I hadn't been going to church that consistently in a very long time. I was going three times a week, class and services included. Between losing weight and going to church, I had less time to think about boys and make myself crazy trying to snag them."Yes, uh, prayer requests for me and Christina. We're getting married on Friday, so..."
Then again, church wasn't always the best place if you were trying to avoid feeling single. In any case, my schedule was generally full, and that was the goal, so whatever.
I still struggled with the Lavery stigma. Every now and then I'd hear something that either offended me or made me feel so "different" that I had to stop and remember that people are just people, and the stereotypes are all in my mind.
"You will NOT believe who I saw at the airport the other day."
My Wednesday class in particular seemed to make me feel awkward.
The classroom was fairly large with three sections of seats, but on Wednesdays only about three rows of the middle section were taken up. The teacher was an engineer by day and very likeable. He was charismatic and didn't seem jaded. So I forgave him quickly of the story he told next.
"I was standing in the line for security. You know, where you have to take off your shoes and pull out your laptop and stuff like that. It was a long line and I'd been standing in it for a while, and then this guy starts walking ahead of everybody on the other side of the rope. And at first I'm like 'Who does this guy think he is? He can't just skip line like that.' And then I start looking at him, and he looks kinda familiar, and the security guards are looking at him, and they start smiling to eachother like they recognize him too. And you know who it was???"
He was really excited now.
"Karl Rove!"
The class was silent.
"You know, Karl Rove! You Fox News enthusiats should know who that is."
They seriously didn't know who Karl Rove was.
"Well maybe I'll have to go downstairs and tell that to the older classes to get a better reaction."
That wasn't the reason he wasn't getting much out of me. I made a face and held it, knowing that if I said anything I could probably kiss my hopes of ever having church friends goodbye.
"Hey, you can't wash your hands now," said a guy I recognized on the front row.
"I'm sorry?" The instructor asked.
"You can't wash your hands now. Because you touched him."
I crossed and uncrossed my legs before muttering under my breath.
"...I'd be taking a shower."
Nobody heard me, of course.
At Lavery, the 2004 elections were brutal. Not for most people there, but for me. I wrote a sociology report about it months later implying that the Lavery kids would not have been that brutal on me if they hadn't been experiencing group mentality. Because they were surrounded by each other's similarly accepted ideas, they saw my opposition as being even more wrong than they would have otherwise. Would they have peeled bumper stickers off of someone's car at Kroger? Would they have paint penned their next door neighbor's windows? Would they have called a complete and total stranger a baby-killer? Highly unlikely. But they did those things to me in the school parking lot, the dorm, and at the school cafeteria. And all because I went to Lavery and happened to be liberal. Discouragement from this type of behavior was negligible. Even the head resident wanted to know which girl had the John Kerry sign in her window.
Anyway, I shrugged it off at class that night. Most of the kids didn't even know who Karl Rove was. And if they did, they didn't really revel in the fact that one among them had seen him at an airport. It didn't matter. So I wondered to myself, is it possible for me to get with one of these guys from church someday and NOT have a problem with our clashing political beliefs?
A friend of mine got married a couple years ago to a guy who told me that when I voted for John Kerry I was letting the terrorists win. There was a Ronald Reagan sheetcake at their wedding. Chocolate filled. I won't even make a joke about that one. But his wife, my friend, had always been my liberal ally at Lavery. We went to a Michael Moore rally together! I'm sorry, but I will not allow any fiance of mine to put Ronald Reagan's face on a cake at my wedding. Even if its the funniest joke in the world.
Still, getting back to Karl Rove, it amused me that one of the champions of Homeland Security would not have to wait through a line exercising its express purpose.
8 comments:
As an adult, I choose where I go and who I associate with. If I do not get what I need, I have the power to go where I will get what I need. Whining is whining, and everyone knows it when they see it or read it. But I spent many years trying to give myself the power to go get what I needed, so I understand as it can be very scarey to reach out.
I'm whining?
I thought I was asking legitimate questions, and trying to prove that I was making progress in my ability to tolerate differences of opinions in favor of common goals.
You know, something that the US Congress should work harder at, for example.
PS: Advice to you: I also think that the word "I" was used in that comment a total of 11 times in a matter of 4 sentences. What if what "I" need is to give to other people, not "give myself the power to go get what I need"? Sometimes I think what one "needs" gets redefined and peace is more accessible if you just give without expecting anything in return. What you NEED will come to you, a lot of the time.
what i said and $4.00 will buy a caramel latte. :)
Yeah... I think I've given like 40 DOLLARS worth of that here. So thanks for the continued comments. I really like and appeciate dialogue. Its nice to get a reaction here and there. It allows me to grow.
Something my momma told me a long time ago holds true here: don't ever talk about politics or religion either in the office or to your friends because everyone has their own opinion and each thinks their opinion is the correct one so if you want to avoid a clash of any kind, then hold thy tongue! Ya did good, GF! Nothing is ever gained by arguing about something that is about someone's opinion.
You're not whining... You're just expressing yourself. Don't worry! I still love you!
I concur - there's no whining in this blog
Stay strong, GF!
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