Puggy's Eyes

Nov 10-12 I was with our 42 seniors for a service retreat with The Pittsburgh Project in Pittsburgh, PA. My team served Puggy, the poem below is attempt to capture observations, lessons and challenges.

Puggy is 75, living alone, and has lived in his townhouse for decades. Thursday evening he (along with other families our work team served) for dinner. I was struck by the sunglasses he wore and never took off while with us. So I began to wonder ...

“Puggy’s” Eyes

Open brightly

each day welcoming into his home

spackling, sanding, painting, measuring, cutting, nailing, cleaning

no end to the work which distracts us from Puggy

pizza, cabbage soup lunch outside on his best chairs

thanks he says as he slips inside

Narrowing

when asked about family, children, wife, church

life is better without them

doing whatever

no one telling me what to do

no details disclosed, short conversation, struggle to connect

Hidden

behind dark glasses

a past life still desired

unending stories of this showman drummer

no more gigs

cell phone plan expired, number lost

Closed

head back on couch he naps

dark room

blaring noise of big screen television

oblivious to the mess, darkness, hope and hopelessness

Girl awakes, Puggy stirs

Soften

as we join hands to pray

could we hold this moment forever

hands hold tight

journey to accept each other amidst the mess

love received, love given

God, give me courage to overcome my judgment…

(Henry Beun, 11/13/10)

The Assignment

My 10th grade students at Central Christian are learning from the parables of Jesus. One of their assignments is to write a contemporary parable to communicate a spiritual truth. Jesus' parables make use of real life "things" and often use comparison.

Why should my students have all the fun I thought; so I composed a parable as an example for them:

While enjoying dinner with friends Jesus was asked, “Lord, tell us how we might renew our joy?” Jesus replied,

“There was a house owner planning to redecorate her kitchen and dining room. She had been given a sum of money by her mother to spend as she pleased. Looking around the room she tried to imagine what she might do; however, few ideas came to her mind. She traveled to home improvement stores seeking assistance. The sales persons were glad to schedule a home visit for a fee but were booked ahead for three months. She was discouraged and few ideas of what she might do came to her mind.

Returning home she called her sister-in-law, a person well-known for her home décor consultations. She came that evening with her swatches of paint samples and sat with the house owner for several hours imagining the unending possibilities. After a sleepless night filled with images of what her rooms might like the home owner traveled to home décor specialty stores purchasing room décor items and scheduled the local village painter.

Her sister-in-law stopped by the house regularly to check on the progress of the rooms continuing to offer advice and even helped with placing the room décor items in a variety of settings. With great excitement, confidence, joy and pride the home owner completed the task. She offered to pay her sister-in-law for all her consulting and decorating time. The sister-in-law smiled with great joy affirming the home owner for her choices, “Your joy is payment enough!”

Sledding with Allie