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How can I describe the last months? I spent last summer hiking through the breathtaking hinterlands of Northern Spain and running a refuge in a cow town amongst throngs of friends, relatives, pilgrims, and neighbors. This year, as the rest of the Agape staff headed for the hills, I retreated into my cave in Barcelona. For two months I have been working away day and night in relative obscurity. It is an awesome thing to be alone with one’s self. Not a few wise people have suggested that the reason we busy ourselves and fill all the nooks and crannies of our lives with noise and entertainment is because we dread our own company.

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LIFE : Our lives continue to be interesting. Recently, on our way home, we passed a crowd of drunk, English soccer fans (”hooligans”), brawling as part of the traditional post-game celebration. Exiting the plaza, we passed one such stumbling drunk being “helped along” by four or five of our neighbors as they rifled through his pockets. I stopped and yelled at them to leave him alone, causing one of them to charge at me muttering and gesturing something to the effect of, “stay out of this, or else.” Considering the situation in haste — his wallet or my health — I walked on. My coworker, Nate, recently interfered in another robbery provoking the thief to come at him with the sharp end of a broken bottle. Just yesterday we confronted a neighbor who was slapping and kicking his girlfriend at our front door. Actually, we rarely feel threatened by the criminal element in our neighborhood; they know us and they leave us alone. They leave us alone, that is, as long as we do not interfere. (more…)

Our lives are at once bitter and sweet, beautiful and horrible. Louis Armstrong whispers “O What a Wonderful World” while another Rages Against the Machine. Sixpence pens songs about “This Beautiful Mess” and Alan Paton puts his “Cry for the Beloved Country” to paper. They all speak truly, for this is the human condition.

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