walking home

tunnel

i road the train into the city with judy this morning. she's in my small group. she's one of the most interesting people i've met here. one of the first female cab drivers back in the 70's, she once jumped out and ran down a customer who didn't feel like paying. she hitchhiked across the country from california and adopted her daughter from asia after she was saved. every week at group i seem to get another piece of the "judy puzzle".

so this morning she was telling me about raising a pre-teen. robin is 12 and becoming more social...which of course is normal, but very different from a nyc perspective. earlier this week she asked to go to the movies with friends after school. later, regretting that she had not asked for more information, judy realized she had no idea what theater the girls were going to and what time robin was going to be home (or how she was getting home for that matter). that's when judy went into the thinky think mode (as kdny would say). she called another parent who's daughter was with robin. once they determined the theater, they both decided to meet the girls there as the movie let out (and escort them home).

so judy headed to cobble hill (brooklyn). she had just in time to read the serial rapist flyers the police had posted in the area before the girls came out of the theater. she and the other mother also had a chance to officially meet (they had only talked over the phone). Before everyone said their goodbyes and goodnites, robin realized she had left her bookbag at her girlfriend's home...which meant judy, robin, and the the other mother and daughter needed to head back their place before heading back to park slope (judy's neighborhood and my neighborhood). they walk a few blocks into the brooklyn projects. they picked up robin's bag and started for the door when the mother told judy she would walk them to the subway. judy (being the tough retired cabby she was) dismissed the offer. the woman looked at her and simply said "let me walk you". as they walked to the train, she added..."this neighborhood is mostly safe, but sometimes it isn't". she also nicely explained she wasn't entirely safe in their neighborhood being white - and this mother (who is an african-american as i'm sure you've guessed by now) just by being with robin and judy would be a safeguard for them.

she put them on the subway train and they made it home with nothing more to tell...

as judy finished her story, i couldn't help but think of the two parallels. the first being judy... so concerned for her 12 year old that she went to a few extremes and as few unsettling neighborhoods to bring her home safely...

the second being the mother from the projects. a cover of protection over judy and robin. as if any danger to their culture would not see 2 white people, but simply a black woman. judy and robin were physically capable of getting to the subway on their own, but their trek would have been risky and could have become very serious. so much like the paths that we choose alone. we get to where we are going, but - final destination, without the blood of christ washed over our sinful bodies, be might as well be dead!

to wrap things up (cause i really want to get up and watch the Macy's day parade)...i know life's journey, as a christian, isn't going to be all shits and giggles. even on my good days, my sundays, my self-righteous days...i am so broken and ugly - but there is hope, grace, mercy and love poured over me, and that is all the shelter and comfort i need to get me to the train!



ps- no i'm not actually going tooo the parade (are you kidding me). i'm watching it in my pajamas on the couch like the rest of you!... it's suppose to snow...wahhhhhh!