Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Reflection

I'm so impressed with my roommates and I. We decided to throw a party for MLK day and the long weekend, but didn't want it to be just a typical party. We wanted to respect the spirit of the day and the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The original plan was to have some kind of service event Saturday afternoon, then have people our place to dance the night away. However, seeing as how we volunteer all day everyday, and there weren't really any service opportunities on Saturday, we organized a Social Justice reflection to help us process our own experiences in the service we already do.

We started the reflection around 7:00 Saturday night when the Portland JVs decided to show up; out-of-towners had been chillin at our house since mid-day. We had sent out reflection questions mid-week to let people prepare their thoughts and stories. Justin facilitated and came up with some more questions to discuss. At one point we broke into groups with people from other houses, then came back together. We started with simply sharing stories that have opened our eyes or changed our perspective on Social Justice, or stories of people we've worked with or clients that inspire us. It was so wonderful to hear stories from other JV's. We inspired each other and got to understand the jobs and struggles of our fellow volunteers. We talked about what it means to be born with "power" because you're were born white and grew up in the middle class; and how to use that power, or redefine it rather, working with the powerless. We talked about how we really aren't that many steps from the people we serve. A few unfortunate circumstances or wrong choices and we are right there on the streets and uninsured. We discussed how difficult it is to deal with people and trust their stories. Then how hard it can be do have a trying day and come home to a community that can often feel like a second job. I was so impressed with my fellow volunteers. There was one non-JV in the room. He's a Seattle Native who's college roommate is now a JV in Seattle and he's moved back home and become a pretty important part of the Seattle community. He was so thankful to be out of school but still connected to an amazing group of people that continue to feed him spiritually and challenge him to think about Social Justice and Service in new ways.

It was a pretty amazing time to come together and share and reflect.

Then as conversation eventually died down, we cleared tables and food away and boogied down.

Personal Simplicity Challenge

So, I've been doing this whole "living simply" JVC thing for almost 6 months now so I think it's time to step it up with a personal challenge. I have one MAJOR crutch ... my car...

One roommate has challenged our house, and me specifically, to try and limit our car usage to only work-related endeavors and grocery shopping. Sounds easy enough right? Not so much when we live half an hour from down town and the other JVs by car, 45 minutes by public transit. On dark rainy nights, it's much easier to cram into the car than to walk to the Max station that's less than a mile from our house and wait for the train. Not to mentions my somewhat irrational fear of public transportation. Not so much fear, more like unfamiliarity. All my roommates have to take busses and the MAX for work occasionally if not every day OR they went to school in cities with amazing subway systems and have lived without cars for the past four years. I, however, have never been without a car since I was 16 - maybe the first two months of college but I promptly brought my car back after that first thanksgiving. I grew up in the burbs where we had busses, but I never had to use them, and they just took so dang long to get anywhere. My friends and i would try to help the planet out a bit with carpooling, but there was always multiple cars available to us.

So I've taken on this challenge.. and it's been an interesting experience thus far. Two weekends ago, I borrowed Sinclair's trimet pass and Renata, Gretchen and I bussed it into SE portland to wander and explore for the afternoon. It was about half an hour bus ride, then we walked from Division, down Hawthorne, back down Bellmont, over to Stark, and past Burnside - we probably walked a good 6 miles easy. But it was so nice to experience the city, see the people, walk into the cute stores, explore bars that we'd heard about. Had we gone in the car, we would not have seen all the cute little Portland houses or gotten lost and figured our way around the city. I have a much better understanding of where everything is now.

Then this past weekend, I took the Max to church. I really like this new church I've gone to a few times - Mosaic - and it just so happens to be about three blocks from the Hollywood Max station. I drove the first time I went because I was nervous about finding it and was running late - like usual. But last weekend, I borrowed Gretchen's Trimet pass, walked to the Max station in the rain, and got on the train. It was super easy and kinda nice. I brought a book and got to just check out for the half hour ride. It was nice. Kinda like I was back in Europe, making my way around the city sans car; it's liberating. Though I must say the Max is not the most relaxing atmosphere. I was trying to focus on my book - Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott - but was surrounded by rowdy teenagers having really inappropriate conversations. I spend a lot of energy just trying to not to listen and be embarrassed for them. It's exhausting to ignore people. I have a new respect for Gretchen who commutes to work three times a week on the max.

Well, so far so good. I'm proud of myself. I just needed to do it once, and now I'm not so anxious about it. Hopefully I'll be using my car less and less.