Barking to the Choir

Many of Boyle’s homies will begin their answer to the question “What ya up to?” with the phrase “Just right here,” which likely comes from the Spanish expression Aquí no más. Although the expression does not neatly translate, Boyle uses the English phrase to assert the following: “Jesus would insist that we are saved in the present moment. Just right here. So we choose to practice dwelling in the present moment. We need to find ourselves in the here and now” (73). He feels people often let happiness get away from them when they aren’t anchored in the present.

Boyle tells several stories to drive home his point. In one, a teen homie named Fabian finds what he calls Paradise when he and his girlfriend mutually decide to stop their constant arguing in order to tell each other how much they love each other. In another story, the actor Jim Carrey visits Homeboy Industries and generously stays present with everyone he meets. Boyle also invokes the Biblical story of Mary and Martha to prove his point. He sometimes feels he is more like Martha, bustling to attend to the people in her home, rather than Mary, who simply sat at the feet of Jesus in the present.