Resurrection for All?

Is Resurrection only for the innocent?
for Lazarus, little girls, and Christ?

No, we are promised ourselves Resurrection
of the body, our bodies, however imperfect
and our own souls, however imperfect
transformed by faith into Love
this is the greatest forgiveness.

Might we all be
no longer desiring or capable of harming others?
Might we all be
no longer afraid?

if all creation is redeemed,
then all lives can be,
have been,
will be redeemed?

Forgiveness does not obliterate justice but revenge.

(originally written April 18, 2008)

April 17, Part 2

I got a brief visit to a friend’s cell today; she has the benefit of being in the corner as the longest inmate here. It was amazing to see such an immaculate cell – she washes her floor every day. (To be honest, mine has dust bunnies). I also learned a lot of neat tricks (like where else can become a handy storage shelf.) She also showed me pictures of her adorable daughter, about two years old. Also her parents and her dog. She holds back the tears better than most. Today she also shared with us a beautiful Orthodox Easter card with a mosaic pattern of “Pantokrator” (a famous icon of Jesus which looks half-stern) and the decorated, intricate eggs.

There was a harsh exchange of words today at breakfast – a letter arrived from a woman who has now moved on to rehab. Another woman, with many drug problems herself, denigrated the woman who wrote the letter, saying that she would never get ‘clean.’ So the woman receiving the letter told the critic that it was she who would never really get ‘clean,’ and that she was a hypocrite for saying in the pod she fully intended to go use again, while saying she was clean and planned to stay that way in the A.A. meetings, etc. All in far less pleasant words. The exchange really got me thinking, about a lot of things: about lying, about planning to go back to an addiction, about who is redeemable – in the letter-writer’s defense, the third woman said, “I believe everyone deserves a second chance! And a third, fourth and fifth chance! At least she’s trying!” What book did I just finish reading? It said that if creation has been redeemed then all lives, no matter how destroyed, are capable of redemption. I was also thinking back to Levitical codes of ‘clean,’ as well as Jesus’ words about clean and unclean – and think of what it has and does mean/take to become ‘clean.’ Finally, I was thinking, it is hard for me to love this ‘hypocrite,’ though I am trying. She’s not a very pleasant person and likes to throw her weight around. She’s not very loving to the more vulnerable women. She’s been here nearly as long as my Rumanian friend, well over a year. Her parents are practicing ‘tough love’ by keeping her here and not bonding her out, which probably is the only way to keep her off the drugs, let alone the stealing to get the drugs. Will I, though, believe that every life can be redeemed? If I say I do, I must work harder to love this person.

And while I am on the topic of redeeming and loving the people near or at rock-bottom, I am led to think about others who persistently frustrate me. My ire is frequently raised by wealthy so-called liberals or progressives, especially ones who call themselves “progressive Christians,” who seem to be only after fame and fortune, treating anyone who doesn’t help them attain either like dirt.

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Women here do not work. I have heard there was a small sex scandal earlier that ended women inmates’ working, but I don’t know that for a fact. Anyway, there are about a half-dozen men who do work in the jail on a daily basis – in the kitchen in the laundry, on the custodial rounds. They wear tan scrubs instead of orange. They’re always watched by a guard, but they have some additional freedom, too. I was pondering all this during laundry rounds today – especially how remarkably natural they are about distributing women’s underwear. I would probably even be embarrassed in such a situation.

Anyway, the lack of ‘work’ doesn’t bother me. I get all the social interaction I could want and then some in our dayroom. And I am often at ‘work’ translating, transcribing, and counseling, and writing letters. Still it is a good balance of work, play, and rest – it brings additional meaning to this month rather than frustration. (Now, spending a month only playing spades and eating junk food – I might get impatient with that. But it suits others just fine, and I understand it, too. I think.)

Darkly Spinning Carousel

Tonight I went to see the Court Theater's production of Carousel, one of Rodgers' and Hammerstein's classics. I was blown away.

I think I expected something light, comic, perhaps sappy or cheesy. After all, wasn't this a Technicolor film of the fifties?

This was not that, even if one is familiar with all the songs. No, this production carried a gravitas I wholly unexpected. Here was laid out starkly the issues of turn-of-the-century industrial living that we still face today: grueling factory (sweatshop) labor, domestic violence, economic disparity and economic despair.

Now, before I go much further, I have to admit I never saw the original production or the film. YouTube provides some clips. The film I hope to rent someday; as for the play, on account of growing up poor and rural, I have missed much of the standard repertoire of even high school productions.

Still, here tonight were no carousel colors, except for the owner of the carnival ride herself, in stark contrast to the worn, faded clothes of the fishermen and mill girls. Poverty and the lack of options for women were cast at the forefront and the romances became the background, the opposite of how this has often been staged according to several sources I looked up. Billy is not so glamourous as troubled, and it is heartbreaking to see him finally come together for the purpose of raising his child right, only to careen down the wrong path for the right reasons, to his death.

The actress who played the wise cousin/gatekeeper of Heaven/graduation speaker was just remarkable. Ernestine Jackson has this beautiful deep voice for both singing and speaking, and has reknown for multiple Broadway roles, as well as some stints on 'Law and Order,' and a role in 'Bonfire of the Vanities.'

There was a disturbing theology at work in the middle of the play that I'm still mulling over. When Billy Bigelow dies, he wants to see the Judge himself, but is only assigned a local magistrate. Shortly before he dies, his friend tells him that only the wealthy ever get their cases heard by the Supreme Court, and that's what it's like in heaven, also. For me this stirs up thoughts on the current 'Prosperity Gospel: Wealth and blessing, wealth as indicative of goodness; poverty as indicative of cursedness; economic justice issues abound.
Curiously enough, heaven also offers Billy the chance to go back and attend to unfinished business. It's almost abrupt, hastened over, the actions that he takes--it's careening towards the final number. (And after I looked it up, it does this also in the movie of some decades ago).

But, in other thoughts and impressionts--what is this carousel but an empty entertainment, a colorful facade? It is good to enjoy a little for amusement but it is also the source and symbol of much pain, of broken promises and dreams. Actually, it is not much fun at all in the backdrop of the wider social problems. Is it an enigma?