Kim Robertson
No one can pull off an event that has 3 members in attendance without someone taking offense. Once we were polliwogs in a jar called East High but that jar is broken and the polliwogs turned into frogs are hopping everywhere. Hopefully most of you have found a pond or stream that you are comfortable in. If you haven’t, please be grateful for what you do have instead of resentful over all the things you don’t have. To paraphrase Hellen Keller, Security in life doesn’t exist and those who think it does ae deluding themselves and will be upset about it.
Children echo the thoughts and beliefs of their parents until they are old enough to learn to build a life that is more beautiful on the inside without a care if anyone else thinks it is beautiful on the outside. Those that don't learn this simple thing instill the same fears and dislikes for peoples, places and things in the next generation. In my travels I have met folks who still believe that 1,000 years is not too long to wait to take revenge on another family for an actual or perceived injustice … he who killed Tybalt must die still rules in some places. Hopefully we've forgiven all that and the fires have burnt out ... High School was half a century ago ... We've spent more than twice as long since graduating as we spent in the public school system getting to graduation.
Just returned from 9 days in the Shoshone wilderness and some of the folks I met were ever so much poorer than my family was growing up but rich beyond belief inside themselves and walking in a grace I'll never attain. They sat beside me adn told me the best trails and camping spots where sweet water ran, where and how to catch a fish for my supper, and thanked me before I shouldered my pack for my efforts to haul out trash left by those with no regard for Shoshone lands.
All folks the world over who find solace and community in their faith have a different kind of strength than those like me who do not. Those like me who walk outside that community also have a strength and for the life of me I don’t understand why either side needs to … excuse the pun … “lord” it over the other.
In Turkey and needing to find medicine for my wife, folks who could not speak English and me with limited Turkish found a way to communicate and get the meds she needed to make her well. All this good will between people who found a way trhough good intentions on both sides only to be undone in the Blue Mosque the next day when U.S. lady tore off her shawl, hauled out a big silver cross and yelled at the top of her voice to the faithful gathering for prayer “There’s a reason I’m a Southern Baptist!” It was just 3 days after Benghazi … Dee and I held up our hands and said to anyone who would listen “Canadian, Canadian” and edged out the side door as police surrounded the women to protect her. Freedom of speech comes with a grave responsibility to consider time and place and take responsibility for the consequences when you don’t. Hopefully I've used mine in this forum with the respect you all deserve.
We all like to celebrate diversity at our family celebrations in age of the family members gathered togethered and the variety of foods we consume. We all like to celebrate diversity in the gardens we tend and the butterflies that visit. Yet for some reason the fact that diversity in all its forms includes people and belief systems can be really scary at time. Time to put away the fear children – we don’t have much time left to come to peace with our own selves or with the changing world around us …
If I in the shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That all our lives we have slumbered here while controversies did appear. No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, I will mend: and, as I am an honest Kim, I may at times appear very dim, now to scrape my serpent’s tongue and draw out the fangs that have sorely bit due to my lack of wit and pluck. So, good life to you all for we once were friend, and I hope you'll accept my attempt to make amends.
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