From Kelly's blog...

My thoughts exactly...

" Tonight at femma we wrote letters to legislators regarding domestic violence as a pre-existing condition for health insurance coverage and baked chocolate-chip cookies. Even while passionate letters were handwritten, a funk hung about the group, not unlike the funk that has been plaguing us the past few weeks.

It is hard to live in this neighborhood. When the boys lived here and we drove in from Cville almost nightly, I didn’t notice it. There’s something about the hopelessness that permeates every street corner interaction or handful of broken glass littering the street. Though the neighborhood was the first settled of our state, the trees are young and small. Everything is decayed and nothing is colorful except for neon signs and pawn shop windows– and even those are covered with “the Franklinton film.” That’s what I call the dull and filmy coat hanging over everything from Mount Carmel to the Hilltop. Cigarette smoke, city pollution, oil and dirt rubbed off of last months clothes, and spilled Cobra. This morning biking to street church, Ashley heard a man yelling violently at his wife (an obscenely regular occurence on front porches and streets) and she yelled, “I HATE THIS PLACE!”

It’s just that ills are not kept behind walls in Franklinton. Everything is so overwhelmingly not behind walls that it is, in fact, strewn all over the overgrown lawn. It is this explicitness that makes for a difficult transition. Or, at least, a sudden and undiluted one.

We do have new neighbors to our left, which we have been waiting for. It is a family of six, and the three boys play football in our front median. They are a delightful family– we have already gotten to share some tomatoes and yard tools with them. So far we have seen them communicate very lovingly and respectfully to each other, which is a relief.

It is nice to finally see our homeless friends in passing throughout the week instead of at one designated time, and indeed helps the area feel like home. I would feel more threatened by random passersby if they didn’t smile familiarly and call us “sissy.”

I paint a bleak picture. It’s what I see but not what I hope for."

New house... new fun...

The woman in the middle is our rev

The St Johns crew came over to do a house a blessing for our new place. Those Episcopals... they have prayers for every occasion, including moving into a new house. They have really been behind the seven of us through our transition to the west side and our attempts to bring justice where we desire to see it. They are all ages and all personalities but all incredible justice seekers and freedom fighters (and they like to go out and get a beer afterward). There is much to learn from this group of people. It is nice to have a community in the bigger sense of the word to support us like this.

Did I mention that the six of us just became the seven of us? We had another brother move in with us... and his name is Jonathan too. We decided to stop accepting Jonathan's to be our friends because now we have three of them living in this house. So our family of seven is getting comfy in our new home.

Thoughts on community... and sharing

The move is complete (thankfully). We fit the six of us into our first communal house in, of all places, the bottoms of Columbus. The house is incredible. Our house sits on three lots and we have a few vegetables growing right now but the potential garden (farm) that I see every time I get home is something to really believe in. We have so much room in the yard to farm, and yesterday we finally started getting serious with our overgrown weeds that are consuming our yard. We put on our gardening boots, gloves, and music (which, in case you were wondering is Dead Prez and Mos Def), made some slammin iced tea with nectarines in it, cranked up the jams, gathered some friends, and got to work. The yard is definitely a place of peace, life, growth, death, Resurrection, and joy. The inside is even more wonderful... we have crazy colored walls, bikes hanging all over them, and a collection of not one but six peoples belongings. We have a lovely little chapel in the basement with stone walls and a stone bench all the way around it. We have some Jesus and Mother Mary candles in front of this delicate little confessional alter next to our wailing wall, a place of solitude and power.

I feel as though there is a large misunderstanding about the choice of neighborhood, or the choice of living in community… but here is one small example of why it makes sense to me…

Sunday night, Kelly and I took our free bread we get from street church, hopped on our bikes and went to the T.G.'s house which is about seven blocks, we chatted with them, scored some sweet corn growing in their garden, and were on our way. Then we went up to the Kauffman's house, dropped off our bread to them, peeped in on the chickens, and went home with our corn to cook dinner with our 4 other housemates. We made a delicious stuffed zucchini, all with vegetables that are growing in season, and in our gardens, sat around the table and got to share our meal with others living in the community, Heather, Rachel, and Jon. Then the boys took off for some "guys time", and us girls stuck around and watched some slam poetry that was inspiring, as usual. Sharing in this manner helps me to believe that we could face anything in this world and get through it together by sharing what we have and depending on each other. What beauty in this community.

Then on Wednesday night, Kelly and I were out near our house getting some dinner when we were approached by a younger guy asking for a ride if we were heading west. The furthest west we were going was only about three blocks, but decided to talk to the kid anyways. He was traveling from Virginia to Utah to visit his family and decided to hitchhike the entire way. He had made it this far and got dropped off in the bottoms. He was looking to camp in the area and we strongly advised him not to. He was exhausted, needed a shower, and somewhere comfortable to sleep. After some discussion with the others in the house, the boys went back to get him and bring him in for the night. Paul, the traveler, was able to stay with us, shower, and eat with us because this is something we believe in. We believe in hospitality even if it inconveniences us. We believe in taking care of people and the freedom to do so because we have shared resources and shared space which really does make things safer. We take good care of each other so we can then take care of others. It is beautiful how these situations can arise simply from where you plant yourself.

It is nice having people coming in and out all the time, it is nice having visitors and people to feed and people to share meals with, it is nice to show people around who have heard about what is going on and are interested in community and taking care of their neighbors, it is nice having new neighbors knock on our door and ask if they can cut our grass to make some money when they don't have other forms of work, it is nice waking up to 5 other people and being able to laugh and enjoy each others company in the morning. Much to learn, much to experience, and so very much to do.

Back to the garden with our iced tea and dead prez, and in his words...

"Ain't nobody in the hood got hope in this fucked up system and that's why we don't vote"

Odd note to end on, I realize, but that lyric has been on my mind.

Hope.

Yellow Springs adventure...

Yesterday, Patience and I decided to take a last minute day trip down to Yellow Springs to do some hiking at John Bryan State Park. The car ride down was just as fun as the rest of the day... we jammed out to a variety of things... including Phantom of the Opera which Patience put me to shame at.

We packed a picnic, a camera, some sun screen, and some reading material and set off on a five hour hike into the woods. No one was around which made it feel like a real adventure. We admired the sights, jumped in the water, climbed some rocks, and talked to mother nature (and naturally) she talked back.

We found a spot at the top of the gorge, over looking the water, with a blue heron wading below us catching herself some fish that seemed very fitting for some slam poetry. We pulled out our "Daughters of Wisdom" book ( a gift from Ben) and our Thich Nhat Hahn, climbed up the wooden overlook and read to the blue heron, each other, and all of nature.
It was hugely liberating and incredibly empowering and I think I even saw the blue heron throw up her freedom fist.



Our picnic ended up getting smushed, but we enjoyed the PB & J sandwiches anyways... along with five hours of conversation. If you are looking for an escape and a day of peace... take to the woods!

We came home and slept and eventually ended up in the flooding streets of Franklinton, without power, in the pouring rain. It was liberating to be out there and feeling the rain come down that hard. It was cleansing. Then we finally made one of our dreams come true... we grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the house, and washed our hair in the rain. That, my friends, is true.

Community

Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970's:

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.

West side wiffle ball...

An impromptu game of wiffle ball came upon us last Tuesday which started what I think will be a weekly event...

Our rain brother friend Jonathan called the game together so we congregated on Martin and headed over to Dodge Park for the big game. We had an awesome turn out and a lot of fun.


This weeks wiffle ball Tuesday consisted of playing ultimate frisbee in the West Park median... next week will be kick ball.

Nothing like a good old game of wiffle ball in the ghetto...

It's a west side time...

This is an exciting time for our community...

Brian and Heather T.G. just closed on their yellow west side house yesterday... and it was a holy moment. Kelly, Jonny, Jed, Hannah, Greg, Brian, Heather and I all gathered at the new house last night... taped up the kitchen for painting purposes and worked side by side til it was done. Then, in the empty house, we opened a bottle of champagne and had a toast... to Brian and Heather and their new home, to the kingdom in the bottoms, to jed and hannah and their plans to move with us, to our new community house on west park, to kelly's birthday, and to each other... to our little family.

It was a powerful time to say the least. More than anything, this is so exciting because our dreams are coming true... and we are doing it together...

More to come...