I think I do my reflecting at the grocery store

Many people come back to USA from abroad and are overwhelmed by the grocery store. This is generally an initial reaction and I have found myself reflecting on this a few months later with a different reaction. A family friend was filling me in on some South African stores before I initially left. She said you can pretty much get anything in South Africa you can get here, but sometimes you will find it in a different type of store.

In my memory now I don’t focus on the early times we couldn’t find something, and that was for the most part trying to cook thanksgiving dinner in the opposite season. But we learned who to ask or where to find it.

Now being back I guess I struggle with it again. Part of this could be due to more regional stores, whereas most any city in South Africa had the same chain store or an open market place. I am surprised by the local farmers markets here. Partly due to the season, but there is much less produce then I would assume in Florida and many are just distributers for Farmers. (Maybe that is easier than the long row of stands down Church Street in Joburg where we would pick and choose from different sellers.)

Now in the land of plenty in my local grocery store last week I couldn’t find feta. I finally did find a little pre crumbled package. (It is a smaller store, but at any major store in a city in South Africa I could find it. Maybe not in a township) It’s not a fair direct comparison, but I spent another 20 minutes just walking around the grocery store, with too many options I just didn’t really want. I knew I wouldn't find ostrich, but I wanted pro-vita crackers and feta and the type of cranberry apple cinnamon tea I like. I am sure I can find substitutes, but I don’t remember missing things this way in South Africa. Trying to satisfy three different people, with different diets, all trying to be polite in the grocery store was often a stressful challenge first in South Africa. So it’s funny to write about it, but once you get past the shopping it’s about food that becomes meals and is shared.

I think it’s more that I had a system; I had everyday life figured out. And as I rebuild trying to do that again some days there are road blocks. I guess it’s just the transition to find the things I like again.

So some days I spend twenty extra minutes in the grocery store imagining what Lucille and I would get excited cooking. Or I call my dad asking what kind of mustard I like. (In fact I think I have talked to every immediate family member via text or on the phone in the store in the last two months).

And I check all the teas just in case one will be close enough.

reflection 2

Reflection on Mathew 25

all.

I have struggled with the word all. a lot lately. or maybe more what I perceive to be people's understanding of the word all. maybe all adults should have another elementary school lesson on the definition of all and a few other seemingly simple words.

so I have questioned what all means. and after the 4th, how truly to we stand behind "all created equal"

I think some use all when they are advocating for one excluded group, but who is the all behind all the people you care about, all your friends, all the people you can see?

instead of continuing I will leave you with a word cloud. Many thanks to my friend Ethan for introducing me to www.wordle.net/



(I have made a few others off of blogs, and a few on some verses i still have to post. one for blog on Jan 1st and the other when I blogged about never being called a stranger. Feel free to click on those and check them out.)

Our flag. Our independence. Our celebrations. Our liberty. Our freedom. Our perseverance. Our hard work. Our community. Our justice...

This July 4th I see it a little differently. I like celebrating July 4th, because I believe in all those things outlined all those many years ago. To imagine what it must of felt like to have a Declaration of Independence. To struggle for something you believe in so strongly and to know the rises and the falls of the struggle. I can resonate with some of that from my own passions and involvement in movements. But this was a whole country being born!

I liked celebrating with my friends growing up. It was like every year was a bit more of our own independence journey together, and the fireworks and watermellon and running through the rain were a lot of fun too.

There are so many things to celebrate about this country. But sometimes I struggle with our flag. It is this symbol that for many is all strong. But for me it is also a symbol of all the things I struggle with in America. I often wonder why I appreciate the beauty so much of other flags, but struggle with the one tied to my nationality. I guess by being a citizen, while I get to respect it I also get to be critical. And I celebrate that as a privilege this 4th of July. And I see the privilege of this country casting a great responsibility that we do not always uphold with the virtues of freedom and justice in mind.

However, my perspective on the flag is changing as I see it through the eyes of others. Working with Justice For Our Neighbors, I know our clients see the flag differently. The flag represents a freedom I cannot fully comprehend, it represents opportunity. For children that have grown up here it means home. And in a school yard it flies over all our heads. For new citizens it means something I cannot comprehend, so I should being quoting those in our community that do.

That shadow that casts down from the American flag is grand and wide, and represents how we started and all the parts that make us up. That is our flag with all the different stories that fall under its shadow.

symbols are about how we see them, what they mean, what stories they tell, and how we use them...

thank you to each of you that help me understand this better.

Define American

Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas wrote an important article a few weeks ago for the New York Times. I am sure many of you have seen it, if not click here. It is a different kind of coming out story. He is now working on a project to Define American. See more here

This is exciting work for me as my current work is right in the same line. How do we have a genuine conversation on immigration? How do we dialogue? (Haven't quite gotten there yet in Orlando, but definitely meeting some good caring people, that are learning a lot fast.)

But I was posting this somewhere and read the last line again. It hit me now living in Disneyworld country. all over the world it's acceptable to dream about mickey... what other dreams are acceptable?

"My mother told me I was excited about meeting a stewardess, about getting on a plane. She also reminded me of the one piece of advice she gave me for blending in: If anyone asked why I was coming to America, I should say I was going to Disneyland."