Nevada

                                US 93 outside of Las Vegas, NV as seen on my trip to Nevada in 2010

 Sixty days from now I head off to my eighth trip to Nevada. By the numbers this will be my sixth drive into rural Nevada, my fourth trip solo, I have traveled with my wife Anna once and then another time with my co-worker Charles. I've gone to Nevada alone before three times - all at my own pace snapping pictures and making videos at various stops, see this link to past trips. This upcoming July trip my proposed adventure and hope for glory centers on climbing the second highest peak in Nevada,Wheeler Peak located in Great Basin National Park. My permission to go for me and then as stated to others is this is an acknowledge of my fiftieth year on the planet.  

Exploring Nevada on and off since June of 2001, the first time was just after I attended the audio visual convention Infocomm in Las Vegas, has been like slowly driving through a travel guide. A curiosity lies beyond words on a page to go down roads, paved or not, to actually experience the places and landscapes. Unlike my own state of Georgia the number of living towns in Nevada are few. This trip I go to Elko which is the seventh largest town in Nevada and if Elko were in California it would be the 216th largest. Outside of the cities of Las Vegas and Reno this is sparse land. Intriguingly at least for me, there are hundreds of named places, mostly former mining towns, which once had human life, but now these places are fading slowly back into the dust. The Paved roads of Nevada take you where want to go, however pavement is far less common in rural Nevada than it is most states east. Dirt roads stretch hundreds of miles to places most would label as nowhere. I have a small jeep lined up to take out of Salt Lake City, Utah to travel where I can go within reason. For awhile I’ll be on HWY US 50 which is officially dubbed “the Loneliest Highway in America” due to the lack of traffic you’ll see per hour. There are risks to all this wonderment; you pass signs that state “No Gas Next 80 miles”, and often there is no cell phone coverage to connect out of trouble or explain you whereabouts to family and friends. After describing my trip plans a coworker jokes,” yeah, they’ll find your bleached bones…”  

Getting Renewed

Over this past weekend the spring air was crisp, the skies were blue, and outdoor festivals abounded while I sat in a church middle school classroom with a group of fourteen plus men  with the shades pulled down to avoid the distraction of the outside world. Our cell phones and watches had been taken up  Saturday morning to be returned Sunday evening; God's time was all we knew. Why be there? I told the men despite all wonderful activities outside that weekend we were examining reality, the reality of ourselves with God. This was the men’s Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) retreat at my Catholic parish. I had been on the same retreat back in November and felt the call to help facilitate the next retreat. CRHP has been held nationally in parishes since the early seventies and three years at my parish. CRHP is a post Vatican II influenced creation and a good one at that. There is no political talk inserted nor is there any doctrinal push, rather just the Gospels standing their own along with honest witnessing about real life journeys made by grown men. This retreat is about renewing a spirit in a parish by renewing the faith of individuals.

On any CRHP retreat there is a series of “witness talks” by the men who had attended the retreat previously. I took on the task of giving a witness talk on Christian Awareness. I am not sure if I gave the “Awareness” talk envisioned in the CRHP manual, if that even matters. I was honest of my failings which mostly centered my frustration and anger at small things driven by one thing, fear. I have concluded that fear dictates an apparent need to control things at almost any cost. It's not the type of fear like fear being injured, it's fear driven by the ego. Think about the snippiness we see daily, think of your own snippiness -I certainly admitted my own. My examples included moments and questions contained in stress, all knee jerk reactions like will I be able to finish my meal with the kids screaming in a restaurant? Can I get this through this article without being interrupted? Can I finish a conversation with my wife without my children interrupting for attention?  I noted to the men that being able to fully recognize one’s fear and ego response, but yet coming to level out the negativity can bring happiness. It improves the world in and around us. Jesus said “Don’t be afraid, believe”- Mark 5:36 . If we can’t address these smaller issues of fear and ego, how can we address the larger issues of our politics, church, and the world?  I broke it all down to conclude that even if we can’t all agree on all the emphases areas that our Church presents we should all remember and focus heavily on the greatest commandment as read in Mathew 22:36-40. Now, how we truly interpret and what we really do with this commandment is where our feet truely hit the ground.

   “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

After the talk I was received with great love by the men, hugs and verbal approval, on both on the presenting and receiving sides of the retreat. The reception was an amazing moment that any honest person would want to live on and on. Honesty and faith sharing amongst men, along with sharing some lack of faith, is not always done always with ease, but when it occurs it is very satisfying and reaffirming; strength for the journey no doubt. I have wondered if other men, both church people and not, if they too could stand and be as honest with themselves and others as the men I saw share during the retreat. If we could we would be a better as a species. If this level of sharing could be widespread I know for certain just the Church itself would be much richer and more tied to reality. 

I returned home after the two full days of this retreat. With trepidation I turned on my iPhone. I made my way around the usual websites, e-mails, and of course to Facebook. I often joke that with Facebook I read minds I’d rather not read. One post caught my eye basically separated the "good and bad people "with a folksy sort of certitude. The person posting felt themselves to be in the right club or church in our world. There was a litany of “I’m of tired of those people who…” fill in the blank with problem people.  Basically, according to the post, the problems of the world are always someone else’s fault, never theirs, and frankly if you don’t agree “you’re part of the problem”.  

My belief is Jesus' life and death exposed scapegoating for what it is, hatred, violence, and endless stress. There is a lie that seeps in to daily life that believes in an artificial separation within the human race. The friend of the friend posting is a Christian with an image of the crucifixion on their Facebook page; that crucifixion illustrates both the problem and the solution and how we miss the point is a deep sadness.  I know my reposting friend in real life is meek, mild, and loving as I have experienced many times. I hope they aren’t as angry as the author of that disgruntled post.   

An author, priest, and peace activist I follow and read, Fr. John Dear tells a story in his book "Lazarus Come Forth", he once asked a group of boys he was preparing for Catholic confirmation what is the Kingdom of God? After a few answers one boy simply and beautifully said “life”. “Life” was described as happy families celebrating birthdays, people helping others, life without violence, forgiving, and letting people live and be who they truly are. It’s all pretty fantastic, however possible.  I really want to bring people towards my church and expose the real meanings of gospels and illustrate what life can be.  I want people both in the Church and outside to know that God really as nicer than the most loving person you know in your life and we can mimic this – yeah I know that’s hard work. There needs to be an examination in the Church of the artificial separation between people, basically some unlearning must occur while learning. Recently on Holy Thursday Pope Francis amongst others washed the feet of a Muslim woman in a Rome prison. The action of just washing a woman’s feet in this Holy Thursday ritual I read violates church liturgical rules, but he did it. Francis renewed Jesus' true message of service. On Sunday I washed the feet of the men who sat at my table during our CRHP retreat. The men had neared the end of the retreat. They had revealed their failings and their paths moving beyond hurt and damaged lives. Maybe symbolically I should point out that we had no access to showers or bathes during the weekend so I did the little washing that was available, remembering that we really can be renewed in smallest of ways, but any renewal is change that counts.

Lean towards Nonviolence: A Response to the Sandy Hook School Shooting

There is a lot of emotion around this terrible event in Newtown, Conn and rightfully so! Murdered adults are bad enough, but twenty young children being massacred is a horror beyond any right choice of words I have. It really wakes us up to see this violence done unto children. Going through the motions these last few days with my children and then seeing the faces of the kids taken from us in Newtown, all similar in beauty to my own, it really hits home. Often during the past election I would see the term “leaning”, as in leaning towards a particular candidate, as a nation we need to lean towards nonviolence. To lean in a new direction means to at the very least start the thought process towards thinking beyond the usual actions and reactions of the past and start believing in a nonviolent world. This process needs to happen in every sector of society.

The Newtown shootings should foster a mature vision and mindset towards weapons and their purpose. Discussion and then passage of stronger laws around guns I believe will happen, however honestly guns will never disappear either voluntarily or by law, still as citizens we should of think of nonviolence and peace first and foremost or this ancient mindless spiral of violence will continue. 

To answer what I am talking about here I have written some thoughts which are mostly moderate in tone. I am asking for soul searching in a world of violence. One sees violence in different forms between Newtown and Syria, still it is about killing or doing harm. This is a troubled world mixed paradoxically with so much good and hope.

I know not every child, teenager or adult who watches violent films or plays violent video games commits violence in time, but can we lean more towards nonviolent films and video games? I am not talking about forced censorship by government and I do well understand the art of storytelling, but we need to put violence as entertainment into a healthy perspective. It may be possible to compartmentalize your viewing of fictional violence from your reality, attitude, and judgement, but consider some self –censorship and to place your mind in a state of peace. Let’s not soak our brains in violence.  

If you wish to own a handgun to protect life and property then be sad and humbled that you feel threatened in your community and that you’ve come to this point. Be afraid of yourself, is the need for a gun an illusion or real in purpose? Sure own the gun if you must, but don’t brag about how you can take someone down who challenges your safety; rather keep that to yourself ;we need less bravado!

If you own a hunting rifle tell your family, friends, children, and know yourself that it is strictly for hunting animals, target practice,and for the reasons outlined by your local fish and game commissions, nothing more. Teach respect and safety around the sport of hunting and again teach nonviolence. 

Can we stop leaning towards hero worship of the military? While there are exceptions, mostly the military is about death and destroying for whatever reason deemed; it is their unfortunate job. Yes, do respect soldiers, just as we respect all people, but know that soldiers exist because of the spiral of violence in our world. The military is necessary to protect and defend our sovereign territory, however we should greatly question how and where that force is used and to what extent. Why do I point to the military and our wars after Newtown ? Because we need to be in peace as much as possible or we can't tell anyone that violence is wrong. There needs to be sadness about any use of force or violence in the name of justice whether necessary or not. Lean towards not using the military.

We talk about single person who killed 27 people in one attack and we are sad and outraged, however know that in a city my family has a great affection for, New Orleans, and across this nation as well, there is ongoing violence so frequent that I believe we are numb to it. Reports of violence in the local news becomes background noise or perhaps an atlas of neighborhoods to avoid and in-turn sadly ignore. 182 persons have been murdered so far in 2012 in New Orleans. One notable murder in New Orleans was of a five year old child in May who was in the wrong place at the wrong time; she was attending a birthday party! This is a case where sane persons say “everyone is violent, so I’ll be violent too.” Arguments that used to be fist fights now end in gunfire and death.

Encourage your church or place of worship to denounce violence and not to tip toe around it. It seems odd, but I heard no sermons in my particular church against war during Iraq or the ongoing Afghanistan war. In fairness we did pray for those in war-torn countries, plus there were prayers to keep soldiers out of harm’s way, and then there were prayers bring the troops home safely. I suppose prayers about bringing soldiers home safely is about peace, but is that all we can say? A least in my location there was no upfront and frank mention about the evils of war. There are many in churches, see Pax Christi and Fr. John Dear, who teach nonviolence and know that Jesus taught creative nonviolence, however it seems there are some that clergy play it safe on the subject. Christianity in it's true and radical form is about nonviolence -always. Watch the film “Romero” to get how violence should be addressed from the pulpit by courageous persons. 

I see the positioning starting after Newtown that says we need more weapons for protection; peace through strength as it appears. I'll admit peace of mind by being backed up by a gun sounds appealing, but as foolish as it may seem I don't want that world for myself nor my children, so count me out. Police in some very nuanced form near or on school campuses perhaps, but it seems counter-intuitive to the message we want to send our children about the world they should develop by sending them constantly past armed guards or arming school staff. Search for appropriate and mindful solutions that provide a message of nonviolence beyond just the good guys vs. bad guys with guns. We can't put protection in a box and say that's it - it is time to start thinking.

 I'll end with this, use the word “nonviolence” with your friends, family, and co-workers. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “The choice is no longer violence or nonviolence, it’s nonviolence or non-existence.”