The Messy Commons

Last night, Rev. Billy spoke and people listened.

A theater troupe out of New York City, Reverent Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir tour the world and perform "interventions" on various consumer stops. He was the grand marshal at Pasadena's Dooh-Dah parade and he made another stop at All Saints. He is the subject of "What would Jesus Buy?" both a book and a documentary.

Not a real pastor but speaking the truth like an old-school prophet, he talked about what does peace look like. Really. Is peace just the absence of war and violence? If and when we withdrawl our troops from Iraq and everywhere else, does that mean we have peace? No, peace is not the absence but rather the presence. It is the fulfillment or the awareness of the pieces of living. Similar to the amazing presentation given by the Desmond Tutu Peace foundation, peace is the awareness one has that every tool needed to live well is available and at their disposal.

For Rev. Billy, the marketplace has been replaced by the supermall. The marketplace wasn't just the market, simply to buy some fruit and go home. It was the centerplace of community. People talk, engage, argue, rebut, refrain, kiss, make up and become better humans. It was in the commons that language created culture. He used the metaphor of the stable and the manager to capture the re-invention of peace. The kings went to the baby, the bastard child of two young adults that weren't in the conventional model. It was more than a photo-op for Hallmark, it was a moment enshrined in eternity.

Yet, we are consumers and we find meaning in products. Corporations, the transnational ones, are our new empires. We copy and manipulate the human experience to brand.

Yes, yes, this is all true and all abstract. Of course, we don't like overspending. Of course, our allegiance to deficits to create false profits is ruining us. Of course, America has created an economic model that will destroy the world when the rest of the world tries to emulate it because Radio of America told them this is the best model of meaning. Of course, of course.

Rev. Billy gave an answer. Simple, yet radical. He said that in our private lives, we all know and most have peace. We communicate in loving homes, we make love to our beloved, we teach our children well. Privately, peace abounds. The question is how do we make public the private? Public peace. Commons peace.

We need the commons again.
I need the commons again.

Rev. Billy also said that everyone should recite the First Amendment every day, so here it is:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Messy. But real is messy.