I. Inside a Flannery O'Connor Short Story
The meeting with the Marketing Director (and Big Boss) was among the weirdest, ickiest––and most fascinating––human encounters of my life.
It was like being inside a Flannery O'Connor short story, everyday characters acting out grace or evil in mundane ways.
It's rare that positions are so clear, so pure.
I told a coworker at the till yesterday that the marketing woman was "a minion of Satan--capitalism personified".
(A young woman looking at the jewelry nearby laughed.)
I'm not kidding. This woman's insistence on Money First was evil.
And Big Boss backed her up, every step of the way.
However, some things I said must have hit a chord with Big Boss.
At the weekly all-staff meeting on Tuesday (four hours before news came that a verdict had been reached), BB said,
"Someone suggested we should talk about what's going on. We don't have much time now, so anyone who wants to, let's meet Thursday morning."
II. Holy, Holey, Wholly...
Thursday was yesterday. We met outside in the sunny parking lot.
BB said, "This meeting is not sanctioned by Saint Vincent de Paul."
How embarrassing that he feels he has to make that disclaimer, like he's a naughty kid holding a secret meeting in the club house.
He's co-executive director!
I chimed in. "Maybe the saint himself sanctions it."
I'd thought about what I wanted to talk about, the night before.
One of the things I'd said to Mrs. Marketer, a Catholic, was, "Aren't we here to be saints?"
And she and Big Boss (an evangelical Christian) had both jumped in to reply, "No!"
But, actually, that's not only Catholic theology––we are baptized to be "priests, prophets, and kings" [it's in the rite], to be, in fact, "another Christ"––it's in the society's mission statement too:
we are here "to grow in holiness", that is, to grow in sanctity, sainthood. [Holy = Latin sanctus]
So yesterday morning, I said something like this:
"You know I'm always quoting the mission statement, that we are a network of friends working for a more just world.
Well, there's a phrase in there I always leave out:
"we're a network of friends growing in holiness".
I leave it out because it sounds prissy, or, if you're not Christian or another religion, it can sound off-putting.But I was thinking about why I'm here, and what holiness means.
I looked it up, and it comes from an ancient word, from before Christianity, that meant "whole," like the whole pie, and "unable to be violated." [etymology of holy]I want to be like that--no matter what happens to you, you have some part of you, your spirit, intact, whole, unbroken.
I wouldn't want to be George Floyd, dying like a fish on the ground.
But maybe even less would I want to be Derek Chauvin. He is broken, he is not whole. He is not holy.Working here with you all, and talking with the people who come here, helps me grow toward being whole.
The things you all say, the things you do...
Yesterday THREE people fed me:
B. gave me part of a shrimp omelette she'd made.
Mike brought in a pan of mashed sweet-potatoes leftover from the free lunch at the Salvation Army [down the street].
Mr. Furniture was asking people if they wanted anything from McDonald's. I wanted a milk shake but when I pulled out my money, I only had half what it cost. He said, "I've got you," and wouldn't accept even that half.
Thank you for being here, and talking, and feeding me, and helping me to be whole. And I hope we're doing that together."
____________________
And Big Boss said "Preach."
In a Flannery O'Connor story, Mrs. Marketing would be the minion of Satan.
I would be... I don't even know, some child with a doll who says unexpected things?
But the arc of the story, I think, would be BB's.
I don't know where he's going.
If I were writing the story, his character would leave, would strike out on his own, away from the safe haven of obedience to the father.
It's hard to grow up if you've never left your father's house.
