The Pepsi Machine

There is a Pepsi machine that is located at our apartment pool.  It is the source of a great deal of frustration and, I imagine, bruised toes.

This machine has been broken for two years. 

We sit at the pool and watch as person after person, men, women and children try to beat the odds.  It will take your change but won't give you anything to drink.  It won't take dollars.  In fact, far as we can tell, they don't even refill this machine anymore.  Anytime you press a button it reads "out".  But it still looks pretty. It's still plugged in and refrigerating empty space.

There is no sign warning you, everyone just knows its broken.  Everyone even warns everyone else as they approach the machine, just in case they don't know. "It's broken!" is called out many times each day.  Every so often, even though we know it is broken and it's going to take our money, someone tries again...ya know, just in case it has been fixed. 

Nope, it is never fixed.  It is always broken.  It will not give you a can of soda. Ever.  Never, ever, ever.  But maybe..? NO! Don't we understand? It is broken.  It cannot physically do what it was created to do. 

I was in a professional training yesterday that was teaching the power of positive thinking and how it can make our ability to be successful so much greater.  I spent most of the training sitting, feeling pretty negative, actually.  Because it would be nice if that were so, but it's not true. Positive energy is a bourgeois luxury because when you have the resources to create success, success perpetuates success which creates its own positive energy.  Positive thinking has to be based on something historical that reminds you in your past, at some point, you have been successful and you can be again.

The oppressed and poor in our community.  Honestly, if they only exuded more positive energy...right?  Our system is broken. Our economy, our educational systems, our family systems, sometimes even our churches...they are broken.  They are not providing society what they were created to provide.  They create hurdles and road blocks to even the tiniest attempts of improvement.  We continue to hope, to place our trust and faith in these systems, because we hear rumors that somewhere, someone found a Pepsi Machine that actually did give them a soda.  But for way too many, these systems, these machines that are meant to provide the essentials to us, are just broken.

When we warn someone that the system is broken, it is not because we are expressing negative energy.  It doesn't matter how positive I am that the machine will give me a soda...it never will.  Children hope that education will lead to success.  Adults hope that they can overcome labels of "felony" or "default" or "credit risk" and have financial security.  Immigrants hope if they go through the legal steps and learn the language that they will be accepted as equal members of our community.  Broke, broke, broke.

My positive energy comes from this fact:  God loves us.  My faith is no longer in failing systems but in God who never fails.