Big Gringo
This Morning
Bang. Bang. Bang-Bang-Bang. Bang. Six shots. That's what woke me up this morning. My clock read 4:02am. As far as I know, no one was injured. We called 911, though I don't know how they responded, since my tired body went back to sleep. Then the morning started over again at 6:30am, just like normal. As if nothing happened.
That is a picture - or one frame - of life in Boyle Heights. Most days, normal equals kids playing on the street until 9 or 10pm, ice-cream trucks circling the block (playing "Its a small world" too many times), mom's walking with their children before school, or the teenagers next door landing their skateboards on top of the metal grate over the service 'hole' in our front yard.
But normal also includes new grafiti tags on the corner wall every weekend (some are beautiful, others not so), or 'ghetto-birds' (read--"helicopters") flying overhead every few weeks. Or gunshots like last night. Even though last night is rare - maybe once or twice a year - it is still part of normal. Even in sharing what is normal here in Boyle Heights, I know that some folks will stear clear of visiting me, wary (or straight up afraid) that one picture of normal might spill over onto another picture of normal, maybe altering both.
My life in East LA has changed my perspective on a lot of normal life. I say "normal" not ideal. Gunshots in the late hours are not ideal. Grafiti is not ideal (though I have seen some beautiful tags...) But at least where I live, they are normal. Which reminds me that my life here is not heroic, nor very romantic (except with my wife.). Romantics change the world. Heroes leap tall buildings, swoop in to save the day, to do the impossible. I've been unable to do any of those things.
Probably the best thing that we've done since my wife & I bought our home year 5 years ago, was to do nothing. During our first week in our home, we were surprised by our 1st ghetto-bird visit. One time, we came home to see our house tagged (though never again). In our first year, 2am gunshots claimed the lives of two young men just a stones throw from our front door.
At each of these points, we've experienced the most normal of human reactions - fight or flight. But by grace - through prayer, through everyday choices of faith and obedience, through friends, through the word - we've instead "done nothing." Nothing but continue to make our home here, get to know our neighbors, pray for our neighborhood, and prepare our home for our kids. Nothing that other people aren't doing in their neighborhoods.
Mother Teresa once said: "There are many people who can do big things, but very few people who will do the small things." I may never be half the saint that she was, but, by God's grace, I'm learning neighbor love - by being in my neighbor"hood" of Boyle Heights.
That is a picture - or one frame - of life in Boyle Heights. Most days, normal equals kids playing on the street until 9 or 10pm, ice-cream trucks circling the block (playing "Its a small world" too many times), mom's walking with their children before school, or the teenagers next door landing their skateboards on top of the metal grate over the service 'hole' in our front yard.
But normal also includes new grafiti tags on the corner wall every weekend (some are beautiful, others not so), or 'ghetto-birds' (read--"helicopters") flying overhead every few weeks. Or gunshots like last night. Even though last night is rare - maybe once or twice a year - it is still part of normal. Even in sharing what is normal here in Boyle Heights, I know that some folks will stear clear of visiting me, wary (or straight up afraid) that one picture of normal might spill over onto another picture of normal, maybe altering both.
My life in East LA has changed my perspective on a lot of normal life. I say "normal" not ideal. Gunshots in the late hours are not ideal. Grafiti is not ideal (though I have seen some beautiful tags...) But at least where I live, they are normal. Which reminds me that my life here is not heroic, nor very romantic (except with my wife.). Romantics change the world. Heroes leap tall buildings, swoop in to save the day, to do the impossible. I've been unable to do any of those things.
Probably the best thing that we've done since my wife & I bought our home year 5 years ago, was to do nothing. During our first week in our home, we were surprised by our 1st ghetto-bird visit. One time, we came home to see our house tagged (though never again). In our first year, 2am gunshots claimed the lives of two young men just a stones throw from our front door.
At each of these points, we've experienced the most normal of human reactions - fight or flight. But by grace - through prayer, through everyday choices of faith and obedience, through friends, through the word - we've instead "done nothing." Nothing but continue to make our home here, get to know our neighbors, pray for our neighborhood, and prepare our home for our kids. Nothing that other people aren't doing in their neighborhoods.
Mother Teresa once said: "There are many people who can do big things, but very few people who will do the small things." I may never be half the saint that she was, but, by God's grace, I'm learning neighbor love - by being in my neighbor"hood" of Boyle Heights.
posted by Scott @ 7:30 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Deep, vato, deep.
It's all about the small things.
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