Crazy for Justice (by Donna Almendrala)
This Training for Change conference was a good experience, one that I did not expect and that challenged me deeply. One of the tools we practiced was learning to tell our personal stories to build relationships with each other. I'm not very good at that, and I have a hard time finding the desire to open up to strangers.
But the more the ideas of "relationships" and "stories" were drilled in, the more they became real to me. I began to see the passion and the honesty in all of the other conference goers, which surprised me because I didn't know that there were people so willing and determined to create change in this society. It was very inspiring, and I was happy to get to know a great bunch of people. And the people who work for Sojo are crazy...about justice.
Donna Almendrala just graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2008 with a degree in Chemical Biology. She is currently looking for an outlet that will blend her science background and desire for social justice.
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Comments
HAHAHAHAAHA This is hilarious. It is about time sojourners connected to the pop-culture.
Posted by: HAHAHA | June 18, 2008 11:34 AM
MIMS!
Great job Donna.
Posted by: Anna | June 18, 2008 12:01 PM
I think there's a reason that's difficult to open up to strangers and share the nitty-gritty reality of our life story: the possibility of a negative response. In the past, opening up and sharing has resulted in more pain or rejection.
Call me cynical, but I don't think it's a very good idea to open up to strangers. Can you trust them? Do you know that information won't be misused? The fear of opening up is a protective instinct that keeps us from getting hurt by people who aren't trustworthy.
Sharing is good; I'm all for it. But for safety sake, I'm keeping it to those I know well enough to trust.
Posted by: naomi | June 19, 2008 10:28 AM
Naomi,(whose name means "bitter")
Only by trusting do we find those who are trustworthy. Only by opening ourselves, perhaps bit by bit, do we find those we can love. There's a wonderful old poem, by Edwin Markham, who must have experienced what you describe.
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
The hardest lesson I've had to learn is that safety is an illusion. The strongest love may be, if not broken, separated by death. The surest job may disappear. The closest friend may betray, perhaps out of sin, perhaps out of a different view of what constitutes a "protected communication." Our only real security is to know that we can connect with others for through them we see God and serve God.
To accomplish great things, we must take risks. Imagine John Newton, writing Amazing Grace, and sharing that he'd been a slave trader.
God bless you in your pain.
Posted by: Sarah Caldwell | June 19, 2008 5:12 PM
Sarah,
Unfortunately, the name "Naomi" does not mean bitter. In fact, it means quite the opposite: pleasant. "Mara," however, means bitter. It seems you have incorrectly remembered the story of Ruth, in which Naomi changes her name to Mara because of her bitter experiences (Ruth 1:20).
However, the meaning of my name is not relevant to my comments. And by including its (incorrect) definition, you are (perhaps unintentionally) implying that my parents gave me this name because of my character. This would be akin to "poisoning the well" (a debating/logic term).
Posted by: naomi | June 22, 2008 12:37 PM
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