Class
Our mother was often shameful of our poverty.
Holes in our jeans.
Church and school shoes the same.
Worn until the cobbler, our father, could no longer replace or repair.
The five of us living in a 3 rooom house.
Rented or were we, as some maintained, squatters?
I was recently reminded that Jesus did not end slavery, join the Pharisees or Sadducees
or say that these sectors were the same.
I was reminded that Christianity did not abolish the class differences.
In fact, some might maintain that many church officials promote class differences.
Ornately and expensively designed vestments, golden chalices, marble tables, and other symbols of
wealth and, thus, the importance of the church and the clergy?
Some would maintain that Jesus confers wealth on those who please him.
I was reminded that the parent’s job is to teach children to value themselves and not date people who
are clean out of their social group or class.
Must we reexamine what it means to be educated?
Does education equate with degrees?
Does education teach us how to treat others with love and respect?
Is education about size of house, choice of music, designer clothes, joining the right country club?
What is this thing called class?
Grandma Fannie sewed most of her clothes, loved books, studied spiritual teachers, fed the hungry,
tended the garden, cared for the sick, and counted her pennies.
She was, by all accounts, a poor country woman although she had also lived in a big city for a time.
Did she lack class?
Did Martin Luther King or Eleanor Roosevelt have class or status or ?
Funny word class?
Is class tending to the poor while ensuring that one is always the giver and never the receiver?
If Jesus had attempted to end slavery and abolish class distinctions would that have been understood by those who wrote about him?
Would such an interpretation of his teachings have been understood or accepte at that point in history?
Does meanness of spirit mixed in a golden bowl create class?
What is class?
Does one have to shop at Harrods in London to authenticate one’s class status?
A now deceased friend thought so.
Her lower class plumber did not understand cleaning up the toilet overflow with her very status imbued Harrod towels was a clear sign of his lower class status.
Interesting how a few simple statements create such a musing poem.
Am I writing about class, emotional history or the extent of our spiritual emptiness.
What is in the chalice?
Dare we look? Or taste? Or smell?
Written November 12, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
Our mother was often shameful of our poverty.
Holes in our jeans.
Church and school shoes the same.
Worn until the cobbler, our father, could no longer replace or repair.
The five of us living in a 3 rooom house.
Rented or were we, as some maintained, squatters?
I was recently reminded that Jesus did not end slavery, join the Pharisees or Sadducees
or say that these sectors were the same.
I was reminded that Christianity did not abolish the class differences.
In fact, some might maintain that many church officials promote class differences.
Ornately and expensively designed vestments, golden chalices, marble tables, and other symbols of
wealth and, thus, the importance of the church and the clergy?
Some would maintain that Jesus confers wealth on those who please him.
I was reminded that the parent’s job is to teach children to value themselves and not date people who
are clean out of their social group or class.
Must we reexamine what it means to be educated?
Does education equate with degrees?
Does education teach us how to treat others with love and respect?
Is education about size of house, choice of music, designer clothes, joining the right country club?
What is this thing called class?
Grandma Fannie sewed most of her clothes, loved books, studied spiritual teachers, fed the hungry,
tended the garden, cared for the sick, and counted her pennies.
She was, by all accounts, a poor country woman although she had also lived in a big city for a time.
Did she lack class?
Did Martin Luther King or Eleanor Roosevelt have class or status or ?
Funny word class?
Is class tending to the poor while ensuring that one is always the giver and never the receiver?
If Jesus had attempted to end slavery and abolish class distinctions would that have been understood by those who wrote about him?
Would such an interpretation of his teachings have been understood or accepte at that point in history?
Does meanness of spirit mixed in a golden bowl create class?
What is class?
Does one have to shop at Harrods in London to authenticate one’s class status?
A now deceased friend thought so.
Her lower class plumber did not understand cleaning up the toilet overflow with her very status imbued Harrod towels was a clear sign of his lower class status.
Interesting how a few simple statements create such a musing poem.
Am I writing about class, emotional history or the extent of our spiritual emptiness.
What is in the chalice?
Dare we look? Or taste? Or smell?
Written November 12, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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