One of the things I have noticed while living in Kerrville is the pride people have in the church as a religious institution. I have been to public events that have opened and/or ended in prayer, ate in restaurants where families say grace over their meal and I have had a shower of blessings that echoed from my community neighbors after sneezing in public. I have had people hold doors open for me and say “God bless you ma’am” as I walk through the door. It also seems very normal for people who work in stores around our community to bless my day, afternoon or evening as I am paying for items. There is no shortage of bumper stickers declaring “Jesus saves” or “Thank you Jesus.” There are just as many yard signs with similar messages that proclaim, “God Bless America” or “Pray for our Nation.” These experiences along with the number of dedicated Christian worship spaces lead me to believe that Kerrville is a place where adults feel comfortable acknowledging God. The kindness I have experienced while living here leads me to believe that even the adults who do not acknowledge God or a higher being do acknowledge the need for human compassion and kindness and the importance of caring for creation. Given the population of Kerrville, popular restaurants, places of worship, parks, and other common places we could easily consider ourselves “familiar strangers.”1 This term is used to describe people who we encounter regularly, but we do not really know the person. The person could be a co-worker, classmate, a server at your favorite restaurant, a lawn care worker, your child’s teacher, mail carrier, etc.
Since arriving in Kerrville, many have asked whether my husband and I are adjusting to life here since our arrival in June 2019. Thankfully we have responded consistently with something like, “Kerrville has been very kind to us.” That remains to be true. Recently, I had the pleasure of conversing with someone who lives just outside of Kerrville. Having spent much of their career here, they travel to Kerrville regularly for appointments, shopping and visits. By their own admission, this person is very familiar with Kerrville and has expressed concern over the political climate nationally and locally. They openly wondered if Kerrville had forgotten about kindness.
One afternoon as we engaged in a formative dialogue, there was a long, contemplative pause. This person is self-described as deeply spiritual and seeking a new path of empowerment.2 I sat quietly-- I like to honor silence in conversations when I feel like it’s necessary for the moments to come. Finally, this person said, “I heard you ask one time before, whose life mattered to Pharaoh? Pharaoh was very selfish, and he only cared for himself and his immediate family...I think.”
Pharaoh could be considered a tyrant king who ruled with an extremely oppressive hand. He is the king to whom Moses delivered the message from God to, “Let my people go!” (Think DreamWork’s Prince of Egypt, circa 1998.) At one point Pharaoh agreed to let the people whom he had enslaved go free. As the story goes, God miraculously parted the ocean waters which allowed the people of Israel to cross the ocean on dry land as walls of water stood at attention on each side. At some point Pharaoh changed his mind about letting the people be free. So, he ordered his army to capture the people and bring them back into captivity. Well, when Pharaoh’s army tried crossing on dry land the waters that once stood at attention, making a corridor to freedom, came crashing down on the army and they drowned. What a tragedy!
Oftentimes when we read stories in which there is a hero and a villain, we more often than not choose to identify with the hero of the story. I believe that we know that everyone is not the hero, just like everyone is not the villain. Some people in the story stand by and watch, while others are participants on either the hero side or the villain side of the battle. There are numerous psychological, sociological and spiritual reasons for the hero effect, which we will not discuss now. But we know we are not all the heroes in the story. So, when I consider all of these unnecessary deaths of Pharaoh's army, and consider lives mattering (particularly the Black Lives Matter movement) I must ask you, “Whose life mattered to Pharaoh?”
For nearly a year now, our nation and our world has become polarized by the impact of COVID-19 and elections. Many of us have watched closely and from a distance, while also struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy and safety for our families. We are collectively and individually trying to understand the impact that this moment is having and will continue to have on our social, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. As someone who enjoys a good conversation and a good story I sometimes look for answers to questions that I am pondering in the conversations I have with others (especially children and teenagers) and in the stories I read and hear. When I ask questions I open up my lived experiences to offer potential answers.
I wonder how those who have lived here for most or all of their lives experience Kerrville? I want to invite more neighbors into the conversation to learn more about what you think and hear more about your experiences as a resident of Kerrville (Kerr County). In this series of essays I will ask lots of questions, share experiences and discuss community. I hope you will engage. I welcome all honest questions, comments and feedback. There is no doubt that we are living through a time that will certainly be recorded in the textbooks of history for centuries to come. There will be stories many of you will tell to your great grandchildren, nieces, nephews and neighbors. I wonder what you will tell them. I wonder what Kerrville’s story will be as the future looks back on the right now. How will we own our historical truth? Do you think Pharaoh knew how oppressive and mean he was in the moments he was working people to literal death? Do you think Pharaoh’s friends or neighbors thought what he was doing to those people enslaved to work for him was “OK” as long as Pharaoh was “kind” to them? Who are you in Pharaoh’s story? Who are you in Kerrville’s story today? There is little doubt that you are kind. But, whose life matters to you?
1Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice by Gregory Ellison II, Ph.D.
2Light in the Dark: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality by Gloria E. Anzaldua