HELLO!

Happy Thanksgiving! We were blessed this morning by a personal reflection offered by Louise Michalos. I hope you were as inspired by her story as I was. I could feel people leaning in as she spoke, Louise has a gift to keep people with her as she speaks, her words move from her to others in not as instructions or with details but rather as storyteller, drawing us in to be part of a familiar narrative. Here is a recording of the service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q7C3fuA81Q

I loved how Louise invited people from her condo to join her for a time of community, connecting with one another. In these connections Louise was able to introduce two men who live next to each other but had never met. I often share at the funerals I help plan, when I am preaching, the world we live in has changed. For the better, we are more inclusive, when people say, “the good old days” I ask, “for whom?” Certainly not for women who had dreams working in sectors that were deemed “male only”. Certainly not for people of colour. Certainly not for the LGBTQ community. For the better, when people join a community, they can expect a more inclusive and diverse gathering, where many voices and perspectives are heard. Not for the better, people are lonely, the number of people who identify as lonely has skyrocketed, and that applies to all age groups. The number of people who spend their time alone with a device is far more common than we might imagine. And the consequences include not only talking to fewer people, it is also losing the skills acquired when others are part of your day, how to talk to strangers, how to be flexible, how to experience differences of opinion.

And it’s not just how many others you engage, it’s who you are engaging. I know many friends who are very active in community, but all their contacts are like-minded. One dear friend called me in despair when her MLA was defeated in general election. “I can’t understand it Kevin, everyone I spoke to voted for her.” Exactly. If all the people you speak with look like you, talk like you, think like you, it will be next to impossible to have understanding, let alone empathy, for those who are not in your social “bubble”. When I engage people who live near the street, when I meet a family at a funeral home I have never seen before, when I used to talk to people on the bus, there was never any expectation from me I was talking to a like-minded person. One reason I believe I can connect, as a preacher, with varied persons is I have a sense of what the “counter argument” would be to every conclusion I draw. I can address those concerns and questions, rather than just making statements, because I have heard, first-hand, those objections. I may not convince you, but it is rare people don’t acknowledge I have a sense of their point of view. When people tell me, “That was a good one, you should preach like that every week” I respond, “No, this one spoke to you, others may reach persons who are not in your bubble”.

“May your table be varied, may your conversations be stimulating, and may there be many, many brussels sprouts!”. Peace, Kevin