“Ignoring” by Peter Graf
(The Diary of Worm will be on a ‘time out’ till Oct. 5th — see below)
When I was a youth minister and creating a ‘rap persona’ I wanted to use the name ‘outcast’. However, the youth I was working with at the time told me a group already had that name. So I choose the name ‘reject’ and went on to an inglorious career as a rap guy.
I was reminded of that today when I heard that a leader of a local peace and justice group ‘resigned’ after just a short stay. I do not know the circumstances of his ‘resignation’ but do know when I ‘resigned’ from a group unplanned it meant I was pushed out, or as some may say “fired.”
Being rejected or an outcast by good persons, I have found in my experience, is much harder than being forced to resign or being fired by bad guys.
This news of a potential new member of the ‘outcast’ club came today after I got three emails and phone calls from persons who wanted to come to my presentation on “Conversation with Mahatma Gandhi and St. Ignatius of Loyola on nonviolence and sustainability.”, but could not afford the high fee for the conference. Since many of my friends are poor, voluntarily or non-voluntarily, and one that wrote this morning needed to save his money for medical treatment, I decided to write the organizers of the conference asking about some fee reductions for peace and justice persons who could not afford it. I was happy to hear from them that some events were free and registration had been reduced to $25 for regular persons and only $15 for students or persons of low income. I thanked them since now that the poor, marginalized and outcast can come I might have someone attending my session.
I can joke about being a ‘reject’ but for many persons, especially those in poverty, is not a funny matter. There are too many outcasts in our society.
On this note, I will take some time out from posting on this Diary of the Worm till Monday. It will be a time to celebrate a family wedding, and a time to remember friends and family past. If you need a replacement for these posts (which I highly doubt) check out these three holidays we will celebrate the next few days: Oct. 1st is celebration of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (the “Little Flower”); Oct. 2 is the celebration of the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi; and Oct. 4th is the celebration of St. Francis of Assisi. All three are great persons of peace who made little things count. Dorothy Day called this way of living, seen clearly in life of St. Thérèse, the ‘little way.’
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