This last week I've struggled with staying focused with homework as I started back at my job and at the same time came down with an incredibly horrible cold. It was fine the first three days and then yesterday I woke up sure that I had strep throat. No, just a cold, but by golly!
So I thoroughly trashed the living room that my room mate has made more homey and that we've both tried to keep clean. Used tissues, about half the dishes we own, pillows, and various schoolbooks were tossed about. Roomie walked in after class and looked around and grinned, then said laughing she was going to throw away some tissues. I had the brilliant idea to then bring my trashcan out of the bathroom and spent the rest of the day playing basketball as I rediscovered Antonio Banderas on Youtube and tried to squeeze in Theology 2 homework, along with my homework for "Evangelism to Cults and World Religions."
The cool thing about owning a laptop is that I now have a Skype account. The trouble is that most of my friends who have skype are in different countries, so the main person I've been chatting with is my neighbor who lives a floor above me on the other side of the building. She may end up being the Beth Moore of Ukraine one day, if not the Christian Ukranian redeemed version of Scarlett O'Hara. The ultimate hostess, I never leave her abode without at least one piece of chocolate in my digestive system with several more in pockets to take home with me. However, she gently admonishes me if I happen to whistle in the house or lapse into my cowgirl gait as I walk, and she is continuously extolling me to 'svish' my hips as I walk, as it is far more ladylike.
Anyway she was on Skype and asked how I was doing, as she had felt compelled to pray for me earlier in the day. I said I had a bad cold and was confined to the couch.
"Oh please let me do something for you. Do you have dinner? How about I make you dinner." SO I had dinner. Complete with side dish, desert and beverage, delivered to my door last night.
My friend from Cameroon stopped by but I didn't hear her knock, and she sad she couldn't visit me when I was sick.
My Indian neighbor who lives upstairs, despite an over-full schedule and health problems galore of her own, always asks if I need any food whenever she hears I am even slightly under the weather, and my other room mate made me breakfast in bed the last time I was sick. I tell ya, Americans really need to start taking lessons from International Students as to how to care for our ill. ;-)
Speaking of homework, I am going to try and squeeze a chapter of Grudem in before I head to work. :-p I don't particularly WANT to work, however I do need the cash so I can finish buying textbooks and, once again, go grocery shopping. :-p I've made lists and plan dinner meals, however I constantly forget to pick up things like butter and eggs that you use in everything and, even if you have plenty at the time of shopping, you will undoubtedly run out of the next day.
To head/chest colds!
~Princess Ouch~
Living day to day trying to keep Christ as the focus
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
J-term yet again
Am taking a J-term, yet again. This time with a professor who, when I say his name, my fellow college students cringe and shudder and beg me, for the sake of my (and therefore by default, theirs) sanity, to reconsider and drop. However, I was not to be deterred. It is Theology 2. There are 3 Theology classes here, and this professor is one of the more vehemently passionate about systematic theology. He also is a professor of Greek, and is from Louisiana. My formatting is a little off for some reason. So where its just the prof talking, I didn't make any distinguishing markings or anything. However where there's a concorsation I put 'P:' before the prof starts talking and 'S:' where the students interact. Where there is more than one student interacting I distinguished between them with 'S2:' etc. Hope you enjoy. This hopefully will be counted proof that Geeks - I mean avid students of the 'ology's' have fun too.
P: For those of you with laptops, here is a thumb drive with the notes you'll need. Open 'Theo2'
S: (who will also be a Greek 2 student when the semester starts) Not Greek 2?
P: Have you studied for the Greek exam next week?
S: Define study.
P: Are you prepared?
S: Define prepared.
P: So you are either going to pass... or fail miserably.
S: All of the above.
P: You are going to fail miserably and simultaneously pass miserably?! That is an existentialistic conundrum!
On the outline you will see the date to turn in homework on time highlighted in yellow, underlined, and bold. I'm not sure what else to do to emphasize the importance of this. If there were a 3-D option, I'd do that. TURN YOUR HOMEWORK IN ON TIME!!
P: Where's the thumb drive?
S: It's right here... still loading... almost done.
P: ALMOST done? What, do you have a gerbil on a whell running your computer?
Why do we bring hymnals to class? Martin Luther said to never trust a theologian who doesn't sing. THe last thing that should be our goal in this class is to merely make you smart... Theology ought to produce worship. TO put it in rather heady terms, theology into doxology.
You know this class is going to be terribly boring unless you give me some kind of feedback and interaction...
This professor of mine (during his undergrad years) was just sort of dark and strange... like all philosophy professors are. See Dr. (rival professor who is the head of the philosophy department and also a hard-core vegan). I mean, how do you become a vegan? SOmething is just not right there anymore. I can't hardly go out to eat with him anymore. He's like, Somewhere in this sauce there is an anchovy!!
I think the ESV study Bible may be the greatest publication the Church has put out. Ever! Its 4 pounds of SPiritual Health...
WEll, that concept is so big we could drive a truck through it. So lets break it down
This concept has led to several conclusions. Some of it is crazy and some of it is downright stupid.
Despite all the pictures, Jesus was not white! He looks like Fabio in our depictions. NO! He was a little Jewish guy! Dark hair, dark eyes!
There was this garage I worked in, and whenever Freebird came on, I kid you not, they took their hats off their heads, put it over their hearts and waited until the song was done. I couldn't get any work done. SO one day I brought some Skinner to work. And before it was like I was the little peon, but NOW I was their PEER!
The thing I will forgeit everything for is my girls' honor. If you see in the News or Baptist Press, 'Professor relieved from duty and incarcerated' its cause I got two girls.I mean I'll beat the guy up and shoot 'im... or vice versa.... I'm from Louisiana so we got guns!
When Michelle Obama ... not exactly a bastion of conservative theology ... when she said she was not going to get a job but said she would stay home and raise her daughters, do you know she was eaten alive by the media! Especially women. Especially by that one... oh whats her name... she has a funny accent...
S: One pre-marital counselor wouldn't see a couple if they didn't bring in a budget.
P: Yeah! Although I know some of you are like, 'I don't need a budget 'cause I don't have any money!!' Look, you make ANY money, you write it down!!
I knew I was gonna spend too much time on this 'cause I'm more passionate about family life than anybody I know. I just can't wait to get home! I wanna get home, I wanna get home, I wanna get home! We got home from a family vacation and my boys simultaneously hugged both sides of the house.
If I had given you ALL the notes you needed for this class, you would just check out. I KNOW the depravity that exists in this room.
S: So (in the Trichotomist's view) is the soul eternal?
P: No. Just the spirit.
S: So animals, from the Trichotomist's view, WON'T be in Heaven?
P: Nope.
Student 2: NO! C.S. Lewis CAN'T be wrong!!! Don't kill Narnia!
*laughter*
S: Can we take a break?
P: What, you need to take a moment to process this? That Fluffy won't be in Heaven?
S: *delightedly* Yeah!
(later, after discussing Dichotomist view on soul/animals)
P: I don't know how this will all work out. But as I say in my eschatology course, we'll see!
S: So we should all become Vegans?
P: HEAVENS no! God gave us taste-buds for a reason! Why do you think that IS?!
S2: Veggies taste too!
P: Yeah. Bad. I'm talking about ENJOYING food!
S2: Well, if they are organic they taste great.
P: Oh I'm a great proponent of organic. I mean, we should take care of our creation! I'm not talking about being a bunch of locusts!
S3: Hey, John the Baptist ate locusts! We could -
P: NO! That is a WHOLE 'nother thing; I am NOT talking about that!
Isn't that a cool name? I want to be something of a location... like Appolinarius of Laodicea. I want to be (prof's last name) of Louisiana....
P: I would have loved to live in the 60's. That would have been fun... interesting.
S: I could see you in tie-dye.,
P: That would appeal to my depravity far too much... flower power baby...
P: Me and (other prof) have stashes of horible blackmail pictures of the other in college... its sort of like Russia and the United States during the cold war. Neither is going to fire on the other as it will result in death for everyone. However, he and I have gotten down to Epcon 1 a few times. LIke he just really gets on my nerves and I'm like... if i just slip this on to Youtube or Facebook... I hope you got a good buddy. Mutually assured distruction. Good things for body and soul.
So don't go home and be on Facebook till 4 am. Its not that important. Get sleep. You can check it tomorrow. NOT IN HERE! *slams palm on table* But you can check it in the morning.
P: Trust me, I don't feel a bit older than i did when I was 18. I feel older and smarter and wiser, but not older. Life gets so much more interesting and fun the older you get.
(Older student in late 40's): I feel like I'm just getting started!
P: I feel like I hadn't started YET!
(Student age 19): I feel like I haven't even been BORN yet!!
P: Does anyone own Erickson's Theology book?
S: We only salute Grudem.
P: *snorts and smiles* you only salute Grudem. Yeah but you can still purchase Erickson!
If I'm gonna die and someone needs my kidney... by all means, take it! Take two!
Today we are talking about the doctrine of sin. This is *Student's name* specialty. Well, that is, the doctrine of sin. Sin in general is all yawl's specialties.
So you had these two silo's of biblical and theological thought that were just launching missiles at each other, and you HAD to choose one or the other. It was sort of like the Hatfield's and McCoy's... or Westside story... no middle ground.
I mean, that would make a great book. "How to whittle down a crowd" by the Lord Jesus. I mean He would say stuff - the Romans thought the Early Church were cannabilistic and incestuous. So Jesus says this shocking thing, and how many are left after that? Twelve. And do you know what Jesus did then? He turns to those twelve and says, "Aren't ya'll gonna leave too?"
And don't forget your place, creature! Let's not forget our place!
P: We'll just kind of scoot through these kind of quickly.. did I just say scoot?
S: Yes you did.
P: Wow. I haven't used that verb in a long time... what's the Greek root behind that word?
P: Now Gluttony... we don't talk about that one as Baptists that much.
S: YOu don't mess with our fried chicken.
P: NO you don't! But you can glut yourself on prtty much anything... sleep, facebook... nothing wrong with Facebook but 8 hours at a time is too much!
P: Do NOT base your theology off of StarWars!
S:I only base my theology off of Star Trek...
P: That's okay, I used to be somewhat of a Trekkie. Speaking of which, during the break you NEED to download the TOMTOM commercial with Darth Vader. They have one for Yoda as well.
*movement sensitive lights go out*
P: You know, that is REALLY getting old!
*Lights go back on after a slap sound on the ceiling*
P: Yay! Wait, what'd'ju throw at that?
S: Greek cards.
P: DUDE!S: WEll I just had them here...
P: Whatdju... as much as I want you to be studying Greek, DON'T STUDY THAT IN HERE!!
Abraham was about 99 and Sarah was 90. Sarah laughs because she is so old. The text is very clear she is past childbearing years. BUt in some way shape or form she's smokin' hot, because TWICE Abraham is afraid he is going to die because she is so pretty and guys want her so bad that Abraham is afraid he's gonna be killed..
I used to drink coffee a lot. But that made me jittery. And then I started hating the taste of it. Plus, drinking all that liquid... there are other 'side effects' as well...
(Pelagius) was a moralist and simply wanted people ot live moral lives. From what we can tell, he was a strapping fellow, great orator, first one in Africa who had that cool British accent and everyone thought it was so awesome...
S: Why is your book so expensive?
P: The publisher regulates that. And typically, the market for that kind of stuff is not huge. In fact, it is not even small. I'd love for it to be small. But realistically, its more microscopic.
I hope they don't come down and tell us that the school is closed because of the weather. They tried to do that to me a couple years ago with a tornado warning and I refused to stop class. The power even went off, and I was like, "Get your laptops and cell phones out. Take yer notes by the light of your cell phones. We're going on!" So I think I kind of earned myself I reputation during that time. If the tornado comes we'll just hide under the tables and keep going. A fire comes... grab yerself a waterbottle and make sure your notes don't burn.
This is no longer drinking from a firehose... this is like standing under the Niagra Falls!
I am convinced that, as the author of Hebrews... no... I didn't write Hebrews. I mean as a reader of Hebrews.... man, wouldn't that be AWESOME if I could write something like Hebrews? But no. As a READER of Hebrews...I mean, look at Jonah. FIrst foreign missionary. Lottie Moon would've been proud. 'Course, he was rather a reluctant missionary... I mean... they come to repentance and he gets mad. They change their lives around he kicks the dust... okay so even he wasn't the best role model for foreign missions. Point is that the ancient Jews didn't quite understand GOd's purpose for them in being a light for the nations.
Jehovah's wintesses came to my door once... they haven't come back. These two Jehovah's witnesses came to the dor of a SOuthern Baptist professor of Theology... hehehe... C'MON IN!!
P: How do you have an event outside of history?
S: Um... back to the future?
P: Hmmm.. listen ANYTHING can happen with 1.2 gigawatts.
(after break) Ok we're going to get back into it, so CELL PHONES DOWN! Or... off... whatever. All right lets roll on here.
Think about this... this is kind of cutting edge... like its still got the wrapper on it.
Jesus recognized the disciple's need for food. I mean He cooked fish for 'em. I'm not one so much for fish for breakfast, but I'm betting if the Lord Jesus cooked it, it was pretty good.
Heresies have been a very good thing in the past... please don't twitter that. And what I mean by that is that they force the Church to think more clearly than they did before the heretical attack.
I wish I could have hung out with Jesus and the guys. i mean, you think they were all stuffy and prudish? No! They were fun. I mean like, Peter smacks Jesus on the back and He smacks him back... scuffling.. WHAT these are GUYS! They would have been the coolest people to hang out with! Especially Peter James and John... that Inner Circle...
Ya'll don't fuss at Peter for sinkin,' at least he got outta da boat!
They (kids) come out programmed to do bad!
I would have liked to see a little more honest dialogue in that biblical account. "Why are you staring up at the sky?" "What do you MEAN why am I staring up at the sky?! I know this might be 'old hat' for you, Mr. Angel, but we don't get to see people floating up into the sky all that often!" not that they weren't honest.... I just wish they could have said a little more of what they must have been thinking. There's just some conversations I wish I could have been privy to. I hope when we get to heaven they like, roll back the security tapes of biblical/historical events so I get to watch!
This is Passion week in Jerusalem.. this is like... oh what is a good analogy... Super Bowl... Daytona Beach in Februrary... this is the one vacation everyone makes.
The only place to sit down in the Temple was the Mercy Seat. And you'd better not kick back in there. 'Oh man, I'm gonna take a load off." *ZAP!* (lights go out in classroom) Wow, perfect timing!
*student sets up skype session for sick student* There! Now if she asks any dumb questions, we can just mute her!
P: Yeah.. I wish I could mute YOU! You are gonna give me Computer lust!
S: Now that computer is going to shut down if you don't rub the mouse every so often. Do you want me to go over there and rub the mouse?
P: I would rather not... can we figure out a different verb?
S: Caress?
P: *other student* would you please occaisionally have physical contact with the tract pad of the computer please?
You know I'm a Greek nerd, and I can prove the theory of substitutionary atonement purely through Greek prepositions.
What's particularly effective for this side (of the debate) is to throw up some Bible verses and call it a day. I mean, throw a theological bomb and... walk on to your buffet.
THis view has too often been a rallying point and test of fellowship in hyper-Reformed circles; some of whom are on the 3rd and 4th floors of this building (3rd and 4th floors are where the guys dorms are)
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Accents and prejudice, thoughts thereof
"So when did you realize that I was smart?"
The question took me completely off guard. What? I don't usually assume people are idiots, although I have been informed I would be a lot happier with life if I did that.
"Was it when I told you I graduated Summa Cum Laude, or did you manage to figure it out before then?"
"Oh, I had figured it out right after I met you."
"Really?" My friend seemed genuinely surprised. "How'd you figure that?"
"Um," I had to snigger at that point, "I'm a psychologist's kid. I know what signs of intelligance to look for."
"Such as?"
The conversation continued but it struck me as odd that it was assumed that I would automatically label someone as having a low intelligence before discovering more about them.
The reason this person assumed this was because of the accent with which this person spoke. It was a decidedly Appalachian accent.
Now, I have traveled to a few different countries and met people from lots of different walks in life. And yet I have never ever encountered such a question from any of the various people groups I've interacted with. Now, granted, some were less expressive and verbose as others. I was warned by my Hungarian host brother to be CAREFUL when I spoke Romanian, as the Romanians would make fun of a person if the correct pronounciation wasn't used. I detected an undercurrent of bad experience in history in that statement, coupled with some other revealing reminiscences at other times. Transylvania has a rather chaotic history with the Romanians and Hungarians, who both claim rights to that tract of land, and Language is one way people hone in on differences.
I did experience something similar when I was talking with two African American classmates. They were comparing notes on inner-city missions, and I asked one if a question about a Halloween ministry. They had planned one, but had to cancel. My other friend spoke up and explained that his church had a ministry and what they were doing.
"oh! I thought you two went to the same church!" Now, the reason why I thought that was not because they were both African Americans, but because I had seen them act very familiar with each other and talk about ministries that seemed so similar that I thought it was the same one. They both laughed and said, NO, they went to separate churches. Just because they were both black (their words, not mine) I shouldn't think they did EVERYTHING together. They were individuals too.
"I didn't think you were part of the same church because you were both black, I thought it was because I've heard you talking about your ministries and thought it was the same one."
They let it go but I'm not sure if they believed me or not.
This part of the world seems to have several layers to the social life. I was thinking about it today as I hung out with a dear friend of mine and her family. The father is of british descent although very much American, and the mother is originally from the Philippines, but grew up in California. Their daughter is a computer and ancient linguistic whiz who is currently undergoing the process of applying for Wycliffe Bible translators. They are a very interesting family and have blessed my socks off since I arrived in college. Introducing me to amazing things such as Stargate Atlantis and NCIS, and the Chicago deep-dish pizza resturaunt. :-)
However, the mom has a little bit of a fix when trying to socialize here. She has forgotten most if not all her Tagalog, yet looks very filipino. So she doesn't quite fit in with the other filipinos here in town. However, at some churches she will be avoided because she is obviously 'different.' People will say hi to her husband and daughter, but not so much to her.
I understand that the South tends to cling to their legendary 'genteelity' and I've heard the phrase "The South will rise again!" in half jest. One girl confessed to me that she had been fairly certain that she and I wouldn't be friends, as she was sure that I was a 'yank' and her 'people' were most decidedly from south of the Mason-Dixon line. But once she discovered that, while I was born on the East coast, I grew up in the West, which was far better than the North, and we could therefore be friends.
Now, while there is the assuing element of humor in these discussions, the underlying tone piques my interest.
I have yet another friend here at school who is from Nigeria. I had a few Nigerian friends at the International Church I went to in Romania, and really appreciated their friendship. They were warm and jovial and had intriguing perspectives on theology and doctrine. So I talked with this new student for a little during the class break that day and the next, and whenever I saw him was sure to say hi and ask how he was doing. I had discovered that he had a wife and two kids back and Nigeria, and asked him about them when I saw him.
A few months later I saw him again and was introducing him to a new friend of mine I was hanging out with who had just returned from the mission field and just started school. My Nigerian friend shook the new acquaintance's hand vigorously and exclaimed,
"You will really like this girl. When I first came here, she made me feel SOOO welcome! She is kind and hospitible. You are really lucky to be her friend."
Hunh? Seriously? By simply saying, 'hey, how ya doin? How's the wife and kids?'
Yet when I think of it, the only other people I ever see engaged in conversation are the other Africans he works with, or the family I mentioned earlier with the Filipino mom.
What is predjudice? When I think of it, my first thought is Jim Crow laws and lynchings as depicted in Huck Finn. However, after a conversation with a friend who just joined ROTC and is currently living in Detroit, I realize more deeply that prejudice often takes far more subtler forms.
Of course it is found all over the world, in every culture and region. Yet the type I've encountered here is different from the one up North.
My parents have been in the North for just a few years shy of a decade, and I must say that I am not a fan of the neighborhood full of Norse descendants. Their prejudice is not a vibrant, easily pin-pointed type. Its masked in smiles, yet reveals itself through the lack of interaction that people group engages in with people from outside their immediate family circle. There may be ties of allegience to those outside their immediate family, but then again they may take advantage of their close kin to come out on top in a business deal, leaving their relatives in the dust. Yet when disaster strikes a church member, the whole congregation rallies together to make heroic, unexpected moves of generosity and help. Once they deem the crisis over, however, they delve back into their hobbit holes and will make great exhultations and commotions about the need to get together and socialize, and then do nothing to follow through with their promises and assurances of deep lasting friendship.
In the South, it is a little more tangent. The condescention is not overt, yet still there. The friend mentioned at the very beginning of the post had experienced the constant need to either prove intelligence despite accent or just deal with the assumtions from others that he didnt have a lot between his ears.
I have no idea what to do with all these observations. I sometimes feel a little like Esther depicted in One Night With The King; 'Are you crazy? This is not just you against (insert opposing character's name), this is you against the protocol! This is you against an Empire! Why do you think you, one person, is going to change centuries of tradition?!"
In Romania it seemed to my young mind rather easy. Targeted people group gets saved, GOd sactifies them out of their small-mind-ed-ness. Of course it was far more complicated than that, but to sum up, there it is.
Yet this is amongst fellow Believers; not only that, but Believers who are loudly proclaiming their desire to serve the Lord. This is supposed to be the 'Cream of the Crop' as it were. I am baffled how they think they are going to go overseas as missionaries when they don't even greet the foreigners in their midst.
I get a taste of it on a far smaller scale (like microscopically smaller) when I work in food service on campus. I wear the black apron and cap, I therefore am entitled to being subjugated to your bad attitude towards the menu and lack of your preferences therein. They are perfectly fine, sweet, and considerate when I'm not in uniform. However get me in black and its all over with the formalities. This is not to say that every student who hops through our doors is awful, but there are a few times when I really wish I could dispense with the customer service and give them a good, western, frank-to-a-fault piece of my mind. All backed up with Scripture and said with the gentility of a lady and Christian sister, of course. Yet scathing none the less.
Now, this just comes with the territory of working in food service, I realize. However, I do apply it to my argument in that as a food server I am no longer capable of socializing in the normal way because I'm at work. I can offer a quick hello and get a nutshell-version of whatever updates they have to offer, but can't get the whole heart-to-heart talk. THerefore, abnormality is suddenly put into place and different dynamics arrive on the scene.
Now, this helps me understand a little better the dynamics put into play with my filipino and appalachian friend. Differences are detected, and the proper social protocols are no longer able to function at the black-and-white, easily-applied pace they were previously able to in the past.
I suppose it does take a certain kind of person who hops from one social circle to another and has a myriad of types of friends. Just like it takes a certain kind of person to globe-trot, containing everything necessary for existance in a few small bags, if not one.
However, if one is going to engage in ministry, one must realize that ministry is not done to people who are fine and comfortable for one to engage with. Sick people don't need doctors. Religion is not an opiate of masses (at least, the Christian one isn't), its intended to be physical therapy until we get to the other side. Therapists, of any sort, get to deal with the worst of their particular brand and help them become better. If they are blinded with indignation that they are not just peachy keen like the therapist, then how can they help them to get better?
I've run into trouble with these various friends I describe, because my attitude is, "I'm quirky in my own ways, you are quirky in your own ways. Lets make our quirkyness compatible, be friends, and have fun." However, I glaze over the years and years of history and hurt that has assimilated behind various neuoncis of culture, and unintentionally allude to something that brings insult.
The balancing act I'm trying to learn is how to encourage the barriers to drop to let forgiveness and healing and new opportunities to flood in; yet be sensitive to the fact that those barriers are there, and for good reason.
So all that to say. My life as a anthropological, psychological, and sociological observer continues to be interesting.
I hope none of this was communicated in an offensive way; they are merely observations that I'm externalizing for my own examination, curious if anyone has any feedback. If they come across as excessively emphatic or anything, its because I am actually pretty tired from traveling and reacquanting myself with old friends while preparing for a J-term next week. And I'm realizing that, for some reason, the one-hour time difference between here and my parent's is effecting my sleep schedule considerably. I'm not having any trouble getting up, just going to sleep.
But, all that to say, if you encounter someone with a unique accent, don't assume they are dumb. If you have a unique accent, don't assume that I assume you are dumb. At least, any dumber than I am. 'Cause if you think about it, we're all dumb; some more than others and with splashes of creativity and uniqueness in how the dumbness manifests itself. But dumb nonetheless. ;-)
~Princess Ouch~
The question took me completely off guard. What? I don't usually assume people are idiots, although I have been informed I would be a lot happier with life if I did that.
"Was it when I told you I graduated Summa Cum Laude, or did you manage to figure it out before then?"
"Oh, I had figured it out right after I met you."
"Really?" My friend seemed genuinely surprised. "How'd you figure that?"
"Um," I had to snigger at that point, "I'm a psychologist's kid. I know what signs of intelligance to look for."
"Such as?"
The conversation continued but it struck me as odd that it was assumed that I would automatically label someone as having a low intelligence before discovering more about them.
The reason this person assumed this was because of the accent with which this person spoke. It was a decidedly Appalachian accent.
Now, I have traveled to a few different countries and met people from lots of different walks in life. And yet I have never ever encountered such a question from any of the various people groups I've interacted with. Now, granted, some were less expressive and verbose as others. I was warned by my Hungarian host brother to be CAREFUL when I spoke Romanian, as the Romanians would make fun of a person if the correct pronounciation wasn't used. I detected an undercurrent of bad experience in history in that statement, coupled with some other revealing reminiscences at other times. Transylvania has a rather chaotic history with the Romanians and Hungarians, who both claim rights to that tract of land, and Language is one way people hone in on differences.
I did experience something similar when I was talking with two African American classmates. They were comparing notes on inner-city missions, and I asked one if a question about a Halloween ministry. They had planned one, but had to cancel. My other friend spoke up and explained that his church had a ministry and what they were doing.
"oh! I thought you two went to the same church!" Now, the reason why I thought that was not because they were both African Americans, but because I had seen them act very familiar with each other and talk about ministries that seemed so similar that I thought it was the same one. They both laughed and said, NO, they went to separate churches. Just because they were both black (their words, not mine) I shouldn't think they did EVERYTHING together. They were individuals too.
"I didn't think you were part of the same church because you were both black, I thought it was because I've heard you talking about your ministries and thought it was the same one."
They let it go but I'm not sure if they believed me or not.
This part of the world seems to have several layers to the social life. I was thinking about it today as I hung out with a dear friend of mine and her family. The father is of british descent although very much American, and the mother is originally from the Philippines, but grew up in California. Their daughter is a computer and ancient linguistic whiz who is currently undergoing the process of applying for Wycliffe Bible translators. They are a very interesting family and have blessed my socks off since I arrived in college. Introducing me to amazing things such as Stargate Atlantis and NCIS, and the Chicago deep-dish pizza resturaunt. :-)
However, the mom has a little bit of a fix when trying to socialize here. She has forgotten most if not all her Tagalog, yet looks very filipino. So she doesn't quite fit in with the other filipinos here in town. However, at some churches she will be avoided because she is obviously 'different.' People will say hi to her husband and daughter, but not so much to her.
I understand that the South tends to cling to their legendary 'genteelity' and I've heard the phrase "The South will rise again!" in half jest. One girl confessed to me that she had been fairly certain that she and I wouldn't be friends, as she was sure that I was a 'yank' and her 'people' were most decidedly from south of the Mason-Dixon line. But once she discovered that, while I was born on the East coast, I grew up in the West, which was far better than the North, and we could therefore be friends.
Now, while there is the assuing element of humor in these discussions, the underlying tone piques my interest.
I have yet another friend here at school who is from Nigeria. I had a few Nigerian friends at the International Church I went to in Romania, and really appreciated their friendship. They were warm and jovial and had intriguing perspectives on theology and doctrine. So I talked with this new student for a little during the class break that day and the next, and whenever I saw him was sure to say hi and ask how he was doing. I had discovered that he had a wife and two kids back and Nigeria, and asked him about them when I saw him.
A few months later I saw him again and was introducing him to a new friend of mine I was hanging out with who had just returned from the mission field and just started school. My Nigerian friend shook the new acquaintance's hand vigorously and exclaimed,
"You will really like this girl. When I first came here, she made me feel SOOO welcome! She is kind and hospitible. You are really lucky to be her friend."
Hunh? Seriously? By simply saying, 'hey, how ya doin? How's the wife and kids?'
Yet when I think of it, the only other people I ever see engaged in conversation are the other Africans he works with, or the family I mentioned earlier with the Filipino mom.
What is predjudice? When I think of it, my first thought is Jim Crow laws and lynchings as depicted in Huck Finn. However, after a conversation with a friend who just joined ROTC and is currently living in Detroit, I realize more deeply that prejudice often takes far more subtler forms.
Of course it is found all over the world, in every culture and region. Yet the type I've encountered here is different from the one up North.
My parents have been in the North for just a few years shy of a decade, and I must say that I am not a fan of the neighborhood full of Norse descendants. Their prejudice is not a vibrant, easily pin-pointed type. Its masked in smiles, yet reveals itself through the lack of interaction that people group engages in with people from outside their immediate family circle. There may be ties of allegience to those outside their immediate family, but then again they may take advantage of their close kin to come out on top in a business deal, leaving their relatives in the dust. Yet when disaster strikes a church member, the whole congregation rallies together to make heroic, unexpected moves of generosity and help. Once they deem the crisis over, however, they delve back into their hobbit holes and will make great exhultations and commotions about the need to get together and socialize, and then do nothing to follow through with their promises and assurances of deep lasting friendship.
In the South, it is a little more tangent. The condescention is not overt, yet still there. The friend mentioned at the very beginning of the post had experienced the constant need to either prove intelligence despite accent or just deal with the assumtions from others that he didnt have a lot between his ears.
I have no idea what to do with all these observations. I sometimes feel a little like Esther depicted in One Night With The King; 'Are you crazy? This is not just you against (insert opposing character's name), this is you against the protocol! This is you against an Empire! Why do you think you, one person, is going to change centuries of tradition?!"
In Romania it seemed to my young mind rather easy. Targeted people group gets saved, GOd sactifies them out of their small-mind-ed-ness. Of course it was far more complicated than that, but to sum up, there it is.
Yet this is amongst fellow Believers; not only that, but Believers who are loudly proclaiming their desire to serve the Lord. This is supposed to be the 'Cream of the Crop' as it were. I am baffled how they think they are going to go overseas as missionaries when they don't even greet the foreigners in their midst.
I get a taste of it on a far smaller scale (like microscopically smaller) when I work in food service on campus. I wear the black apron and cap, I therefore am entitled to being subjugated to your bad attitude towards the menu and lack of your preferences therein. They are perfectly fine, sweet, and considerate when I'm not in uniform. However get me in black and its all over with the formalities. This is not to say that every student who hops through our doors is awful, but there are a few times when I really wish I could dispense with the customer service and give them a good, western, frank-to-a-fault piece of my mind. All backed up with Scripture and said with the gentility of a lady and Christian sister, of course. Yet scathing none the less.
Now, this just comes with the territory of working in food service, I realize. However, I do apply it to my argument in that as a food server I am no longer capable of socializing in the normal way because I'm at work. I can offer a quick hello and get a nutshell-version of whatever updates they have to offer, but can't get the whole heart-to-heart talk. THerefore, abnormality is suddenly put into place and different dynamics arrive on the scene.
Now, this helps me understand a little better the dynamics put into play with my filipino and appalachian friend. Differences are detected, and the proper social protocols are no longer able to function at the black-and-white, easily-applied pace they were previously able to in the past.
I suppose it does take a certain kind of person who hops from one social circle to another and has a myriad of types of friends. Just like it takes a certain kind of person to globe-trot, containing everything necessary for existance in a few small bags, if not one.
However, if one is going to engage in ministry, one must realize that ministry is not done to people who are fine and comfortable for one to engage with. Sick people don't need doctors. Religion is not an opiate of masses (at least, the Christian one isn't), its intended to be physical therapy until we get to the other side. Therapists, of any sort, get to deal with the worst of their particular brand and help them become better. If they are blinded with indignation that they are not just peachy keen like the therapist, then how can they help them to get better?
I've run into trouble with these various friends I describe, because my attitude is, "I'm quirky in my own ways, you are quirky in your own ways. Lets make our quirkyness compatible, be friends, and have fun." However, I glaze over the years and years of history and hurt that has assimilated behind various neuoncis of culture, and unintentionally allude to something that brings insult.
The balancing act I'm trying to learn is how to encourage the barriers to drop to let forgiveness and healing and new opportunities to flood in; yet be sensitive to the fact that those barriers are there, and for good reason.
So all that to say. My life as a anthropological, psychological, and sociological observer continues to be interesting.
I hope none of this was communicated in an offensive way; they are merely observations that I'm externalizing for my own examination, curious if anyone has any feedback. If they come across as excessively emphatic or anything, its because I am actually pretty tired from traveling and reacquanting myself with old friends while preparing for a J-term next week. And I'm realizing that, for some reason, the one-hour time difference between here and my parent's is effecting my sleep schedule considerably. I'm not having any trouble getting up, just going to sleep.
But, all that to say, if you encounter someone with a unique accent, don't assume they are dumb. If you have a unique accent, don't assume that I assume you are dumb. At least, any dumber than I am. 'Cause if you think about it, we're all dumb; some more than others and with splashes of creativity and uniqueness in how the dumbness manifests itself. But dumb nonetheless. ;-)
~Princess Ouch~
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Kendra and LOTR
Kendra was reading the section of "Fellowship of the Ring" where the Hobbits and Aragorn are fleeing the Black Riders after WeatherTop, trying to make it safely to Rivendell. Pippen - to whom I often relate - dashes back to the group reporting a Troll sighting. Aragorn says bravely, "Then let us go and meet them!" and picks up a stick.
Kendra stopped, as I was fairly sure she was, to interject.
"a STICK?! He's going to go after TROLLS with sticks?! What are they, his pet dogs??? Aragorn WOULD have a troll for a pet. What is wrong with him! He's got that dumb sword he never uses; what about THAT?"
"The sword is BROKEN, Kendra." I answered, choking back laughter.
"It's still got a pointy end! He could still use it to thrust into the enemy! What's wrong with him, I thought he was a WARRIOR and would KNOW THAT!!!"
With a huff and a harumph she continued, and then discovered that the Trolls were stone, and Aragorn new that.
"Well, he could at least stop being a pessimistic wet-blanket! He is so mean to those hobbits. Whats wrong with him!"
*sigh*
"Well, if you were fleeing black-riders and there was a good chance that the end of the world as you knew it were about to transpire, and the fate of said world rested in the hands of a happy-go-lucky-hobbit who kept getting into dire distress that only you could bail him out of, I suppose you'd be slightly grumpy, too."
This is merely a small sampling of the running commentary that flowed whilst Kendra read five chapters of Lord of the Rings out loud today. See, we're snow-locked during the beginning of Winter, and suddenly the ancient Scandinavian Bards and intricate carving and needle-work is making so much more sense now. I often wondered, when we lived in warmer climates, who on earth would have time to make all the detailed-sagas and life-like wood monsters and stone decorations that decorate Northern Europe. Having suffered long winters in the land in which that people goups descendants immigrated to, I suddenly understand.
You either become very certain of your opinions and create long, flowery stories to better communicate those opinions, or you almost loose the gift of speech altogether.
That being said, it is funny hearing Kendra's rendition of the heroes of Middle Earth. I got quite a bit done on the House-Blessing cross stitch I'm working on, Mom has discovered why Dad and I are so nuts about Tolkien, Ethan is entertained and getting his horizon broadened beyond mere Star Wars and Bionicles, and we are altogether having a fun time passing winter afternoons together.
Am soaking it all up before I have to squeeze all my creativity into organizing my life so that this next semester goes more smoothly academically and socially than last Semester.
~Princess Ouch~
Kendra stopped, as I was fairly sure she was, to interject.
"a STICK?! He's going to go after TROLLS with sticks?! What are they, his pet dogs??? Aragorn WOULD have a troll for a pet. What is wrong with him! He's got that dumb sword he never uses; what about THAT?"
"The sword is BROKEN, Kendra." I answered, choking back laughter.
"It's still got a pointy end! He could still use it to thrust into the enemy! What's wrong with him, I thought he was a WARRIOR and would KNOW THAT!!!"
With a huff and a harumph she continued, and then discovered that the Trolls were stone, and Aragorn new that.
"Well, he could at least stop being a pessimistic wet-blanket! He is so mean to those hobbits. Whats wrong with him!"
*sigh*
"Well, if you were fleeing black-riders and there was a good chance that the end of the world as you knew it were about to transpire, and the fate of said world rested in the hands of a happy-go-lucky-hobbit who kept getting into dire distress that only you could bail him out of, I suppose you'd be slightly grumpy, too."
This is merely a small sampling of the running commentary that flowed whilst Kendra read five chapters of Lord of the Rings out loud today. See, we're snow-locked during the beginning of Winter, and suddenly the ancient Scandinavian Bards and intricate carving and needle-work is making so much more sense now. I often wondered, when we lived in warmer climates, who on earth would have time to make all the detailed-sagas and life-like wood monsters and stone decorations that decorate Northern Europe. Having suffered long winters in the land in which that people goups descendants immigrated to, I suddenly understand.
You either become very certain of your opinions and create long, flowery stories to better communicate those opinions, or you almost loose the gift of speech altogether.
That being said, it is funny hearing Kendra's rendition of the heroes of Middle Earth. I got quite a bit done on the House-Blessing cross stitch I'm working on, Mom has discovered why Dad and I are so nuts about Tolkien, Ethan is entertained and getting his horizon broadened beyond mere Star Wars and Bionicles, and we are altogether having a fun time passing winter afternoons together.
Am soaking it all up before I have to squeeze all my creativity into organizing my life so that this next semester goes more smoothly academically and socially than last Semester.
~Princess Ouch~
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