Erie, Colorado / Joy / 2
Today was my final full day with Joy and her family. Because she and her husband, Chuck, work in college ministry, and the semester just finished, this week has been chill for them. Their oldest daughter Sarah just got back from a year of missions in Slovenia on Tuesday (a country whose name I still haven't learned to say). Their second-oldest, Josh, is balancing jobs and internships and an inordinate love of ultimate frisbee, so he's been bouncing in and out, and has been remarkably courteous considering that they've put me up in his room. Though it's not remarkable, I guess: courtesy, gentleness, and kindness are the first language of the Goertzen fam, so it's no surprise the only time voices have been raised is during intense rounds of ultimate solitaire. And not really even then (I'm converting them from Nertz, see evidence below).
This is currently my third stop, but I feel like I've been on the road for (I'm trying not to be dramatic and say "ever") . . . a super long time. It's interesting to be completely on other people's schedules. In one sense, it's freeing because I don't have to make any decisions. It's also good practice for the J part of my personality (a whopping 95 on Meyers-Briggs) to practice flexibility and presence.
Sarah asked today if it was hard to bounce around over and over meeting new people. It's a great question; my answer was no. I think it will stay that way, and I think I'll be able to articulate the reasons for that with more accuracy as my trip continues. As an introvert, I prefer one-on-one conversations to huge gatherings, and this summer plan caters to that tendency. I'm getting to spend time with people in their homes. And I love home. Also, the intent of The Summer Shadow is to see how every part of a person's life works together and overlaps, so there's also no pressure of performance, for me or for them. I created this whole plan to get to live the small moments with people, and small moments usually aren't difficult.
Colorado, as everyone knows, is beautiful. We've eaten many of our meals outside on the patio, which has been so fun. The opening picture of this post was the sunset Sunday night—if sunsets get their own chapter in the book??, I wouldn't complain! Below is a poster we saw when walking around downtown Boulder today (@anna @megan ur roommate back in boulder hi). I took a picture with my phone; I hope you can read it because it's funnier and funnier the longer you look at it.
Spending time with Joy and her family has been absolutely refreshing. I'm wondering if that's an unfair commentary—isn't what I write supposed to focus on them?—but I think that assessment in itself say much about their character and mission. Yes, I did happen to come in a bit of a hiatus, so that's one reason it's been chill. Yes, Sarah did sprain her ankle on the way to the airport in Slovenia, so Joy and Chuck have been taking care of that.
But I think the calmness also indicates something about their family—they're good at making homes. I have felt at home these past 48 hours, and I could write dozens of stories about that; much of that strong sense of home also comes from the life they've lived in different countries. When you move to Slovenia as a family with four children, your experience of making a home is drastically different. Then when you move back to America, you have to re-make "home," negotiating code-switching and a new culture, and that builds up the home-building muscles too. Their current campus ministry works with international students, and I think this job uses Joy and Chuck's experience with foreign lands and homes. They work with students who are experiencing a new environment; they work to give them a home.
That's one theme I've been thinking about—home. I think I could write a whole book on it. (Stay tuned?) I get to see similarities between different homes—those water dispensers in the doors of fridges, use of red onions (I definitely would have called them purple), some type of salt that's pink and apparently healthier. I see all sorts of differences, wonderful and revelatory (ever since Shannon I've been holding my knife correctly, thank ya). But there's something wonderful about all of them, and about being included in all of them. It's absurd and terrific that I get to live in 14 different real-live homes this summer. I head to another one in Colorado tomorrow—stay tuned!