Wow. Now that I've committed to looking for and noticing opportunities to connect with my multi-cultural co-workers, the opportunities are already popping up. It's not as overt as 'witnessing', but I'm trying to simply build a conversational background, by answering their questions, without violating the workplace constraints against saying anything that anyone in the world might object to. I work in an environment where polital correctness rules. So far this year, we have celebrated African American month, Hispanic month, American Indian month, and Gay, Bisexual and Transexual month. We have eaten lunches in honor of Indian Independence day and Korean independence day. And there is such a fear of saying something that could be taken the wrong way, that people are inhibited from normal conversations that ask sincere questions about other people's culture.
So I brought in some Christmas cookies today, and referred to them as 'Christmas cookies' when I invited my co-workers to share them. Since I had taken Friday off, to bake, my team-mates were interested to hear my 'Christmas Cookie Day' tradition. They asked curiously if we used the pre-packaged dough that is advertised on TV, and they were astounded to find out that we actually make the cookies from scratch. H. even mentioned that she had never had a cookie made from scratch. I know it's a long distance from cookies to Jesus, but maybe if they have a question in the future about Christianity, or the meaning of Christmas, they will come to me.
Later on, P. noticed on my desk a calendar that E. gave me, called 'small miracles'. The front of the calendar had a statement explaining that Jewish holidays start in the evening. Both the title and the Jewish reference caught P's eye, and he asked me what it was, and whether I was Jewish. So I had a chance to naturally and conversationally mention that the calendar includes Jewish holidays, but that I'm Christian, and interested in miracles.
No comments:
Post a Comment