!Peace
---
agk's diary
23 December 2021 @ 21:13
---
written on X61
on livingroom couch with Evy
---
Everywhere clamors. The baby cried most of the way
home from Cincinnati, as babies do. We listened to
TrueAnon podcast OC 80. Brace and Liz grew sad and
angry about the hollowing out of society and people
as fabulous wealth accrued from victims of oxycontin
to their vampires.
Peace grew very slowly in me after that first Narco-
tics Anonymous meeting in 2007. Over weeks, months,
years, I kept going and kept not getting high. I saw
I could remedy some wreckage and befriend or forget
some enemies. In the 1930s an interviewer said to
Spanish civil war anarchist militant Buenaventura
Durruti that even if he won he would "be sitting on
a pile of ruins." Durruti said:
> We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are
> going to inherit the earth; there is not the
> slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might
> blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the
> stage of history. We carry a new world, here, in
> our hearts. That world is growing this minute.
In lectures on the political from the '50s, Hannah
Arendt said an Athenian citizen who refused to pick
sides in political conflict would be stripped of
citizenship and exiled from the city. Fighting for
the wrong side was better than faking peace.
Evy fought for the last five months for our family.
Our daughter's birth certificate and social security
cards weren't issued. Offices were closed, web
portals broken, call lines automated. Even our Nav-
igator at the clinic was often powerless. Slowly
over the last month we finally got each vital
record, Medicaid (we're insured again!), and SNAP
food assistance. Peace and comfort dawned even as
the war on social benefits continues to rage.
Christ, who proclaimed Jubilee, chose a side. He
knew every debt is someone's wealth. Universal
pardon of personal debt frees prisoners, and com-
forts widows and orphans, at creditor expense.
Matthew evoked this partisan Christ:
> Don't get the idea that I came to set up peace
> all over the world. I didn't come to establish
> peace but strife. For I came to split a man from
> his father, a daughter from her mother, ...a
> man's foes will be his own family.... The person
> who hoards his life throws it away, and the one
> who abandons his life for my cause discovers it.
The whole world cries out for partisans to take up
our flag, to fight for us in the everyday civil war
we're losing. The certainty He's nearly here, or even
already here!, always comforts the hearts of the
exhausted and afflicted.
Atyh, who reads what I write, reminded me of Mary's
Magnificat. Luke reported she sang it with Christ in
her womb after cousin Elizabeth's fetus kicked with
joy. Peace follows joy, lighting night. Sing with
Mary. Feel Christ's peace grow in you:
> My soul exalts the Lord
> And my heart exults before God my Savior.
> For he has disregarded my humble origin,
> And from now on the ages will honor me.
> Great things the Almighty did for me,
> And Holy be his name.
> From generation to generation
> His mercy showers those who fear him.
> With his strong arm
> He scatters the big boys
> Who think they’re somebody.
> He pulls thrones from under the royalty
> And gives dignity to the lowly.
> He loads the hungry with good things
> But the rich he lets go with nothing at all.
> Mindful of mercy, he gives a lift to his people
> Just as he promised our fathers --
> Abraham our father and his many descendants.
Peace wells up out of war, eternity from time, and
strength from weakness when God intersects with us.
