Human Value
Making bank in the flesh
Hi! Here’s another Substack written by a white person writing this weekend about how lovely Martin Luther King, Jr. is/was. Also, a poem. Hashtag dreamlife.
In a time when most people understood the world in terms of two superpowers, Communism as portrayed by the USSR, and Capitalism as portrayed by the USA, Martin Luther King, Jr. defied conventional thought and proclaimed the single power of God’s Kingdom. In God’s Kingdom, people were not defined by their economic value, but by their humanity, a trait imbued in all people regardless of their race, nationality, income, or gender. He was one of a number of 20th century theologians who elevated the humanism inherent in the concept of the “Imago Dei,” the image of God. The idea is grounded in a line in the first creation story in the Torah, where God tells God’s self(s), “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” Every human, no matter who they are, possesses some aspect, some likeness, of the divine image, and are therefore worthy of dignity, respect, care, and love. In fact, it is because of this common divine likeness that any human is worthy of dignity, respect, care, and love. For King, value was not tied to a person’s ability to produce or to profit. Productivity and profit were how a person’s value was defined by the superpowers. King proclaimed that a person’s value was tied to their being human, being a carrier of God’s image.
What Do You Do for a Living?
Handiwork hardened touch crunchtime clock-in clicker
on the wall by the board that tells you your rights.
Phone app swipe check angular retirement graph
goal setting expert charging four sixty five an hour.
Rain stained coat cover sunny day Sunday cold shower
sharpie scratched pizza box sign.
Egg carton white gallon plastic protected produce
picked and placed on a ship to ripen on the ocean.
Third world, developing, not yets, potential markets
loan targets hoping Finance is a benevolent god.
A deposit is usually necessary to initiate service,
calculated based on your anticipated electricity usage.
In addition to the deposit, there might be a monthly "access charge"
which is a fixed fee for being connected to the grid.
The water that runs up the walls in your house
has a base fee of thirty eight dollars a month.
Bouncing checks don’t balance budgets
but banks don’t tank if their investments don’t pay.
Before finalizing the purchase, please show proof
that the account contains enough funds for purchase.
Your social, your card number, your special one of a kind identification number
with seventeen digits that you must memorize for security.
The hospital will bill you the bills that you owe
after you are restored to an acceptable standard of living.
in wordy wordiness,
walter
Beautifully dissonant.