X Pectations

I once read an ethnography of rural Africa.  It described life among folk who practiced subsistence agriculture.  Among these folk, if one of their's came home having fallen on hard times, the extended family   often the whole community could give the returnee a piece of land to work.  The work could bring in  a few vegetables  or support fowl and eggs.  The family / community had enough flexibility that they could absorb a person in need.

In our urban sophisticated environments we prohibit selling two or three cigarettes lest taxa go unpaid. Begging on the streets upsets citizens expectations.  The list goes on.

A regiment of activists -- self - appointed and otherwise -- trip over themselves and the well intention ed  to shout at us that we lack heart, authenticity,  or compassion because we do not take up their sure fire solution to the problems of the homelss.

And, always we hear the chant so earnestly mumbled
   
     Hey Hey
     Ho Ho
     This and that
     Has got to go.

All of this will trail off into cul de sacs of self pitying  recriminations against the system and or the man.

And, Now, I the ultimate self pitying, self-aggrandizing, meretricious,  all time huckster  proclaim the following.

Fitting uncle Clyde into a small plot of land in the back forty -- provided that he will work ---  or the barn, or shack or whatever out building we might have in Bohunkus Bummphuque  is one thing.  Here in our most ordinary, unloved,  unnecessary places on earth job descriptions have loose boundaries.   All you have to do is refrain from drunkenness while the women remain awake.  Say no evil thing.  And, eat whatever we put before you.

In urban settings, however,  one often must read at an eigth grade lever or higher.   Skill sets must have clear definnitions including editions, versions, and dates.   Certificates, licenses, and identifications must all bear recent dates and staps.   All this being extant, we will let you in line to job hgunt.  

In short, the urban setting these days requires high levels of precision.  And most folk feel justified in these requirements.

So, I wonder if many of the homeless SIMPLY don't    fit into newer smaller tighter more brittle slots.



 

Wild Boar

In keeping with my persona as pedant, auto didact, and wild boar:
The following 

The old Roman gods never had a personal relationship with any Roman person.  No senator, general or emperor ever had Jupitor or Hermes say directly that the god would be their god and they, the people, would be the god's people.  

The meaning of the ritual surrounding the worship dealt with the well being of the Roman State and the performance of the various liturgies before the gods.  The exact performance kept the pathways between the State and the gods open.  Thus, the State secured the favour of the gods. 

Christian liturgical worship seems to have suffered somewhat from this notion.  While, on the one hand, Jungian types assert that a good liturgy stirs something deep in our psychos in ways that no sermon can.  On the other hand, we run the risk of making a fetish out of one or   many aspects of the liturgy. 

The OCD factor in my personality leaves me open to this.  I have done this both in low  and high church environments.  I can still find myself like the dog chasing the car and having caught up with it, ... You know the rest.   It's hell on the teeth.

Korea Korea

Aren't we all amazed at all this Korea stuff?  I was  until   a friend pointed out that Chinashares a boarder with both Koreans.  

China does not want a North Korea on its  boarder which dances to a USA tune.   China would also view with great alarm a unified Korea which dances to U. S. A. tunes. 

And now some history.  
The beginning:
In the middle of the nineteenth century, Britan and to a small extent the U. S.  approached China seeking trade.  To which the Chinese said that Britan had nothing that China wanted.  Imagine that!

 And so, Britan introduces opium into China.  China freaks out: Voila, war.   This happens twice.   Like, no wonder China doesn't like / trust us.  

1. China doesn't want to trade with us -- until computers made the scene. 
2. China wants to be the big dog with no equals.

The rest of the history and the present doings, including the Korean war, follow from the basic Chinese stance.