodded me to take notice, seemingly asking me to do something… but what? I didn’t know.
I walked on by.
I walked by trying not to make eye contact, unsure of what to do, trying desperately to blend into the rest of the crowd as we walked away from church…
As I hang my head low and ponder my lack of action I can’t help but find it interesting that this woman came to the church for help. She may have stood at a distance, but she knew what she was doing–coming to the church for compassion, for mercy, for love, grace, help… and we walked by. (I didn’t see a single person stop.) She came to the people, not the structure, not the organization but to the people… but the people were unprepared to help.
(I could take this as an argument for why national health care is such an important issue, this woman who was sick and potentially dying from cancer couldn’t get the treatment necessary because she didn’t have health insurance.)
What can the church do in a situation like this? What can people do? How do you attempt to tackle a problem like this?
Immediately I think about small groups–inviting her into a community that can love and care for her, offer up financial help and opportunity to pay for her care by literally adopting her into their community. I see the potential of the small group to be an emotional support to her, walking her and guiding her, praying for her and loving on her during the difficult times of treatment. Such thoughts literally brings tears to my eyes because I see that as a beautiful expression of the gospel.
A small group, however, is unable to tackle a challenge like this unless they are prepared to act–and by act I mean taking the first step. How do you not only prepare a leader for something like this, but empower them and empower a member of a small group to take such a big leap of faith, compassion and love? How do you acknowledge their step of faith and encourage them along in the process… not to mention encouraging them to do it again?
I walked on by… and I’m left with nothing but questions…
