Adventure 597: Morro Bay State Park/Post B

Morro Haystack

It's interesting to note on the eve of lent the emphasis the pastor of St. Timothy's wrote in his weekly message: rather than give up some insignificant sacrifice for lent like alcohol or chocolate, it's better to become part of a larger ecosystem and commit to reducing water usage, commit to consuming less, commit to buying less, commit to the larger sacrifice that will be needed to preserve God's world. However, the pastor himself wasn't saying mass this morning. A visiting priest, Father John, whose agenda was more devoted to nonviolence was, and he preached from Matthew's gospel, the end part of the Sermon on the Mount, the part about loving your enemy and turning the other cheek. He said he was sixty and that he'd spent his whole priesthood preaching nonviolence all over the world in war zones and other hot spots. He's written several books, one about Gandhi whose response to the Old Testament "...eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth..." was "...all you get is blind, toothless people..." But I found more interesting the point Father John made that's it's impossible to strike a person on the right cheek. Put in context, in the ancient world, people used only their right hands. The left hand was reserved for things unclean, which meant that a person striking another would hit the left cheek. Jesus said, "turn the other cheek". He didn't say, "Hit back harder." He didn't say, "Run away." He said, "Stand with dignity in the face of oppression. So, for a person in the ancient world to be hit on the right "turned" cheek, the violent one must strike with the back of the hand in a downward arc as in beating an infidel or a servant. The act of righteous non-violence then, is to face the oppressed straight on with a turned cheek all the while loving them though they be cruel and heartless. It ain't easy, but it's worth giving Jesus a try. Maybe then life would be good for everybody, today and every day.

 Lately, we've been doting over Falcon, our newest grand child, but we have other excellent grand children. Here's Emily, intent on solving some world problem.

 Here's Sawyer, readying himself to dive into the depths.

 Here's Sarah, learning to pilot her own boat.

And all three saying, "Hey, Falcon, wake up!"

 Falcon, our little giraffe butt, nodding off.

 For all of us, the path we follow is the path we find.