If you’re a long-time reader, you’ve heard stories of my childhood. I grew up in a farming village in Virginia. Hitching posts at the K-Mart. Cows everywhere. The (one) McDonald’s served biscuits and gravy.
We left when I was 12. I had completed 7 years of education at a public school and when I found myself in an Ann Arbor middle school I was flummoxed.
I didn’t know the US lost in Vietnam And the South LOST (really LOST) the Civil War? What’s wrong with these eggs? There’s no red spot My schoolmates ask why I shake my milk. Why are there three locks on the door? This city is segregated, too, how come they act like it isn’t?
My staunchly atheist parents had dedicated themselves to raising atheist children in the heart of the Bible Belt. At my elementary school, administrators got around church-and-state separations by arranging for a church bus to deliver weekly Bible study classes at the curb that served as our Earth Sciences education as well. It parked close enough that we could walk to it, but it was not technically on school property. My father went to the school board and asked them to add Evolution to the curriculum. The school board replied that Creationism WAS the curriculum – 50 years after the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee.
Our parents pulled my brother and me from Bible study. Our classmates were convinced that my entire family was going to hell.
I was raised with good people in a caring community. No “but’s” or “however’s.” Part of having littles is that you get to raise them. You get to teach them everything you’ve learned to date and hope they grow up, consider their options with due consideration, and choose your great values. My parents thought that. And the parents in my community thought that. There’s nothing wrong with that. If I’d had a little, I’d have done exactly the same thing.
When I was a young’un, the fundamental difference between the members of my community and the people in my family was religious. Now, the social differences are political. And each vilifies the other side just as vociferously. We’ve got to stop.
I’m suggesting “we” stop first. There’s enough room for each of us in this country. We need to focus on our similarities: food for our families. Health. Jobs. Time with our littles. Some passion. The ability to look at ourselves in the mirror every morning.
I grew up in the Evangelical South and I turned out just fine. I’m not scarred because I was held in detention instead of getting suckers for memorizing psalms in Bible study. My parents hoped for an atheist and they got a Muslim. My community hoped I’d be saved and I don’t subscribe to that worldview. For all the proverbial yelling and gnashing of teeth, everyone’s fine.
I suggest we refocus. When it comes to looking at others, look to: Food for our families. Health. Jobs. Time with our littles. Some passion. The ability to look at ourselves in the mirror every morning. And leave it at that for awhile.
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