Loree and Foolish Enough to Make a Difference
Foolish Enough to Make a Difference
Yesterday, Kristofer shared a Franciscan Blessing, and one line stood out to me: May you be blessed with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference...
I grew up in California, one of the most racially diverse states. My mother grew up in Fresno County, among farmers, many of them Japanese American. Her best friend was Japanese, and they were inseparable until the day that all Japanese Americans were herded into concentration camps. My parents taught us to be racially aware. They supported Martin Luther King Jr. I remember being in church with them, and hearing sermons about King's work, and seeing how our church dwindled, as the white people in it became uncomfortable with the message of racism and inequality. I watched buses come to my school filled with Black children who didn't want to be there, and who were met with fifth and sixth grade students standing by the door shouting epithets at them, and trying to bar them from coming in. I stood on the sidelines, hating what was happening, but too shy and too scared to do anything.
How can we be blessed with the foolishness to make a difference? I am doing my own work, including my own admission that as a white american I have benefited from our unjust system. I am reading books about racism. I am speaking out on things that I am uncomfortable with. I am allowing discomfort to motivate me. I am doing what I can. And I am trusting that I am blessed with enough foolishness to believe I can make a difference. And I look forward to seeing how all of us, blessed with that foolishness, can make a difference together.
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