As I greeted and interacted with others, I realized that the sheer amount of physical touch was an envasion of the personal space I had somehow acquired in the NW. I spoke things more directly than everyone and felt rude by the GA standards that had raised me. Restaurants didn't have an automatic non-dairy option. Someone made a joke about hipsters and another person slighted people not from the South, and I found myself offended. "Those are people whom I love!" I wanted to scream. People assumed I would feel the same way they did about people outside Southern culture, and I didn't. I don't. I've changed.
I love other cultures, different as they may be from my childhood. I love hipsters. I love Asians. I love Muslims. I love Southerners.
When I first moved to Portland, I was determined to learn to like Portland culture. "That is what good missionaries do," I thought. So I set off to teach myself. However, cultures clash. Therefore, as I noted the points of Portland culture I needed to learn to like, I also noticed how different they were from the Southern culture I loved and claimed as my own. And I played the comparison game, which was hurtful for my relationships with several people in Portland because in my attempt to love culture, I forgot about the people who operate within in.
But now as I step back and see things from this perspective, I begin to see what it means to love as Jesus. People-loving results in culture-loving, but culture-loving does not people-loving make. Culture is only part of a person so even if I were to love that culture perfectly, I would only be loving part of the person. But culture is a part of a person so if I love them unconditionally, I love the culture they bring along on our journey together.
For example, Jenny is not a girl from China whose culture I need to love. No. Jenny is a friend who happens to love eating Thai food, teaching me Chinese words I can never remember, and telling me about Bejing. And I love all of those things because I love her.
And, with the help of friends who've walked this culture shock journey before, I'm realizing it's the same with me.
I'm no longer a Southerner.
I'm not a wannabe Portlander.
I'm just Miriam.
I'm just a person who loves all people because Jesus first loved me. This world is not my home. And may I never boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision (cultural differences and norms) mean anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation! (Gal 6:14-15)
A new creation by Christ Jesus.
This is my story, my identity, my life.
So... Hello, GA! It's good to see you, but you're not better than OR. Neither is OR better than you. You're both places filled with people whom I love. Forever and always.
