Do Ya?

We all grew up in this Queens neighborhood back in the 1960's and like most young teenagers in New York City neighborhoods, we all had something smart to say.  Smart, as in wise cracks, friendly insults and sometimes genuine insight into the human condition.  Things like "the hardest part about doing nothing is you never know when you're finished" or an actual situation.  A  a guy came into one of our Luncheonettes at closing.  Pulled out a gun.  Put it in the face of the kid working the counter that night Tommy Hsu and said.  "Give me the money."  Tommy calmly put his index finger on the gun barrel guided it towards the owner Willie Bly and said.  "Point it at him.  He owns the place."

You get the picture?

Well there was one guy Ed Khammer, nice guy, good ballplayer.  He was also a great ice skater and hockey player.  But not a guy who could come up with wise cracks on the spot.  I think he and his family had come to New York from some place way out in Pennsylvania or maybe Ohio even.  So when everyone would be on the corner cracking wise, Ed really couldn't join in.  But he did have this one thing he would say and he would say it at the most opportune moment and it was.  "Ya don't know, do ya'?"  And that could be real funny, so Ed would see everyone laughing and a happy, little smile would form at the corners of his mouth.  He'd found his place on the corner.  So much so, that his little smile would come out just before he'd invoke.  "Ya don't know do ya?"

We are reminded of Ed because we watch all the Talking Heads, the Know It All's and The Cognoscenti Of The Known World discuss the current kerfuffle in Iran. And they all do it in their usual fashion, with authoritative and dramatic voices, that makes it seem as if they have it all figured out.  And doing this in spite of the fact or facts, that they have been wrong more times in the past, than anyone could count.  Just check their previous exhortations and of course their polls.  But they are undaunted by previous errors, as they drone on about whatever the current situation is, and they do this without inhaling too much.  But when they do manage to stop, to take a breath, we wish Ed Khammer was there to give that little smile and say.  "Ya don't know do ya?"

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Bread And Fish

We diverge today from our usual fare, issues of the day, because it was Easter yesterday.

Everything, politics, wars, social/cultural issues and just about everything that is, or ever was, topic du jour, gets discussed, as if money has nothing to do with it.  Everything is all ideology or belief systems or some story someone has to tell you for your own good.  But by the way do you mind giving the ubiquitous do-gooder a few bucks?  For the greater good of course, and yours too.

So where are we going with this you ask?  What does money have to do with the Jesus?  Well it's not money but the love of money to the exclusion to all else, that is one of the roots of evil.  And so it seems that back in the day, you had to belong to the temple.  And of course the temple has expenses and The Pharisees have to be paid.  They need the shekels, the moola, the bread.  So you had to pay taxes to the temple, not just Caesar.  What if you didn't have the half a shekel (two drachmas)?  Maybe you only had one drachma.  People were not just poor but specie or money was not something everyone dealt in, every day.  Well that's what the money lenders were doing in the temple.  There were there to help you.  Of course there was the Vig*.  Maybe you paid off the half a shekel and the Vig.  Maybe all you could ever come up with was the Vig.  And maybe that's why Jesus drove the Shylocks from the temple.

Then there is the Sermon on the Mount.  Probably the greatest lecture on humanity ever spoken.  It's teachings echo through every day of our lives, even for for followers of other religions, even for atheists. 

And Jesus fed the 5,000.  Did he actual create enough fish and bread?  Did everyone just start to share what they had?  Was it a metaphor; If you listen and follow the teachings of Jesus, you are fed spiritually?  Take your pick, but at the end of the day, it did not cost anything to listen to Jesus.  When the basket was passed, it was to feed people, not to collect shekels and drachmas.

Maybe if you start to follow Jesus, you don't need to go to a temple.  Maybe the shekels started to dry up for the Pharisees and their Shylocks too.  No more easy moola, no more bread, or fish either.  Maybe that's what pissed them off.  Maybe it wasn't that Jesus had so many followers.  Maybe it wasn't anything he said.  Maybe,  maybe, he was costing them money.  People have been known to kill over that.

Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which is his.  God wasn't interested in your money.  He didn't care how much you had and He didn't need it either.

This has just been one of those idle thought that rattles around in our brains here.  We don't aim to preach or ever tell anyone what to think.  We just have these thoughts.  Maybe we're wrong.  Happy Easter to all, even followers of other religions and even you atheists out there.

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*Vig (short for vigorish), the interest paid to a Shylock on the loan.