Sunday, November 20th, 2011
So, have you ever had one of those days where you hoped to get something done, but then didn't? Well, today was not one of those days. I filmed most of the footage I needed to complete a final project for a class. I also got a chance to study well for my exam tomorrow. Finally, I had plenty of time to hang out with my friends and make short, crazy films together. What a day! In fact, this has been one of the most productive (and least rushed, I might add) days in quite some time. Though everything around me seems to be running and rushing and flying past, today was a moment to stop, listen, work, and relax. That doesn't happen very often in our culture today. We run around as if everything has to get done at that moment. Is there any space in life for silence and pause? There should be. It doesn't have to mean that nothing gets done. It just has to mean that worry and preoccupation have been pushed aside and our focus set on one item, whether work or play is not important. Life goes by too fast already. Let's pause, listen, and relax for once, and enjoy what is happening around us. Let's look at a tree we walk past every day and notice the color of the leaves (or lack thereof). Let's look up from our feet when we're walking and look at the sky, or the people around us. Let's give a passerby a friendly smile or wish the Starbucks person a good day and actually mean it. Let's live life to the fullest, but not by partying or throwing life away, but by noticing the small details that have become so commonplace that we can't notice them without effort anymore. Try it for a day and see what happens. You'll be surprised.
I've heard time and time again that racism is an issue. Being on a Christian college campus like Wheaton College, I'd have thought that it was a non-issue. However, here I've heard more racial slurs, insults, and simply insensitive comments about people of other races than ever before in my life. Now, what I just said requires a couple of qualifiers. A lot of these have been in jokes that people of that race have told me. Also, having lived in Peru for most of my life, I don't hear the same kind of racial slurs. At the same time, though, Peru is a pretty non-diverse country. I'd never heard the concept of diversity until I walked onto Wheaton's campus. Then, suddenly, it's everywhere! Everything I say and every way I act can be construed as an insult or an attack against someone of a minority race. I've been purposefully trying to get over my own ignorance on the topic to no avail. No one seems to want to talk about the issue except a select few who are much more passionate about the topic than I am. I am the president of Unidad Cristiana, the Latin American/Hispanic/Latino student organization on campus. I am trying to understand what the issue with diversity is in order to help the people in my organization. Despite my faulty knowledge of the issue, I understand when an obvious insult is being hurled at someone. Recently, I've seen an inordinate amount of insults hurled at Solidarity, a group focused on racial reconciliation. These are some of the few people who will address the issue of racism (and its defeat) openly and people openly reject them! The current president of the organization, Alaina Berg, will be open to and available for conversation this Monday night. I'm going to attend, not only to try to understand this issue, but also to encourage her that her organization's message needs to be heard, especially by Wheaton's students.
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