Barking to the Choir
We listen to NPR (National Public Radio) as much as we can while we travel, whenever we can. We often listen to Terry Gross on her show Fresh Air that has been on the radio for more than thirty years. She produces and hosts the program and what makes it work is her knowledge of her guests. Gross asks probing questions that allow her guests to open up and share from an honest and candid place. Tonight, on the road back from Los Angeles, we tuned in to hear her interview a Jesuit priest Father Gregory Boyle. He is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world. He has just written a new book titled Barking to the Choir : The power of radical kinship.
Homeboy Industries provides hope, training, and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women allowing them to redirect their lives and become contributing members of our community. Each year over 10,000 former gang members from across Los Angeles come through Homeboy Industries’ doors in an effort to make a positive change. They are welcomed into a community of mutual kinship, love, and a wide variety of services ranging from tattoo removal to anger management and parenting classes. Full-time employment is offered for more than 200 men and women at a time through an 18-month program that helps them re-identify who they are in the world. Job training is also offered so they can move on from Homeboy Industries and become contributing members of the community – knowing they count!
Thomas Wolfe in his book “You Can’t Go Home Again” writes “To lose the Earth you know, for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater living; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home; more large than Earth” Sometimes it takes radical loving action for us to find our way home. Father Boyle does Buddhist meditation twice a day and has a daily mantra that helps him stay clear. When Lou Ann and I hear a program like this it encourages us to be more and do more about our planet and our local community. It would be great if many of us found a new and powerful way to lose our lives for greater living. We will keep you in touch with how it unfolds for us in the days to come! I invite you to find your local NPR station and listen to programs like Fresh Air and perhaps we can all live greater living. From my renewed heart to yours, Thomas