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But again, Welcome this morning and I look forward to our time together. And uh again, thank you Doctor Wardlaw for the invitation to be with you . This has been a delightful few days together and

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I appreciate your many words of encouragement and responses to some of the material that's been presented. And this morning we're going to have another another story here in a minute. But I I want to begin with

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something that was lifted up after the story yesterday and it was about this liminal space. And I want to read a paragraph that's by richard roar from everything belongs the gift of contemplative prayer. All transformation takes

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place here in this liminal space. We have to allow ourselves to be drawn out of business as usual and remain patiently on the threshold. Lemon in latin where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the

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completely unknown. They're alone. Is our old world left behind. While we are not yet sure of the new existence. That's a good space where genuine Nunes can begin get there often and stay as long

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as you can by whatever means possible. It's the realm where God can best get at us because our false certitudes are finally out of the way. This is the sacred space where the old world is able

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to fall apart and a bigger world is revealed. If we don't encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy. We start idealizing enormous normalcy . The threshold is God's waiting room. Here we

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are taught openness and patience as we come to expect an appointment with the Divine doctor. So I'm going to read a story today that describes an event that took place about 18 months ago. Some of the

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stories that I've written go back to when I was in the fourth or eighth grade or something. Some of them as a young adult teenager, but some of them are based on more current experiences. So

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let's listen for this. This the story is entitled the airport. I arrive early on purpose. Gate a 17 is the last at the end of a long terminal in the San Antonio Airport past the Starbucks

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, the Cinnabon and the restrooms. Fewer than half dozen passengers are scattered across a large waiting area near the gate. I settle into a seat, pull out my journal and take the opportunity to gather onto

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paper the disconnected experiences of the previous few days. Waiting provides me a gift, a pause to breathe , to reflect, to prepare before flying headlong into days of meetings crowded around tables in hotel conference rooms

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. I feel grateful for this time to myself, But I have only a few minutes to savor it before a bustle of people moves into the seating area six and all oblivious to the unspoken, adequate tickets

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of how people distribute themselves in public waiting spaces, A young mother gently directs her four year old daughter toward the open seat nearest me, with only my canvas satchel separating us. The mother holds in her

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arms and alert little girl, maybe 18 months old . Another woman in her early 20s sits down with her five year old son directly across from me. The families chatter quietly in spanish. A 60 something

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anglo woman accompanies them, pulling a wheeled suitcase More than 100 open seats in a spacious room, I think, and they surround me as if we are crowded into the living room of a small apartment.

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A passenger sitting 20 ft from a stands up and moves away to a seat in the corner, far from the Buzz. Another passenger near us. A young man looks at me, nod slightly and offers

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a knowing smile, but he has no concerns. Just another couple of families to him, his relaxed posture communicates warmth, maybe even welcome toward the families . He does not search for another seat and neither

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do I. Perhaps what I need. Today is not time alone, but time among this unlikely group of travelers. When was this bienvenidos? I say with a smile, pushing my satchel underneath my seat

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to offer more space for the families. The women nod and smile in return as the mothers and their Children settled in, I noticed that lanyards with a laminated black and white photo I. D. S

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hang around their necks. I. C. E . Ice is printed large on each identification card. In addition to the IEDs, the youngsters have stickers on their chests like the junior pilot wings that flight

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attendants sometimes give to young travelers instead of silver wings . These stickers replicate the badges of ice that ice agents wear. I seem to be encircled by honorary immigration and customs enforcement agents. Lynn, the anglo

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woman wears a bright T shirt printed with the name and logo of a volunteer organization that assists asylum seekers and refugees. She wears a clip on identification badge of a different sort one that allows her through security

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, even though she has no plans to fly. After a few minutes of casual conversation with the two women, Lynn pulls a manila envelope stuffed with papers from the suitcase pocket and leans toward Benita. One

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of the mothers, she speaks quietly enough to keep it in our little circle, but loud enough so that both mothers can follow along. No one seems bothered by my overhearing the conversation and everyone appears to

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be aware of my casual curiosity. I don't want to eavesdrop, but since the group has surrounded me , I'm drawn into the conversation, one of the mothers glances my way from time to time and smiles

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, letting me know this is okay. My curiosity is welcome. Lynn patiently moves through the packet of materials with Benita one page at a time explaining everything in spanish, occasionally saying something that illicit soft laughter

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from the women. Benita ask a question. A multi pointed, an elaborate, in quick flowing spanish . Lynn lifts her hand to stop her and playfully pleads with her to speak more slowly. Low,

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Ablow may or the lo que lo indian though lin says in a deliberately unhurried way I speak spanish better than I understand it. This amuses me. Every language learner I know says precisely the opposite that they

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comprehend what others say better than they can articulate their own thoughts. And the new language Landon Benita review plane tickets, departure times, flight numbers, connecting gates and what to do if Benita gets lost or

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has questions. El vuelo displays the estate. The flight after this one, Lin says, my own flight is in about two hours. But these families will wait another two hours after that for their flight

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to leave from the same gate. Von a esperar aqui, that's the Puerta del numeral. They cholos wait here this gate. This is your flight number , Lynn circles it with a pin. Benita absorbs

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the information as it cascades page after page from the envelope, her baby daughter clings to her arm. Large dark eyes panning the room. Her older daughter looks over the shoulder of the boy from the other

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family as he plays games on a simple electronic device that quietly beeps and whistles and zaps with each quick press of his thumbs. For no apparent reason, the boy suddenly scoots into the seat next to me

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. The girl following him, he smells like soap and shampoo, freshly scrubbed for travel. He swings his legs back and forth beneath the seat. All the Children wear new clothes brands from discount stores and

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sneakers that show nowhere donations perhaps gathered by the agency Lynn volunteers with in Chicago vocabulary can be ara Notre avion travel. Oh you'll change planes in Chicago, no, say a team either. Don't be shy

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. The they are you there lost in play? Are those Cuando la necessities? Ask an airline employee If you have questions, Lynn pulls a page from the packet at least phone numbers to call if Benita

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runs into trouble. A key and numerous de telefono and then points to a sheet of a different color and tells her that she has rights to any derechos , bullet points in spanish and english described the family's

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legal status and what officials in airline personnel can and cannot require of them are going to present. Has any questions she touches beneath his hand and smiles. Everything will be all right. She assures her.

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Don't worry, Frankie. Ella does start to being Lynn stuffs the papers back into the envelope, hands it to Benita, picks up another packet and moves to the seat beside the second woman, Mariana and

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begins to talk through all the information for her family with the same patience and thoroughness. Benita and her daughters, I learned are flying to Chicago and then to philadelphia, Mariana and her son will fly to

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Chicago and on to Milwaukee. As lin works with Mariana. I wonder where these women are at this moment in the convoluted and complex immigration processes that such families must follow clearly. IsIS documented their entry as

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evidenced by the IEDs around their necks They are and that they are en route to other cities in the US beyond the border means that ice did not expedite their deportation to their home countries. These families voluntarily

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surrendered themselves at the border. If so, the Border Patrol initially asked them questions such as do you fear returning? What are you afraid of and entered ? Their responses into their records, electronic fingerprinting,

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mug shot photos, ID tags around their necks, further interviews about their entry and intentions. These start a long legal process. Agents transport port families to a detention centre, trade the clothes they're wearing for

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for sweat pants and sweatshirts and confine them in chain linked modules with other women with Children with young Children . Personal possessions are taken and stored away, laces are removed from every shoe. Mylar blankets are given

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out, and in most centers detainees sleep on mats on the floor and modules that hold large numbers of people there. They will wait a few days for a credible fear interview. A credible fear interview.

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Yes, that's the official name of the process involves in depth questions asked by immigration officials usually conducted long distance over the phone with a translator acting as intermediary as the immigrant remains in custody at the detention center

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. To pass the credible fear interview, Benita and Mariana need to provide evidence of harm or threat to life that they experience in their own home country because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion

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or for belonging to a particular social group fleeing poverty and hunger do not count. No matter how much fear those conditions instill losing homes and livelihoods in a hurricane does not count, Neither do seeking a better

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job or yearning to reconnect with loved ones in the United States, the intricacies of immigration law are difficult to comprehend even by well educated people who speak the language in which the statutes are codified. Court appointed

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attorneys are not provided as they are for criminal cases . A small percentage of people meet the requirements of the credible fear interview I heard of a woman whose story it met the requirements of the credible fear interview

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because she had been shot by gang members, her sister killed by them and she feared for her Children . Another woman showed scars from having been repeatedly beaten and tortured, but she did not pass the credible

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fear interview. She was deported. Onlookers like me , observing from the sidelines, Find it difficult to fathom why one situation qualifies and another does not. If the experiences that detainees described cannot be substantiated or

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do not meet the criteria, the immigrants are, are deported and barred from entering the United States by any means or under any status for five years. Benita and Mariana have passed their credible fear interview or

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they would not be sitting alongside me at the san Antonio airport. Their stories and supporting evidence convinced an ice interviewer who ordinarily says no to for some reason say yes. How do they live with the fear

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these young mothers? How did they pick it up each morning, carry it with them every step of the day and take it with them to bed every evening. Low grade or medium wattage anxiety courses through

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the circuits of most americans immersed in the daily pressures of work, school parenting, making house payments, saving for the future. Grappling with health issues, but immediate threat and unrelenting fear, utter uncertainty about

00:14:50.710 - 00:15:05.340

sustenance for the day or safety for the night. This is a fear that grips very few people I know personally, I have never lived a day in my life in which I felt uncertain about whether I

00:15:05.340 - 00:15:20.330

would have a place to stay for the night or something to eat in the morning or a week during which mere survival for me and my Children was in question, demonstrating compelling reasons for fear does not guarantee

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the asylum will be granted to an immigrant seeking refugee status. It merely permits someone to take the next legal step after passing the credible fear interview. Most candidates for asylum are released on parole or pay a

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bond. They relocate to live with relatives who hold jobs in the United States, Milwaukee in philadelphia are not randomly determined destinations for Benita and Mariana no doubt they have sisters or cousins or husbands who anticipate their

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arrival. Benita and Mariana will receive work permits, possibly so they can earn a living while they wait for a hearing before an immigration judge who determines whether they meet the stricter standards that qualify them for long

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term asylum in the United States. Because of the backlog of cases. This immigration hearing may take place several years after the entry into the United States, a several year pattern of employment education meeting financial obligations

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belonging to a church, avoiding legal entanglements and language learning can influence how the judge eventually rules when the case is finally heard. I wonder who will greet them when they arrive in Milwaukee in philadelphia. Who

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will they live with? And what work will they take? How will the Children be treated at school ? Will they feel proud of their journey for? Made to feel ashamed? Will they feel like they

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must hide in the shadows or become comfortable or will they become comfortable with the larger culture? Will there be attempts at kindness extended to them by anyone outside immigrant communities? How will they experience us? You

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and me? How will we experience them? Or will we even notice I turned from these tangled thoughts to consider something more familiar? Their guide Lynn. I pegged Lynn as a late life language learner,

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she speaks spanish in a simple, straightforward manner, with slow, deliberate sentences and focuses on word choice rather than an accent or idiomatic expression. She has acquired the linguistic tools for these well practiced and repeated

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ritual exchanges with immigrants without attention to reducing her thick american english accent and with little regard for precise pronunciation , she makes no effort to twirl her ours or to remove the buzzy english sound disease. That in

00:18:00.880 - 00:18:18.010

spanish sound like this is words that end with O linger into sin sounding like the midwestern oh or low rather than the quick stop sound of terminal owes in spanish. Her spanish is beautifully effective. Never once

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in the 45 minutes I listened. Is there a catch point where one party cannot make herself known to the other? I admire Lynn for spanish unless she's a linguistic prodigy. She's invested several 1000 hours to

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achieve the level of proficiency she displays. I envy her ease. I envy her ease in using this tool. She's refined so well. She connects with native speakers with no discernible self consciousness about the limits

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of her language and who am I to nit, pick or pronunciation? Hyper self consciousness and timidity. Restrain me at every turn and I failed to use the spanish. I know, unless necessity requires it

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. At least she uses hers and for a purpose . I respect her courage, putting it all out there to get the job done. She casually engages people that few anglo americans can communicate with the lens

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through which we look, draws our attention first towards those with whom we share the closest affinity. I can imagine myself in lens role as a volunteer, offering encouragement to strangers from another land. I can

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inhabit the heart and mind of a person like her to a certain extent, to some degree, I can see the world through lands eyes. I completely fall short. However, when I try to fathom

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how the women with their Children perceive this experience at the airport, even with effort, I cannot picture what external threats or internal purposes cause them to put everything on the line and to place themselves entirely in

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the hands of strangers who speak a language they do not understand in a country they've never visited. My imagination fails to make the leap and I cannot breach the grab, get the gap. And so I

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look at the situation through lens eyes, the person most notable to me to perceive the world from the point of view of people such as Benita and Mariana requires a conversion of imagination. I cannot achieve.

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All I can do is place myself occasionally in circumstances most likely to foster such a conversion to be receptive of it to wait for it and to expect it even in small degrees finished with her checklist for both

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mothers, Lynn starts to wrap up her work, sending signals that she will not remain with them much longer. She gathers the Children around her and opens her suitcase. She pulls out a rainbow stack of

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books of backpacks. Do you want a backpack? She asked, she had an enema chila. She invites each child to choose a color, Azul verde or Rojo. Use a low paralyzed quail, a

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use them for school fungus. Emma's list does become smarter Dodo Dodo B and everything will be all right . As the Children test the zippers and check the pockets on the maquilas lin turns to the mother's nod

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at the backpacks and says so in mass facilities they use our que las bolsas. These are easier to use than bags referring to the reusable grocery totes the women are using to carry their belongings. Next she

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pulls out a mixture of snacks and treats from her suitcase. The Children choose what they want to take with them and then the mothers do the same as her reassurances become more frequent. Her smile more encouraging

00:22:02.240 - 00:22:15.580

. I perceive anxiety ratcheting higher. For the women , their eyes dart quickly from the Children. The bags, the envelopes stuffed with papers on their laps to the flight board above the gate agent as if

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they finally realize that the responsibility for holding everything together and moving their lives forward is about to rest once again entirely on them to extend the leaving a little longer lin, tells them where the bathrooms are,

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las manos Istanbul area and offers to sit with their bags while they use the facilities left alone with her . For a moment, I chat with Lynn for the first time, I restrained myself from asking 1000

00:22:45.950 - 00:23:00.530

questions about the families, the agency. She works for her own journey to this work. She carries in every gesture and smiled and easy, compassion crafted by years of genuine affection for strangers. I feel

00:23:00.530 - 00:23:14.380

like I've met her before, but I know I haven't. She simply brings to mind so many others . I've known people who for whom graciousness is as natural as breathing someday. I want to be as

00:23:14.380 - 00:23:30.200

spontaneously and naturally compassionate as she is. In the end. I settle for simply telling her thank you for the work she does. With her task completed . Lynn zips up her, zips up her suitcase

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and rises to leave. She hugs each of the women and all of their Children. Everything's going to be all right, She assures them one last time , getting vernon Wayne, VR, have a good

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trip. She pulls the suitcase behind her. The thump! A thump! A thump of the wheels growing fainter as she walks away down the long corridor of terminal egg. You've got to have it in

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you from somewhere deep inside, or from a place that you may not have words to describe from a source within, or perhaps from above. To do this. To give yourself to be her to be

00:24:07.940 - 00:24:23.590

Lynn to paddle against the currents of public sentiment. To push through the cross currents of uncivil debate. For people unknown to you. For strangers, it's got to be something you cannot not do compelled to

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do it by compassion, by a sense of justice , articulated or unexpressed and by conviction in the rightness of this work and in its consequential nature. After Lynn leaves, a long silence hangs in the air

00:24:45.140 - 00:25:00.800

. Eventually the women remove belongings from their fabric bags and transfer them into the backpacks. Their voices are quieter. Now, marianna asked Benita several questions as she pages through her envelope of papers for every step

00:25:00.800 - 00:25:14.900

in this journey. Until now leaving her home 12 , traveling 1200 miles through Mexico, passing idol and anxious hours in a detention centre, sleeping at a shelter that serves others like herself. She has been

00:25:14.900 - 00:25:30.270

surrounded by the voices of people who share her native language. How foreign this must be now heading for places she's never been traveling by means, she's never experienced relying on people she's never met, supported by

00:25:30.270 - 00:25:45.450

phone numbers, she's never called. Am I seeing someone's life being torn apart by this journey? Use these processes? Or am I watching someone persevered through the first steps toward a life that's finally coming together

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? Who will Mariana be in another 20 years or 40 or 60? Will she glow with pride at her son? Speaking two languages with complete confidence. Perhaps working as a teacher or serving in the army

00:26:00.140 - 00:26:11.940

? What about Benita? Will she be a grandmother , strong and courageous. Who raised her Children by working two or three jobs at a time? Will her daughters bring their own Children to her home To

00:26:11.090 - 00:26:26.120

listen to the stories about this very journey? Well , Benita break into a wrinkled smile knowing that her grandchildren are citizens and leaders, that this foreign place has become a native home. Yeah. Or is

00:26:26.120 - 00:26:41.940

this merely a brief fleeing for safety? The respite from fear. Undergirded with the hope and profound longing to return to her people in her homeland, made somehow more secure. The gate area fills with people

00:26:41.940 - 00:26:53.830

. Is the time for my departure grows closer. The hispanic couple with two young boys settles into seats are joining me and the families. They are professionals . The woman fashionably dressed, the man in a

00:26:53.830 - 00:27:07.430

business suit, oppressed shirt and a sharp looking tie . He opens his laptop and sets to work. The woman speaks softly to her Children occasionally to her husband, always in spanish at an announcement about carry

00:27:07.430 - 00:27:23.170

on luggage. The husband leans over and translates for his wife. The boys are probably three And six years old. The father, his face anything, never anything but serious, wears an ice identification tag

00:27:23.170 - 00:27:40.150

clipped to the suit pocket with his photo. The ID not merely laminated out of durable plastic. I have no idea what to make of this. Is he an ice agent, nice employee or is he

00:27:40.150 - 00:27:56.920

himself someone in process towards refugee status? Not everyone who seeks asylum is poor. Many are professionals, educators, physicians, accountants. One of the couples sons plays games on an electronic device more elaborate and

00:27:56.920 - 00:28:12.840

more expensive than the one marianas amused him with. And louder. The new child plays a soccer game with roars of the crowd rising and falling and the unmistakable sound of the announcer shouting gold in the manner

00:28:12.840 - 00:28:26.820

of spanish language. Sports stations. Children skip easily across borders of all types and it takes only minutes for the Children from the earlier families to gather around the new kids with the fancy gadgets. They talk

00:28:26.820 - 00:28:41.630

together and laugh and point lost in a world of imagination. The newly arrived mother begins to speak with Benita and Mariana smiling at their Children playing together. This is when I hear that marianas family is from

00:28:41.630 - 00:28:59.100

El Salvador and beneath this comes from Honduras. The well dressed woman grows excited. One of her Children is from Honduras, the other is from Guatemala. They are adopted, the complexities and nuances, the

00:28:59.100 - 00:29:14.010

pathways and possibilities, the purposes and obstacles of the immigrant journey. There is no single narrative, no simple stories. The time comes for me to board my plane. The Well to do couple couple gather

00:29:14.010 - 00:29:25.850

up their Children to board ahead of me, leaving me with the younger mothers clutching the envelopes that Lynn has given them. They still have a couple of hours to wait for their plane. I nod and

00:29:25.850 - 00:29:41.220

smile, beginning to gather my things and acknowledging our parting with a simple OK? Dias Lisbon, God bless you! As I lean over to put my journal in my satchel, Benitez, 18 month old

00:29:41.230 - 00:29:56.110

daughter stands no more than a foot away, looking up at me with those large brown eyes. For the first time I catch catching up up close glimpse of her photograph on the laminated ice identification tag that

00:29:56.110 - 00:30:11.260

hangs around her neck. It's a picture of her with her eyes closed, wrapped in a blanket, sleeping peacefully, her head leaning against the shoulder of her mom, held steady by her mother's caressing hand

00:30:12.540 - 00:30:30.100

. My chest tightens, my eyes moistened and I cannot move photos on identification tags are meant to distinguish one person from another. To help people determine who exactly this person is from all other people. Yet

00:30:30.100 - 00:30:48.440

this square inch black and white photo of a baby resting gently against her mother's shoulder makes her universal archetypal , a mother and her child a picture of every baby ever embraced. That cannot distinguish the baby in

00:30:48.440 - 00:31:07.840

the photo from any other child, not even from my own, but I can identify the gentle gesture of a mother cradling her child against her shoulder, I can identify. Let's just take a moment of

00:31:07.840 - 00:32:12.360

silence. So again, as we did yesterday, we're going to now step back from this and think about what some of the dynamics are in this and to reflect upon this, this way of uh,

00:32:12.840 - 00:32:29.390

of bringing people into conversation and contemplation about complex issues , bringing them into this liminal space, kind of between the experience of the people in the story and what's going on right now. Um, I'm asked

00:32:29.390 - 00:32:40.660

all the time, kind of like, how do I how did I learn this or how do I , you know, I think I've used story in preaching many. I mean that's just been a part

00:32:40.660 - 00:32:52.380

of preaching and teaching, but not like this. It's it's more like telling about an incident and usually not kind of trying to organize it in a way or crafted in a way. It's just telling what

00:32:52.380 - 00:33:07.380

happened. Um it's, you know, for several people have said, so where do you learn to do this kind of thing? Well, first of all, we are a story telling people. So

00:33:07.380 - 00:33:22.490

you're probably in this room because storytelling some part of your life, it's shaped your life and you've used storytelling to shape the lives of others. Um but there is uh there is a learning that goes on

00:33:22.500 - 00:33:36.010

to learn the craft of storytelling, the rhythms of light and deep, of use of humor, of expectation and surprise, of crescendo and the crescendo of voice and whisper. It's like music. There's an

00:33:36.010 - 00:33:52.090

emotional field, sentence and descends through the course of a story. I found it helpful when I started taking this more seriously to just listen to good stories on podcast and light, but then kind of afterward

00:33:52.090 - 00:34:06.580

to try and figure out why did that, why did that hook me? Or what is it that kept me interested? Or what were the dynamics that kept this moving. The name for this? This

00:34:06.580 - 00:34:22.350

kind of writing is creative, non fiction or narrative nonfiction. And the first thing that underlining that is nonfiction, but these are true. They're not manipulated or re made up. Every element that can possibly

00:34:22.350 - 00:34:39.140

remember goes into a story like this. But what where the craft comes in is just how to organize the material I could have said yesterday on the baptism . the story could have started out, well,

00:34:39.140 - 00:34:52.010

I remember one time, uh you know, I turned down doing this baptism and I've just been thinking about a lot anyway, this woman came in and she, you know, you can start anywhere with

00:34:52.020 - 00:35:06.110

the information uh that this one could have instead of starting with me sitting there alone. And the thing could have started with the name tag at the end and then kind of just hold a little bit around

00:35:06.110 - 00:35:20.090

it. So uh you know, narrative nonfiction, some of the primary teachers of that. One of the primary teachers is William Zinser, who just died in the last couple of years, Z I N

00:35:20.100 - 00:35:36.090

S S E R. And uh one of his best known books is on writing well. And it is about nonfiction writing, but using the craft and technique. So fiction writers to uh create the movement

00:35:36.090 - 00:35:51.320

in the story. Perhaps the best practitioner of it that I never grow tired of reading her material is Annie Dillard and there's any number of collections of her work or incidental stories that, that as you're reading

00:35:51.320 - 00:36:07.060

it, you're just, you're learning things, but you're being drawn into it in a very dramatic kind of way. Uh, so in crafting this part of what it takes is to think about an experience

00:36:07.060 - 00:36:16.790

. Well, first of all, where does it begin with me if there's something that has happened or that I've become aware of, whether it's a long time ago or in the recent past, that leaves

00:36:16.790 - 00:36:37.130

me with unset, but I'm not quite sure why that experience impacted me. And often it's a very discreet short term experience. The baptism story all took place in the course of 30 minutes when you think

00:36:37.130 - 00:36:52.420

back of the office and everything. The The story that I just read to course, probably the course of 90 minutes or so. So it's very discreet with a period of time. But there's something in

00:36:52.420 - 00:37:07.920

the experience that leaves me disquiet. As I mentioned yesterday, the poet David White, W H Y T. E. You come to a place whose only task is to trouble you. And that's the

00:37:07.920 - 00:37:22.320

kind of experience that leaves you a bit troubled, uh, to organize a story like this. And all of this is just like this is a a five minute summary of what you could go get a

00:37:22.320 - 00:37:39.630

master's degree. And some of you may have that Masters degree in fine arts to about writing and creative writing, but but it takes taking the story and breaking it into scenes. And if you think about

00:37:39.630 - 00:37:52.750

each of these stories, there was a series of scenes in a scene as a location or or a space of dialogue in the in the story. And when I say seen, don't think of a dramatic

00:37:53.130 - 00:38:09.870

, you know, a theatrical production that has dialogue that way and everything. I think about the baptism , the first scene is me stepping out to catch her because she's leaving because my secretary didn't speak spanish

00:38:09.880 - 00:38:23.870

. Right. Second scene is in the office where I'm learning what she's there for third scene is uh , is her request about the baptism. And uh and it just kind of goes that way and a

00:38:23.870 - 00:38:40.570

scene what makes for a discreet scene is a series of action that then is disconnected from the next series of action or dialogue that then shifts into another dialogue . So a scene. So if you actually read

00:38:40.570 - 00:38:53.880

a printed version of the baptism or of the airport or of any of these stories, those little or there's a little bit larger pause in my reading, there's actually just three asterisks between the ending of one

00:38:53.880 - 00:39:10.290

paragraph in the beginning of another. Because that's the scene switch there and then you can organize the scenes in any number of ways. Um, but it's also, they're usually in each story, there's usually

00:39:10.290 - 00:39:27.430

some element of dialogue that is just crystal clear and it's maybe the most remembered part of the experience. Looking back robert, you are not a border patrol agent, you're not an immigration, uh, official

00:39:27.430 - 00:39:40.100

, you're not her employer, you are the United Methodist pastor. That sometimes people say, how do you remember the details? You know, 30 years ago? It's actually what someone says, usually that

00:39:40.100 - 00:39:55.890

sticks with you the longest and that you can quote As accurately now is when it happened to you in 8th grade, one of the, one of the stories is about the killing of a family from Mexico

00:39:55.890 - 00:40:14.590

that happened in my hometown. And this was after a painful consolidation and desegregation of schools. And so in my first year with a teacher who was from , he was hispanic and from the, the other

00:40:14.600 - 00:40:24.730

school that was consolidating with the school I was in , um, just in the middle of chatting with other students about. I wonder how the, you know, what are they going to solve the crime

00:40:24.730 - 00:40:39.070

and all of that. He just ups and looks and says that is a crime that will never be solved. And I mean I remember that as clearly as the day he spoke that and it challenged me

00:40:39.070 - 00:40:53.040

and I argued with him. But where it led to is this, this reflection on the fact that's learning. But how he viewed law enforcement as a hispanic in south texas and the texas rangers handling the

00:40:53.040 - 00:41:07.330

case was entirely different from the way I experienced law enforcement and I have this trust that of course it'll be solved. And his reason for why that would never be solved is because that families from Mexico,

00:41:07.710 - 00:41:24.240

if it was your family that have been killed, this would have been solved, right? So that that single kind of sentence there, that kind of was the beginning of that story. Um the anyway

00:41:24.250 - 00:41:37.500

, so part of this is the work of re seeing is the best way and I don't like the word memoir. Uh I talked with a couple of you about that. Like what genres is, I

00:41:37.500 - 00:41:53.350

just resist everything about the word memoir because of the popularized kind of celebrity memoirs that are sports memoirs that are self indulgent and just kind of a promotional tool sometimes, or it's uh now they're just really well

00:41:53.350 - 00:42:06.550

written memoirs, that's not to discount that, but but I prefer to think of this some other way besides memoir, but what it is is it is a looking at something that's happened in the past and

00:42:06.550 - 00:42:20.010

seeing it a fresh and usually it's an experience that I have not fully assimilated or processed before I start working on the story. So it's the actual writing of the story that sometimes I discover what the purpose

00:42:20.010 - 00:42:32.170

of writing of the story is and why this has stayed with me. I don't fully recognize the significance of the event, and writing is a way to finally sitting down and working through why this sticks so

00:42:32.170 - 00:42:46.530

clearly in my memory and why it impacts me. And even though this is a very discreet incident, you know, any one of these stories that maybe happened years ago, it's the unsettling quality and my

00:42:46.530 - 00:43:00.680

needing to process it and the reason and it's sticking with me for all these years. That most likely signals that this is a more universal than just me and that if I can state that if I can

00:43:00.690 - 00:43:20.600

capture that people will connect with it and say ah that reminds me of or I remember the time when I and that because I know it's hard to describe , probably confusing, but it's just it's it's it's

00:43:20.600 - 00:43:38.890

the fact that it has stuck. That means there's probably something more than just your own idiosyncrasies in your own experience. These are purposely not all information and they're not merely imparting information. However, there is

00:43:38.890 - 00:43:58.640

an information element to it. The story that I just read entitled airport is is the heaviest information download in any of the stories. And I've had argue with myself whether it needs all that or not.

00:43:58.640 - 00:44:12.160

Does it interrupt the story too long? Because there's a long explanation about where they are in the process . The reason I'm including it at this point is is because I think, well, most of audiences

00:44:12.160 - 00:44:23.740

I speak to do not know about the incredible fear interview. They don't know the processes. Now. If I just stood up and said, I'm here to talk to you about immigration processes, you'd really

00:44:23.740 - 00:44:34.990

need to have somebody else here to speak to that , you know, a lawyer or, uh, someone from J phone, justice for our neighbors. And that's our methodist, uh, response to immigration

00:44:35.000 - 00:44:53.310

crisis. And so, but yet I needed to give out enough information that we can, people can begin to answer in their own minds. Who are those people at the airport. Um, it's also

00:44:53.310 - 00:45:05.210

meant to kind of highlight and help people see what maybe we're missing. And it's not like I miss a lot. I don't know what I don't see because I just I don't see it right. What

00:45:05.210 - 00:45:20.240

I realized looking at the world through the experience of living growing up and working and doing ministry on the border is that there's almost you put me in any airport and I'll tell you who the refugees who are

00:45:20.240 - 00:45:31.470

being transferred are. I'll tell you who the law enforcement people are on the plane because especially in south texas, there's not a single plane that flies out of the Rio grande Valley that doesn't have a mix

00:45:31.470 - 00:45:45.950

of both, right? But people don't see it . Uh you know, it's right there before our eyes, but we don't see it. Uh and I don't say that with any boasting like I see

00:45:45.950 - 00:46:06.370

things you don't see it. you see things I don't see, it's just there's a there's a need for spiritual attentiveness that undergirds this kind of storytelling. Um So I also there are little little tricks that

00:46:06.370 - 00:46:17.880

I'm still playing with and I don't know that I got this out of any of the books, you know the Zinser books or others, but it's um it's what tents to tell the story in and yesterday's

00:46:17.880 - 00:46:32.720

with simple past tense, every verb in that is she sat down. I asked her, she said she stepped out. Okay, the story I just read today was in Historical present. I sit down

00:46:32.720 - 00:46:50.710

at the airport. Uh The group comes in. There's no past tense in it. I wonder we get ready to board the plane. And that's a and that historical present is the way, I mean

00:46:51.380 - 00:47:01.680

I first write the stories always in simple pass because that's just the easiest way to do it going back and putting them in historical present often makes them just jump out like a color photograph. Because now it's

00:47:01.680 - 00:47:22.490

much more immediate and much more just the way the verbs go are more alive. And uh I um after I wrote the first few and tried to then reflect upon the, I'm checking my time here.

00:47:22.170 - 00:47:34.890

I need to start wrapping this up. Um, I, I started thinking, looking back at the first few stories I wrote on the Border Crossing collection and thinking, so what are the qualities that must

00:47:34.900 - 00:47:45.090

be maintained in these stories that I want to aspire to? And I want to keep in front of me. Now, the important thing to say is I didn't start with this and then write the first

00:47:45.090 - 00:47:55.770

story. I wrote some stories and in thinking about what is it that's integral to this story that makes it pop. Is so, for instance, what qualities must be maintained in the stories. This is

00:47:55.770 - 00:48:08.750

now my own discipline that their personal one on one encounters, not focused on the immigration issue as an issue, but on the experience of an immigrant or or my experiencing of an immigrant. That there's an

00:48:08.750 - 00:48:24.900

element of conflict and tension that draws people in. There's forward motion in the story that each story has to somehow reveal a change that takes place in me because of something or someone that that I interact with

00:48:25.820 - 00:48:39.440

. That there's new information in the story that has a teaching element. But in very small doses, that highlights the heroic aspects of immigrants, of foreigners , visitors in Simple daily Living, their courage,

00:48:39.440 - 00:48:57.620

they're concerned for their Children, each of the stories with one exception and that's the one entitled Unsolved, which is about the murders. Each of the stories have a whimsical element. There little observations that to

00:48:57.620 - 00:49:07.990

kind of make you smile. Uh, there's, I want the writing to be uh simple, there's got to be a simplicity and clarity. I'm not trying to do anything that draws attention to the writing

00:49:07.990 - 00:49:22.200

itself. It's got to have a strong closing that pushes the reader the listener to think a few minutes before putting it down. It's meant to tap each of these needs to tap into the reader's own experiences

00:49:22.200 - 00:49:37.780

of being afraid, misunderstood or estranged. And then in the slight lyrical literary quality that doesn't draw attention to itself. And then in each of these stories , there has to be an unstated or understated.

00:49:37.170 - 00:49:51.440

What would you do? What would you do element ? So, some of you said that's what you experienced yesterday in the baptism story. I felt like I was in that office speaking to the person.

00:49:51.510 - 00:50:04.010

And so there was a, what would I have done element? Um, each story has someone, usually the narrator moved from one way of seeing things to another, a change in perspective, understanding,

00:50:04.010 - 00:50:22.350

thinking, feeling, connecting the stories are true but told in a narrative style. Well, that's some of what I am learning about about this new form of expression that um it's not new to many of

00:50:22.350 - 00:50:37.190

you and there's a wealth of literature out there on it. But for me, it's a different tool that again, as I said yesterday takes me out of the expert role talking about issues and instead moves

00:50:37.190 - 00:50:54.710

it toward a more personal element that draws people in and causes them to think differently about things without confronting them. Head on. There is uh there's a sacramental element to it in this liminal space that allows

00:50:54.710 - 00:51:08.020

God to work on us as we think through the images and experience that are contained here. I thank you for your patience and for your listening. It's been a joy to be with you these last last

00:51:08.020 - 00:51:09.790

few days. God bless you. You'll save.