all the gifts of God are gifts we possess. If God is an expression of life and love and is brimming with beauty, creativity, joy, wonder and oneness, then that is what we are meant to be. I spent the past several days falling in love again with our one-year old granddaughter, Ava. She and her mom and dad flew in from Portland, Oregon to help celebrate my in-laws’ 60th wedding anniversary, my 65th birthday and of course, Ava’s very first birthday. For the most part, the majority of time was spent sitting around and marveling at this beautiful and intelligent new addition to our family.
Watching Ava grow and learn, even in the short time she was here, made me wonder about her soul. I believe she has one, but I ponder when did she get it. At inception? At birth? Somewhere in between? And, how does her soul relate to her as a growing person? Is the soul fully formed in a child and only waiting for our intellect to catch up? These are questions many have been grappling with for centuries. The literature is full of articles, and treatises on the issue of whether mankind is imbued with an eternal soul and how that does or does not play out in day to day life. I believe that each of us must find our own answer to this fundamental question; one that resonates as truth to us; one we can rely on because we found the answer through our own journey, rather than accept some dogma or belief from an ancient religion. I suppose that’s the Quaker part of me. As I approach this question, here are some foundational truths in which I believe: Each soul is a unique expression of the individual and it will survive beyond death. Like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, I believe that we are – at our core – a spiritual being living in a temporal body. These are beliefs I have consistently held for quite some time. Where I am less certain is how or whether our souls relate to God and whether the soul is eternal, meaning it has always been and will always be. It seems to me that the question of whether the soul is eternal is linked intimately the question of how the soul relates to God. If the soul is not eternal, then it appears that the function of the soul might be to serve as a conduit to God. One could think of the soul as the cosmic receiver of the message of God. This reminds me of the Sistine Chapel painting by Michelangelo depicting the creation of Adam where God is reaching out his finger, nearly touching the finger of Adam: the transmission of soul from God to man. (By the way, I don’t think of God as a person as shown in this painting. I use the pronoun “he” only for convenience. To me, God is energy, light, wisdom, and love). The other possibility is that the soul is the very essence of God, reflecting all his love, mercy and wisdom into each of us (if we would only listen). It is easier to believe that the soul is merely a conduit to God and is not the essence of God. If the soul is God’s essence, then we would have to accept the idea that each of us is a son or daughter of God. If our souls are God expressing himself as each of us, then all the gifts of God are gifts we possess. If God is an expression of life and love and is brimming with beauty, creativity, joy, wonder and oneness, then that is what we are meant to be. It is not that we are a mere reflection of God. Rather, God is projecting himself as us! How special is that? This idea that the soul is God’s projection of each of us brings to mind the poem by Gerard Manly Hopkins, As Kingfishers Catch Fire and that pinnacle phrase within the poem which extolls: “What I do is me: for that I came.” That phrase conveys the idea that we come into being for the express purpose of uniquely experiencing the world as who we are. Are we an expression of God, wanting to see the world from our perspective or are we independent beings who are simply hot-wired to God through our soul? No one can really say for sure. But what I do know is this: that I and Ava and each of us is unique to all the universe and through all of time. The world seen through our eyes is a world that can’t be seen by anyone else. Watching Ava play and take her first steps, I just knew she was precious and loving and unique. But, until I pondered the richness of her soul, I didn’t realize the full uniqueness and wonder of this child. Ava – like each of us – is a beloved child of God.
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We Americans are ready to help a person in need once we hear their story, but we will fight vociferously against raising taxes to accomplish the same good Americans possess both a generous heart and a stingy spirit. A popular crowdfunding source recently reported that donors gave over $930 Million to individuals who resort to these sites as their last hope of raising funds for life-threatening medical procedures. In fact, if you go to the popular crowdfunding site GoFundMe, you will see their lead ad touting the site as a great place to “raise money for medical bills.”
I must admit I am conflicted over all of this. On one hand, I see this outpouring of generosity as truly something to celebrate: nearly a billion dollars donated by regular folks like you and me to support the medical needs of others. This demonstrates that when people hear of the specific story of someone in pain, they will respond rapidly and generously. On the other hand, I find it disturbing that so many must resort to publicly beg for funds in order to cover the costs of their medical care. This has become so prevalent that one of the crowdfunding executives described his site as a “digital safety-net”. What I find ironic about this is that we Americans are ready to help a person in need once we hear their story, but we will fight vociferously against raising taxes to accomplish the same good. There are many who support cuts in Medicaid – the government funded health care for those who are poor or who have a disability – yet will think nothing of donating money to help an impoverished child obtain a critical operation. Some argue that too many people abuse public services and tax dollars are wasted on those who don’t deserve to be helped. I suspect this is the heart of the matter: who is deserving of our money and our assistance and who is not. What is it in the human heart that can be so generous and yet so cold? I get it, that people choose where they spend their philanthropic dollars, but may feel forced to pay taxes and often for services they don’t use or don’t support. I don’t support the idea that over $600 billion in federal taxes is spent on the military. But I pay my taxes anyway and work to convince my elected officials that the dollars spent on war and war preparation can be better spent and with a higher social return for such things as early childhood education and healthcare for all. If you want the freedom to choose, then you have it. Choose those elected officials who will support your point of view or work to remove them. That is a very real choice. Maybe it’s all in the marketing. Someone should start a marketing campaign to convince the public that paying taxes is nothing more than giving money to a crowdfunding site. Paying taxes is simply a group of citizens pooling funds to provide education, healthcare, housing, food, disaster relief to our fellow citizens in need. Think of our local, state and national government as merely an old-school version of a crowdsourcing site raising funds to ensure that the basic necessities of life are provided for everyone. If our budget is our truest mission statement, then how we spend our money says more about our values than any other measure I can think of. If we were more generous with our tax dollars, perhaps the next time a child requires an expensive medical procedure, the family won’t have to beg for funds to save her life. Our crowdfunded taxes will have already provided for that. We say we are a Republic - but I fear we have become an Oligarchy: a government where a small group of people exercise control for corrupt and selfish reasons. Now I know what it must have been like to live in Rome at the time of the Coliseum games when gladiators and slaves were pitted against each other in a struggle to the death and the rulers in the stands would lift their thumbs up or down deciding who should live or die. Is it any different today as 24 million Americans are thrown into the arena and are forced to struggle and even to die for lack of health care? In my mind, I picture the president, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and 216 other Republican congressmen in unison giving a celebratory thumbs down, condemning millions to a life without affordable and reliable health care. What makes this even worse is the fact that these politicians heartlessly cut medical coverage for the poor and used the savings to give big tax cuts to the wealthy. And no small wonder here, since most of those in congress are millionaires. For a sobering exercise, just peruse through the list of congressional millionaires compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. For me, it was a nauseating experience to see how the wealthy are legislating benefits for themselves while taking away vital services from the rest of us. If you’re wondering how the Wisconsin congressional delegation stacks up in the millionaire decision maker club, below is a chart. This information was extrapolated from data supplied by the Center for Responsive Politics.
As you can see from the chart, except for Rep. Duffy, it was primarily a group of Republican millionaires in the Wisconsin congressional delegation who voted thumbs down on ensuring health care benefits for those most in need. While viewing this chart, it is helpful to remember: all Wisconsin Republicans voted for the health care claw back and all Democrats were opposed. I have a hard time understanding how anyone can make this decision while sitting in such a position of wealth and privilege. Creating a political “win” seemed to be much more important than caring for those who are less well off. And perhaps even more important was creating the health care tax cuts, to set up another round of tax savings for the wealthy in the upcoming tax reform exercise recently promoted by the president. What is most disheartening about all of this is the level of dishonesty; the unwillingness of the Republican decision makers to own up to what it is they are doing to the American public. This was best stated by Washington Post columnists Jennifer Rubin who wrote: “House Republicans have been so fixated on passing anything that they now find it hard to defend their handiwork without resort to exaggeration, deflection and flat-out dishonesty” And so, we have the Republican millionaire dominated congress vote to take health care away from 24 million Americans; to defund Medicaid to the tune of $880 Billion dollars; and to use those “savings” to provide tax cuts to the wealthy. This is what America has come to be: a land where our actions don’t live up to our values.
We say we are a Republic, but I fear we have become an Oligarchy: a government where a small group of people exercise control for corrupt and selfish reasons. Let the games begin. The dangers we ascribe to others are the same dangers embodied in ourselves. Building a wall won't protect us. It will only serve to further isolate us from the warmth and beauty of our gracious neighbors. I had the privilege recently to take a cultural immersion tour of the Baja peninsula of Mexico and I can say that the people I’ve met don’t in any way reflect the description of them depicted by Donald Trump and his supporters. What I have found is a people who embody a sense of faith, family and community.
In San Diego at the start of the tour, I attended a lecture on the border region of Tijuana and San Diego conducted by Dr. Norma Iglesias Prieto from the San Diego University Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. She showed how over 130,000 people per day cross that vital border between the two countries, most of whom do so for work. Why? One reason is the fact that the average hourly wage in San Diego is $11.00 while in Tijuana it is fifty cents or $4.00 per day. It is becoming increasingly difficult to secure the documents needed to travel for work from Mexico to America, causing additional economic strain on an already stressed region. The American government plan to further complicate the border crossing will only exacerbate an already difficult situation for people whose main motivation is to improve the lives of their families. From San Diego, we traveled to the port city of Ensenada where it was Sunday; a day set aside for family. The museums and parks were open and free for families to visit. At the museum I toured, there was a play being performed for the children who sat in the audience close to the stage as their parents sat behind, watching with amusement as the children laughed and enjoyed a story of a prince and a princess. As I strolled along the boardwalk of Ensenada, I saw teems of families – grandparents, moms, dads and children - walking together, enjoying ice cream or stopping to listen to one of the several Mariachi bands playing in the park or on the a boardwalk. Next stop was Catavina, a tiny community of less than 200 people. In Catavina, there is only a one-room school for all children attending grades first - eighth, taught by a single teacher. We were introduced to three, eighth grade students who told us their plans for high school and beyond. One wanted to be a psychologist, another a veterinarian and the third a mechanic. We also learned about how the community bands together to ensure that every young girl can have her own, very special Quinceanera. This is only possible because the entire town chips in to help. One mom will help make the dress, several others will supply the food, other community members will play music and the church will donate the church hall for the event. No one family can afford this special rite of passage celebration for their daughter, but together, the entire community can ensure that no one is left out. In San Quintin, we learned about the Mexican Ejido. An Ejido (pronounced Eh-He-Doe) is a form of land cooperative instituted by the government at the end of the Mexican revolution in the early 1900’s. Community members identify land owned by the very rich which isn’t being put to productive use. These families can petition the government to allow them access to work the land and reap the benefits of their labor. The Ejido has been recently under attack, but it has also expanded beyond agriculture and now includes opportunities for Ejido members to take advantage of the growing Mexico tourism industry. For example, in La Bufadora there is a spot where the ocean will roar into a small passageway and then burst up over 30 feet into the air between a rock crevice. This has become a tourist attraction. An Ejido was established near this site and now, dozens of Ejido merchants line the street leading up to the blow hole selling crafts, food and other items the tourists may purchase. Without the Ejido, none of these families would have an opportunity to reap the benefits of the tourism dollars. In St. Ignacio, a town of about 1,000 people, there is a beautiful town square that is dominated by a Mission church, built in the late 1700s. There, we met a teacher who is working with middle school students and preparing them to compete in a state music competition. In order to help the students raise the money needed to attend the competition, the teacher travels from restaurant to restaurant, serenading customers and using the tips he receives to help defray the cost of the trip. Without the determination of this talented teacher, these children could never afford to attend this event which will most certainly expand their world view. One of the saddest encounters we had with the people of Mexico was in the tiny town of In Santa Rosalia. There, we were approached by a group of elementary school children, still in their school uniforms, who seemed to want to practice their English. They spoke halting English while our group was equally challenged in speaking Spanish. But through our combined efforts, we could communicate. What we learned – in this unsolicited conversation with the children – was that they were deeply troubled by the talk of America building a border wall, and they were disturbed over how their own country was being portrayed. These children live hundreds of miles from the American border, but that did not lessen the profound impact they felt from the deteriorating relationship between our two countries. Donald Trump depicts the Mexican people as “bad hombres”; as rapists, murderers and drug dealers. That is unfortunate. On my tour of this rugged Baja peninsula, I found only people with a warm and welcoming heart whose core values of faith, family and community were lived out in their daily interaction and in how they treat their guests and their neighbors. We say we want to build a wall along the Mexico border to protect America. But the dangers we ascribe to others are the same dangers we embody in ourselves. Building a wall won’t protect us, it will only serve to further isolate us from the warmth and beauty of our gracious neighbors. |
AuthorMichael Soika has been a community activist for more than 30 years working on issues of social and economic justice. His work for justice is anchored by his spiritual formation first as a Catholic and now as a Quaker. Archives
June 2018
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