Today I saw a headline about the apology from Crossfit founder/CEO in response to the backlash he received for labeling the current national turmoil over racial injustice as “Floyd-19” – in his apology, he said, “It was a mistake, not racist but a mistake.”Whoa, now. That’s like me telling people I’m an ahh-mazing mom. How would I know? My CHILDREN will be the judges of that, since they are the recipients of my parenting – the good, the bad, and the ugly.When Michael Scott on sitcom, The Office, bought himself a “World’s Greatest Boss” mug, it was simultaneously funny & cringeworthy because self praise is hollow praise. It’s true that there’s a difference between reputation and character – character is who we are while reputation is who people THINK we are in a given moment. That said, it’s not my place to tell people how non-racist I am or that I’m a real Christian (ugh… this label gets bandied about the faith community a lot – who’s “in” & who’s “out”); that I’m a good friend or a great wife. Instead of trying to convince everyone of how “good” we are, we need to just dig into the hard work of becoming better every day. There’s a German phrase that sticks in my mind, “sein und schein” – to be and to appear. It’s time America stopped working so hard on appearances and started applying a little more effort on becoming who we were meant to be – tolerant, justice seekers, civil truthtellers, courageous trailblazers. We’ve been busy perfecting our selfies too long. It’s time to work on ourSELVES and souls and lay the groundwork for a better tomorrow.
Musings of a Mom 