Beach houses, protest posters, and peace-making according to me

I love this two months off thing. I went out for drinks after my women’s group last night, secure in the knowledge that I wouldn’t have to pay for it by crawling into work this morning, although I do think that I’m not going to make a habit of ingesting beer, onion rings, and part of a chocolate soufflé cake at 11:30 pm. I spent a couple of hours writing today, which was going well until a somewhat unbalanced woman in the coffee shop wandered over to my table and started reading my stuff out very loud, which put a bit of a halt to my creative process. I have no idea what’s going on in the world right now. I know that Reagan died and Detroit is leading the series 2-1, but that’s about it. I’m pretty sure the world is getting along without me.

I’ve learned the art of taking a vacation now and then. I know what happened when I saw the road signs that said “Burnout – Next 3 Exits”, and kept on driving for another 200 miles until I crashed into a cactus in Death Valley, which was not my intended destination. I remember when someone asked me at a conference once what I did for fun, and I was stumped by the question, as protests, committee meetings, mentoring troubled teenagers, and running from the voices in my head don’t exactly constitute recreational activities.

I may have to learn the hard way, but I can be taught. I’m actually feeling rather hopeful and encouraged and fifty-seven times healthier than I’ve been in years. I go out and do fun things solely for the purpose of amusing myself, so I might be achieving shaky levels of semi-balance. I still end up talking politics or social policy at parties a fair amount, but I’m not sure that can be helped. I’ve tried to broaden my social circle to include people who aren’t in education, social work, health care, or urban ministry types. I can’t quite seem to do it though, as I seem to attract save-the-world types everywhere I go. I was at an event at a club in Santa Monica a while ago. The sole purpose of the evening was to drink and dance, and I somehow managed to have an hour-long conversation with a guy who built affordable housing for low-income families.

Still, I’m a lot more mellow and non-judgmental these days. All I have to do is say that I’m a lefty, though, and some people think I’m going to beat them over the head with a protest poster while screaming nasty things about globalization. I’m going to a party this weekend at a beach house on Balboa Island, and the lovely woman who invited me seems to think I’m all geared up to debate war and politics with the mostly conservative crowd. (Note to wealthy people everywhere: I’m far less likely to criticize conspicuous consumption if you let me stay at your beach house.)

I tried to reassure her that really, I just want to lie on the beach, chill, and take a boat ride. My plan is not to burn Dubya in effigy, make pro-Palestinian posters, and end the evening by dancing on Reagan’s grave. I’m on vacation, honey - Market action figures of John Ashcroft if you like. I really don’t care.

Still, because I hate to be misunderstood, I think a definition of pacifism according to Christy is in order, since that is the organizing principle of my political opinions and I keep running into people who seem to have a connotation for the word that I don’t share. (I should probably read more theology from the traditional peace churches to expand my intellectual understanding of the subject, but I have a really short attention span these days for abstract theology.) I’m not a pacifist because I believe that the world is sunshine and doughnuts, and if we could all just feel the love, everything would be groovy. I’m a pacifist because I believe the world is hard and unfair, violence disproportionately affects the poor and powerless, and I am all too aware of my own violent tendencies. Rather than being a passive thing, being a pacifist should be about actively trying to be a peace-maker in my daily life.

Being anti-war is easy. Peace-making is hard. I suck at it sometimes, but I’m pretty sure I would be much worse at it if I wasn’t even trying. There is no peace without justice, so peace-making has to be about trying to create spaces where both I and the structures around me are treating people with the respect that all image-bearers of God deserve.

I believe that the means are the ends, so I can’t build something good based on anger or fear or disrespect or trying to shove a particular political platform down anybody’s throat. Most of us have come to our particular opinions through our lived experience, not logical arguments, so talking myself hoarse probably won’t change anybody’s mind. I voted Republican until I was 26, and it wasn’t some left-wing book that changed my mind. It was my experience of living in communities full of poor people, and realizing that things didn’t work too well there. The roads were worse, the sewer mains backed up every time it rained, the L didn’t run as often, it took 45 minutes for the police to show up after a 9-1-1 call, and the school across the street from my house was so decrepit that visitors to my block would ask if it was abandoned. Since I was living in a city dominated by Democrats, I skipped that party entirely and went straight to being a lefty-independent. I’ve found that if I want a person to have a different opinion or world view, it works better to expose them to a different reality than it does to expose them to a different argument.

There is most definitely a place for critique, and I admit that I can’t always locate the line between necessary deconstruction and angry ranting. While I hate to let my talent for verbal evisceration go to waste, I am discovering that I’d rather work on being something different than what I criticize. What we need more of are creative alternatives to the individual and systemic violence in the world. Alternatives expand our view of what is possible, and give us the vocabulary to talk about solutions, instead of who to blame, and what we can build, instead of what we should tear down.

Comments

[jenell]

Sunshine and donuts...mmm... I think the sentence that begins, "I remember when someone asked me what I do for fun" through the next paragraph should be developed into a book. It made me laugh like Ann Lamott makes me laugh! Not that your problems themselves are funny, but the words you use to describe them are.

[bobbie]

"What we need more of are creative alternatives to the individual and systemic violence in the world." that's what i want to be a part of! thank you for your inspiring post. enjoy the beach!

[Christy]

I love being told I managed to be funny and inspiring, all in the same post. I shall most definitely enjoy the beach.

[rudy]

"Being anti-war is easy. Peace-making is hard."

I hereby declare that I'm going to appropriate this (steal this) and use it in my speaking and writing. I officially give credit to you, Christy. But do I have to share my honorariums, too?

[Christy]

Heck yeah, Rudy - I want a cut of the profits! Should I be expecting a check in the mail soon?