4 - 3 - 2 - 1 Church

Holy Thursday: In the midst of a priest talking in a flurry of Spanish, I slid into an open pew towards the back of the church. Apparently the bulletin had been wrong: the mass started at 7:00, not 7:30. Flipping through the leaflet of translations I had been handed upon entering, I eventually deciphered we were in the midst of the Gospel. Back and forth we went, Spanish to English, English to Spanish, through songs, responses, prayers, and blessings, until at last we found ourselves on our knees with incense in the air and Latin on our tongues. Before the Blessed Sacrament, we finally rested in our common language: silence.

Become What You Receive

I just savored the last bite of a chocolate macadamia nut cookie from The Famous 4th Street Cookie Company at Reading Terminal Market here in Philadelphia. I'm on a mission to buy something from every single stand in Reading Terminal. At over 80 merchants, this is quite the challenge. So today, after buying bread and vegetables from my standard vendors, I settled on a cookie for my "something new". Thick, chewy, with the chocolate chips still gooey, it was a very satisfying choice.

What I eat is a significant part of how I experience the world. It seems I'm always making decisions about consumption: organic or conventional, price or quality, local or imported, dairy or meat. Sometimes I am very conscious about my purchasing choices regarding what's best for the world, or what I believe in when it comes to agriculture. But lately, I've mostly been making decisions based on the depth of my wallet, which is consistently slim. Yet, I try to justify my choices as having some benefit in line with my beliefs. "Oh, this isn't helping an organic farmer and therefore fighting subsidies one little step at a time, but at least it's buying local and supporting my neighborhood!" With consumer choices, sometimes grand ideals must be knocked down by the reality of economy.