Mark Scandrette

I have never been faithful
Always cheating and deceiving
More or less
–sometimes more and sometimes less
But my heart in these rare and reflective moments
Has always been true

On warm nights
I melt into this city
wandering down the lonely streets of China town
With the sky hanging over my head
And my feet stepping over the ground
He is busking on the corner
She checks into a San Joachim valley hotel
And I stand here imagining a time when all these buildings and boulevards will lie desolate and abandon

Sometimes I wish for what can never be
My body cries for ecstasy
She walks through the door right past me
Carrying a bag of groceries

Give me an alibi
for why I was absent from your kiss
I have touched the precipice
And slowly I am finding my way back to you

My deeper well is covered in rust
And smells like shoe leather
I dream of becoming old,
Still stuttering in the language of love–
All the way to the grave

I have never been faithful
Always cheating and deceiving
–More or less
Sometimes more and sometimes less
But my heart in these rare and reflective moments
is true

My friend Andrew McLeod will be speaking on his book, Holy Cooperation: Building Graceful Economies Sunday evening December 14 at 8 P.M. hosted by Church of the Sojourners located at 1129 Florida, between 23rd and 24th.

Andrew McLeod is a cooperative development consultant who works with the California Center for Cooperative Development (Davis, Calif.) and the Northwest Cooperative Development Center (Olympia, Wash.). He is now a candidate for the Masters in Management – Cooperatives and Credit Unions from the Sobey Business School at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He has been involved in the cooperative movement since 1992. His interests include democratic processes, the intersection of cooperative economics and religion, community-based food production and distribution, international models for power-sharing, and cooperative disaster recovery techniques. His past work includes serving on the organizing committees for several conferences on the regional and national levels, as well as providing pro bono consulting to groups in area still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Andrew is the author of Holy Cooperation!: Building Graceful Economies, a book that explores cooperative elements of Christianity. He recently presented a paper on common cooperative tendencies found in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, at the International Cooperative Alliance Research Conference in Riva del Garda, Italy. He has also written several published articles and maintains a blog at www.coopgeek.wordpress.com.

Andrew attends a church called Flood that is exploring how we can share our resources, and planning to convert some of our lawn into food production.

Dan Kimball and family were kind enough to make the drive up from Santa Cruz to see our show in Oakland this summer– even though they had been displaced by the forest fires near their home. (Am just posting now because I finally figured out how to reduce photo size).

Our fall ABOLITION project culminated in an art event attended by approximately 250 friends. We were able to raise $1,100 through this event for local and global human trafficking aftercare efforts. We displayed artwork and art installations by various project participants and poets and bands performed through out the night as people mixed and mingled with food and drink. In the weeks leading up to this event, we wrote letters to government officials asking for immigration reforms that would protect and provide better for trafficking victims. We also launched a city-wide awareness campaign along with a referral website (www.abolitionsf.org). Hailey, Noah and Isaiah had a fun time distributing coffee cup holders with the logo “Stop Human Trafficking” in our neighborhood cafes.  Through this project we learned that awareness and advocacy are important steps toward ending modern day slavery.

One thing that surprised us with this project was how much the issue is related to public policy. A measure on the ballot in San Francisco would have legalized prostitution and eliminated funding for local trafficking aftercare programs. Many of the people in the ABOLITION project became loud public advocates against the proposition (which was defeated on election day). Lisa and I didn’t grow up in households that were particularly political, so it has been new for us to ask, “What does it mean to follow the Way of Jesus in our political process?”