I am prejudiced

A few years ago, Irvin and I were in Los Angeles for a conference and we visited the Museum of Tolerance – a great place to learn and reflect. 

As you start the visit, you are faced with two doors. You get to choose the one you will get through: one invites you to come in if you are a prejudiced person. The other one is for you if you are not.

Of course, the “unprejudiced door” does not open – everyone should go through the other one. We all deal with those spontaneous thoughts and biased judgments one way or another.

This memory came back to my mind last month, when I started working at University Place Presbyterian Church (UPPC) which is a strong, wealthy church, in a residential neighborhood. Over 1,400 members - many of them middle or upper class.

How does it feel to belong to a self-reliant congregation? Are you tempted to stay among your friends and not reach out to the world of needs and scarcity that lies outside?

Well, the answer is no. Members at UPPC are involved and active in many fields, helping people both locally and abroad. 

During the month of December, where I started to work there, I was surprised. Surprised? I guess I was holding some prejudice against the ability of a wealthy church to reach out. 

It did not last long – I went fast from ‘surprised’ to ‘impressed’. And since my job is to help them do just that, I should have an amazing time at UPPC. 

Impromptu Wedding

The phone rang early that morning - a woman’s worried voice. I feared the worse (I always do) but fortunately, the perceptible fretfulness did not mean a tragedy had happened. Quite the opposite. “I need to get married today! Would the pastor marry us?”

On this snowy day, the combination of a soon-to-expire license, the gathering of parents, friends and witnesses, as well as the absence of the judge of the Puyallup tribe (due to the weather?) led to this call. But black ice was preventing anyone to go up to the church. This is how the whole party ended two hours later in our living room, surrounding the bride – a tall and strong tattooed Native woman, full of life and humor.

The liturgy was simple and moving. I passed around boxes of Kleenex. “That was really good, said one of the witnesses to Irvin. I am sorry I did not know you before I got married”. I appreciated the command to be a united couple while remaining fully oneself. “Be together and yet respect the sacred places between you.  You are not alike.  Celebrate your individuality.  Be one in purpose, yet two persons”. 

The closing blessing is poetic and inspiring.             

Now for you the North wind does not blow;

You are shelter to one another.

Now for you there is no hunger;

Each brings what the other needs.

Now for you there is no darkness;

You have learned to see with the heart.

Now for you there is no loneliness;

Two have become one.

It was still snowing when the newlyweds and their loved ones left.

This sparrow wants McDonald!

New sunny day in our Pacific Northwest. Everyone enjoys and wonders if it will be the last of 2010! Our area is supposed to be the rainiest. I heard recently that it actually rains more over New York than Seattle. But we are the ones that have the most overcast days of the year. Nobody envies us that record. We changed time last Sunday. So it gets dark around 5 PM. When the sun breaks in the afternoon, all the colors of sunset are visible on and between the clouds, a beautiful and ever changing sight!

This afternoon I went to have my hair cut. My favorite salon is informal, close to home and you can just walk in. I don’t know ahead of time who will hold the scissors but I am always satisfied with the result. Solvay, the young blond woman who took care of me today looked Scandinavian. She explained that she is Norwegian and Swedish on her mother’s side. She added – I was not expecting this – that she was also Native Alaskan on her father’s side and enrolled in the Tlingit tribe. “I miss Alaska, she commented. I love to go there and dance the traditional dances with my cousins. I don’t exactly look Native but they all accept me as I am.” She knows the Puyallup reservation, goes to the clinic over there and never realized that this white building on top of the hill at the cemetery was a church, our church. I invited her to join us for worship on a Sunday.

After I went back into my car on the parking lot of the strip mall, I was surprised to see a sparrow on the rear-view mirror of my car, so close to me – obviously fearless, even looking at me straight in the eyes. I could take my camera from my purse and take this picture without it flying away.
I understood what was going on by looking in the rear view mirror: a McDonald fast food restaurant was right there behind me. I suppose cars stop about where my car was parked and their drivers eat their meals they just got from the drive-in. The crumbs and leftovers buns are given to the birds. This sparrow was hoping to get its share. I had no problem imagining this one telling me “Hey, where is my Big Mac?”