minority report

local bar at the fall retreat - upstate NY

look at this picture closely and tell me what you see?
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"can i say something to you white people? some years ago an African American Christian friend of mine said 'you know what...the one thing that bothers me about you white Christians... you do not know you have a culture'. it took me about 10 min. for him to help me understand it- which proved his point by the way - what he said was 'you white people...you understand that there is black culture, there's Asian culture, there's Latino culture, but the way you do things are just the way things are done...you don't think of it as a culture, but (white) is a culture ...but it isn't just the way all sensible people think or the way all Christian people think'. And b/c white people have been incharge for so long...non-white people know how there culture works. they know how their culture works, they know how white culture works or they wouldn't' be able to get around. but we - white Christians - we don't know. we just tend to think this is the way things are. and if we are going to be a part of the new community, we're gonna have to listen more than we ever have." Tim Keller
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I listened to this sermon today (which i have linked if you want to listen to the message in it's entirety). the above excerpt stood out more after this weekend. most mornings i look around the train car and can't even count on two hands the nations and culture represented inside. it gives me chills to be a part of that. a part of a city, and a part of a country that contains so many kinds of people. this weekend put things again in a new prespective. over and over i found myself to be in the minority. I know this seems like a stupid thing to get excited about on a church retreat, but it really isn't...not for someone who grew up in a high school with 2 black students. even after graduating college, working in New Albany didn't lend it's self well to a cultural experience. I guess I just want to know that i don't live in a bubble. that i don't assume that if one looks Asian, they come from Korea, Japan or China. I am so thankful for the time i had to get to know all these new friends and learn from the things they shared. about their faith, and families. the struggles they experience and the way they view life.

when it all comes down to it, I don't want to be the white girl from ohio who thinks white culture is not a culture but just the way things are done.

Oh and PS- Ji has Polio (she's not drunk) and Jenni (in the top left corner) she's just a little funny:)