October 30 - The Least, Last, and Lost Reflections

Andrea wrote a wonderful description of our time in Meina and Rome – and she actually lessoned a little of the drama and frustration of being lost in Meina! Here are just a few more thoughts and reflections that surfaced during our time in these places.

I keep looking for good news in our wanderings. I keep looking for the least, the last, the lost and what good news there might be for them. This is what our friend Kris Rocke does as he leads the Center for Transforming Mission. CTM's goal is to come along side those who are working in hard places – especially among youth to bring them true good news, training, and encouragement that they are not alone. I was surprised by the thought and realization that for the last seven years I have been doing hard work in a hard place. Kris and CTM have always been life giving for me and I have participated in many of their gatherings and trainings, but usually I didn't think of myself being and working in a hard place. I've realized that it was a very hard place. While I loved Sound Youth Counseling especially working with the staff and clients, I still am working out my time in Tacoma. Perhaps more on this later.

Our time in Meina however served to focus like a laser what it is like to be in the position of the marginalized. Meina is on the shores of Lago (Lake) Maggiore, which is very similar to Lake Como. Beautiful homes and villas on the water extending up into the hills but without a doubt the most pedestrian unfriendly place I have ever been in my life. If you had a car, it would be great – and you would be like everyone else who lives there, able to get places, able to purchase food, able to fit in. But without a car, it like Andrea suggested was a difficult, unsafe and somewhat life threatening place. This is no place for someone without a car, no place for someone poor – and while we are far from poor compared to most of the world, our time their (even with a lovely B&B) let us experience what it is like to be an outsider and not fit in, not understand.

I kept thinking of all the verses about taking in the stranger and looking after the foreigner and have a very different perspective than I did before and it's not like I hadn't thought about things like this before either! Andrea also mentioned that our experience of being in Meina is very similar to the third culture kid experience, when you are plopped down somewhere completely unknown and it's hard, yet you figure it out and keep on going. Although TCK's do this with their lives often over and over again!

The other experience that made real the least, last and lost to me took place on our first night in Rome. Andrea and I were a little tired and grumpy at each other, needing some sleep and a little space after being continually on the go. We went back to the central Rome train station which in addition to trains also has many restaurants and stores. We were getting in line to check out of the grocery store when we noticed a girl ahead of us in line whose face was so covered in piercings it floored me and made my petty complaints just vanish. It wasn't just that she was a human pin cushion, she was obviously in a bad way, drugged and slumped over. She was standing in line with a man but was literally falling asleep standing up. He would shake her every now and again when she started to slump more towards the ground. I wanted to take a picture but it would have been so violating to her and everyone was already violating her with their stares. I don't know what we could have done. Andrea and I walked back to where we were staying in silence. I quickly scribbled down these words on the back of a receipt.

I'm sorry it took you

I'm sorry it took you
to wake me from my stupor
break me out of my funk
shock me out of my shallow selfishness

Right in front of me
at the check out stand
with a man, cigarette hanging from his lips, buying cheap wine,
steadying you so wouldn't fall down

If your eyes had been open
you would have known the stares of everyone in the store
perhaps you already felt them
perhaps that's why your eyes were closed

Under 20, maybe 15 – barely holding on, barely human
Drugged, high, swaying
Dirty, baggy clothes covering most of you
But what was visible...

Hands, scarred; nails, blackened nubs
mostly shaved head except for a few magenta strands
piercings covering your face
Ears, lips eyes, nose, cheeks – far, far too many to count

Grotesque
Spectacle
Awful
Stunning
Sad
Beauty – horribly scarred
God's image
Maybe Jesus
in the flesh
wrapped in your own stupor to break me from mine
But I'm sorry it took you.

Isaiah 53

Duncan