Finally a Grown Up

Well, it's only taken 40 years but I'm finally a grown up!

I had to go to Washington, D.C. last week on "business." What I actually did was eat Salmon for 2 lunches and a dinner (all in a row), meet Naomi Judd (!!) and talk to people (read "schmooze"). The part where I became a grown up is that I've been married my entire adult life so I RARELY travel alone. I went to NYC in January of 2004 but stayed with my Uncle Ardon (the consummate New Yorker) so I had help. I went to Florida in March of this year but stayed with my mom and dad . . . you get it. In D.C. it was just me. I navigated my way from the airport to the hotel (the easy way, in a cab) and back (via the Metro -- kinda scary for a small town girl). I managed to get myself to the Holocaust Museum, which wasn't even built the last time I was there. That place blew me away. I was a History major in college so there were things I already knew. I read The Diary of Anne Frank, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and Night by Elie Weisel (highly recommend all). But there are things there that make it all REAL. A picture of Ike at one of the camps and a quote by him:

"The things I saw beggar description.... The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were... overpowering....I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'" General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a letter to Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, April 15, 1945

And, he was right -- what I saw "beggar(ed)" description. How could human beings do the things the Nazis did? How could DOCTORS do those things? And record it all on film of varying types!

I was especially touched by the case that displayed the so-called "euthenasia" of handicapped people (mentally and physically). Barbaric.

But the most convicting to me in some ways was the photo of the woman on the park bench. Obviously Jewish, for who would sit on a bench marked "Jews Only" if she were not? Her face was covered with her beret. The card that described the photo said something to the effect that the Nazis based their treatment of the Jews -- at least as far as "separate but (not necessarily) equal" -- on the US's treatment of our Black citizens at the time. Ouch. . .

Well, after navigating our Nation's Capital -- I felt rather proud of myself.

Besides meeting Naomi, I got to hear Jim Wallis speak (http://www.sojo.net/), met Rabbi Elliott Kleinman and, as I say, got my protein.

Rabbi Kleinman was awesome! Very intelligent and very funny. We chatted for a long time about the Hebrew language and how moving it is, even to (and perhaps especially to) those of us who cannot speak it. He told me about some research that had been done that showed that a majority of Jewish people do not speak or read Hebrew BUT they prefer to have it read in their services! Think about it -- it's a holy language like none other. Hearing it is like hearing music. I'll never forget attending a Bar Mitzvah (the Friday evening service only) several years ago. The boy in question is the son of the attorney I was working with at the time and I took my eldest daughter, Mary, with me. There were published versions of the Torah available at each seat and, as the Psalms were spoken in Hebrew, we could follow along in English. It was magical and moved me in a way I've seldom experienced. I felt sort of the same way about The Passion of the Christ. There's just a wonderful connection there -- ancient language, roots of our faith, etc. Very cool.

I've started Disciple Bible Study at church on Sunday evenings. The class is a diverse group as far as male/female and educational/spiritual backgrounds. Still, there are no African-Americans (although I have noticed an upswing in attendance from that sector on Sunday morning) and no Hispanics. It's not necessarily a representative sampling of our city's populace.

Just some "grown up" thoughts on Monday. . .

[Addendum: I had almost forgotten the wonderful closing prayer given at our luncheon on Tuesday, September 13 by Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president:

O God, sometimes words and images tell us truths we don’t want to know, so we spike them, spin them, censor them. Sometimes words and images expose us, so we stay on message, stay on point to keep others, keep ourselves from knowing too much. But sometimes truth cannot be controlled. The powerful hide behind tinted glass from a mother’s haunting questions, and we see the bitter fruit of our deceptions. The desperate cries of the vulnerable poor - few affluent among them - rise from the deluge toward the camera flying overhead, and suddenly we know the real meaning of “left behind.” “What is truth?” Pilate’s cynicism is repeated again and again by those who have little interest in truth. So make us bold to speak, to write, to print, to photograph. And make us persistent in our work to allow all to see the sin and the grace, the horror and the hope, the despair and the dignity of our lives, and thus to see what You see when You gaze upon all that You have made. Amen.]