In reflecting on comments regarding the Dalai Lama I realize I made an ommission about my religious influences - and a great little story.
I worked for a year as a legal messenger - S. King and Pierce County every day - plus legal service in SE Seattle, a large minority area. The biggest thing volume wise were these small claim suits over bounced parking checks. The biggest dollar wise was probably New Hope Baptist church.
New Hope had been burned a few years earlier and the suit was regarding the construction loan to rebuild, which they had defaulted on, or some such. The reverend, Robert Jeffries, is known as an activist type - taking on Nordstrom most notably. Though he might be a bit of a Jeremiah Wright type he also worked closely with the mostly white Church Council of Greater Seattle. I didn't know him well, but we had met, and I liked him.
In order to get ahold of people for the legal service I had to show up just prior to the Sunday Church service. So imagine, if you will, the white boy entering perhaps the most radical successful black church in Washington when the most faithful have already gathered. Key the church choir warming up and the church elders gathered at the Baptism pool. This is where I needed to wait, until that morning's baptisms were completed. The one face I remember was an early teen female getting the fear of god put into her followed by a quick dunk.
I don't know if that writing captures the experience, but it was certainly quite memorable.
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Curiously my earliest memory ever is of playing with black children at one of the first Head Start programs, I believe just as that program was getting started. Mom had been a social worker in L.A. County, getting promoted to supervisor just before getting pregnant with me. She volunteered for this Head Start program - perhaps with an eye to a job.
My memory is mixed - I do think there was some sort of an incident - nothing any more significant than any other non-racial playground incident. I remember that vaguely - the two strongest memories are more emotional ones - I remember stopping going and Mom's emotional state as we left. I was sad about leaving, even in spite of the incident. The overwhelming memor was one of curiosity - of having kids to play with that were very different from me and trying to figure out what it all meant.
