Remember Fitz
LETTER FROM FITZ - 1991
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STREETSEEN: Why is officer Kirk Brockbush of the Ess Eff Pee Dee standing at Clay and Drumm with a bemused look?
Because a panhandler had just told him, "I need about $38,000 to get my life together and start a business, can you give me that?"
"Sorry," said Kirk, "but here's a dollar for starters." "No," said the mooch, walking away. "I need the whole amount" . . . Now we're outside Nordstrom, where a beggar says to my old pal Andy Pallas, "Pardon me, sir, but do you know where St. Patrick's church is?"
"Sure," said Andy, "Go down to Mission and turn left, can't miss it."
"Oh thank you, sir," said the mendicant winsomely, "and could you give me a little something for the collection plate?"
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At Calif. and Polk one day last week., Holman Monell came upon a panhandler who takes the term literally.
He was holding out a frying pan.
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What we would like to do is change the world - make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute - the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor in other words - we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We can give away an onion. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.
-Dorothy Day
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DECEMBER 17, 1991
LATE AT NIGHT
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DEAR FRIENDS:
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IT'S RAINING HERE TONIGHT. AND WE ARE SO GRATEFUL! EVER SINCE THE FIRE IN OCTOBER WE HAVE RENEWED REVERENCE FOR RAIN. I 'D LIKE TO THINK THAT MOTHER NATURE IS DOING A BAPTISM TONIGHT: WASHING AWAY FILTH ANO CRUD, GETTING OUR DARK STREETS READY FOR THE EVERLASTING LIGHT, AND FOR THE HOPES AND FEARS OF ALL THE YEARS.
SO TONIGHT I'VE GIVEN UP RESISTING: I'M LISTENING TO CHRISTMAS MUSIC FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR.
(WELL, OKAY, IT'S JACKSON BROWNE SINGING "THE REBEL JESUS." BUT THAT QUALIFIES!)
I HOPE YOU LIKE THE QUOTES, INCLUDING THE MARVELOUS ANNA QUINDLEN COLUMN* ON THE OTHER SIDE, THIS CHRISTMAS, AND ALWAYS, LET US PRAY WITH DOROTHY DAY: THAT GOD PLEASE ENLARGE OUR HEARTS.
WITH LOVE,
-FITZ
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P.S. ANNUAL APOLOGIES FOR
MISSING PERSONALIZED REMARKS.
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*See .pdf for Quindlen column