little big world

By now I have a well worn path from my driveway to the side door of the old wing of the hospital.  And once inside the hospital I sure do know my way around.  But that is all I know of Spartanburg.  It wasn't till last week that I even drove around the whole outside of the hospital - saw the entrances that all the other people come in and go out of.  My world here is confined to this very specific space.


In our diversity class we are reading about people who live far, far away from Asheville/SRHS 2009.  I can be sitting on the on-call bed or next to the oncology pond in my little world and have my world view expanded and stretched as I learn about the other.  I love how books do that!  And am glad for a class that picks books I wouldn't have chosen myself and gives deadlines so I finish them.


Through Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye, I entered the world of eleven-year, african-american Pecola in racist 1940 America.  On Enrique's Journey, by Sonia Nazario, I followed a contemporary Honduran boy trying to get to the US to find his mother.  Now in A Fine Balance I am exploring India in 1975 with four entertwined strangers.  With these stories I feel my world view opened.  I think about Enrique in the grocery store, about Dina when my kids are picking on each other, about Pauline when the pager goes off in the middle of the night.  They infiltrate my life and alter my perspective.


My world is growing!


I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in His whole world and delighting in mankind.  Proverbs 8:30-31 (New International Version)