Cross-Cultural Experiece

Living in Parker, CO, we don't have a lot of opportunities for cross-cultural experiences. But, this weekend, we had the pleasure of dinner at one of my husband's co-workers homes. This family is Palestinian. The husband moved to the US quite some time ago, but his wife just immigrated to the US four years ago, immediately after marrying. It was an arranged marriage and each of the individuals is from the same small village.

I have to admit that I am utterly in awe of this situation. I can't fathom moving clear across the world with no support system and immediately starting a family and being completely alone. This family is truly amazing and were incredibly hospitable. We were treated to a traditional middle eastern meal (our kids, who tend to hate any unfamiliar food, did quite well). We had chicken and a dish called "upside down", which we were told anyone from the Middle East would be familiar with. It's a rice dish with eggplant, cauliflower, carrots and noodles. We were lavished with hospitality and there wasn't a single request our children made that wasn't granted (much to our chagrin at a few points).

Our conversation was really interesting, too. The guys talked about how they couldn't imagine staying home with the kids. Shahir said something I found interesting. Apparently, Muslims have a saying that "You can find God at the foot of a mother." It's a reference to the nurturing, from conception on, that a mother provides to a child. It's an image of the love of God towards people. What a lovely, provocative image.

Civic Duty and Immigration Reform

This week I fulfilled my civic duty for the year...the dreaded jury duty.

When I got to the court house, I found out that we were all potential jurors in a murder trial. I'm going to admit that I was pretty upset about the whole thing. I do a lot of driving around with the kids to school, preschool and stuff and finding people to take that over for the two week period required overwhelmed me.

Yesterday the jurors went through interviews by the prosecution and defense. I was far enough down the line that I wasn't asked anything. But I sure did watch and listen a lot. One of the first things I noticed was that the defendant was a Latino man who required translation for the proceedings. This was quickly a topic of conversation among the potential jurors, and not to the benefit of the defendant. The guy sitting next to me shared his pretty prejudiced views quite freely.

I could only take so much of this before informing him that my husband and his entire family are Mexican, some who came legally and some who came illegally. Just this last Thanksgiving, Eddie's mom shared their family story with us for the first time. Not even Eddie knew how his family had immigrated to the U.S. His grandpa was a migrant worker who moved from Juarez, Mexico up to central Colorado. After a few months, he came to church sobbing on a weekly basis, he missed his wife and 12 children so much. His pastor spoke to his boss, who then sponsored him and his family for immigration. They moved to El Paso, TX one day before their 13th child was born! Eddie's father came into the U.S. as an illegal immigrant and spent his first year in the U.S. in the basement of a business in Chicago without heat. He remembers never being warm enough and trying to mime what he wanted for food to local restaurant employees. Sometimes he would get food, sometimes not. A few years later, he was granted citizenship. (By the way, almost 40 years after immigrating, Eddie's mom still speaks broken English and his father is still somewhat choppy. It's hard to learn a new language as an adult)!

Julie over at One Hand Clapping has a great post that gives us a different look at the immigration debate. We would do well to consider this debate from the eyes of an immigrant.

For me, I feel the defendant in this trial is feeling first hand the impact of being an immigrant who is not wanted. Out of 120 jurors, there were two Asians and one Mexican...that's it. The rest of us were white. Two of those three were excused because they did not speak enough English and the other was excused for other reasons. I believe that the people on the jury will take their responsibility quite seriously, but I hope in the midst they can attempt to put themselves in the place of a different culture, put their assumptions aside and try to understand life from the view of a stranger. I think this is an important aspect to the immigration debate as well. I know that my point of view was significantly impacted as I sat listening to my mother-in-law tell their family story. It was no longer an arms-length away. It became part of my story.

123 Meme

Happy, at A Fundamental Shift passed on a meme to a mutual friend, Jemila, who then tagged me. The rules are…. “simple” and the results humorous:

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

So, just so you all know, my laptop is on a little desk in my kitchen. I don't often keep my books (outside cookbooks) in the kitchen due to it several spills in the past that have left my books looking rather poorly. So, tonight, I found my husband's book, which should thrill each of you with it's profundity! ;-)

From The Guitar AMP Handbook: Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds:

"There are a lot of uses for the things, no doubt, and if you don't already own one, I'm sure almost every player reading this can imagine a situation in which a good attenuater would be handy.

They do, nonetheless, by the nature of their operation, have inherent...I wouldn't want to call them 'drawbacks,' but let's just say "elements of their function' that sometimes make your rig sound not exactly like a less loud version of the same amp. The first is that driving your speakers at different levels obviously makes them perform differently; any speaker's reaction and interaction to and with the amp is a big part of the amp's overall sound, and these speakers sound differently when driven hard than they do when driven gently."

So, there you have it. Guitar philosophy at its finest.

I tag:

Kate
Brad
Julie
Kathy
Tanya

(Kate, Brad and Tanya...this is just a reason for you all to put up a new post on your blogs)!

Freaky Weather

Last night was a totally weird weather night here in the suburbs of Denver. It started knowing and then it began to lightening and thunder. Shortly after that, we heard the pop, pop on the roof indicative of hail. Then it rained for a bit and went back to snow. It was all done in about the course of an hour.

So odd!