Oh Kids

Well, apparently Mondays aren't so "memorable"...we've completely forgotten to leave you with some memorable words the past two weeks! We'll remember next week. Promise. :)


I'm supposed to be doing homework right now - and I'm trying, I really am - but there are times when I just have to share my thoughts. With the weather getting warmer and the days getting longer, the neighborhood kids have come out of hibernation and are enjoying the open green spaces at the apartment complex where I live. (And let me tell you, there are a lot of kids.) Although it's nice to see them outside, playing, and having fun, as a grad student it's pretty tough to focus on developing a modified balanced scorecard for a nonprofit outcome evaluation with little kids screaming outside. (And yes, it's as boring as it sounds, haha.) But over the past few days as I've heard the kids interacting with each other, I realized how much we have to learn from them.


My favorite example? I was sitting in the living room one afternoon last week, and the little boy downstairs had a friend over and they were sitting outside eating an after school snack. They were talking and laughing and apparently having quite a bit of fun, when suddenly I hear the following conversation:


Kid 1 - (whining/starting to cry)
Kid 2 - It's okay.
Kid 1 - No...
Kid 2 - It's okay means it was an accident.
Kid 1 - You're not mad? I thought you were gonna be mad.
(Some chatter that I can't make out and laughing) 
Kid 1 - Did you see that bug?


I have no idea what had been so upsetting, but the little exchange just touched me. How simple life is for them! As I sat there working through a dense homework assignment, stressing about the end of the semester, worried about financial aid for school, concerned about the job search around the corner, and a whole host of other adult worries, I realized how quickly I forget that life doesn't always have to be so complicated. Not to say we should never stress - I'm a firm believer that a little bit of healthy stress is good to remind us to stay focused and on task - but there's certainly no need to drown in it. 


Yes, life gets complicated as we get older. And yes, there are things to stress about. But I think it's okay to step back a bit and remind ourselves what life looks like through a kid's eyes - and remember that it's okay to take life easy now and again. 

We’re feminists…we swear.

But how progressive is Women’s History Month? At the risk of sounding anti-feminist to some, I’d like to share a few thoughts that Courtney and I have been discussing over the past few days.

Last Thursday (International Women’s Day), a bunch of friends kept telling me “Happy International Women’s Day!” I replied with the same, but to be honest, the exchange made me a little uncomfortable each time. There was something about having attention drawn to my gender on one random Thursday that bothered me. So I had to stop and ask myself why…why, as a feminist, does that make me so uncomfortable when that day (and the entire month of March) are intended to empower women?

My thoughts brought me back to my history classes in college, where as history majors, we discussed not only the events and effects of historical events but also the progression of the study of history. And despite all the progress that women seemingly made in the 20^th century, it wasn’t until late in that century that’s women’s studies (or the study of women’s history) even became an organized field of study. Yet even then, the roles that women played in history weren’t integrated into mainstream studies – we were tacked on as a separate field. You studied World War II, and then you looked at the role women played in the war. You studied social movements (at any point in history), and then you explored how women participated.

And here we are: Women’s History Month. An entire month set aside to extolling the accomplishments of women throughout the history of the world. Yet what about the rest of the year?

I really think that as progressive that we as a culture think we are, the fact that we still have Women’s History Month says a lot about how progressive we aren’t. (And honestly, the same argument could be made for any other awareness month we have.) By needing an entire month to recognize a group of people, we are showing that women are not integrated into mainstream anything (be it the study of history or employment law). It is important that we have our own day, and even month, to celebrate the contributions of women, but we must not let the fact that we are recognized on one day be an act of appeasement.

Don’t get me wrong. I think there’s still a long way to go. Women have most certainly not achieved equal rights as men in a number of areas, and for that reason, I think raising awareness is a great thing. But as we move forward, it’s my dream that one day we won’t need Women’s History Month…that we can appreciate the accomplishments and contributions of all people, male and female, on any day of the year. 

Memorable Monday

"Health is the crown on the healthy person that only the sick can see." (Unknown)

Perspectives and multiple narratives

The following is taken from the newsletter edition of a blog entry originally posted on Courtney's personal blog, Wanderling. You can see the original post here.

I recently came upon a quote that was mentioned on Dr. John Fea's, one of my former history professors, blog (See his post here.). It struck a chord with me both as a historian and, currently, as a missionary:

Historians are not the guardians of universal values, nor can they deliver "the verdict of history"; they must strive to understand each age in its own terms, to take on its own values and priorities, instead of imposing ours.  All the resources of scholarship and all the historian's powers of imagination must be harnessed to the task of bringing the past back to life--or resurrecting it....--John Tosh, The Pursuit of History

It seems even more poignant to me now, as I sit at the Beit Sahour School following a lecture and discussion I led for the 11th grade on the topics of ELCA theology on Creation and the relationship of Science and Christianity. As I've grown up, I have realized how our professors and teachers, and really anyone we encounter, can bring us a truth. Yet, that truth may not be the end-all-be-all perfect explanation of life. I gave a lecture to these very bright eleventh graders (in their second language, and they still engaged in dialogue! Can I just say I love this 11th grade class?!) and I had a great time, but I definitely felt that I, while bringing another perspective to the table, was not being accepted as the "guardian of universal values"...and I was so proud!

In a class during my first year of college we talked about wisdom, and how the true mark of wisdom is surrendering your grip on the universal truth and considering that what another person is telling you may be correct. At the same time, though, that wisdom requires not just believing everything anyone else tells you. Wisdom is wrestling with the truth.

So, looking back at that quote I realize how much it applies to life for me here in the Middle East. You could replace "historian" with "missionary living in accompaniment". Regardless of where you are, as a missionary you do not "bring Jesus" (or, heaven forbid, "the right way to live") to anyone. God exists just fine without any of my help (and, in all honesty, despite it). However, what I have been able to do this year is consider another perspective on God, another way in which people experience the Divine.

Seriously, how great is that?!

Part of accompaniment that makes relationships so much work (both during this year, and my life back in the States) is that you have to wrestle with the truth. I can't assume unquestioningly that my community is correct about everything, but I also can't ignore what they have to say because I'm "right". [As an aside, because I know the "Truth" gets to be tricky when we talk about religion, I'm not talking about pluralism. Rather, I'm talking about humility in knowing that we don't know it all.]

This year I've been challenged to take life in the Middle East on its own terms. I can't come in with my American perspective, my paradigmatic lens, and judge my community based on my imposed values (this, of course, is not to say that there aren't values that are shared by my community here and my community back home).

I will not lie and say that there aren't days when I wonder, "Why can't [x] be like it is in America?" but I quickly realize how silly I sound. It's ok for me to miss things back home, but I wouldn't want my community here in Palestine and Israel to change to be the same. They hold too many values, priorities, and truths from which we can and must learn.

Memorable Monday

First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.
~ Thomas a Kempis

Hiatus fini.

You may have noticed that Caitlin and I have been MIA for a while. I've been busy with my work serving with the Lutheran church in Jerusalem and Caitlin has been working on her Peace and Conflict Studies Master's work at Arcadia University, which is leading up to her journey and work in Rwanda this summer. You can keep up with our adventures at my personal travel blog, Wanderling, and Caitlin's Peacetalks blog. We invite you to keep up with our journeys on our individual blogs, but want to reassure you that we are back and in the swing of things with Perspectives.

Here's what we're promising, at least until we're both back in the States and, perhaps, things get a little less hectic:
-Memorable Monday. We hope to bring you one quote a week that will encourage you to think about a different perspective in some way.
-One feature post a week. At least once a week we will bring you a new perspective on something going on in our world or the news. Sometimes we'll have a guest writer (contact us if you're interested in writing a post), sometimes it'll be new thoughts from us, sometimes it will be cross posts from the blogs listed above.

Most important, we want this to be dialogue. Send us your questions, leave comments, you can even send us fan mail! We hope that you enjoy following us as we wrestle with what it means to take in other perspectives.

Ready, set...let's go!