Pantry and Dorothy Day

I had my first "Pantry Day" experience yesterday. The other volunteers I've lived with who worked here always came home just exhausted after pantry day. I came home exhausted last night. But it was a fun day all around.

I like the other volunteers. They come from all walks of life-- this rich lady, this homeless man, this high school student, this retired man...

I sat and talked with the homeless guy for awhile. His name is Eddie (but he's not the only Eddie that works at the pantry). He told me about how he was passed out the other day and this cop came and rudely woke him up, yelling at him to 'get outta here.' Eddie was like, 'hey, man, I was sleeping.' The cop said, 'You're in the sun, you can't do that!' Eddie said, 'Well I was in the shade when I passed out.' The cop said, 'You're not now, find somewhere else.'

It was actually a nice thing to do, in a rude sort of way.

John and Michael and I (currently, the entire volunteer community) watched the Dorothy Day movie Entertaining Angels last night. John has taken over as the director of Su Casa Catholic Worker house, and thought he ought to learn more about Dorothy Day, and perhaps add the movie into the orientation for new workers.

We all felt the movie was okay, although not as gritty as perhaps we'd hoped. As people outside of the mainstream ourselves, we see Dorothy Day as much more of a revolutionary and activist than we feel the movie portrayed her. Not that she was sterilized in the movie, just maybe a bit watered down for consumption by a larger audience. They really downplayed the communist and anarchist part of her mission. Also, none of us learned anything about her. The decision is, if you don't know anything about Dorothy Day and want a good introduction, this is a good movie for you. And even if you're a Dorothy Day fanatic, it's doubtful you'll be calling for your two hours back at the end of it. So, yeah. Watch it.