“Can you see the real me… can you?”

I don’t know how many of you know (or liked) the Who’s album Quadrophenia, but I did. The song “The real me” is one of my all time favorites. I like it for a couple of reasons actually. For one thing, it has a great bass riff that runs all the way through it. For another, it speaks to me. You see (now I am sure this is going to be a shock to anyone who knows me), I never really have felt like I “fit in”. It’s ok, I’ll give you a minute to recover. Just breath deeply... there you go. Most of my life’s story seems to be that same old square peg in a round hole kind of thing. Now I am sure that everyone feels that way, it’s not just me…. Right? However, some things happened this week to really bring this to mind. You see I had a couple of people come into the shop to see who I was, and what I was about. Everyone was very polite and civil, especially for a tattoo shop, however it was very clear that I was being judged, categorized, and pigeonholed. But then again, that isn’t anything new is it?

One of the things I have learned since I left the pulpit, is that things are all the same. It doesn’t matter if you are sitting in ‘a men’s business meeting’ in some small town in the middle of nowhere, or a tattoo shop in south warren, the paradigm is still the same; “that is just not how things are done”. I have heard essentially the same sentence come out of the mouths of dusty old men in ill fitting suits, as well as inked out young bucks who are running out of places to shove metal through their bodies! Now who would have thought I would see such a parallel in these two different places? But there it is none the less. Things have history, and that is a simple fact. The past is an inescapable fact when you live in a world that has time. But all too often we allow ourselves to become the unwitting slaves to that history (that past), or at least to our perception of it. Why do I say perception of it? Because none of us on this side of the dirt are truly objective. We all see the world through glasses tinted by our previous experiences and beliefs. There is no escaping it, we seem to be wired that way. And it is not a good or bad thing, it just is a fact (or at least my perception of a fact). You say the word “minister”, and a whole set of assumptions leaps into play. You say the word “musician” and a whole other set of assumptions come to life. These assumptions are based on our past experience, coupled with whatever knowledge we assume to be true. The result is that we have our minds made up, to a certain extent, about how things should be before we even give them a chance. As long as real life doesn’t do anything to buck that, we think all is right with the world. But once something or someone doesn’t quite fit in with that script we have written in our heads, then back up the truck we have a problem! Let me try to explain with yet another story…

There was once a man who hurt his leg. So he build himself some crutches. They helped him, and worked great. He was so impressed with how much they helped him, he made a set for everyone in his family, then taught them how to use them. Before long, everyone in the village aspired to have a crutch. Some were gold, some were carved out of marble, and some were just plain wood. Schools sprang up with professors who expounded on the many uses, and moral rightness of crutches. Before long, no one walked on their own two legs any longer, till one day some people from another country were shipwrecked, and walked into town. What a scandal, walking around like that! Simply relying on their two legs!!! They were immediately jailed. However the idea got out, and some counter culture malcontents tried to walk around without their crutches. The movement grew, and soon the village was divided. It was eventually brought to a court to settle the matter once and for all. The defense simply allowed a man to walk around upright without the use of crutches, and pointed out that this was in fact completely natural. The prosecutor said that it is impossible to walk this way, and the person has simply deluded himself into believing that they are really walking, when in fact they can not and therefore were not. The judge banged his gavel and agreed with the prosecutor. The matter was settled, because you see, they had also all grown blind. They had lost their sight because they had refused to see for so long.

Putting aside our preconceptions of people and things is not an easy thing to do is it? But we need to try. It is kind of like the effort involved in growing pineapples as opposed to eating canned ones. (If you don’t get that one, read the blog about pineapples I wrote). If we are going to help people, if we are going to try to be Jesus in this world, if we are going to pass through this life and try to leave it just a little nicer then when we found it, then we had better start trying to see people for who they are, as opposed to who we think they are. Now notice that I said ‘we’, because I am just as much to blame for this as anyone, if not more so! But here is another secret I have found. The more you can see people for what they are without piling on your subjective preconceived notions, the more clearly you begin to see yourself.

I have trouble seeing the real me! I am not all that sure who I really am yet, and I don’t think I am alone. All too often we allow others perceptions of us to dictate and color our own view of ourselves. Just take a quick look at the fashion industry, or even your target ad, and you will see that there are a lot of people who are paid a lot of money to try to tell me who I should be, and how I should look. And I am sorry to say that there are a lot of people who listen to that, and try to adapt to fit that view of who they are.

So what about all of this? Well as I see it, we have one good option here. Try to be like Jesus (wow, what a novel concept huh?). It seems to me that when Jesus met people, he saw souls with needs. Not prostitutes, religious professionals, and lepers. No, just souls that were precious, that also had needs. How would our day today change if we could actually see everyone we met as an immortal soul that had needs? Not religious affiliation, political party, or even if they listen to country music (yea, I know, this last one is hard to swallow, but stay with me). I know this is an over simplification of things, but hopefully you get what I am trying to say here. Of course there is a context we all live in, and that can’t be ignored. But perhaps there is a way to put that context, into context? Ok, that one hurt my head a little, so I better wrap up here. So since I started with a quote, I will leave with one…

Here’s looking at you…

Pete