Hello Friends of all colors, ages, stages of life. Below is how September 5th's Today's Touchstone is supposed to look: finished. Sorry about the
previous one, named "What's Your Color." I wrote it late last night, after a massage. Massages are great but should come with a warning: Do not operate farm equipment or sign important documents or send any emails for at least 12 hours. If you scrolled to the end of the previous one, you see my first draft attempt and some gobbledygook. I wrote the reflection with care, but then saved and scheduled it for early morning delivery without doing my usual test. It's not an earth
shattering error of large consequence. Nevertheless, I feel disappointed and embarrassed and I do apologize. Charlene
"You choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color." ~ Gary Oldman
I heard another good reverence story today. This one relates to
skin colors. I heard it from a Touchstone subscriber named Judi. Thanks for the permission to share, Judi. I hope you will write about it fully someday. I'm going to stick to the gist of it here.
When Judy was a teenager and got a job at the local drug store as a soda jerk, she had her first encounter with a man of color who had also worked there. "Man of color." That's one of the
ways we label Afro-Americans now. Back then, it was Black or Negro. Initially Judi felt uncomfortable around him, mostly because she had heard disparaging things about his race.
As time went on and Judi got to know him, she realized that he was very intelligent person. He was kind and did many amazingly helpful things for people. He was a good man with potential well beyond what was being tapped in his job as a stock boy. One day they got to talking about the division
between "whites and blacks," he pointed out that whites are not white and blacks are not black. We are all different shades of brown. And he wondered about his shade. Did it have a name?
He found his answer at the local paint store, on a chip that matched his skin. She may not have called it reverence back then, but Judi observed the reverence he had for himself and others. It stirred up
the reverence in her too, as it stirred out her fears and judgments about people with different languages, accents, nationalities...anything "different."
So, what's the color of your skin? Is it latte? Nutmeg? Caramel? Hazelnut coffee? We could do what that gentleman did. Go to our local paint or big box hardware store and check out the chips. I'll do that sometime and let you
know what color I am.
As Mattie Stepanek said, "Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second."
Amen,
Charlene
REVERENCE: May you appreciate the wonder that you are and the miracle of all creation. - from The Twelve Gifts of
Birth
