{"id":3622,"date":"2020-08-28T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T04:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3622"},"modified":"2020-08-28T10:05:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T14:05:01","slug":"friday-august-28-we-live-in-exhausting-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/08\/28\/friday-august-28-we-live-in-exhausting-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday, August 28 – “We live in exhausting times”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aug 28 \u2013 learning to be welcomed<\/p>\n

The large bulletin board on our second floor, next to the copier, the fax, our snail-mail boxes, and the car keys, creates a public space for the 18 Jesuits who live here to stop and see what one or another of us has pinned as a new message wanting our attention. \u00a0 In that public space, we read messages of overwhelming violences swirling in the world \u2014 floods and hurricanes and fires leaping past the tools and energies of the people fighting to contain them, \u00a0out of scale weather, with its out of scale violence, seems to echo out of scale anger and fear in public voices. \u00a0We live in exhausting times.<\/p>\n

The national conversation about immigrants in the U.S. \u00a0is fraught with competing languages \u2014 \u201cimmigrants,\u201d \u201crefugees,\u201d \u201ccriminals.\u201d\u00a0 Pope Francis has used the public voice that follows him wherever he goes in the world to call attention to the women and men who have had to leave their home places – – \u00a0where they had learned to create a home for raising their children, a place to cook for one another, a place to sleep safely. \u00a0Francis repeatedly calls attention to the appalling numbers of people who have been forced to wander the roads of the world without the securities of what is called \u201chome,\u201d (a common estimate runs to 60,000,000); Francis compares them to Joseph, Mary, and their child when they fled soldiers seeking to kill them.<\/p>\n

His more disturbing challenge, perhaps, is the call to pay attention, to risk the knowledge of these people seeking a home. \u00a0On a day in last August, my Jesuit brother Tom Florek let us know of a gathering in our Fitness Center, a next step in \u201cStrangers No Longer,\u201d \u00a0(i.e. gatherings of immigrants with native-born citizens who try to get better at being welcomed by people other than oneself). \u00a0The Pope does not ignore the dangers that immigrant travelers risk when they have lost their place of cooking, welcoming, sleeping and playing.<\/p>\n

Have a blest weekend,<\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post: \u00a0\u201cwhat they did yesterday afternoon\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

they set my aunts house on fire
\ni cried the way women on tv do
\nfolding at the middle
\nlike a five pound note.
\ni called the boy who use to love me
\ntried to \u2018okay\u2019 my voice
\ni said\u00a0hello
\nhe said\u00a0warsan, what\u2019s wrong, what\u2019s happened?<\/p>\n

i\u2019ve been praying,
\nand these are what my prayers look like;
\ndear god
\ni come from two countries
\none is thirsty
\nthe other is on fire
\nboth need water.<\/p>\n

later that night<\/p>\n

i held an atlas in my lap
\nran my fingers across the whole world
\nand whispered
\nwhere does it hurt?<\/p>\n

it answered
\neverywhere
\neverywhere
\neverywhere.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/strong>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Warsan Shire<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01988-
\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Warsan_Shire<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aug 28 \u2013 learning to be welcomed The large bulletin board on our second floor, next to the copier, the fax, our snail-mail boxes, and the car keys, creates a public space for the 18 Jesuits who live here to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3624,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}