A friend of mine suggested I put some of the peace and justice issues I am concerned about together. I looked at the main ones: teaching war and killing at Marquette; racism in the city of Milwaukee; throwing certain ill people with brain illnesses in jail; reforming the local St. Vincent de Paul Society so “money belonging to poor” goes to persons in need.

One of the great abilities of people suffering from Schizophrenia is the ability to connect all kinds of persons and events. It is a fascinating traits and in some primitive cultures it was considered a god given gift to be honored.
I am now trying to create a short story trying to connect some of these diverse issues together. I am recording on my cell phone one line a day of the story but am now only finished with line three. One of the advantages of this method is that I can put a lot of thought into each line. The working title of this effort is “Altar Boy to Death Row”. In my mind I have connected two or three of the issues above but I have a ways to go. I might even throw in a few other justice and peace issues, like sexual abuse scandal in Church and the modern endless wars we are experiencing. But I do not know where the story will go. I will type up the recordings and when the story is finished will publish it on www.nonviolentcow.org.

A fictional story, be it a parable or a short story, is sometimes the best way to go to send a message. When you write a good parable, like “Thy Kingdom Come on Earth as it is in Heaven” some friends say “nice job” and ignore the message; some get upset and take it personally; others just ignore it; a few like it and understand it. When people are uncomfortable with a story or parable, unless they have “ears to hear”, you know you have struck something deep within.

I find myself writing this short store with the perspective of white, working and middle class American. I cannot look at life events as a black man or Hispanic although points of the story will resonate with these groups if they read it. How does one go from being an altar boy to being on death row? Hopefully I can make the connections flow.

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.