Crime Takes Over

It was a brisk day of fall. The bright red leaves have floated down from their connections and now are scattered all over their area, basically the driveway and what’s left of the long green grass that’s more fancy than problem. And it seems the leaves to be holding on if they can with life because their color is so spectacular.

I take four giant strolls around the parking lot twice a day, usually, if I don’t always get to walk the 2.5 mile of the extraordinary lake at Shelby Farms which is filled with herons, geese (even now) and ducks and you might peek now and then at the deer who are up on a rolling hill, and if you drive carefully, you can race a buffalo galloping along by his side of the wooden fence where he is sheltered from me and me from him. It really is a treat to have these moments in the park outside of Memphis. It’s a place where one can confirm that there are such amazing birds and animals who have a home of a sort, but all of those who walk or run around the lake, can get those oohs and aahs activated as we get to know the birds and animals God has put in our view, in our path, where we can believe in the believable.

However, it is a tough time. Crime in my hometown of Memphis is everywhere, multiplying daily as kids and thieves break into stores, dinky ones, or fancy ones, not with any purpose but that of let’s try it, let’s jump through the glass, lets grab with our arms all the things we might want for ourselves. These might be called not fancy places but fast stop groceries and gas stations where they can gather all they can of the gear inside the stores, because there is not much anyone can do to stop the activity of robbing about anything in view, it seems.

Think, how many policemen can one city afford? They cannot be everywhere all the time. There are about 2,000 police on duty, good policemen and women, but that does not stretch sufficiently to keep everybody safe. And the robbers just rob like diving in a pool to get across to the other side, or spending time outside shooting baskets because, well, that’s what men and boys do, it seems, on slow weekends. The upper group play golf. And the healthy run and run and run until they gotta stop and have that beer, that cold beer, to give them energy, I guess.

Most people on weekends are sitting in the most comfortable seats and sofas in their houses, feet up on something, with a beer or whiskey or basketball or football watching one’s alma mater like University of North Carolina, or U-T Nashville, or even a Grizzlies game which can get sour when nothing works together and we lose, again. The climate begins at college level and rolls into professional football (American as well as soccer football) and basketball (which, temporarily, I pray,) seems to be lousy as so many players on the team have some injury which reduces the number of players healthy enough to play. We are heart-broken here in Memphis at this moment, and what do we do when we grab our plastic bags and haul back up the tall steps to exit. Careful, it is a madhouse getting to wherever your car is stored, and you will probably get lost trying to find which garage level your car is awaiting.

True we are sort of in the dumps this fall-winter. We are crushed by the horrible and atrocious killing that is going on across the seas in Israel and Hamas area, as Gaza Hospitals have even been ripped apart because no one seems to know where or what to do, as the hospitals have been bombed. The noise must be atrocious - there is no peace, or presence of peace. It’s like the long trains hanging on their toot-toot-toots as they speed down their long train trollies, toting behind probably a hundred or more trollies of war weapons, some healthy things, and somehow, one way or the other, even those long snake like trains packed one after the other, are just not protected sufficiently so that thieves think they are in seventh heaven because there is very poor attempts to stop theft. Meanwhile, as these long cars pass by over and over, miles and miles of them, sometimes as long as across the street where I live in midtown while another part of that same train is crossing the Mississippi River, the bridge of which is about 2 miles once they hit the bridge. Well, I’m glad the trains still function and have purpose. 

The sirens roar at night. FedEx planes groan as they climb into the blue skies, the birds chirp like crazy early in the morning, before business begins and at 7 a.m. the men return to work to remove all the bricks on the eleven story building, to be replaced with something safer and better, although we must suffer through the banging and drilling for months until the amazing Latinos who are fearless get everything in order. There are miracles in every effort. And there is a call for patience and understanding whatever task is unfolded. That is an order for you and for me. Somehow, we must get together and bring our Grizzlies and University of Memphis back into the glory they deserve. It’s going to be a long season.

~ Rev

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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com