On the Corner of 1st and Bowrey

A Chase bank is now in business on the corner of 1st and Bowrey. Five years ago a last ditch effort from the community to fundraise for the sky high taxes flopped, and with it perished all but the memories of the sixties and seventies, as remembered in their glory at the BCBG club. It was a place frequented in their turn by all the big rock and punk bands of the era, from the Beattles to Bowie, the Rolling Stones and eventually the Beastie Boys. The stars flocked to the sound of fame. But as likely as it was to see a phenom like Andy Warhol, so was the chance of watching a surreptitious drug dose of heroin, or someone gone off LSD and another snorting lines of cocaine. The black and white interior was a hieroglyphic text of band posters; poles and prop stages, balconies and lower deck bars, hidden corners, all blinking lit by a medley of colored lights hung above like sugar crystals on a thread. But according to the better business bureau of New York City, by the mid 2000s the BCBG club had become a blemish on a gentrified neighborhood. Like a burnt out meth-head all the smile had rotten from its days of glory.

Marie and I passed by the corner of 1st and Bowrey, just a few blocks from the Catholic Worker. It amazes me that the Worker outlives such a club, when it too must face similar pressures. I can't help a comparison based on a survivor-of-the-fittest schema. The works of mercy versus the fads and fashion of pop culture is a comparison, however, that all but misses the point. Chase bank now replaces an iconic center of art.

In Mark's Gospel Jesus chastizes the scribes and pharisees "You hypocrites" who mistake what defiles. It is not what enters the body that defiles, but what defiles comes from within (Mk 7). At first and Bowrey the existence of Chase bank represents a tombstone over creativity. If we find our own spirit of hope new sites of empowerment, discovery, rejuvenation--these will arise again! Perhaps Jesus fears that we too easily give way to powerholders. I am like a scribe when I passively assume nothing I say can make a difference. Do I not profess a belief in the almighty and eternal Creator God? If I walk in the ways of mercy and justice is not God my source of holy  love? Only a hypocrite pretends to obey God, while giving all credibility, all direction and trust to the right of way of Banks. The one currency we place our trust in, like the BCBG club, like the Worker, is love, that punk rock raw hand, that harsh and dreadful sound.