New Age Graffiti.

We live near one of those New Age storefront "churches" (I think they prefer to be known as "spiritual centers") that have popped up all over the place in the last couple of decades. You know, the type where they've moved beyond Christianity and beyond sin and beyond suffering to some sorta thing that involves lots of merchandise--books for better living, videos for better loving, mats for better yoga-ing, rocks for better centering, utensils for better cooking, etc., etc.

Anyways, they all seem to be founded by some early 20th century guy with a beard (who always looks a lot like Walt Whitman) but are currently led by some very attractive, somewhat sexy looking middle-aged divorced woman who is pictured in all her prosperity (made, of course from the sale of all that merchandise), in a southern California rose garden. I've actually been in the place once, on neighborhood business, and it was bizarre. They had stencilled all around the "gathering space" every synonym for peace, love, and happiness they could think of. All very tasteful and feng shui of course, in a very creepy way.

Two points to make. First, they all talk about Spirit. Not the Holy Spirit. Not even the Spirit. Just Spirit. Of course, in a serious moment we can all worry about exactly which Spirit it is that they're talking about, and why they're calling that spirit to be with them so close to my house. But in a lighter moment, one can simply write it off:

WE GOT SPIRIT

YES WE DO

WE GOT SPIRIT

HOW 'BOUT YOU!?!

To which the other side of the stadium (or in this case, "church") chants back:

WE GOT SPIRIT
YES WE DO
WE GOT SPIRIT
HOW 'BOUT YOU!?!

And then the first side responds:

WE GOT SPIRIT

YES WE DO

WE GOT SPIRIT

HOW 'BOUT YOU!?!

And then the second again:

WE GOT SPIRIT
YES WE DO
WE GOT SPIRIT
HOW 'BOUT YOU!?!

Back and forth, on and on, just like a high school football game (except that you can count on the high school football season to come to an end every November, and these folks go on, and on, and on through fall, winter, spring, summer).

Ahem. But I guess my real point is that they've recently been victimized by graffiti vandals. Mrs. Curmdgeon was asking me, as we drove by on our way home from Palm Sunday Mass, what the city's graffiti ordinance said, to which I responded that (I think) the City makes it the landowner's responsibility to promptly remove grafitti.

Mrs. Curmudgeon didn't want to get them in trouble with the City just yet, but she decided that she might call them on Monday and tell them that the graffiti needed to be removed soon because it was "disturbing her serenity."

Ha. I wish I could have captured the tone of her voice in this post. She's the one who should be doing the blog.