Itemized lessons

After a whole week of work and community living, I feel I much present some of the things I’ve learned so far as a JV. In the spirit of JVC, I shall categorize them by the four values of JVC.

Community
Sriracha tastes good on everything. Everything.

Boys don’t like to hear about the gynecologist or the mechanics of natural family planning, but the ones who pretend it doesn’t bother them are really sweet.

Dance parties: very good.

The day revolves around family dinners.

Social Justice
The system is flawed! Burn down city hall! Storm the capital! March for systematic, structural change! (Please note the incredibly facetious tone of my writing…)

On a more serious note: Social justice is difficult. Read the Oscar Romero prayer about it—it consoles me. I have said from the beginning of this process that social justice begins and ends with the dignity of the human person. Where that dignity is not being affirmed, there is injustice. The issue is that a person’s pride is deeply entwined in their dignity, and it is easily wounded when they are in a vulnerable position. So they don’t always want help, or at least, not the help that we can provide them. My job is to find a subtle way to affirm dignity without wounding pride.

Simple Living
Despite the fact that it would save money, mouse traps are not reusable.

Investing in plastic containers to keep ants out of the food is a good idea.

Gym membership be damned—all you need are motivated roommates, running shoes, one absurdly long bridge, and a weight bench in the basement to stay in shape.

Ants will survive a fall into the honey jar. They try and swim their sticky way home. It’s funny to watch.

Spirituality
It’s OK to disagree, as long as everyone is respectful. (Which everyone here is.)

It will get you through everything from uncomfortable meetings with tenants to, to homesickness, to the latter part of a three-mile run.

More to come later. I promise my updates will be more regular in the future!