alleys.

No matter how great a city looks, you can always find an alley. The dark, lonely, dirty places that people are afraid of and where all the trash gets sent. The places where we are told not to walk and yet, where most of the work gets done. I always try to look down them. 

People are like cities. 
Businesses are like cities. 
Churches are like cities. 
Countries are like cities. 
Systems are like cities. 

Some call these “sacrifice zones” but no matter the term you want to use, there is a place where the hard parts of life must reside. 

In the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Hitler, and the rest of Germany, sought to hide their alleys. They wanted to put on a good presentation. 

Jesus talked to religious leaders and told them they looked great on the outside but on the inside they were dead, much like 1936 Berlin. 

I’m still afraid of alleys. I’m trying not to be. It seems like the only way we can change anything is to, first, acknowledge them and to, second, enter them.