Just Remember Me

The middle paint is Janet McKenzie, "Jesus of the People"

Do me a favor please? I knew this precious gorgeous little priest who used to serve a simple, quiet re-enactment of the "Last" Sabbath meal, and he would very specifically hold the bread up, hold the wine up in turn, make sure each of us saw it and met his eyes, then he would say quietly, "Whenever you do this ... just ... Remember Me." It's 30 years later, I still think of it daily. So-wuh simple and I had never thought of it like that until then. So, please? put aside anything any Christianists have ever told you about their Jebus, all the crap about some religious exclusionist white man who didn't smell and never went to the bathroom ... and I'm not talkin' right now about an idea of Jesus-as-Deity ... I'm asking you to remember Jesus as Hippie, this simple dude in a dress and sandals wandering around saying, "you've got to be SHITTING me ! THIS is what you came UP WITH ? THIS isn't what this stuff means AT ! ALL !" ... Please put aside any damage anyone has ever inflicted upon you or your psyche about this simple teacher and guide. He's one of my best friends all my life, one of the reasons I never went insane because I'm in constant running inner dialogue with him, my first lover, my pillow book, the only reason I think I'm still alive ... over the next coupla days, Just Remember Him and the simple things you know about him: How he himself was surrounded by asshats, how he loved little kids to come around his skirts to giggle and play, how he would see the unseen, stop and touch the untouchable, how he would just fix things and disappear, how he encouraged people to have faith in themselves and that all things were possible if we just asked, if we just believed, if we just got up and walked in our certainty; how love, self-forgiveness first and the forgiving of others second, were the most important things of all; and especially the faith that he had walking in to each new day, having nothing, trusting the provision of the universe, he actually had all things, and in abundance. Thank you !