Growing Into

You'll Grow Out Of It, by Jessie Klein.  If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  It's about a young woman who has pretty much been a tomboy all her life and then, as all girls are, is suddenly expected to be interested in and know how to use make up, to think lingerie is a fabulous idea.  But she bucks the late bloomer stereotype and her coming of age essays are hilarious.  And underlying it all is this idea that there is a self, deemed childish, that you grow out of, that you shirk off for more adult and antiquated ways.  There is a mold that we all naturally grow into. And if you don't firm up when the others do, don't worry, you'll grow out of it.  Her example of not fitting the mold but also not settling for an outcome she doesn't want is apt.  No woman is defined by lip gloss.  You don't need to grow out of anything.

I felt a bit like that girl when trying to find a place for my family on Sunday mornings.  We don't fit into a traditional gathering.  We have some pretty radical ideas for people from West Michigan.  I have been told I would grow out of those notions.  But--and it's happened to me a couple times now--I'm one of the younger people in my crowd.  Look around you at the people who govern, who volunteer, who share their tremendous talent.  Those whose radical act may be to just come and sit each Sunday, to be present, and presente.  These are my examples. These people have not grown out of it.  I, am not growing out of, but into.

Recently we have seen some tremendously upsetting things.  We have been told we'll have to get used to it. That people are sick of these ideas.  To me that sounds a lot like you'll grow out of it.  Well, I know how that turned out.   I found people who have been not getting used to it for a lot longer than I have.  Who show me how to make what's in my heart shine brighter.  How I shouldn't give up on that, shouldn't and shouldn't have to get used to it  And I thank you for that. It has given me tremendous hope of late.  So let me give you some: take heart.  I promise you, I will not grow out of this.