A diversity of friends and acquaintances

When we do not have a diversity of friends or acquaintances it is too easy to become stagnant - stuck - satisfied. Today I once again realized that our urban neighborhoods have been left to die. It is a slow death. It is so slow it looks as though the people who presently are living in those neighborhoods are the reason they are dying. It is so slow the damage is done and folks look around wondering how everything has turned out the way it has. It is so slow too many folks cannot see that if we all do not work together to address the situation in urban neighborhoods - if we do not intentionally bridge the gap between races and economics - if we do not make each of our lives a mixture of peoples - we will all miss the wonder of our humanity as it is present among us.

Years ago an urban planner introduced a bunch of pastors to the pattern of neighborhood decay. You may have heard people talk about 'how nice this neighborhood used to be' when we lived there - or when our grandparents lived there. Most often the comments are directed at the condition of the housing. Well, we learned that years prior to the notice of a change - probably a decade or so - the decay was already in the works. Older residents stayed in the homes they loved. As years went on, it was more and more difficult to keep things up. In addition - and this is something I have heard so often it is painful to write it again - 'some of them are beginning to move into the neighborhood' or 'they're moving in on the other side of the freeway' or 'it may be time for mom or dad to move out'. Therefore, the roof did not get the necessary repairs - gutters were left to go bad - bushes grew into facade covering monsters.

But years go on and yes, the neighborhood changes. That is because neighborhoods always change. Yet when the change is one of race or economics, the change is accompanied with fear and judgment and isolation. We were told that often the new people who move into an older neighborhood that was made up of affordable housing were first-time home owners. That often means they may not know how one becomes a homeowner. Let me use myself as an example. I cannot fix a thing - never had to. When I moved into our first home, I did not know I was to clean our gutters - when the gutters were going bad, I did not have the funds to simply fix them. I didn't have a lawn mower - they are not cheap. I didn't know people trimmed the lawn. The lack of all the lawn tools overwhelmed me. The minor repairs to the inside of the house were beyond me - I was embarrassed and things did not get done. I was lucky though. I had neighbors who helped me. I had neighbors who were quite like me. Change was happening but I was not - well - that kind of change.

When we do have a diversity of friends and acquaintances we do not know just how different life can be so close to home. We make our moves so as to be in places just as we would like them to be - just like me. I've made those moves. It is hard to admit. Yet, I know that we need to keep in mind the dynamics of life that create the divisions around us so that we will more readily step over lines and boundaries to take part in life that is not like our own. This does not mean we have to go over there to help them. It means we must simply be willing to expand our lives as they are. Increasing our circle of friends and acquaintances - who may not be like us - who make us live differently in the places we now reside - who have little in common with us - whose very existence can show us a bit more of the wealth of God's humanity - and make us a bit more human.
TRRR