Anyway, a couple weekends ago Lauren, Jillian and I set off for the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival. We pulled into a parking lot, and as I was walking up to the machine to pay, a man walked up and told us he was leaving, and that we were welcome to have his ticket (which still had about six hours left). Then after some good food and even better music, we started wandering around the booths of various artists and other vendors. We proceeded to meet an artist who had these incredible paintings of New Orleans and Katrina recovery efforts. She of course, because it's NOLA, talked to us forever, telling us about the city and Mardi Gras and plenty of other things too, and was eager to hear about where we're from and why we're here. Then, as we sat back down, we met Ronald.
Ronald, who was being pushed in a wheelchair, proceeded to tell us he does improv poetry, and he wanted to share one with us. So off he went, rhythmically rhyming in an on-the-spot poem he told us was called "Three Queens." It was all about these three queens/princesses (he switched back and forth between those) who just wanted to take off their crowns for a day and enjoy regular life. How the king and queen were worried about the princesses, but the princesses just needed to get away from the castle for a while and see what life was all about. They were going to be just fine. After he was done, Ronald told us he just wanted to say that he could see the light and the love in our faces, and that he just wanted to remind us that we're beautiful.
Ronald literally left us speechless. Often I've retrospectively seen God's presence in a certain situation, but friends, in that moment I felt like I was staring God right in the face. It seemed so unbelievable to me that a random guy in the park could get so much right about us. About me. At the risk of speaking inaccurately for other people, I think the ways that Ronald's poem described me could probably be applied to a lot of YAVs. Many of us embark on these year-long adventures outside of our proverbial castles, often to places far away both geographically and culturally. Sure, folks back home might be worried: What is she doing with her life? When's he going back to school? Are they safe there? But we sneak out anyway, to see what it's like out here. And we'll be alright.
I think then even our YAV context can become a castle of sorts, if for different reasons. Many specific YAV jobs involve stressful work, and after work time is often filled with community meetings and other events. That is not to say that we need or want to forget about or ignore the work we do or the issues we care about, but sometimes it's nice to take off the YAV hat and just enjoy some music sitting in the grass outside. And sometimes that's ok. As I continue settling in to a year that is far from easy, it was wonderful to hear that.
Love,
Allison
No comments:
Post a Comment