Gratitude for Borders Books

I was sad to hear the announcement last week about the closing of all Borders Bookstores. I can’t say that in recent years I was a major supporter of Borders; like most Americans, I tend to get my books through the various outlets available online. Yet Borders will always hold a special place in my heart because at a critical period in my life the local Borders in Bryn Mawr (PA) was a place of refuge, refreshment, and transformation for me, and for that I will always be grateful.

In 1997 I left my 16 year career as a Baptist pastor. While the reasons are many and complex, one of the things that drove me out of the pastoral ministry was that in many ways being a pastor was killing my spirit. Many church-going folks believe that it’s easy for clergy to be Christians because in essence being a Christian is their job, and they think clergy don’t have to deal with the stresses, pressures, temptations and complexity of life in the “real world.” Many people perceive of clergy as living in some sort of bubble that somehow insulates them from the struggles other people endure.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of a bubble the clergy role had become for me a prison that was inhibiting my growth and development as a person. My congregations had certain expectations as to what I was to believe and how I was to carry on my life. While this is to be expected of any leader, increasingly I had begun to find myself asking theological, ethical and personal questions that did not fit the expectations people had of me. There were certain spiritual and social questions I was raising in the pulpit that caused people concern. In fact for me the faith became increasingly more about questions than answers or “truths,” and many people found this discomfiting. Since Baptist congregations elect their pastors, I increasingly knew that voicing the questions with which I was wrestling could result in vocational suicide.

So in 1997 I walked away from the pastorate without a plan and with nary a clue as to what was next. The week after I resigned, Cynthia and I took our family on a trip to Disneyworld we had planned months before. When we returned I set about the task of figuring out what to do with the next phase of my life. While I sent out resumes and networked, I also did a bunch of odd jobs and even did some supply preaching.

Eventually, I applied to the Bryn Mawr Borders Bookstore. The interview was interesting in that while the store manager did not doubt my qualifications, he openly questioned whether I would proselytize on the job and if I would be able to sell certain kinds of books.  I was able to assure him that I was not an undercover fundamentalist seeking to take over his store and got the job.

I have often told people that if I could have afforded to do so, I would have loved to have stayed working at Borders as a regular full-time job. The atmosphere was laid back and fun. We could wear shorts and t-shirts to work as long as they were clean (in contrast to our competitor Barnes and Noble that required employees to wear button down shirts and long pants). We got a $30 “book fund” each month with which we could buy anything in the store. My kids raided the CD s after my first month. At night when things would get a little slow, we employees would engage in fascinating conversations. Most of us were book lovers, and enjoyed exploring and exchanging a wide range of ideas and issues.

What I enjoyed most, however, were the people who came in the store. I was often in charge of the children’s and young adult section and so often kids would come with their summer reading lists, or parents would come looking for books to interest their children in reading. Folks planning a vacation would often go to the travel section, pull out all the guides on their chosen destination, take notes, and leave the books in stacks for us to re-shelve at the end of the day. One time a young woman came in looking for a book for her father who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. When we found her book for him, and asked “What about you?” For the next 20 minutes I listened to her share her own grief, and eventually was able to find a book for her as well. We even had an elderly gentleman who came into the store everyday with his cup of coffee, pulled the day’s newspaper off the shelf, and when he was done put it back on the shelf, never having purchased a thing. The Bryn Mawr store was more than a store for many people; it was a community and a welcoming space.

One of the benefits was also that when business was slow, you could pull a book off the shelf and read. One day I pulled Care of the Soul by Thomas More. That book helped me reframe my spiritual and personal struggles in a way that opened new horizons I hadn’t seen or considered before. I am still living into the vision that book gave me.

After about two months of work, I eventually was hired by Eastern University to work in the adult education program. I have continued to grow and develop since that time, but I seriously wonder if that could have happened as it did, were it not for that brief time I spend working at Borders. For years after that, I returned to the store, even though I seldom bought anything. I have watched it change, and the last time I was there a couple months ago I could see it was a mere shadow of the place I had worked at 14 years earlier. I was not surprised to hear of its bankruptcy and eventual closing. The book industry has gone thru a revolution and Borders did not change fast enough, and so goes the way of record players, dial telephones, eight-track cassettes, and VHS recorders. Borders had a good run, but its time ran out.

In the Bible one of the words for time is the Greek word Kairos. Kairos is a word that describes time not in terms of minutes, hours, days and months, but rather in terms a quality or essence. Kairos is that kind of time we talk about when we fall in love, when we have a once in a life time experience, or when we have an “aha” moment. Kairos is often those times in our lives that change us and set us off in a new direction. My two months working for Borders was that kind of Kairos time, and for that I will always be grateful.

Thank you Borders for what you did for me. I will miss you, and will always be grateful.

Arizona and Goldman Sachs – What They Say About our Nation’s Soul

Two recent events have gotten me thinking about the soul of our country. While I have never been accused of being a patriot, I do value the ideals of “liberty and justice for all” at the heart of the pledge of allegiance. Every time I go to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia (a place I always recommend to visitors, and take my students) and hear the how US Constitution came to be and continues to evolve, I am reminded of how much my view of the world has been shaped by the inspiring vision embedded in our nation’s founding document.

So that is why this week I have been deeply troubled by the news coming out of Arizona and Wall Street. Last week Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed a new immigration law (or should I say anti-immigration law) that will make it more difficult for people seeking livelihood in this country and penalize those who seek to help them. There is no doubt that immigration reform is long overdue, but profiling people, rounding them up and shipping them out of the country without due proces is not the way to go.

In justification of her action Gov. Brewer said she “wanted to take our country back.” I could not help but wonder “back to what?” back to Jim Crow? back to segregation? back to Japanese internment camps? back to the Know-nothing party of the 1850’s that opposed all Catholics, blacks and Jews? back to when being a full-fledged American citizen meant you were a white male with property? You go “back” far enough, and even Gov. Brewer would not be allowed in. And who are you taking it “back” from? By 2040 white folks will comprise less than 50% of all citizens and Hispanics will be the largest minority group. These are all legal citizens. So who are you taking it back from and where are you taking it back to? Such language is ignorant of history, racially exclusive, and against the best that our country can offer in terms of opportunity, hope and community.

Then there have been the hearings in Washington about Goldman Sachs and the other Wall Street financial institutions, who it now appears were betting against the very advice they were giving their customers and shareholders just before the 2008 stock market crash and the mortgage crisis. From what I have heard and read, these arrogant bankers did nothing “illegal” because the financial regulations are written so they can go off with their profits no matter how fraudulent their advice. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has categorically denied any wrongdoing even as he has admitted to going against the very advice his firm was given his clients. As New York Times columnist William Cohan wrote “Goldman Sachs’s long-held devotion to its clients has been replaced by lust for short-term profits.”

This last sentence got me thinking about soul. Thomas Moore in Care of the Soul writes that “Money is simply the coinage of our relationship to the community and environment in which we live.’ (p. 189) He goes onto say “When money no longer serves community exchange, it becomes an obstacle to the communal flow” (p. 192). Both Gov. Brewer and CEO Blankfein’s words and actions show an utter and complete disregard for community and creating a healthy and hospitable environment in which to live. Their words reflect a racially-based, ethnocentric selfishness that rips at our sense of community and contributes to an environment characterized by hate, suspicion, exclusionism and fear. Their words rip at the soul of who we say we are as a nation.

Earlier in the same book, Moore describes soul this way: “Soul is not a thing, but a quality or dimension of experiencing life and ourselves. It has to do with depth, value, relatedness and personal substance” (p. 5). Now while he was primarily speaking of individuals in that passage, his words also speak of neighborhoods, communities and whole nations. When political leaders (like governors and Congressional representatives) and “successful” people (like Wall Street CEOs) can talk and act so callously, arrogantly and exclusively, what does that say about our substance as a nation, about the values we choose to live by, and the way we choose to relate to the people and the world around us?

One of the good things that may come from these actions is that Democrats might finally step up and put forth the immigration reform bill they have been talking about for years. Likewise, Congress might finally get serious about financial reform. If we do not openly and vigorously work against the actions of people like Brewer and Blankfein, by our silence we are allowing them to speak for us. If we give in to their statements and say there is nothing we can do, we give credence to the callousness and arrogance of the words and actions.

I speak out against people like Brewer and Blankfein, and the “take our country back” rhetoric of the Tea Party-ers because what they represent rips at the soul of what I hope at its best our country can be, and will become. The soul of this nation is a place of welcome, a place of respect for diversity, a place of equality of rights and opportunities, and a place where there is "liberty and justice for all. I ache for the soul of our nation, and keep working that we might actually become who we say we are and want to be.