Waking up today in the city of Masaya, I heard the horrendous romantic latin pop music blaring outside. I came to consciousness wondering who in their right mind would actually listen to that cloyed garbage for pleasure. After a breakfast of oatmeal (raw. I like it that way) and a banana, I took a cold shower (but suprisingly not murderously cold) and headed out for a stroll. I left my hotel at around nine 'o clock or so and headed over to the Mercado de Artesanias just to see what was going on over there. All of the vendors were putting out their merchandise and cleaning up. I guess that not too many foreigners come in to buy that early. I get the impression that most travellers don't spend the night here in Masaya. I, however, am very glad that I've chosen to hang around here for a couple days. After walking around for a while, I went and drank about four cups of coffee (at a dime a cup, one can afford to indulge) and wrote in my Spanish notebook for the rest of the morning. Near the end of my writing, a begger came and asked me for a cup of coffee. After a minute of hesitation, I asked him to take a seat and went and got him a coffee (at a dime a cup, one can afford to indulge). I continued writing and the homeless man ate some bread he had with him and drank his coffee. After a few minutes he finished up, thanked me, and was on his way. This set my mind thinking about all of the Bible reading I had done growing up. I started thinking about the Kingdom of Heaven. I don't think Jesus was talking about the afterlife. The more I think about it, the more I believe that he was refering to a living set of relationships, a state of being here on Earth. It seems to me that this "Kingdom," this way of life, is a permanent Jubilee, in which one relies upon God (whatever that means) for sustenance, and not upon the dominant society/culture. There was a reason that Jesus insisted that all of his followers rid themselves of their possessions. There was a reason that he said the rich could not "enter the Kingdom of Heaven." After a lot of thought, I even think there might have been a reason that he let himself be crucified. Maybe life itself can also be a "possession." Maybe one has to rid oneself of a sense of ownership of anything, even one's own life, to enter the Kingdom. Perhaps Jesus' vision was to move human beings out of a defensive state of protecting possessions and into a state of embracing life itself. It's the difference, I suppose, between experiencing and owning, loving and claiming.