Earlier this year I proposed that as a growth step we do something that scares us every day. Since writing that, I've discovered that there really isn't very much that I actually fear; however, I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone and into new experiences on a reasonably regular basis during this year that is only now five weeks old.
While it was not my intent, I attended my first community organizing event this evening. I thought I was going to a meeting where we were going to have a dialogue about a citywide strategy for dealing with the refugee crisis. That was one of several topics. I have to say my most accurate description of my personal experience was that of being plopped down in the middle of pure chaos. It didn't feel to me like anything was really discussed, and organizers kept wanting us to make commitments for action, but I was confounded as to what they wanted us to do.
I do find that I always grow in new situations, and tonight was no exception. As someone who has spent her career in organizational strategic and tactical planning and event organization, this chaos was a bit of a strange and wonderful mystery to me. It was very cold and one of the ushers from our church offered to drop me home. He had been involved with this group for many years and was quite excited at what they had accomplished over the years. I am open, but the most growthful part of the experience was to just go with the flow and resist any and all temptation to try to organize something that clearly no one wanted organized.
The group sponsoring this event was the Washington Interfaith Network. There were at least 200 people from a broad range of protestant denominations, non-denominational churches, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Muslims, and we did break into discussion groups. The experience gave me the opportunity to interact with people of different faiths in a way that I don't believe I have before.
Participants obviously cut across classes as well. Many more educated and financially comfortable advocates were socially justice-minded progressives. Others were from poorer minority communities. One young African American man of perhaps 30 told about attending a meeting with the mayor to discuss his public housing project.
While I like to think of myself as have a diverse group of friends, it didn't take long this evening (like maybe 5 minutes) for me to consciously think to myself that while I do have a racially, culturally, ethnically diverse circle, that diversity is within a narrow educationally and economically homogenous group. Except for grocery store clerks, nail technicians, and my one homeless friend, my "diverse" friends all have at least one graduate or professional degree and are comfortably in the middle or top-of-the-middle of the middle class. I don't think I've ever met someone who lives in a public housing project before.
Tonight I realized how arrogant I had been to think that befriending two homeless people in my 10 years in the city was understanding the city's underclass. The issues in our discussion groups tonight was the things of the national headlines--lack of affordable housing and homeless families with small children (on a bitterly cold night at that,) gun violence, and police violence. That agenda did make me think my concerns for refugees 6,000 miles away had diverted my attention from needs in my own community. I am still very committed to the refugee issue, and my awareness of local deprivations is heightened.
The only time I was afraid tonight was when walking in the 15 mile an hour winds which drove the wind-chill factor down to 15. I was afraid my chattering teeth might damage my expensive new dental. (That's a joke.) However, this rich experience certainly was a rewarding journey outside my comfort zone, and I think it accomplishes the intent of doing something each day that scares me. I understand now that it is only when we get out of ordinary frame of reference that we truly grow.
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