Friday, February 16, 2007

CLASSES RESUME

I woke up this morning in Cambridge, ready to take on a four hour class in Parish Administration and Finance. As usual, I am awake early and those around me have not roused or opened their doors. On the other side of this wall sleeps a young Asian American woman who probably stayed up half the night studying. Through the other wall a black woman about my age is probably talking to her mother and will soon make her way out into our shared hallway. Above us more people of color are sleeping and rousing and their steps will be heavy on the wooden steps between us.

I am at home here. We care about and for each other and know the struggles, hopes, and fears that we each share, and we understand the distinctive ways each of us confronts the demons who reside close by. Each of us is involved in a mythic struggle for acceptance, for validation, for understanding and for a new a better life. I suspect that each of us realizes ways that the others could more effectively deal with their "issues" but we each wait patiently for the others to make these discoveries for themselves. We share the little victories of self-realization and we mourn the lost opportunities with equal but different passion.

I wonder what about my skin color makes me different and know in a place deep within me that we are all the same -- beloved children of God -- responding to that love in the best ways we know how. At the same time, I wonder about the differences -- the rich skin colors, the distinctive hair, the beautiful faces -- and I know that the differences beneath are equally beautiful.

I love these people and I love this place.