Sign at Lisbon United Methodist Church, in Lisbon Falls.

I’m not sure exactly what this message is supposed to mean. Well, I have a sense in the context of it being on the church sign of the local Methodist Church in Lisbon Falls that it means something like this; focus on living a life infused with good works and making the world a better place, rather than merely focusing on making a good living—i.e. pursuing wealth accumulation as an endgame.

Here’s the strange thing about this concept—most people in our country are focused on the later, or serving the system that venerates the latter. Being focused on doing good, while often lauded, isn’t what the masses are interested in pursuing.  Bling is now king.

While the values of scripture, from front to back, teach about the paucity, at least in spiritual terms, of orienting your life around wealth and exploitation that message is drowned out by the din of a capitalist system run amok.

The U.S. Gypsum being torn down.

The second photo is of the demolition of the old U.S. Gypsum mill. At the end of its lifespan, it was owned by International Paper Corporation. My father retired from this mill. Now, a demolition firm from South Carolina that makes its money by eradicating local economic infrastructure no longer capable of generating profit, has been hired to do the dirty work of erasing more local history. It’s much cheaper to make paper in places where wages are depressed and people will work for next to nothing. That’s globalization at work.

Implied in this photo is that once again, profit wins out over people. I don’t plan of elaborating any more than that, at least for today.