The street preachers

May 25th, 2009 by barb

I haven’t done so well with my 52nd-birthday resolution to blog more often. The software intimidates me.

I did, however, finally manage to make good on my vow to stay up late enough on Friday night to observe the street preachers at the corner of Rich Avenue and Woodland Boulevard.

My husband, Jeff Shepherd, and bassist George Sword played at Bistro 101 Friday night, May 22, and after that gig we moseyed down to Abbey to catch Blues Fuze with Sonny and Flip and all the stand-in musicians they attract.

(By the way, it is rumored this was Sonny and Flip’s last gig together. Let that not be true.)

Jeff played and Tanner danced (yes, you read that correctly), and before long it was late enough. Pat Hatfield and I walked north on the Boulevard, and there was Friday-night street preaching going on. (”Street preachers in the house,” as Sonny would say.)

We even ran into Justin Eiland, the DeLand man who tangled with the street preachers a few weeks back and got himself charged with simple battery.

People were coming in and out of The Library, Bill & Frank’s Brickhouse Grill, and Half-Time Sports Bar. None of them seemed too disturbed by the preaching. It was more background noise in a location with a lot of background noise.

Of course, it is remotely possible the preachers recognized Pat and me as newspaper reporters, and toned down their presentation in our presence. But even as we walked up the block, before we could be seen, the preaching wasn’t that loud.

Occasionally the preachers offered someone a pamphlet. I declined the one they offered me, and the offer was peacefully withdrawn.

I enjoyed the street preaching. It doesn’t bother me a bit. The oratory is skillful, and I view it as one more performance in a district full of artistic performances.

There is the planned entertainment, like Jeff and George, and Sonny and Flip, and then there’s the environmental entertainment, which includes bats flying overhead, girls in 4-inch heels and 7-inch skirts, art and other merchandise in the shop windows, street preachers calling on all of us to repent, and Tanner dancing.

It’s a wonderful mix that, for me, helps make Downtown DeLand a wonderful place.

I don’t agree with the street preachers’ message. I don’t understand God the same way they do. I do share their apparent concern for people who are handing their lives and their happiness over to alcohol.

Their presentation isn’t effective in convincing me, and I question whether it inspires anyone to convert to their viewpoint, but they believe it’s the right thing to do, and James Knox says his church is growing. I don’t feel any more inspired to convert them than I feel subject to conversion by them.

I must admit, if they were directly in front of my business, every day, I’d be asking that they consider blessing a variety of locations with their presence and their message.

But I wouldn’t ask that they stop doing their thing. Their freedom to do so is much too important.

Posted in Daily thought | 4 Comments »

Scarcity leads to war, but what leads to scarcity?

May 11th, 2009 by barb

We probably don’t need a military historian to tell us scarcity leads to war.
Just put one bowl of food down between two hungry cats that don’t like each other.

That’s what we’ve got now: war over water. Smart people have seen this war coming for years, but it looks like they weren’t smart enough to prevent it.
In a scarcity war, it’s easy to marshal alliances because both sides are afraid something they like to do is going to have to change.

“They” want more than their share. “We’re” being asked to sacrifice. “You’re wrong; I’m right.” “Our need is greater than yours, because … .”

People line up pretty quickly.

I was thinking this morning of a group of people and a magic apple pie. The pie is cut in eight pieces, and a person needs one of them every day to stay healthy. A whole new pie magically appears every morning. That’s why it’s a magic apple pie.

This is working out pretty well when there are four people. Some people eat two pieces a day, and some eat one and feed one to the dog. Nobody really comments much on what anyone else is doing. The next day there’s another pie, and more peace in the valley.

Then there are six people. There’s still peace in the valley, but you do start to hear some grumbling about the wisdom of feeding apple pie to dogs. There are a few comments about how eating two pieces a day makes a person fat.

Then there are eight people. Now we need regulation, because the people who have become used to eating two pieces a day or feeding pie to the dog have to change their ways.

Unfortunately, these people can’t be depended on to see the obvious and regulate themselves. Some people really like dogs. Others really like pie.

The new laws are for the greater good. They help to keep the peace. The new pie keeps appearing every morning.

Then there is a ninth person. Seven of the eight argue against this expansion, but one man explains he cannot harvest the apples without this additional help. Apples are important.

It is decided each of the eight will cut a piece off his or her daily slice and give it to No. 9. There’s a little stress, but people are still OK. A new pie keeps appearing every morning.

Then one evening, a person who waited until late in the day to eat finds the whole pie is gone. This person is hungry, and sounds a general alarm.

All nine people assemble. Two of them (both former dog-feeders) stand up and explain they read the law carefully, and found a provision that on every third day, one piece of pie can be fed to the dog, because the dog must be kept healthy, so it can guard the apple tree.

The dog snaps and growls. He likes pie. The stress level rises.

I’ll let you write the end to this little allegory.

Perhaps, like me, you are hoping there’s a way to work things out so the people don’t fight each other. Instead, they go to war against the real enemies: deception, denial, greed and waste.

Good luck with the story. Good luck to us.

Posted in Water | No Comments »

Going Greyhound to see my dad in the Frozen North

February 2nd, 2009 by jen

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN DUBLIN, GA., AND ATLANTA — I hadn’t been at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Daytona Beach five minutes before I was reminded why many people never do “go Greyhound.”

Arriving at the terminal, I saw there was only one other woman in the group of seven or eight people waiting for the northbound bus departing at 11:35 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29.

She was nicely dressed and carefully groomed and, with a hope for some camaraderie, I gave her a friendly smile.

She smiled back, but it had a “don’t get too close” edge.

But the brief eye contact, apparently, triggered something. She launched into a loud monologue, vaguely aimed in my direction. “My meds,” she said, “my mental meds, got left in the sun on the dashboard of a car for a month. But they injected me with them anyway, and it made fetuses grow in me. I’m going to Georgia for surgery to have them removed.”

I tried showing sympathy, but soon realized it only escalated the crazy talk. It seemed kinder, somehow, to me and her and everyone at the bus terminal who was listening, to move away and acknowledge she wasn’t really talking to me.

She wasn’t. Hardly skipping a beat, she began defending herself to someone named Eric, who wasn’t there, giving him a long list of names of men that, she promised, she had not touched.

You might think I don’t like “riding the dog,” but I do. There are disadvantages, of course, but I like traveling slowly, seeing the country, and staying only a few oversized tires above the ground.

We’re in the foothills of North Georgia now. I’m here only by the effort of a highly alert Greyhound agent who narrowly prevented my missing the right bus in Savannah early this morning. Thank you.

There are plenty of apparently quite sane people aboard. Nevertheless, I’ll see if I can’t manage to fit in.

Posted in Visit to Dad | No Comments »

Welcome

January 28th, 2009 by barb

First things first. I want to use this blog to write about many important things: growth, water, community vision, open government, the future of community newspapers.

But first things first.

There is a little crocheted bear. He’s been in the street, at the corner of South Florida and West Howry avenues in DeLand, since Tuesday morning at least.

He’s green and yellow. He’s lost. He looks loved.

This morning, he had migrated to in front of the DeLand Fire Station, so if he’s yours and you don’t see him on the street, check with the firefighters. Rescue is second nature to them.

I’m thinking about a little one whose beloved bear fell off the roof of the car, or got tossed out of the stroller on a busy day when no one noticed. I’m thinking about the parent who has run out of ways to say: Don’t cry; we’ll find him. Don’t cry; Green And Yellow Bear is having a wonderful adventure.

Green And Yellow Bear is waiting for you down on Howry Avenue. And he is having a wonderful adventure.

Yes, there are many important things to discuss and debate. But the love that is manifest in a child’s beloved, bedraggled favorite stuffed toy is pretty important, too.

First things first.

Posted in Daily thought | No Comments »