Normal, Richard, and Cymbals.

I read books by Anne Lamott, Donald Miller, Malcolm Gladwell, Rachel Held Evans, Shane Claiborne, and Rob Bell.  

I get my news from NPR, John Stewart, John Oliver, and Vice.

Documentaries are my primary form of entertainment.  

I am a conscience consumer that buys fair trade and locally as much as is within my power.

This is my world.

You can piece together my politics and worldview for yourself.

Most of my life reinforces this normalcy for me.  Unconsciously, I surround myself with people that share these ideals.  

The occasional Facebook newsfeed reminds me that there are, in fact, other types of people in the world.  Sometimes my social media outlets jolt me into the realty that my insulated world isn't the reality for everyone.  

Typically, when I travel I find people that share my foundational beliefs about how the world works and how we are meant to operate within it.  It's safe to say that volunteers traveling to destitute villages, mountains, and deserts are there for the same reason.  Whether for the arts, for agriculture, for education, or for politics, we have common connecting points. Conversations are filled with language of empowerment, justice, ethics, and education. 

It's my normal all over the world. 

Then I met Richard. 

Richard is, well, a confusing character for me. 

(Photo credit - Summer Anderson)

I knew before meeting him that he would be one of the most interesting students in the camp.  I mean, he's 73 years old and no one else is much beyond thirty.  So I knew he would add a different perspective from before day one.

I had no idea just how different we would be.

It didn't take long. He made it clear from the first session that he wasn't a part of my normal.  I would give specific details on what exactly he said that day, and every day since, but I don't feel comfortable typing it.  It's bad.  It's really bad.  It's worse than Fox News bad. 

There are moments that my jaw drops, my face lands in my palm, and I can do nothing but shake my head. 

Richard is not my normal.  And I can't scroll past him to a more palatable opinion.  He is a part of my daily life and is unavoidable. 

But let me tell you something,  I don't want to avoid him. Richard has become a kind of a hero to me.  He is teaching me as much, if not more, than my like-minded friends.  

The man is the epitome of love. It overflows from his spirit.

He he gentle and compassionate and authentic and humble. He cares about every living thing around him. He listens to everyone's perspective and engages in thoughtful dialogue. He is willing to change his stance in the middle of a heated conversation. 

There are times, sometimes on a daily basis, that he is surrounded by young left-winged feminist that are angrily attacking him and his position.  He listens with attentive ears, taking it all in, never reacting to the emotion.  Just listening. 

He responds in gentleness.  Always. 

Sometimes he says, "I think you're wrong."

Sometimes he says, "I don't know what I think about that."

Sometimes he says, "I had never looked at it from that perspective before."

Sometimes he says, "I need to research that before I come to an opinion."

Meanwhile, my blood level is rising at an unhealthy rate, my face is bright red, and I'm nearly yelling.  

I don't get like this often, if ever.  It takes a certain type of right-winged conservative to bring it out of me.  It takes a reminder of the politics of my childhood to strike a certain chord within me.  

It's why I live in New York City and not the Midwest. 

It's easier to live in a cultural center where I am surrounded by my normal. 

I don't get this mad in my normal. 

But Richard is shattering my normal. 

I can't put him in a box. I can't fit him into my stereotype. 

I actually want to be around him. 

I want him to sit with me while I brew coffee on the fire. I want him to fill buckets of dirt with me while we work on the herb spiral in the garden. I want him to do dishes next to me after dinner every night. 

I want to be around him because I want to be like him.

He is the model of a loving servant. The very definition of how I want to be defined. 

He tells us stories about growing up in New Zealand and Australia.  He tells us about his mistakes and successes, he is open and unashamed about his life.  

He is the first one to offer his services, give of his time, open a door, give up his seat, listen to a story about your life, ask about your family, show interest in who you are, and relate to you on a purely human level.

He is the only one in this camp that stands on his side of the line and he is the first one to love everyone on the opposing side.

I want to be like that. 

I want to handle opposing viewpoints with grace.  I want to be the first to serve those that disagree with all that I stand for. 

I want to be someone that other people, especially people that are diametrically opposed to my core values, would choose to spend time with.

I want to be like Richard.

He is teaching me what I have always known - Love Wins.

It doesn't matter what I think about anything in this world.  If I don't love the way Richard loves, all of my acts of service will be no more than a clanging symbol.

I want loving like Richard to be my normal. 

Nothing to be afraid of

Let's talk about motivation for a minute. 

Everything we do is motivated by something else, whether intrinsic or extrinsic, whether pure or adultered, whether altruistic or selfish, whether obvious or subtle. 

In all of my collective mental deliberations in daily life and worldwide travel, I have yet to see a more powerful motivator than fear. 

From the top down, fear is disseminated within the masses and weaves itself into the fabric of society.  It is unseen, effective, and toxic.  

It becomes so much a part of our society that we don't even recognize its presence.

I don't know if it's a natural human instinct or if we've learned it over the course of our existence, but I know I see it in every culture I've ever had the privilege of interacting with. 

I see it when I walk down Broadway, when I sit in my classroom, and when I roam the world in July. 

It's the idea that there is an "us" and a "them" and that we are more different than alike. 

I have the perfect example. 

There were these two boys that kept circling the edge of the area where we live.  I don't think they were more than eight years old, but I'm not the best judge of age across cultures. 

We were working on our clay stove and they were trying to see as much as they could from thirty yards away.  At first they just watched us, but as they grew more comfortable they started getting our attention with Arabic greetings and salutations.  When we looked up to respond it was easy to see that they had a different agenda than a simple greeting. Neither of them knew a single word of English, but they both knew how to gesture with one finger that they weren't there to be our friends. 

We all looked at each other, then at them, and then shrugged it off.  They had obviously been exposed to American culture at some point and giving more attention to the situation wasn't going to benefit either party.  

We returned to building our stove, but they only grew louder and more offensive.  We continued ignoring and they continued bantering. 

While our presence in the village is welcomed by the majority, you can imagine that westernized women without their heads covered can be seen as a threat by some.  Obviously, the parents of these children didn't hold us in the highest regard and these were the tiny little outlets of that sentiment. 

Here is where it gets interesting - If you read this blog the last time I was in Israel then you will remember my friend, Yasser.  This local Bedouin man is deaf, but reads lips if you speak Arabic, and uses hand gestures. He has no idea that none of us understand exactly what he is saying, but he refuses to not communicate and forces interaction until he's certain that we've connected on a human level.  He's is a constant presence in the our camp, always outdoing us in anything and everything we do.  He's one of my favorite humans in the planet. 

So he's in our circle and watching the entire interaction between the boys of his village and the group of outsiders. 

The situation escalates to the point that the boys feel like they are brave enough to enter the fenced area.  We decide, as a group, to entertain ourselves by simultaneously sprinting towards them on the count of three.  Their bare feet carry them out of sight until all we can see is the dust between us and them. Their laughter combines with ours in the space between our cultures, connecting us ever so slightly. 

We go back to our stoves.  They come back for more, this time with more enthusiasm. 

Yasser actively spectates the entire interaction.  Eventually, he stands up, walks to the edge of the fence, and calls my name, "Kelty!  Kelty!"  

I look up to see him with an arm around each boy.  He looks at the tops of their heads and then at me, an unspoken/international/language defying gesture to let me know that they were with him, and that that, in and of itself, made them part of us.

I responded without hesitation by walking towards him with my hand extended.  

He was the middle man. He was the overlap.  He was the safety.

If they could see they he loved them and that he loved us, then maybe they didn't have to be afraid. 

He walked directly towards me and modeled a proper male-to-female greeting with an extended handshake. We both looked back with exaggeration to make sure they were watching.

I stayed where I was with my hand extended towards the boys.  We engaged in several rounds of inching closer to one another before they sprinted back to the fence.

We made contact the third round.  

We shook hands.

Minutes later the boys were sitting next to me as I boiled lentils and grilled eggplant on the fire pit.  They laughed and ran around the inside of the fence as though it was their own backyard.  

Yasser had gone to take a nap.  He was nowhere in sight. 

But the boys remained. 

Unafraid and uninhibited. 

I've been replaying the entire situation in my head for the past two days. From the moment they circled the outside of the fence to the moment they circled the fire pit.

I can't get over it. 

I watched these two little angels, motivated by fear of the other, cross over cultures and worlds and fences in a matter of minutes - all because of one tiny little deaf villager.  

I can't get over it. 

He saw them.  He saw us.  He saw himself as the bridge and he made the connection.

There was no longer "us" and "them" because one person wasn't afraid to be "both" at one time. 

I'll never get over it. 

I'll remember it for always. 

I'll remember it when I feel misunderstood by an opposing force.  I'll remember it when I feel different.  I'll remember it when I see someone that is different.  I'll remember it when I use classifieds that draw lines in the sand. 

I'll remember it to the point that I recognize it, call it by name, and disarm it.

Fear.

I will recognize aggression and accusatory statements and defensiveness as what it is. 

Fear.  

I will disarm it by looking for ways to be "both" and by extending my arm towards the other. 

I think that, at our heart, we all want to connect with one another, but we are really afraid of one another.  

It makes sense.  We've spent the entirety of humanity trying to kill the other. Evolution alone would teach us to preserve ourselves and see diffeernces as a threat.

But I saw the entire framework unravel within a single hour of my life.

I pulled the thread of fear from the tapestry of my life. 

I'll never get over it.  And in remembering it, I will refuse to be motivated by it. 

There are far too many motivators to choose to live in fear.  

It's true. I watched it happen. 

I'll live in that forever.  

where I am, who I am

I am a different me every place I go.  

I am a different me in this Israeli desert than I was in the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic, the mud huts of Kenya, the mountains in Colombia, the old precinct on the corner of 182nd and Wadsworth, my own apartment, my sister's house, or any other place I find myself.  

I adapt to my environment, to the people and the culture and the social norms surrounding me. 

I sponge information on a consistent basis, learning my role in the midst of it. 

I learn how I fit into the world around me, when I should speak or be silent, when I should move or stay still, when I should object or concede.

I know which battles to engage in.  I know which conversations to let dissolve in the abyss. I know what is worth my energy and what to disengage from.  

It's a skill that has taken me a lifetime to achieve and it's a skill that I will never fully possess.  

I know who I am based on where I am.

I appreciate this chameleonic trait about myself.  It's one of the qualities within myself that I most value. And yet, even more than I value social, physical, and emotional adaptation, I value my ability to be who I truly am, regardless of where I find myself in this world. 

I value knowing where I will bend or break. I value knowing the lines that I won't cross and the ones I'll easily skip over.  I value that I value my value system enough remain true to my center. 

I know that I will always align myself with love.  I know that I will consciously seek out the oppressed and join them in solidarity. I know that will actively use my creativity to be a problem solver. I know that I will never be forced to resort to violence.  I know that I will object to anything or anyone that looks to objectify people. I know that I look to be an agent of peace and reconciliation in physical and emotional and spiritual places. I know that I will spend my life looking to join in the renewal of all things. 

I know who I am independent of where I am.

This is the journey of my life.

It's been a journey filled with equal parts opportunity, tears, joy, brokenness, persistence, failure, success, and resiliency.  

I can look back, at the different stages of me, and easily see how I've grown into the current version that sits in this desert tent. 

I can see the young girl that wanted to please everyone. I can see the kid that used sarcasm as a weapon and a shield. I can see the teenager that had an answer before anyone asked a question.  I can see the rebel that rejected all that she had been spoon fed.  I can see the wanderer, fueled by wonder in the minute. I can see the prodigal that returned to a different home than the one that she had left. 

I can see me, the whole of who I am, and the journey that has led me here.  

The journey has led me to be deeply connected to the ever so gentle voice in my core.  It's the guide for my every step, the whisper that rushes over me in the roar of the moment.  It's my most reliable companion and my most trusted resource. 

It lets me give up part of myself in order to connect to every single soul that I've ever encountered. It lets me hold on to exactly who I am in the midst of any circumstance. 

It's the center of my existence anywhere and everywhere I go.