Green Lining

I remember from the DC Urban Project, we used to talk about green lining. It meant that we approach things with a cultural posture of learning, we reserve judgment, observe, and give people the benefit of the doubt. There's a whole fun little drawing to accompany the idea. I haven't thought about that particular terminology in a long time, but it just came to me as I'm sitting in the Green Line Coffee Shop. I came here to work on mind-numbing paper work for my job. I'm going to be here for quite a while and just needed to get out of my office. I have had waaaaaaaay too much coffee today, and I've only eaten bananas so far. I'm going to run back to my office, grab a quick run and then hit up the coffee shop again. Just needed to take a break from the monotony.

I was trying to come up with a catchy blog title and it came and hit me... real deep, I know. It actually is because its very appropriate for me, in my neighborhood, my job and my personal life. It's about extending grace, removing your ego, hoping and giving people a possibility to grow into. I need to green line.

It's ironic because just today I borrowed Rachel's book called the Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. You can actually read it on Google Books How freakin cool is Google. I have read portions and have been wanting to read the whole thing for some time now. Really, the only part of the book I'm familiar with is the portion that describes the practice of giving an A. It's pretty much the same concept as greenlining, but drawn out into an entire philosophy on life. I need to read this because it's the obverse side of trusting in God and not fretting. It's not to say that people are basically good, but that there is a masterpiece inside each of us and we need to look for that and not compete with one another or judge. Anyhow, the authors write that,

"Michelangelo is often quoted as having said that inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within. If we were to apply this visionary concept to education, it would be pointless to compare one child to another. Instead, all the energy would be focused on chipping away at the stone, getting rid of whatever is in the way of each child's developing skills, mastery and self-expression.

It is an enlivening way of approaching people that promises to ransform you as well as them. It is a shift in attitude that makes it possible for you to speak freely about your own thoughts and feelings while, at the same time, you support others to be all they dream of being. The practice of giving an A transports your relationships from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility."

That's where I stand right now. I need to transport my relationships. It's so much easier to just judge, hold grudges and be angry at people who disappoint or hurt you. I'm sick of that, it wears on you way too much. I'm letting go, I'm greenlining and you're all getting A's suckers, cuz I'm a big old sucker myself. Listening to U2 and Bono cryin out in Yahweh and a lot of that song talks about giving people A's, especially recognizing that we all deserve big fat F's, but that it is through God's love that we are capable of shining. I love that man. Oh, and give me an A even though I'm writing this at work, no worries, I'll be working all evening! Peace

Yahweh

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes and make them fit, take this shirt

Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt, and make it clean, clean
Take this soul stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul, and make it sing

Take these hands, teach them what to carry
Take these hands, don't make a fist
Take this mouth, so quick to criticise
Take this mouth, give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh

Still I'm waiting for the dawn, still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Tell me now why the dark before the dawn?
Take this city, a city should be shining on a hill
Take this city, if it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart, take this heart, take this heart
And make it break