I mull this over in the wake of five shootings. Four of them just blocks from our Space. The fifth not much further. Alberta Avenue drags along a history of injustice. Prostitution. Drugs. Vandalism. At times, violence. I do not feel unsafe. But I do feel compelled to respond.

I wonder, sometimes, if art is the right response. There is poverty of the body and the spirit. There is hunger of every sort. I believe in a God who satisfies hunger and need. Is art, then, a waste of my energy? Is there not some more important business to be about?