Do we call it a grey area?

Hello again good people. I sometimes think how nice it would be if life was always black and white. But then again I now what happens when people try to deal with life in absolutes. Right now there is a discussion going on about 144 S. Mason. And the talk has to do with the bulletin board. In the tiny hallway that leads to our restrooms we have a bulletin board for the community to use. As of late the content of what goes up on that board as been in question.

The questions have to do with a coffee shop started by a Christian church having announcements about yoga, meditation, and the like up. As the steward of this space I take the questions very seriously and have not come to any conclusions yet. I also try my best to think objectively and not with my own personal beliefs.

But being that I am human and not a machine my personal ideas and beliefs are going to effect the thought process. I believe ignorance can be a huge factory in this area. And of course fear. The two almost always go together. I wonder if a person who is against yoga has ever taken a yoga class from one of the places that puts up a poster? What information are they basing their opinion of yoga on? The same questions could be applied to any of the posters that are up that often receive a knee jerk negative reaction.

Something else I have noticed here is that when people criticize the art or a poster it is always vague, rarely is it dealt with in specifics. So let me bring up a specific example. (If I dare.)

A few months ago we had an art show that had a painting of the Ying Yang. The main opponent of this piece claimed it should not hang because it is a Buddhist symbol. This is that ignorance thing I mentioned. The Ying Yang is not Buddhist, it is Taoism. Taoism is a form of Chinese philosophy. The Symbol represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle represents "everything", while the black and white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called "yin" (black) and "yang" (white), which cause everything to happen. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other. And based on that the painting stayed up.

What about the rainbow? Readers of the Old Testament think it means something different than our culture thinks now. Can a church hang the colors of the rainbow?

I like the discussion and I like that people care enough to question what happens here. I just wish they would do their homework first. This is one topic I would love to have people chime in on.

And Just Like That

It is summer. I think that today is the official first day of summer in the world of Everyday Joe's Coffee House. Today the shop was dead. D-E-A-D. The early AM had a few students, those who had one final left today. But that was it. Even less of the county and business crowd. The first nice days of the season will always have that effect. Now begins the long slow season of summer.

I have to admit it is a sad day for me as well. So many friends leaving, some for good, some will return in August. And of course there will be new friends to be made in August. "There is a time for everything."