My address is on this one…I like mail. Hint.
September 27, 2008
Boatswain’s Log September 23rd. Putting off yet another paper to blog.
It rained again today. Remember on Sunday when I said it was raining really hard? Well today I got caught out in that rain. The streets had turned to rivers and despite my umbrella I got really wet. Luckily the director of our program was there to give me a lift part of the way, he was the reason I was not completely soaked. When it started to rain so hard I started laughing. It was raining so hard that it was just silly. It felt like Jesus had told a funny joke and the punchline was that I was wet all of a sudden. That was something I wanted to share with you. We in the Northwest think we know rain, we do not. Costa Ricans know rain. I told my host mom about the rain and she responded with “That’s nothing.” I fear the day when we get real rain.
I woke up and went to class early. We had a lovely woman named Dr. Irene Folks come and talk to us about Jesus and the political/economic situation in the first century. She was really kind and elderly, but she had a doctorate and could teach really well. It was like your grandma was teaching you about the bible, but your grandma knew her stuff.
The situation in Jesus’ time is disturbingly similar to ours. Imperial government that wants to extract resources from other nations, poor people getting poorer, rich people taking land and making crops for export instead of food, local people in power scrambling to hold on to power and wealth. Interesting stuff. She made some good points about being able to see the economy of Palestine in the parables of Christ and in the fact that there were huge crowds following Him. “Didn’t they have work? How could they follow Him?” She asked. The answer was that they didn’t have work because there was not enough work to go around. She talked about the social fabric of the culture being broken down as people got poorer. It was a really interesting and sad situation. She proceeded to talk about people’s responses to the problems, but obviously focused on Christ’s perspective of announcing the Kingdom of God and denouncing what problems were about. Our goal was to learn to make Jesus’ vision of the world as our own.
One thing that stuck out was when my friend Matt asked something about the Quakers and the Mennonites and whether they were examples of escapists (she had talked about the Essenes, who in Jesus’ day lived in the desert to avoid the world) in today’s society. Firstly, a bit insulting to the three Mennonites in the room and to me who has a very good friend who happens to be a Quaker and is one of the least escapist people I know. Secondly, she responded saying that the Mennonites had been doing a fantastic job of learning Jesus’ vision and siding with the oppressed and that they had been doing it for a long time. I was pleased.
Another thing that I found interesting is that some of my friends here are getting rather frustrated with the manner in which Liberation theology stresses social action, but seems to leave out the parts about prayer, and meditation and things. I was at first very irritated especially since people from the US never hear liberation theology and the first thing they choose to do is criticize it as not being our version of understanding God. Conversely I don’t think that our North American church’s theology does a good job emphasizing the way we are supposed to live in a radically different way regarding politics and life. For us the message of the Kingdom becomes a very personal salvation that lacks other people in the mix. However, as I thought about it I suppose they have a point. While we lack the social action part, liberation theology at times (Oscar Romero is one who breaks the mold, yet again being awesome) fails to emphasize the importance of spiritual formation. After thinking about this for a bit it may be that these things are meant to be the basis by which we get to know God and then we have a nice foundation from which to engage in social action…or maybe we do both at once. I don’t know why people get so up in arms about not hearing what they have heard their entire lives.
After this I went to talk to my paper advisor (Karina) about these thoughts. She challenged lots of ideas. Things about what defines a person. Is a person defined by their actions? Things about the way we view the gospel. Things about how narrowly we define a relationship with God. It was an hour and a half conversation. Good stuff, but she kept forcing me to define my terms and we were talking in Spanish and I lacked the ability to clarify myself well. Plus they were hard questions, like “What is being in relationship with God?” I felt like it was a really great conversation, but at the same time I do my best processing after the fact. I let her get away with a few things that maybe weren’t entirely fair.
But in response to her question I think that a person is defined by what they believe, because that determines their actions or at least should do so. I eat cereal (not here obviously…I would be excited to get a bowl of grapenuts with milk and honey some morning, but I should be realistic), but eating cereal is not Chauncey. Right? I think part of Chauncey may be that he likes cereal, but by no means is eating cereal something that is essential to who I am. Especially considering the fact that here in Costa Rica I don’t eat cereal and I am still Chauncey. Some of you might say that since I don’t eat cereal here I am no longer Chauncey…I disagree. A guy named Carlos told me that “You are what you believe, and if what you believe in is a person then hopefully you will become like that person.” I like that. Also, you can tell when I am hungry by the times that I use food allegories.
After I talked to Karina I ended up deciding to go see the “Clasico” on Saturday night. This is a game of soccer that features the crosstown rivals in an intense match. I also talked to some classmate folk who seem to have this idea of me as a super-intellectual type. I realized that I come off this way in class, which is mostly the only context in which they see me…However, this is a long shot from the “Smartest dumbass” award I got at the end of the year. Clearly the folks in class don’t know me as well as the dudes on my floor did. I miss those kids. We gotta go curling again. Last time I had just stepped on a bolt.
On my way home in the rain I realized that I don’t do much at home. I get back from wherever and I end up doing homework because there isn’t much that is better to do. My family watches TV a lot, but I can’t deal with that for more than a half hour when we watch channel 7. My brothers spend a whole lot of time at church, and their friends aren’t (for the most part) super fun. In any case I asked Andres for help to find something fun to do this week. He said I should come find him tomorrow. Game on Andres. Game on.
This is my address in case you want to send me a letter or card of some sort:
Mr. Chauncey Handy
Latin American Studies Program
Apdo. 54-2070
Sabanilla, Montes de Oca
San Jose, COSTA RICA
