Changing towns and places where I am staying is a great advantage when you are taking daily walks! You get to know lots of different neighborhoods! This week I have been with my sister and her family in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Several things have really impressed me.
First, thing I noticed is the number of huge murals that
have been painted on buildings. I saw
one painted in 2003 and another from 2016 with a bunch created in the years in between. Also, many of them reflect local
themes/people and are done by local people through the Mural Art Project. Here are only a couple of examples. One near the PA School for the Deaf has
people who are signing. Another
represents famous women from Germantown; probably the person best known outside
of this neighborhood is Louisa May Alcott who lived in the area from 1830-34.
(There is another sign with some history near where her house stood.) The third show scenes of growing up in the
neighborhood. Aren’t these lovely? Come walk with me and discover a bunch more!
The next thing I notice on my walk is the amount of
green. There are trees and parks
galore. Pittsburgh also has lots of
parks and parklets. I love it – and it
is healthy for us all, too. Here is part
of Vernon Park which includes a pole advocating for peace in four
languages.
Another fact that amazes me is the number of churches! There are the huge stone buildings (and often
a couple in the same block) which represent major protestant denominations:
Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist (and probably Catholic,
too, but I haven’t noticed them).
Quakers (Society of Friends) are well represented too, with their
meeting houses and schools. Then there
are the less-known Christian denominations who have taken 
over big buildings or
who operate out of store fronts like the one pictured here. 
The sheer number of churches and denominations has me
thinking about an interesting book I have been reading lately: The Nearly Infallible History of
Christianity by Nick Page. Yes, the
title attracted me and he uses a lot of humor as he writes – you can tell from
the subtitle! I am up to the 700s
AD. I am amazed by
Many theologians and their followers have been named heretics now, but
there were MANY. It is almost like one
of those jokes that there ever there are 3 Christians, you will have 4
theologies. Why can’t we agree? Why can’t we hear God’s call and work
together? (Even if we don’t agree on exactly how to understand and interpret
what Christ said and did?) What must we
do, today, to find ways to hear those of other beliefs (whether Christian or
not) so that we can live in peace on this earth?
The last observation for today is the amount of trash (litter)
on the ground. It is worse on some block
I know many shopkeepers and
home owners try to keep it picked up. It
is part of the culture, evidently, for some (many?) to throw trash anywhere and
let someone else worry about picking it up (or not worrying if no one does). This was true (or worse) in Garoua Boulai,
Cameroon. I asked a shopkeeper there
about it once as he threw litter on the ground in front of his own store. He said, “I clean it up once a day.” In Philadelphia (and other US cities) it is
even worse, in my opinion, because the cities provide trash cans at regular
intervals! Why do we create ugliness and
damage the environment? Often I pick up
litter leaving the place cleaner than before I passed by, but the task is too
big for one person. Am I too picky? Behind the times? Or, how do we communicate the desire for litter-free
streets to the majority?
We find many ways to live harmoniously in community. This entry talks about a few. What can you (and I) do to make things
better? We may differ in our approaches,
but we can all have a positive impact.
