Happy Valentines Day! Tis the season of romance, proposals and heartbreak, special nights out, flowers, and boxes of chocolates. It’s a holiday that divides those belonging to a couple from those who do not belong to a couple with great clarity. When I think of belonging, a favorite Jim Manley song often pops into my mind. The style of this song clearly dates me…it’s a little more folk song than is hip these days, but it talks about belonging to a community/family with language that really appeals to me. Here is the refrain:
Come in, come in and sit down, you are a part of the family.
We are lost and we are found, and we are a part of the family.
I can never remember all of the verse words, but these stick in my head:
Children and elders, middlers and teens, Singles and doubles and in-betweens
Strong eighty-fivers and streetwise sixteens, We are a part of the family.
One of the reasons I struggle with traditional church is that so often it doesn’t work for everybody. Church folk often think they “just need to reach young families.” Unfortunately, church often has a narrow definition of family too. Religious communities need to be much more inclusive of singles and doubles and in-betweens, and, well everyone else too. What is special about being a part of this University community is that we do strive to be inclusive of all people no matter what stage of life or set of struggles each has. Students choose to study here faculty, and staff choose to work here. We are a family of choice with a common set of values and a mission to educate towards making our world a better place…until we realize that the values we think we share aren’t as common as we think they are. We each have a different spin on what diversity and inclusion actually mean, and all of us have accumulated bias that can sometimes catch us off guard and get in our way of being fully inclusive.
The concept of diversity and inclusion includes acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each of us is unique and each of us has our own gifts and shortfalls. These differences can be along dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, mental health struggles, religion, political beliefs, and any number of other variables. Because this is a community of choice, we aim at understanding one another and moving beyond tolerance to understanding and embracing all the facets of diversity. It often means moving beyond points of conflict and working toward relationships together. Sun Bear, a Chippewa elder, is quoted in one of my devotional resources saying, “I do not think that the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.” We all have our place, and we all have purpose. We all have gifts to offer and we all contribute meaningfully to our community.
I give thanks today that you are a part of the community here. As another verse in Jim Manley’s song says:
You know the reason why you came, Yet no reason can explain.
So share in the laughter and cry in the pain, For we are a part of the family.
Blessings, Stephanie