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| My host family in Mymensingh, Bangladesh during my Peace Corps Pre-service Training |
Writing has been on the back burner for me the past couple months. I’m in a new job, I’m taking an online course so I can get a lane change (teacher speak for pay increase), Dave has a million new projects to write for, K1 is adjusting to Spanish Immersion kindergarten, and we still have a little settling in left to do.
Now Thanksgiving is upon us and I’m realizing just how quickly the last few months have passed. Sometimes on my familiar drive home from a Trader Joe’s shopping trip, I wonder if we really lived abroad when it seems like we never left. And then I have moments when share a memory or tell K2 to go get his dummy (pacifier) and I realize that one short year made a lifelong impact.
I usually wait to blog until I have a lesson or thought keeps coming back to me. And yet lately, I feel like I rely so heavily on the words of others to say what I am thinking and feeling. I went to a two-day training last week that was about mindful and culturally responsive facilitation techniques led by the honorable, Lee Mun Wah. I have been to cultural and racial diversity trainings for years. I seek them out. And this one affected me the most. If you watch the clip that the link above takes you to, you’ll hear Lee Mun Wah say,”What it’s going to require for us to have a multicultural society is to take the time to walk across the room.To go into another neighborhood, to invite another family into our home, and to get to know theirs.”
The word that strikes me here is “invite.” We cannot assume that just because someone hasn’t spoken with us, shared a story with us, or walk with us it is because they don’t want to. Most likely, it is because they have not been invited. During my training, I experienced many profound moments. One of them was at the very end of day two when all of the participants were holding hands in a circle. One Hmong woman stated that she has been teaching in schools for many years, but that day she ate lunch with a white person for the first time. Wow. Just take a minute to think about that. It’s not that she didn’t want to eat with a white woman, it’s that she was never invited. And when you’re never invited, you feel you aren’t welcome. Let that thought rest on your heart for a moment. Who do you eat lunch with? Who do you break bread with and how often is it with someone who comes from a different ethnic, racial, and/or cultural background? Who have you invited to the table? We must take time to share our stories.
My challenge for this holiday season is to invite someone new to the table. Invite him or her to have lunch with you, to come to your house for a meal, or to meet for coffee. If you can, reach beyond your comfort zone and invite someone from a different ethnic, racial, and/or cultural background.
Let’s share our experiences and stories and report back.
I’m taking the challenge. Will you?
One of many great TED Talks by Lee Mun Wah:
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-secret-to-changing-the-worl
