Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Salvation City

This evening I saw the rerun of last night's Colbert Report. He mentioned the community of Ave Maria, Florida. Have you heard of it?

Apparently, its a planned community and while there is nothing special about those in modern America, this one is special.

It's special because the community is designed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university in America in forty year. But, if I am not incorrect, the community itself is specifically designed as a Catholic community. That is how the Colbert Report mentioned it, with the expected snark and suggestions that town residents will be able to vote pro-life, etc., etc. And that all may be true, but I can't find specific confirmation of that on the website.

Anyway, my point in mentioning this is mostly just to mention it . . . I find it interesting. And while I sometimes like some of the planned aspects of mixed communities that are intelligently designed, I don't like those communities to be exclusive. And it just feels like Ave Maria is more exclusive than inclusive.

Someone spend more time on the site and prove me wrong.

***

[later]

In a moment of iPod shuffled sonic connections, something about this Jenny Lewis song ("The Charging Sky" from Rabbit Fur Coat) just seemed meaningful in the context of a religiously-themed gated community. Again, if you have the time and desire, prove me wrong.

If I run uphill I'm out of breath
If I spend all my money I've got no money left.
If I place all my chips on only one bet,
I'm all in.

And it's a surefire bet I'm gonna die.

So I'm taking up praying on Sunday nights.
And it's not that i believe in your all might,
but I might as well,
as insurance or bail,
'cos institution's like a big bright lie,
and it blinds you into fear and consuming and fight,
and you've been in the desert underneath the charging sky.

It's just you and God.

But what if God's not there?
But His name is on your dollar bill,
which just became cab fare,
for the evangelist, the communist, the lefts and the rights,
and the hypocrites and the Jesuits and the blacks and the whites.
In the belly of the beast,
in the Atlanta streets,
or up in Laurel Canyon,
the Middle East.

Still they're dying on the dark continent.
It's been happening long enough to mention it.
Have I mentioned my parents are getting back together again.
It's been twenty-five years
of spreading infection.
Somehow we're not affected.
So my mom, she brushes her hair,
and my dad starts growing Bob Dylan's beard,
and I share with my friends a couple of beers
in the Atlanta streets,
in the belly of the beast.

(Have a good day & Namaste.)

1 comment:

Sven Golly said...

What I've heard of Ave Maria, FL, is that it's the brainchild of former pizza magnate and Detroit Tigers owner Tom Monahan, who might be described as a rich right-wing religious fanatic. Like others of that ilk, he knows a profit-making idea when he sees one, and no doubt there's a dollar to be made in selling real estate to other wealthy ideologues whose SDS.