Musings

Putting Ritual Into Voting

Putting Ritual Into Voting

by Jim Burklo

 

“Voting is a ceremony,” writes the philosopher, Paul Woodruff: “... it is an expression of reverence – not for our government or our laws, not for anything man-made, but for the very idea that ordinary people are more important than the juggernauts that seem to rule them.” The likelihood that any one person’s vote would decide an election is miniscule. People don’t vote because they think their ballot will decide the outcome. They do so because it is a ritual that is meaningful for them.

 

So let's put ritual back into voting, so that our hearts will move our hands to mark our ballots for the common good.

 

As you put your absentee ballot in the mail, or turn in your ballot at the polling place, salute it and say: "I salute all those Americans who risked their lives for my right to vote!"

 

Ask your friends and family members, or in a ritual in worship, asking parishioners: "With which hand will you be voting on November 8?"  Take that hand and hold it with yours, and say: "May love (or God) guide your hand to vote for the common good!"

 

Here's a song for worship on November 6, celebrating our commitment to work, and vote, for the common good:

 

DEEPER LOVE:  a hymn

Use freely, with attribution

(words: Jim Burklo, tune: O Waly Waly - The Water is Wide)

Download For Deeper Love Copy

-- sung by Lucia Marco, Argentinian singer-songwriter based in LA. She's the soloist at Woodland Hills Community United Church of Christ.

For deeper love we share the bread

I won’t be full till all are fed

Till every soul has home and bed

The rest of us can’t move ahead

 

For deeper love we share the wine

I cannot taste the love divine

Till every soul has walked the line

And you’ve had yours like I’ve had mine

 

Now Mary sings her birthing song

Till every voice can sing along

And voices weak will rise up strong

Her choir is one where all belong

 

No one’s saved till all are healed

As Jesus on the Mount revealed

Your life and mine forever sealed

Just like the lilies of the field

 

We follow where the Christ has led

To table that for all is spread

And no one’s sitting at the head

But deeper love in wine and bread

 

JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM     Weblog: MUSINGS    Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California

Immoral Equivalence?

(Rituals for voting:  as you put your absentee ballot in the mail, salute it and say:  "I salute all those Americans who risked their lives for my right to vote!" --- Ask your friends and family members, or in a ritual in worship, asking parishioners:  "With which hand will you be voting on November 8?"  Take that hand and hold it with yours, and say:  "May love (or God) guide your hand to vote for the common good!"  Song for worship on Sunday Nov 6: Deeper Love...  Resource for preaching for Nov 6, and for activists and campaigners: DEEPER LOVE: Faithful Rhetoric for Progressive Social Change )

 

 

Immoral Equivalence?

 

Jesus taught that lust is as bad as adultery.  Covetousness is as bad as theft.  Anger is as bad as murder.  His was an "argumentum ad absurdum" against anybody claiming to be morally pure, which was a real social problem in Israel in his time.  The wealthy, leisured Pharisees used countless fussy ritual codes to bludgeon into submission the mass of common people who could not afford the time and money to comply.  

 

Jesus' message has been taken out of that context by modern fundamentalists to suggest that each of us is a hopeless sinner, condemned to eternal hellfire for even the least dereliction of thought or deed, and that only by reciting certain magic words can a person be saved from doom. The remedy for sins of any size is the one-sized "sinner's prayer".

 

From acceptance of this dogma it is a short hop to conclude that because both Clinton and Trump have lied, they are equal in their sinfulness:  "They're both lying liars, so phooey on them - I'm not voting for either!"

 

Now is the time for an alternative theology.

 

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," said St Paul in Romans 3:23.  Existentially, humility and repentance are called from us all.  Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump should manifest the same meekness and desire for rectitude before God and their fellow citizens.  But the enormous difference in moral turpitude between them still matters a great deal. 

On occasion, Hillary Clinton has lied, or at least obfuscated the truth.  She's certainly swept embarrassing facts under the rug, as evidenced by the WikiLeaks revelations.  She's made mistakes and shown true contrition for them.  But the volume and nature of Trump's lies is unprecedented.  (See the mind-boggling statistics of his lies here.)  He doesn't sweep anything under the rug: he blatantly lies, then lies about his lies, then doubles and triples down with further denials.  His rare apologies lack any sense of contrition.  His initial support for the Iraq war is well-documented, but he barks denial when confronted with this fact.  His promotion of the outrageous and manifestly racist "birther" idea that our President wasn't born in the US continued well into his campaign.  His political platform has little factual basis. Lies issue forth from him so thick and fast that neither his supporters nor his detractors can keep track of them, and this dampens the public outrage that ought to result.  He lies spectacularly, and then turns around to call Clinton "lyin' Hillary", mesmerizing the public into believing that he's no worse a liar than she.

But he's a worse liar, and a worse sinner, by far.  For him, lying and cheating is standard business practice.  It's fundamental to the way he would govern the country.  Clinton's lies matter, and she's been called out for them, appropriately.  But lies are not the foundation of her political platform nor will they be the basis of her administration.  She argues her platform positions with verifiable details.  She's a wonk, a fact-junkie, almost to a fault.

All have fallen short of the glory of God.  But some have fallen a lot shorter than others, and that makes a real difference when we are choosing our leaders.  When it comes to the exercise of humility, that difference does not matter:  every sinner ought to be as contrite as the next.  But when it comes to deciding who is going to lead the most powerful nation on earth, it's a huge mistake to presume an immoral equivalence between the candidates.   Especially this time.

 

JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM     Weblog: MUSINGS    Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California

The Psalms of Donald

by Jim Burklo

 

As Ken Kesey once said, "When the going gets weird, the weird get going!"

 

What could be weirder than evangelical Christians stumping for Trump?  Even the arch-conservative students at fundamentalist Liberty University know better.  They're protesting the endorsement of The Donald by Liberty's president, Jerry Falwell Junior.  

 

And what cosmic wormhole did Franklin Graham twist through before declaring that Trump is a great leader comparable to David, the morally flawed king of Israel?  Really, Son of Billy:  Donald does not equal David.  For starters, there's the fact that David was capable of embarrassment.  

 

And then there are the Psalms.  

 

I ask you, Franklin Graham, and I ask you, Jerry Falwell Junior:  WWDD?  What would Donald do, if he were writing the Psalms?  Here are my best guesses:

Psalm 23

A Psalm of Donald.

 

The Lord is my tax accountant, I shall not want.
 He makes me lie down in gold sofas;
he leads me beside still water features on my golf courses;

 he restores my soul.
He leads me down the paths of self-promotion
   for my name’s sake.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of bankruptcy,
   I fear no evil;
for my lawyers are with me;
 my rod and my staff—
   they comfort me.

You prepare a blackjack table before me
   in the presence of Crooked Hillary;
you anoint my head with orange tint;
   my ego runneth over.
Surely huge success and fantastic wealth shall follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the Tower of Trump

   forever.

Psalm 118

A Psalm of Donald.

O give thanks to me, for I am good;
   my steadfast love endures for ever!

Let America say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
Let the House of Congress say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
Let those who fear Donald Trump say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’

Out of my distress I called on myself;
   I answered myself and set myself in a broad place.
With myself on my side I do not fear.
   What can mortals do to me?
I am on my side to help myself,
   I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
It is better to take refuge in myself
   than to put confidence in mortals.
It is better to take refuge in myself
   than to put confidence in opinion polls.

All nations surrounded me;
   in the name of Trump I cut them off!
They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
   in the name of Trump I cut them off!
They surrounded me like bees;
   they blazed like a fire of thorns;
   in the name of Trump I cut them off!
The biased media pushed me hard, so that I was falling,
   but I helped myself.
I am my strength and my might;
   I have become my salvation.

There are glad songs of victory in the campaign offices of the righteous:

‘The right hand of Trump does valiantly;
  the right hand of Trump is exalted;
   the right hand of Trump does valiantly.’
I shall not die, but I shall live,
   and recount the deeds of the Donald.
The pundits punished me severely,
   but did not give me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to myself.

This is the gate of the Donald,
   the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me
   and have accepted my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone of my casino.

This is my doing;
   it is marvelous in my eyes.
This is the day that the Trump has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.
The people cry: 'Save us, we beseech you, O Trump!
   O Donald, we beseech you, give us success!'

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Donald Trump!
   I bless you from the Tower of Trump!
Donald is the Trump
   and he has given you light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
   up to the horns of the altar.

I am your Donald, and you will give thanks to me,
   I am your Trump, you will extol me.

 

JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM     Weblog: MUSINGS    Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California

 

 

 

 

VOTIVATOR: My Voting Choices, Nov 8

I am a VOTIVATOR - a way to share our voting choices with each other - and here's how I'm voting on Nov 8.  (For a great source of info re: CA ballot propositions, look at the videos explaining them at SeePolitical.com.  I'll be at its one-day convention on CA ballot props in LA, Oct 29 Sat: the first-ever BallotCon... see you there!)

 

President   Hillary Clinton / Tim Kaine

I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary with enthusiasm. I am now voting for Hillary Clinton with enthusiasm. Obviously her opponent is utterly unworthy of consideration for the office. But quite apart from that, in her own right she is an outstanding public servant who will deliver progressive changes that are critical for the future of our country. Let’s give her our full support!

Senator   Kamala D. Harris

She is steadier by temperament and more committed to progressive positions than her opponent, fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez.

U.S. House of Representatives   CA District 28   Adam B. Schiff

I am very impressed with our member of Congress… smart, capable, good on progressive positions. I only wish he was firmer about a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine, but that’s not a matter of highest priority for the House of Representatives.

California State Assembly District 43   Laura Friedman

Her opponent is also a Democrat. I feel that her record of public service and her approach to government are somewhat better than his.

Los Angeles County Superior Court:

Judge, Seat 11 Steven Schreiner

Judge, Seat 158   Kim L. Nguyen

Judge, Seat 42   Efrain Matthew Aceves

Judge, Seat 84 Susan Jung Townsend

I chose these judge candidates primarily on the basis of their qualifications listed by the LA County Bar Assn: http://www.lacba.org/docs/default-source/jeec-reports/jeec-report-2016.pdf . All but Nguyen were recommended also by the LA Times: I felt her higher level of qualifications mattered more than the LA Times reasoning for endorsement.

CA Propositions

 

51, School Bonds: No. I’m following the LA Times’ recommendation, based on its editorial analysis, and on Gov. Brown’s distaste for it as a badly-crafted policy. We need more physical improvements in schools but it must be done in a way that is equitable between higher and lower income neighborhoods, and this bond issue does not address that problem.

52, Medi-Cal fees: Yes. Good for Medi-Cal recipients and good for public hospitals.

53, Bond voter approval process, No. This would make it a lot harder for the state to fund infrastructure projects.

54, Legislative proceedings: Yes. Makes for more transparency in the process of passing legislation in the State legislature.

55, Tax extension: Yes. I part ways with the LA Times on this one. This extends the existing Prop 30 tax increase that saved the state from ruin after the recent recession. There are very many critical underfunded priorities still facing our state. But we must remain vigilant to make sure that Sacramento uses the money wisely, and doesn’t just pay off the public employee unions when this proposition passes. I trust Jerry Brown to put the brakes on such excesses.

56, Cigarette tax: Yes. As I read the evidence, this will help fund healthcare and reduce tobacco consumption.

57, Criminal sentences: Yes. Another sensible step toward shrinking the prison-industrial complex and reducing mass incarceration in California.

58, Bilingual education: Yes. A science-based corrective to Prop 227 that banned bilingual programs 20 years ago.

59, Political spending: Yes. This has no legal effect in ending Citizens United, a disastrous Supreme Court decision, but it expresses our outrage at the ongoing poisoning of our democracy by untrammeled special-interest campaign funding.

60, Condoms in adult films, No. Even AIDS activists recognize that this is a bad way to solve a real problem of STD transmission in the porn industry.

 

61, Prescription pricing: No. Another faulty solution to a real problem. This is not an effectual or sensible way to tamp down the cost of prescription drugs. We need a federal-level solution.

62, Death penalty repeal. Yes!!! About time, don’t you think, that we ended this barbaric practice? How many more innocent people have to die before we give it up?

63, Ammo sales: Yes. A further refinement of sensible gun laws.

64, Marijuana legalization: Yes. It’s time! This is a sensible way to do it – reflecting what’s been learned from other states. We will see an increase in marijuana use, and that’s bad. But we’ll see a reduction in the crime and grime that goes with the marijuana industry – particularly the terrible environmental problems resulting from “grows” on N. Calif. National Forest land. On balance, from a public health “harm reduction” perspective, regulated legalization is a net benefit. But we will need a vigorous public health campaign akin to what’s worked in reducing tobacco use, to minimize the impact of legal weed.

65, Plastic bags: No. Put on the ballot by the plastic bag industry to confuse the public.

66, Death penalty procedures: No. Don’t fix what cannot be fixed! The death penalty is disgusting and inherently unjust.

67, Ban on plastic bags: Yes. Ratifies and protects at a state level the many local plastic bag bans.

LA County:

 

Measure A, Parks: Yes. I use the county parks a lot, so I have skin in this one! - needed improvements….

Measure M, Traffic/transit: Yes. I have skin in this one, too, as a Metro rider! This one covers many transit needs, from streets and bridges to public transit.

Measure CC, Community college infrastructure: Yes. While the LA Community College District has had some past problems in managing facility improvements, it still needs the money to make repairs and improvements.

 

LA City:

 

Measure HHH, Homeless housing bond: Yes. I’m involved actively in this campaign to raise $1.2 billion to build permanent supportive housing for homeless people. It will not, by itself, end homelessness in Los Angeles. But over time it will make life much better for many people now living on the streets.

Measure JJJ, City planning, etc: No. A messy proposal that in the end will make it harder to build the affordable housing it purports to support.

Measure RRR, DPW charter amendment: Yes. Makes our Department of Water and Power more responsive to public opinion and City oversight.

Measure SSS, Fire and police pensions: No. I’m going with the LA Times on this one. A costly and unnecessary change to local public pension systems.

step sitters

there is a kind of person

who sprawls on the steps 

that lead down to the subway platform

during rush hour

and pretends to be oblivious

to the annoyance and inconvenience

he or she is causing

for people rushing down the stairs

to get to work.

 

there is another kind of person

who does the same thing

and actually is oblivious.

 

there is yet another kind of person

who, upon observing those who slouch on the steps

like they're watching an outdoor concert in the summer

without a care in the world,

seethes in disgust at such cluelessness

but does and says nothing about it.

 

yet another sort of human,

descending the steps in haste,

angrily says to the recumbent obstacle:

"get up and get out of the way."

 

yet another category consists of those

who don't give the step-sitter's behavior any more consideration

than flowing water gives a rock in the middle of a stream.

 

here i count five categories of human beings,

and the mere act of this enumeration

clarifies for me the one to which i aspire to belong.

Doing Love Better

"When it comes to helping others, being unreflective often means being ineffective." 

Do-gooders like myself would do well to reflect on this wisdom from a young philosopher, William Macaskill, in his recent book, "Doing Good Better". 

He's the co-founder of the "effective altruism" movement. He is much influenced by another philosopher, Peter Singer at Princeton, who donates a huge percentage of his income to efforts to relieve extreme poverty around the world.  Both of these philosophers are vegetarians, applying their analysis of human charity to animals as well.  I was haunted by this book this very day, as I stood in line for lunch at our medical school cafeteria: I turned away from the carnitas taco line and ordered spinach paneer instead!

Speaking of food reminds me of an absurd question that Macaskill poses:  "How much would you like to spend at this grocery store today?"  We would never go to a grocery store and give the shopkeeper some money and let her/him hand over to us his/her choices of groceries.  Yet very often, this is exactly what we do when we give money to charities.  In most cases, we have little way of knowing where the money is spent, how efficiently, nor how effectively. 

Macaskill asks five questions in analyzing altruism:

1)  How many people benefit, and by how much?

2)  Is this the most effective thing you can do?

3)  Is this area neglected?

4)  What would have happened otherwise? 

5)  What are the chances of success, and how good would success be?

He then uses economic measures to apply these questions to individuals' choices of career and contributions of time or money, to the activities of private charity organizations, and to public policy.  He uses the QALY metric - the quality-adjusted life year - to assess impacts of altruistic interventions.  It combines the ways an intervention lengthens as well as improves the quality of a life. This can be a powerful way to compare the disparate impacts of different charitable efforts.  He uses the economic measure of marginal utility to assess the impact of interventions:  what's the value of the last additional gallon delivered by an effort to improve access to clean water?  How much money is going into particular good works, and how much marginal utility would an extra dollar donation have on the project?  What would happen if you did nothing: will the problem be solved in some other way, inevitably?  Will someone else do a better job of an altruistic task than I could do?  Does my involvement add to the solution, or am I just filling in a spot that somebody else would step into if I didn't?  Is the cause better served by my time and effort, or by my ability to earn lots of money so I can donate to it?  Might I do more good as a well-paid accountant who can donate lots of money to the cause, or by going into a low-paid altruistic profession? 

Macaskill's analysis reveals that there can be an astounding difference between a a merely good and an extremely effective charity.  And the only way to know is for the non-profits to subject themselves to rigorous testing.  GiveDirectly is one of his top picks:  it gives money directly to families in rural villages in Kenya, with well-documented, remarkable results.  GiveDirectly has researched its efforts carefully from the beginning, comparing villages it has provided with funds with similar ones that did not receive it, refining its approach into a highly effective model.  Macaskill compares nonprofits that aim to improve the academic outcomes of children in developing-world schools.  Making cash transfers to schoolgirls resulted in .2 greater years of school attendance per $1,000 spent; free school uniforms raised it 7.1 more years per $1,000, but giving medication to school children to rid them of intestinal parasites resulted in a staggering 139 extra years of schooling per $1,000 spent.  Generally, Macaskill sees efficient, effective agencies addressing health risks as giving the best bang-for-the-buck. 

He includes a thoughtful application of his analysis to voting.  "We can't just say that the chance of affecting the outcome by voting is so small as to be negligible.  We need to work out how large the benefit would be if we indeed did affect the outcome."  And it can be huge indeed.  In the current American election, the stakes for 11,000,000 undocumented people facing deportation, the stakes for nearly the same number of Americans who would lose their health care coverage if Obamacare was abolished, and the stakes for preventing human-caused climate change, are hard to overstate.  To put it in terms of his rubric, the chances of success as a result of an individual vote are small, but success would be so enormously good that it is very much worth voting.

Completely missing from Macaskill's analysis is any mention of a critical altruistic intervention, expressed in the words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians:  "The greatest of these is love."  Perhaps he leaves this intimate, powerful form of charity out of his book because he despairs of being able to measure the extra QALYs resulting from one person loving another. 

But in fact we are able to measure its impact, because love is mindfulness.  Scientists have found ways to measure the positive mental and physical effects of mindfulness meditation practice, not only for those who engage in it, but for those whose lives are touched by practitioners. A recent study reveals the heightened compassion toward patients given by medical students who do mindful meditation. 

Mindfulness is a specific kind of love.  It is deeply attentive, open, curious, engaged; inclined to enjoyment and delight, but willing to experience suffering as well as to commune with the suffering of others.  It refrains from judgments or evaluations.  It gently and appreciatively holds whom or what is observed without preconditions or assumptions or fixed definitions.  It allows what is to be, as it is.  It does not grasp or clutch.  It affords freedom to whom and to what it attends.  It is not focused on fixing or changing people or things.  This love is the goal-state of mindfulness practice.  It is just a matter of time before we can assign QALYs to love's impact on human lives.

I've spent most of my career serving through love, in my own service with individuals and by organizing and leading communities of love that reach out to those who need it.  I've been a witness to its transformative power to create the conditions in which people are more able and willing to make positive changes for themselves.  I don't have the numbers in front of me to prove it, but I wager that useful numbers one day will exist to support my intuition.  And just as Macaskill's number-crunching is helpful for evaluating and refining altruistic efforts to make life better for everyone on planet Earth, the emerging ability to measure the impact of love will be useful in evaluating and refining the ministries of love to which I've devoted my life.  I look forward to the application of science to a realm where it is largely absent.  It can only make us better lovers!

 

JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM     Weblog: MUSINGS    Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California

I Belong, Therefore I Am

 

Religion can do a body good.

And that's not just a promise of good-pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die. There's science behind the assertion that religion can benefit your physical and emotional health on this side of the Pearly Gates.

I teach about this at the USC Keck School of Medicine. As one would expect, there's no point in teaching anything there that does not pass rigorous scientific testing. According to the "bible" on the subject, Harold Koenig's Handbook of Religion and Health, there is no compelling evidence for the efficacy of intercessory prayer on health outcomes. If I pray for you to get better, that is a good end in itself. But there's no science to support the conclusion that it will help you get better. However, Koenig reports strong evidence that actively belonging to a faith community affects human health for the better.

In the Little Chapel of Silence on our USC campus, we place a blank book where students and staff can write their prayers and reflections. We also have a box in the chapel where they can write prayers on slips of paper. I maintain the space and collect these writings and store them in my office. They range from laments about lost love to prayers to get better grades to suicide notes to expressions of thanksgiving, written in many languages and from the perspectives of many faiths or no faith at all. In the prayer book recently, I discovered a drawing (shown above) of a young woman with a beatific smile and closed eyes, with a thought bubble over her head: "I belong, therefore I am". She has science behind her in saying so!

Another way that religion can do a body good is through the mindfulness practices that are embedded in it. It's no news that it's part of Buddhism. But for most Christians, it may come as a surprise to find that it has always been integral to contemplative prayer. You can't confess the truth of your heart unless you know what's in it. That requires clearing the eye of the soul to be able to look unblinkingly at the truth of what we feel, think, and experience. Doing so calms the mind and the body. This practice is embedded in mystical Islam, in many Hindu disciplines, and in the Sikh faith as well. Having isolated mindfulness into a practice defined without reference to specific religious content, researchers have been able to document its very many general health and specific behavioral benefits. Dr. David Black, a preventive medicine professor and researcher at USC, heads up the American Mindfulness Research Association, which keeps track of these investigations. We may safely say that to the degree that a religion includes mindfulness practice, it is good for one's health.

Much of religion centers on story-telling, another demonstrably salubrious practice. Many of the stories are, to say the least, far-fetched. But whether mythical or factual, they have helped us in the struggle for survival of the fittest. In his book, ON THE ORIGIN OF STORIES: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction (2009), Brian Boyd, an English professor in New Zealand, argues that the human propensity for storytelling is a cause and a consequence of our evolution. He invented a new field, "evocriticism", which analyses literature on the basis of its biological origins and functions. Creative story-telling trains us to anticipate many possible futures, making us good problem-solvers. "The appeal of the cognitive play in art makes art as compulsive for us as play, enticing us to to forgo mental rest for mental stimulation that helps us to learn and overlearn key cognitive skills, especially our capacity to produce and process information patterns." (p 381) Story-telling helped us survive the rigors of natural selection, as it trained us to imagine the consequences of different possible scenarios for our actions.

When my wife and I moved to Los Angeles eight years ago, after a somewhat traumatic period of unemployment, I made my way to Mt Hollywood Congregational Church for worship one Sunday morning. I took it in: the sweetness of the people, the diversity of ethnic identities and sexual orientations they displayed, the relaxed style of the worship and the community, the progressive message and mission, the love in the air. Ten minutes into worship, I found myself weeping with gratitude. I felt better, body and soul. I had found a home. Los Angeles no longer seemed so monstrous and strange. I belonged, therefore I was, and it did my body good!