james' apples.
i've been mildly obsessed with this bbc/pbs documentary that i came across momentarily about a year or two ago. while at the library the other day looking for another movie, my eyes happened to cross over this same documentary that i'd been hoping to see for quite some time. skip gates made it, "america beyond the color line".
during one part of the show skip interviews some young women from the projects of chicago that are trying to make a better life for themselves. this one girl was talking about how hard it is to be the one to break the cycle of poverty in her family because in doing so she is in a lot of ways leaving her family, and, unfortunately, her family takes her aspirations as a strike against them.
it was strange to listen to this girl talk b/c somehow i knew exactly what she was talking about. how was it that i could sit there and nod my head, thinking "yes! i know how you feel!" when she is from the war zones of america and i'm from the blessed affluent suburbia? we couldn't be anymore different. in fact, other than that one sentiment, i'm not sure that we'd have a single thing in common.
i thought about it a little bit more and realized what the connection was--we're both trying to break a cycle...albeit vastly different ones. she doesn't want to need...i don't want to want. her's is a cycle of poverty, mine is a cycle of wealth. i feel a pang of guilt in equating the two, saying that it's just as bad to be rich as it is poor. but after thinking about it for a bit, it makes total sense: who does God say is blessed, and who does God say is cursed? maybe Jesus never used the phrase, "breaking the cycle of wealth", but wasn't that what he was talking about in the gospels? how interesting would it be if we talked about breaking the cycle of wealth in the same way we talk about breaking the cycle of poverty? what if we viewed both poverty and wealth as EQUALLY cancerous to our society? what if those of us living abundantly began to commit ourselves to the same aspirations--despite the opposition of our families and communities--that this girl from the ghetto did?
i'm not nearly as far along in my commitment or struggle. to even conceptualize a "cycle of wealth" is foreign to me. to try and show others that such a thing exists seems futile at best. but that's how Jesus's words sounded to the people of His day--absurd, backwards, ridiculous. that's why i think this makes so much sense.
if those of us that are working our way from the bottom up, and those of that are working our way from the top down, can meet in the middle and not walk past one another, then maybe we have a chance.
during one part of the show skip interviews some young women from the projects of chicago that are trying to make a better life for themselves. this one girl was talking about how hard it is to be the one to break the cycle of poverty in her family because in doing so she is in a lot of ways leaving her family, and, unfortunately, her family takes her aspirations as a strike against them.
it was strange to listen to this girl talk b/c somehow i knew exactly what she was talking about. how was it that i could sit there and nod my head, thinking "yes! i know how you feel!" when she is from the war zones of america and i'm from the blessed affluent suburbia? we couldn't be anymore different. in fact, other than that one sentiment, i'm not sure that we'd have a single thing in common.
i thought about it a little bit more and realized what the connection was--we're both trying to break a cycle...albeit vastly different ones. she doesn't want to need...i don't want to want. her's is a cycle of poverty, mine is a cycle of wealth. i feel a pang of guilt in equating the two, saying that it's just as bad to be rich as it is poor. but after thinking about it for a bit, it makes total sense: who does God say is blessed, and who does God say is cursed? maybe Jesus never used the phrase, "breaking the cycle of wealth", but wasn't that what he was talking about in the gospels? how interesting would it be if we talked about breaking the cycle of wealth in the same way we talk about breaking the cycle of poverty? what if we viewed both poverty and wealth as EQUALLY cancerous to our society? what if those of us living abundantly began to commit ourselves to the same aspirations--despite the opposition of our families and communities--that this girl from the ghetto did?
i'm not nearly as far along in my commitment or struggle. to even conceptualize a "cycle of wealth" is foreign to me. to try and show others that such a thing exists seems futile at best. but that's how Jesus's words sounded to the people of His day--absurd, backwards, ridiculous. that's why i think this makes so much sense.
if those of us that are working our way from the bottom up, and those of that are working our way from the top down, can meet in the middle and not walk past one another, then maybe we have a chance.