Next Sunday starts Advent, time of preparation for the birth of Jesus. JJ Mc Cathy sent me a enthralling book, The Body Takes It's Toll, describing the effect of trauma, abandonment, neglect, abuse, deprivation, etc on human development. The author insists that the earlier these demons occur, the more devastating the result for mind, body, and soul. He also contends that not only are they much more common but also the main cause factor in severe mental disorders. What does this have to do with Advent? Seen in this light, advents to birth start the essential conditions for positive, protected, secure children and adults. The interchange between mother and fetus forms the basis of whom we will become. The phenomenon carries over to the infancy narrative. The earlier the abuse occurs, the more devastating the consequences. Children who suffer theses consequences have to find ways to wall off the abuse and shut down relationships. The process does not function as a water faucet that can be turned on and off. When survival demands shutting down the emotional brain, the resulting condition impedes proper growth and distorts perception. In large part, the author arrived at this theory observing children who injured thselves. reacted violently with others, spaced out, shunted all human contact. How important is the time we spend in preparation for birth, and the attention we give to children, the great themes of Advent. We try to make December special for all children with celebrations, dance, pastorelas and posadas ( reenactment of Joseph and Mary's being refused at the inn and finding shelter in the stable.)
In this light, we started early. Blanca, the director of our Canoa center, asked me to find a place for an expectant, single mother of twins, who was being evicted from her apartment. "Tell me when she has to leave and expected delivery date." They occurred about the same time. We had been working restoring an abandoned, crumbling house. I told her that the mother could live there. But in there matters, dates do not always coincide. She delivered a couple of days early. We worked diligently to finish the house on a Friday about five weeks ago anticipating a Saturday arrival. On Friday mnight, they killed a man on the street at the entrance to the house. The police closed the area to all traffic until the body was removed. Finally, in the afternoon, the mother arrived with two tiny bundles, Joel and Leonel. Most often, the results of voluntary labor are hidden in the hands of the Lord. But I felt satisfaction that our Christmas came before the hour in double quantity.
One morning on the way to Mass, the daughter of the deceased, beloved coordinator of our chapel told me about a family living in a 6ft x 6ft tent, a single father and his three boys, two in middle school and one in primary school. They had not even a table nor chair; the kids did their homework writing on the ground. I wanted to experiment with a new method of construction that involves making a frame working out of metal studs laid on the ground and filled with a mixture of half bag of cement, one bucket of sand, and five buckets of ground recycled esp (Styrofoam.) We had made a sample batch and it seemed ok. The Padilla family helped me with a wood chipper; we crushed bag after bag of foam, pouring it into the frame work in the same style as "lift up" Constuction. I was quite happy with the results until it came time to raise the walls. Five of us could not budge them. I don't know how, but the next morning nine people showed up and with considerable effort, we managed to secure them in place. Luis Evora, Enrique Contreras, and team showed up a couple of days later and installed the electricity. They brought bikes for newly installed family, tables, chairs, and even a tv. The walls need to be stuccoed
and plumbing installed, but they are safe from the elements. One day we brought food for everyone, but they did not even have a spoon to eat. With the help of the kids at our carpentry school, we made and delivered a large kitchen cabinet and sink: our second posadas.
The third posadas remains a work in progress. A single mom with an elderly mother who barely walks and two daughters attends Sunday Mass. She asked help for a house. I went with her to see the site and said to myself that site the was impossible sloping steeply in two directions. A friend has a back hoe. He leveled off part of the land. Arturo Padilla came with his son Pablo to level three cement pillars upon which I rested a box beam made out of steel studs encased in plywood to serve as a base for a steel framework that Eloy Ojeda taught me thirty years ago how to assemble. For years, we have cooperated with a non profit that promotes self help houses. The director told me about a group from the Church of Jesus Christ in Utah that comes during Thanksgiving, Builders Without Borders, to construct houses. I called the lady in charge, Kelly McMillan. She said that she would try to include our house. Years ago I remember digging trenches at the La Gloria Childrens Home with a professor from BYU who taught the Book of Mormon. We passed a wonderful afternoon shoveling and talking theology, my version of ecumenism in the trenches. I told Kelly that I would pay for the materials if her group would provide the labor. They put up the walls and most of the rafters and partial sheeting. Angel and I worked four days to finish the siding, the rafters, sheeting, put up doors, and roofed in the morning when it rained in the afternoon. We need to hang drywall, slap down laminate flooring. Before Christmas, Luis Evora will install electricity and lighting while humbly acknowledging: "no longer shall the sun go down, or your moon withdraw, for the Lord shall be your light forever, and the days of your mourning be at an end. Your people shall be just." Is.60:20 Praying for same justice respect for human rights in the Holy Land and Ukraine, I wish peace for all.
