Topic: Making Changes
How things change over time! Sometimes they get worse, of course. Yet, often with social issues, the "getting worse" is just a backlash.
It's two steps forward, one backward--on the average, anyway. Yet one step can take a hundred years or more.
Last night, we had the privilege of attending a concert performed by singers and dancers from the award-winning Soweto Gospel Singers. It took place in an auditorium that was state-of-the-art--including it's handicapped accessibility. We went with another couple. The lady is also in a power wheel chair, so we made a demonstration of sorts, just getting the two vans parked, and "parting the crowds" who wisely gave respect to two fast-moving, heavy-duty chairs making their way to reserved seats that their chairs now automatically command, thanks to the ADA act.
The program took us back to our first visit to S. Africa. In my mind, I sat watching the housekeeper for the guest house as she ironed sheets, to protect us all from the tsetse fly that loves to attach itself to fresh laundry. It was from this dear lady that I learned the awful truth about Soweto's residents as she rushed to get through her work so she could be back home there before the sun went down. Failure to do so would bring out the Johannesburg police to arrest her for trespassing on ANY property in this whites-only city!
Briefly, I spoke to one of the lead singers after the concert. Chances are she never herself experienced apartheid, which probably ended before her birth. Yet, in our conversation, I let her know of how upsetting it was for me to even know one person who was a victim of this awful set of laws. By contrast, here I was meeting a young lady who sings joyfully of freedom and spirituality. And I was sharing at seeing that joy from the other side of the torn remnant of change.
Take courage!
