This post is a personal log of my latest questions arising from life experiences, it is long and not necessarily pertinent to class discussion:
As I was reading the book of Proverbs again, I began to think back upon my life. Currently, my family is financially doing well. However, I come from a meager background. My parents both have service jobs and have done nothing but manual labor their whole life: I remember times when my mom had only $10 to last her two weeks, until she got paid again. I remember when one year my parents built a fort for my army men as well as a dollhouse for my sister out of popsicle sticks because other gifts were too expensive.
Now I’m sitting in my own apartment with two nice guitars, a fancy laptop, a playstation 3, blurays, a large lcd tv, and a large dvd collection. Further, I have a truck, a refrigerator full of food, and two (small) bank accounts. Compared to the majority of the world I am rich and living like King Solomon himself! It makes me wonder, When did all this happen?
As an anthropology minor during my undergraduate work at OBU, I continuously heard the students from wealthy backgrounds saying that the free market is flawed fully and that it does only evil. It seems Well, my dad began to invest little by little, pay check to pay check and has been at his current job with the City of Newcastle Water Department for nearly 30 years. He and my mom are nearly 50, and after the majority of their lives they are finally able to put down the shovel, hammer, broom, and dust mop and enjoy themselves. They were prudent, patient, independent, and hard working. This system, which is flawed in many ways, helped my family out of poverty more than once.
Now, for the crux of my questions: As I was reading proverbs, I was thinking about the prostitute that draws young men aside. I think about Solomon saying to the young men, “Do not go that way! That way is the way of foolishness!” Perhaps it is for the young men, but what of the prostitute? Perhaps she is a young women who was kicked out of her parents house for drug use or bad behavior? Perhaps she is the 15 year old girl who cannot legally get a job, but who has no food or shelter? Perhaps she is the thirty year old homeless woman sitting by the vending machines at HEB who cannot get a real job because she has neither a permanent address, nor phone number, nor computer to write a resume? Proverbially, these women might seem to be the cause of the problem rather than the victim of an unjust system.
I cannot help but think of Jesus when the crowd drags the woman caught in adultery to him, seeking judgment and penalty. Jesus, looking down at her disheveled hair and tear stained face, may have remembered having dinner with her and the tax collectors only the night before? Maybe he knew her name; maybe they grew up playing together at the yearly festivals. The text does not say any of these things explicitly, nor does it say that she was a prostitute; but, one can speculate with little consequence. Maybe when Jesus stooped and wrote in the sand he wrote the title of caesar, the Savior of the World. Maybe Jesus is thinking, Where is caesar to save her? Where was Solomon to rescue the prostitute? Where is the help for the woman, sitting by the vending machines at HEB this cold night?
