Interesting

Today I had the privilege of helping a friend out. Her Great-Aunt had passed and she wanted to be at the funeral services. So I packed up my kids, rushed out the house this morning met her and drove to where she could pay her final respects. We talked about a few things, we always enjoy each others company.

Eventually we arrived in Chester, (about 25 minute drive from Richmond), found the church where services were being held and dropped our friend off. The boys and I headed to a local restaurant to grab some lunch. I still have not adjusted to the overgrowing hunger associated with adolescent boys. Anyway, as we sat in the restaurant and I watched the boys eat I couldn't help but notice how the people came in, ordered their lunch and searched for a place to eat. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing wrong or offensive about it at all. But what did strike me as interesting  as we sat in the sun-room area, (myself the boys and one other young man at a separate table), was how people would peek in the room and decide to sit either elsewhere or close to their own race.

I wondered what was so offensive about a middle-age woman who was having lunch with two little boys. There were at least 3 tables in between us and the next gentleman but a couple came in looked around and decided to sit one table away from him on the other side of the room. Clearly my side had the most space. However he was white and so was the couple.

Okay, whatever. I dismissed it as a coincidence. Of course as a woman of Faith I know there is no such things as a coincidence. So the boys continued munching on their food unaware of how we were being sized up and I continued to watch all that was coming in and going out. It is my duty to protect my children so I will always pick the table with the best vantage point and if I am really on my job we will be right in the middle of two exits. Blame it on my brother who served in the U.S. Military..he taught me a lot. It is not that I felt in danger or threatened Chester seemed to be full of good hard working folk. But still I watched while pulling double duty as I monitored the children's conversation. Soon a young Hispanic or Latino woman entered the sun-room area with her two young children and you know where she sat? One table from me.

A couple of brothers who obviously worked on a construction site came in along with a few who got out of a taxi. The two men in my area eyed them with expectant curiosity. Oh if I could give them a penny for their thoughts. What were they thinking? More importantly what had they been taught to think?

As the boys were wrapping up their lunch I smiled at the young family. I even glanced at the couple who had decided to sit at the opposite end of the room. They didn't know that I hold 2 Master degrees, a teaching certification and over 20+ years of working experience. They didn't know that I have been to the edge and back with our sons. Especially the youngest one. They didn't know that I was married or that my husband and I have had to fight for every piece of joy in our union. They didn't know that I believe in the birth, death and Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

No they didn't. They knew me as some woman with a couple of kids at a local fast food establishment who happened to be African-American. What I learned today is that it has been a long time since the walls of segregation have been torn down. But we sometimes act as though they still exist.

-Sj
ps my friend was white and I count her a blessing in my life