{"id":5613,"date":"2015-11-29T14:45:40","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T19:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=5613"},"modified":"2016-01-07T14:56:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T19:56:59","slug":"november-29-2015-fear-factor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/november-29-2015-fear-factor\/","title":{"rendered":"November 29, 2015, Fear Factor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay McDivitt, Waukesha, WI<\/p>\n

\u200b<\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being \u201cTotally cool\u201d and 10 being \u201cI\u2019m afraid to get out of bed\u201d \u2013 how would you rate your Fear Factor these days? How afraid are you? Of what?<\/p>\n

Fear Factor
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bombs and guns ripped through Paris. Suicide bombing attacks kill hundreds at a funeral in Baghdad and a street scene in Beirut. Governors are shutting down borders to keep Syrian refugees out. France is asking the world to join them in waging war on ISIS\/ISIL\/Daesh\/Whatever. And Starbucks refuses to put snowflakes and reindeer on their coffee cups.<\/p>\n

The world just seems totally messed up.<\/p>\n

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In the midst of it all, this lovely story<\/a> made the rounds on Facebook:
\nGate A-4 By\u00a0<\/strong>Naomi Shihab Nye<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement: \u201cIf anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.\u201d Well\u2014 one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.<\/p>\n

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. \u201cHelp,\u201d said the flight agent. \u201cTalk to her . What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly. \u201cShu-dow-a, shu-bid-uck, habibti? Stani schway, min fadlick, shu-bit-se-wee?\u201d The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day. I said, \u201cNo, we\u2019re fine, you\u2019ll get there, just late, who is picking you up? Let\u2019s call him.\u201d<\/p>\n

We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.<\/p>\n

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies\u2014 little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts\u2014 from her bag and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single traveler declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo\u2014 we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.<\/p>\n

Then the airline broke out free apple juice and two little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they were covered with powdered sugar too. And I noticed my new best friend\u2014 by now we were holding hands\u2014 had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.<\/p>\n

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate\u2014 once the crying of confusion stopped\u2014 seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.<\/p>\n

This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n