Starting
Point Called to do more than just show up
By ASHLEY MERRYMAN
Hardball has been the No. 1
movie at the box office two weeks in a row. Ive been wondering why.
Its a movie about a guy helping kids put together a baseball team.
Its supposed to be a comedy, but turns out to be a tearjerker, about kids
struggling to grow up in an inner-city life. So why No. 1? Is it that nothing
else is out there?
I think in this time of turmoil people are lining up for
Hardball -- willing to lay down nine bucks and two hours of their
lives -- to see something inspirational. And, given whats going on,
thats understandable. But perhaps those people are like the rich man in
the parable who walks by the poor and suffering Lazarus. They walk into a
theatre to watch actors pretend to live in the inner city, and they walk out
feeling better about themselves for seeing the movie. And they never even see
that sitting near the door are real kids who struggle with lives filled with
poverty and violence.
So what I want to know is when are we going to give nine bucks and
two hours of our lives to be the inspiration. Not just in a moment of
national crisis, but day in and day out. The opportunity to be a hero to
someone -- the opportunity to change someones life -- is always there for
the taking.
The big message at the end of Hardball is that all you
need to do to win in life is just to show up. In fact, our nations
leaders have said thats what we need to do to combat the evil of the past
two weeks. Just keep showing up. Go to work. Go to the movies. Go to the mall
and use your Visa card and keep our economy moving. They also serve who shop
and buy.
But thats not what we are called to do as Christians. We are
called to do more than just show up.
For the sake of our economy, our nations leaders exhort us
to return to life as normal. For the sake of our foreign policy, our
nations leaders exhort us that we live in a different world and therefore
we must be prepared to make sacrifices and gird ourselves for war.
What shall we do for goodness sake? How can we ever return
to normal if we have truly come to grips with the fact that compassion and
selflessness are worth more than profits and spreadsheets, that we must make
time for each other in our lives, that spirituality and faith, in God and in
one another, are the structures that will sustain us?
As with so many others around the globe, my heart, my prayers, my
checkbook, all have gone out to those who have suffered so tremendously in the
past weeks. My spirit has soared over the sadness of the events to see
churches, halls and public streets filled with people holding candles -- and
more important, each other. Ive smiled as Ive watched children
break their piggy banks to give to the Red Cross while shopkeepers and
restaurant owners give their goods and proceeds to charities. Ive looked
on in wonder as cars everywhere in Los Angeles now have flags stuck in their
windows. Why, there are almost as many American flags now as there were Los
Angeles Laker championship pennants in car windows a few months ago.
But as much as Ive been filled with hope and awe at the
nations outpouring of compassion and generosity, there is a gnawing fear
in my heart. Not that there will be another terrorist attack. Im deeply
afraid that we will heed the call of our leaders and return to life as normal
just as they have asked. Im afraid we will return to the belief that all
we need to do is to show up. Im afraid that we will grow weary of charity
benefits and giving and selfless acts of heroism and go back to making
celebrities out of models. Im equally afraid that our real heroes will
become mere celebrities. Im afraid that we will agree that the world is
different and now we must go to war because somehow we are willing to accept
that a different world must be one filled with more violence and not less.
Im truly terrified that we may once again return to stepping over the
poor, the needy, the struggling in order to resume our normal lives.
Last night, just two weeks after the World Trade Center
catastrophe, the lead on the 11 oclock news wasnt about the heroes
and survivors of the tragedy: The lead story was that a cast member from the TV
show Survivor was injured in a plane crash. While Im sorry he
or she was injured, the story of thousands of survivors being replaced with a
Survivor was one of the most depressing things Ive seen on the news yet.
I guess things are getting back to normal after all.
Ashley Merryman is a writer and lawyer in Los Angeles.
National Catholic Reporter, October 5,
2001
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