Table Dancing

In Breathing Space on page 121 to 122 Neumark tells of the story of Crystabel. This story was a little disturbing for me. I understand the mother is trying to make a living, but when she has kids to take care of I feel it is only just for her to find a different job. Obviously, no one watches after her children while she is gone because at 11:00 at night this 5-year old is ringing Neumark's doorbell to play on a school-night. If Ms. magazine followed through with "Taking-Our-Daughters-to-Work-Day", I can only imagine how this would effect families like Crystabel's. 

The sad part is there are people in the world today like Crystabel and her family. I believe it is unjust and something should be done. 

Justice

So at the beginning of the semester we were asked to define the definition of justice. Justice can be perceived from so many different viewpoints of people. In chapter 11, Heschel writes about justice. As I was reading, it made me form my original definition around what he was saying.

"Justice is not an ancient custom, a human convention, a value, but a transcendent demand, freighted with divine concern. It is not only a relationship between man and man, it is an act involving God, a divine need." (page 253)

"Justice is as much a necessity as breathing is, and a constant occupation." (page 254)

"Justice is strict and exact, giving each person his due." (page 256)

"Justice is scarce, injustice exceedingly common." (page 261)

God wants us to "seek justice." We can't expect to come before God doing injustice to our own brothers. Reading this made me think I should act more justly to everyone around me because that is what God wants... kinda like "treat others the way you want to be treated."

Justice Project

I have chosen to do a research paper concerning infant mortality for my project. I have found online sites that have provided useful sources. I originally thought about volunteering, but I decided it was too late. However, some challenges I am going to face is narrowing my topic. I will also have to make sure I link my research to justice or injustice so that I do not focus only on research. My to-do list over roughly the next month is to conduct more research, narrow my topic, and begin writing my paper.

Heschel and King

As I was viewing the links assigned for today's post, it really made to relate Heschel and King. From the first clip about Heschel, I gathered some information about him. He opposed war and said it caused "death of innocent people". During his life, the Holocaust took place, which formed Heschel viewpoint of racisim and other violence of humans beginning with language. However, through all these violent acts Heschel never blamed God, he said it was man's fault. Heschel describes God as one who weeps with man, and participates in the violence. The prophets inspired Heschel to speak out against the world's evils. His ancestors inspired him to celebrate life. Heschel goal towards others was to reach the heart. He was often recognized for his spiritual powers he felt (inevitible) and his deep spirituality. Like King, he fought for equal rights. He believed he was carrying out God's will and lived by what her taught. From the information provided about Heschel, him and King seem to have the same aspects of beliefs and actions from different situations and events. 

Isaiah

As I was reading through Isaiah 50-53 these verses spoke to me:

"It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment." (Isaiah 50:9-11)

Everyone has a time in their life when it feels like you're stumbling through life in the dark. It is one of those adventures in life where you are trying to find your way and can't see where to go. Life is hard, figuring out who you are, what you want out of life, what's important to you, and figuring out what you truly believe. This verse gives me an inspiration: don't try to find your way by yourself with light in darkness, it will only hurt you in the end. Instead, trust and rely on God to show you the way through life. He will then be the light and light up the darkness. 

God and Dorothy Day

So, as we were assigned the 5-minute writing in class Friday, it really made me think about God's role in Dorothy Day. So this is what I have concluded:

In Day, we start with a young girl who was not taught or forced a religion in her home life. She prayed and believed he was real. However, she soon realizes that she has been taken advantage of him and comes to a point in her life where she is exploring a new world on her own. She reflects back on times when she did not have God in her life and realizes better decisions could have been made with his help. When Day gives birth to her daughter, love overflows. She believes it is crucial for her to have to find it. Finding God's love is not easy as she has to reject her own husband to join the Catholic church, which she finds necessary. Day feels that finding God's love her is not only important for her, but also important for her daughter. 

In Isaiah I cam across a passage that I really liked. (page 109)

" ' I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips' (6:5). Being unclean (literally: polluted) is a state of estrangement, a state in which one is kept away from the holy."

When I read this passage, I interpreted it as Isaiah believing we are all sinners including him self. I believe this passage is very important for everyone to realize because even though he is a prophet it does not make him perfect. I remember being younger and thinking a prophet must be someone special to God. However, that's not the case and here Isaiah is saying: " I'm just like everyone else."

In Day's book on page 181 it reads: "We have always acknowledged the primacy of the spiritual, and to have undertaken a life of silence, manual labor and prayer might have been the better way. But I do not know. God gives us our temperaments, and in spite of my pacifism, it is natural for me to stand my ground, to continue in what actually amounts to a class war..." Day does not seem to seriously question what has been done and what could have happen if things were done differently, but she realizes there could have been a different outcome. My all time favorite quote is: everything that happens is for a reason. Day seems to feel that way. She is saying things could have been different, but they weren't. God has made everything the way he has planned it to be.