Sunday, September 16, 2007

Stories from New Orleans.

Living and spending time in New Orleans has inevitably put my in contact with lots of different people and spending time in the Quarter means that you will have people come up to you asking for money.

i'm undergoing a personal war trying to decide how i feel about giving money to people who ask for it on the streets. In my heart there's a mixture of compassion and complete mistrust, so which do i listen to, and what is right in the situation? i'm still figuring that out. i think i'd rather give the benefit of the doubt and make a mistake than allow my heart to close up to people that need help, but the lines here are way more blurry to me than that.

Well, here's two stories i do have. Now that i think about it, they are very supportive of giving people money, but i'll tell them and let you think through them. This probably fits in with the idea that the bad stories are usually the most noticeable...

The first week i was here in New Orleans our team went out to dinner to get to know each other better. After a nice dinner of blackened catfish (i think my first time eating catfish), we stopped by an ice cream shop and sat outside enjoying it. While we were sitting in black chairs with twisty metalwork (that's an apt description of the chairs i think) around a small round table a man walked up to us and asked for change for something. Change isnt a big deal, i might've actually given him some change, but i didnt and neither did anyone on my team. So he asked us, "Do you even have change?" i'm assuming (which can be dangerous) that none of us had any change because some people answered his question and as Christians, we try not to lie. The guy ended up slapping a penny on our table and saying, "i feel bad for people without any change on them. In fact, i feel so sorry i'm going to give you a penny so that you can have change."

It took a few minutes for that to sink in, but after five or so minutes. i felt so violated. i didnt have change and by that point i'm glad i didnt have any to give him. After thinking so much about the concept of "boundaries" i think that man could not handle us not having change to give him, and probably couldnt accept a no from us either. He probably thought we were lying to him, i can see that side of the argument, but that was one of the meanest, scathing comments i've heard from someone. i still have the penny, it's sittiing on my mirror on my dresser. i think i'm going to hand out pennies to people when i feel guilted into something.

The second story is similar. When we were waiting around to go into Jackson Square for a candlelight vigil for the second year anniversary of Katrina a guy came up to the girls on a bike and handed them a flower. He obviously expected money and then he said, "five dollars to help the homeless get a hot dog?" Ok, i can see that. $5 sounds expensive for just a hot dog, but yeah, $5 for a meal sounds resonable. They gave him some money and it wasnt much. So he took the flower away from them and gave them a less impressive one, it was not red but white and looked fairly wilted.

That seems less mean to me, and more understandable than the other guy, but something still rubs me the wrong way with that and i havent figured out exactly what it is yet. It seems disingenuous (?) Is that the right word? It seems deceiving or devious or something like that.

Stories from New Orleans.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

maria full of grace


maria full of grace
Originally uploaded by jugglingnutcase.
Here's my second attempt at some art. i'm still trying to figure out how to use those complicated photo editing programs.

And now for something completely different...

Today i got to meet some magicians (illusionists?) and we had dinner together. And of course, during dinner, Ken had to mention that i juggled. After sharing a little bit of my spiel, i closed with this great one-liner, "i just like to manipulate things."

That got all the grief you can imagine a statement like that getting. i eventually found myself quoting Star Wars, waving my hand around the table saying, "You will buy me dinner."

Sorry i havent been posting as regularly. There's plenty to post about, but i've been lazy. Though i will say that having a computer desk makes all the difference in the world. i was much less inclined to use the computer when it involved being hunched over on my floor.

Til the next one, soak it in and see what you think.