Important School Issues

I've been told it is important to give keep a professional appearance while working here at the highschool- so I always wear a button-up collared shirt with short sleeves.  With dress pants and shoes and a cross around my neck, I have been told I look very clerical.  Day in, day out, that is how the students see me - and the rule is that they call Jesuit novices and candidates 'brother'. 

The students are very friendly and where ever I walk, stepping along the crowded grounds over the hot, sub-baked concrete, students stop to say "hello, brother".

This morning I showed up in the same attire as usual only to find that it was one of those themed days during which the students don't have to wear a uniform.  It seemed fine as most teachers keep their participation minimal it seems.  So we carried on with business as usual.  The students were decked out in gaudy white, black, and red: Jesuit colours and also the school colours.  There were a lot of girls wearing sequined red bows in their hair, etc. 

But I went home for lunch and found some black jeans and my red t-shirt: all topped off with my awesome Jesuit baseball cap: red black and white with an IHS on the front.

It was like I'd come back in a martian costume.  All the kids were giving my high-fives and acting like they couldn't recognize me. The joke went a bit too far when a gaggle of female students started hollering that I was 'Justin Bieber'.  We're both Canadian and the similarity ends there. 

Because it was a 'Spirit Day' I taught them a little bit about Edmund Campion, the saint for whom the school was named.  But after that subject was exhausted, I declared a 'free period' in which students could work on their own, read, or chat quietly. 

Some bored students asked to have a discussion.  So I took a page from the book of the venerable Fr. Joe Mroz and gave a lecture on Zombie Survival.  The kids learned that chainsaws wear down and stop working when they get blood in the gears and that strong melee weapons are preferable to guns because of the need for ammunition.  The ideal equipment is a katana, the samurai sword being designed for repeated and effective wear and tear.  Let the schoolboard never say that Jesuit religion teachers do not prepare kids to face the practical difficulties of real life.

It's good that I can be playful with the students.  Otherwise both them and I would quickly drive each other crazy.  Although there's a case to be made that I'm already on the cusp... :>

The Gold Standard

I often have a little trouble converting in my head from Jamaican dollars to Canadian dollars and vice versa.  I finally found a scale I could understand.

Snickers Bar: $130 J

That's all I really need to know.

The Father General

There was a very big meeting of the heads of provinces for the Jesuits of the U.S., Canada, and the English-Speaking Caribbean here in Jamaica over the past week.  I observed this on the periphery, but the tone of the meetings looks hopeful and there is an emphasis on cooperation and sharing people and expertise between provinces.

I had the great honour to attend mass with the provincials and the General.  Fr. Adolfo  Nicolas was born in Spain but has lived much of his life in Japan.  He's the Jesuit who was elected head of the Society a few years back in Rome, for those who don't know.

Speaking purely for myself, I was impressed with him as a person.  He seems spiritual and kind with a witty sense of humour and a creative imagination.  At the same time, his vision is very pragmatic and realistic.

He was happy to shake my hand and chat with me for a minute or so during the social following mass.  He certainly doesn't put on any airs.  He indulged my curiosity about Japanese culture.  He seems like he has a lot of fond memories of the time he spent in Asia. 

I was happy to get to meet him and hear more specifically about his impressions of the current church and his vision for the society.  I'm looking forward to seeing where we're going in the next few years.  Nobody needs to consult me: but ny opinion is that we have a very good man at the helm.

My life here in Kingston remains interesting.  I still spend most of my time teaching my five religion classes.  The students are creative and many of them are quite skilled critical thinkers.  I'm working on harnessing that energy.  In the meantime I've had some good chats one-on-one with students about their faith, prayer, inner life, and of course, comic books.

It was nice to break up that routine with a glimpse of the international society hard at work, looking to build up apostolic effectiveness from the ground up rather than impose directives from the top-down.  The prevailing attitude is that there are real and important challenges: but that these go hand in hand with important opportunities to see where God is calling and to follow.

Flagrant disregard for the title of the blog

Hello friends.  I have become a member of the highschool's poetry club.  I've found it a lot of fun: the members are very bright and explore every form of poetry one can imagine, including rap and ska.  I have no aspirations in these areas, but I have been asked to compose something to present to the club.

It is pretentious, pedantic, and pithy.  But it was fun to write.  I reproduce it here...

A Poem
by Eric

A poem

The sole reason I even
Tend to lift up my pen
Is to find internal rhyme
And what do I do then?

I play with the way
The verse rolls and unfolds
To see hidden meanings
And stories untold

But if language is all
that's a small way to dodge
The feelings that reading
The text may dislodge

If form over substance
Conforms ev'ry instance
Of tears that I've cried into
Rhymes I deride
Then in truth I'm aloof
And have not yet supplied

A poem

Falls

A few weeks back we drove across the island to the north shore to see the beach.  There was a great deal of beautiful scenery along the way.

Kingston is a busy, dusty, noisy place, but it doesn't take long to drive into the more peaceful parts of the country.  The forests are incredibly lush and the road through the center of the island us carved from rolling rock and thickly growing trees.  The effect is most often that of a tunnel, the green light filtering through dense leaves above.  With the windows down, you can smell the rich air rolling past. 

It takes just under two hours to get to the north shore.  We stopped for lunch and had jerked pork.  Jerked meat is very spicy and loosened my sinuses quite a bit, but it is incredibly tasty.  They also serve it with 'festival bread' which is a sort of fried breadroll that is, in my opinion, the apex of the culinary arts.

Our destination was Dunn's River Falls.  It's a little touristy; in fact while waiting in line I met a bunch of Quebecois tourists on holiday.  I had fun showing off and speaking French with them.  They were quite friendly and happy to meet a fellow canuck.

The falls themselves are marvelous.  We made our way down a series of footpaths, watching the small river turn to rapids before cascading down rugged rocks towards the sea.  We followed it all the way down and looked up from the sand on the beach to see the white, rushing streams of cold, clear water.

I didn't take any pictures, but fortunately google has plenty of images of the very waterfall we saw.

After taking in the sights we made way for big lines of tourists, who rented rock climbing shoes and actually made their way with guides up the falls.  It's certainly a way to beat the heat.  But it being January, the Jamaicans complained of the cold.  It must have been 20-25 degrees C. (75 F)

The beach, however, was delightful and full of pale yellow sand.  There were plenty of palm trees and the surf really did look a lighter blue than you'd find anywhere in Canada.  I did jump into the slightly-below-room-temperature water for a splash and found it totally relaxing.   I felt the extremely salty taste brush my lips.  Also, it's easier to float in very salty water I think: I seemed to find it much easier to swim.  But mostly I just floated about and watched the huge waves from the endless ocean roll slowly over the horizon and endlessly buoy me up... and down... over and over again.  It was very cosmic.

On the drive back, we listened to Jamaican Radio, an endless iteration of club and dance mixes blended into one another and mixed together by a DJ who, in a land of DJs, must be indeed skilled to earn his position.  The songs don't start and stop, but carry over into eachother, borrowing basslines or looped choruses.  It was interesting to listen to.

Also, I started getting to know my host, a member of the Jesuit community, a bit better.  We shared some of the more important aspects of our faith and our hopes for our future lives as Jesuits.  For both of us, the radical power of God's forgiveness was an extremely important theme.  As night fell, I felt I was home, talking with my friend.  

I miss all of my friends, scattered across the globe.  But it makes me happy to write to you and share something of my experiences.  Be well!

Superheroes and Social Justice

Batman, Superman, and Catholic Social Teaching: Seeking Justice

I was worried that my students wouldn't be interested in a discussion on Justice.  They've heard it before and their textbook is rather wooden.  I had enjoyed great success with comic-book analogies in other classes so today I took a chance and did a discussion on Justice through the lens of superheroes.

I began class by writing 'justice' on the board.  The class groaned.  I chuckled,  "I don't want to hear ypur definition of justice," I said, "neither do I want a textbook definition.  I want to hear, according to you, what Batman's definition of justice is."

And we were off.  Batman seems to believe in good and tries to help people by saving them from criminals.  He does believe some people are evil and must be stopped.

Does he believe in legal justice?  He doesn't kill but rather leaves criminals tied up for the police.  It is legal in the US to stop a crime in progress.  However, you are required to identify yourself and testify as to your conduct.  Batman hides his identity.  Furthermore, he breaks the law by using illegal equipment, conducting illegal searches, even beating up people for information.  Thus he has some idea of justice that is beyond the law.

Superman seems to uphold the law and encourages good citizenship.  Again he conceals his identity and perhaps doesn't adhere to certain legal restrictions on travel.  Most often though, he responds to legal authorities.  However, would superman obey an unjust law?  He seems to believe there is more to justice than legal justice.

Is there such a thing as an unjust law?  I gave the example of the legal sale of water rights by a government to a corporation.  Locals may be unable to access their water or have it sold back to them at inflated prices.  We the church believe that all human beings have a natural dignity and are therefore entitled as a right to access the basic resources needed to survive.  Water, for instance, might better be considered the property of all people than of a government.

So we got to thinking about distributive justice.  It's fair if we all have equal access to resources, that seems just.  However, said one student, what about super powers.  Why should some have access to them and others not?

If we all had powers, another student replied, some of us would be heroes but many of us would be villains.

"I'd be a villain," I said, "just look at my beard."

My example was that mere distributive fairness was insufficient for justice.  Suppose one person had a broken leg and among the ten of us we had one wheelchair.  Strict distributive justice gives us all equal access... perhaps we'd each use the wheelchair one tenth of the time.  This seems unfair because the one with the broken leg has a greater need.

At this point I had to break and look through my notes for a second.  I asked the class who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman.  There was a moment of silence, then a quick eruption as factions broke out.  Every class I've ever been in has become fierce and passionate on this issue.  I think perhaps the two heroes are a reflection of who we identify with and what we admire about ourselves.  Anyway, it's totally Batman :)

I also described commutative justice.  This basically means the fair assigning of the use of goods and services.  It's not purely distributive but rather involves giving and getting and trading by using our freedom.  Two dollars for a loaf of bread.  The free market works this way and gives us easier access to many things.

I brought up the moral problem of someone be stranded and starving.  I might sell him the loaf of bread for ten thousand dollars.  If he has the money, it might be worth it for him.  But something about the example doesn't seem fair.  So too, the free market can prevent the poor from accessing basic necessities to the benefit of the rich.  I don't propose we abandon the free market... but something greater than commutative, legal, or distributive justice is needed.

Social justice is interesting because it tries to change the conditions of society that lead to problems.  For instance, it might regulate a higher minimum wage.  Batman and Superman both work for social justice.  Batman's wealthy corporations create fair working conditions and contribute to many charities.  Superman, as Clark Kent, is a reporter who increases awareness in the world of social problems.

A question was asked, "is social justice like Robin Hood?  Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor?"

"Or the Green Arrow?" we suggested.

I remarked that our Christian understanding of human dignity includes not only that we have the right to basic necessities, but we also have God's gift of creativity.  Most all of us are able to work in order to supply our needs.  Robin Hood tactics undermine this dignity because people get something without having to work.  Not so bad, but according to our belief system, it would be far better if people got a decent wage for the work they did do.  The question of social justice is not 'how do we get money to the poor?'.  Rather it is, 'why is there poverty to begin with?'.  Most often the social and structural causes are complex and require a lot of work to understand and fix.

We had a lot of fun going back and forth in these discussions and I think we all learned something in class today.  Eventually, I'd like to make the case that divine justice is that which we must all seek.  But first we have to try and explore what we mean by justice.

Jus Dweet

The school days are long beneath the hot sun.  I'm enjoying myself... but I have a fair bit of marking to do.

The Jamaican youth are surprisingly well-read in comic-book lore.  It has made my discussion of 'Justice' in class much easier to approach :>  Although there were bitter rivalries developed when I posed the class the famous Batman vs. Superman in a fight conundrum. 

And I side with the Batman camp.  I find those who side with superman favour powers and practicality.  While those who side with Batman give much weight narrative and the rules of drama.  That's the thing in a comic-book world: the weakest can defeat the strongest if only the narrative is well-served.

I also found a book called "Understanding Jamaican Patois".  Jamaican English has an accent, but it is not a patois.  The patois is completely its own dialogue and even has its own phonetic spellings.  I've seen people speaking patois quoted in the newspaper sometimes.

Examples:
"Jus Dweet" = Just do it
"one-one" = one by one, indicating moving small amounts
"im dun goo" = he's performed well

I am no linguist and there is much about the culture I do not know.  But it's good to at least know that someone cared enough about it to write a book on the subject.  I'll never understand all the intricacies of the culture and language... but I want to be open to learning what I can.

Comic-books at least, are a sort of shared cultural touchstone.  It made me feel quite at home.