Quirks and Acceptance

     Thanksgiving is such a wonderful day.  It is filled with all of the relationships that have become a part of our lives.  As Rosie and I have gotten older, more and more people have joined our family.  We not only have our three beautiful daughters, but there are also our five grandchildren and now two great-grandchildren.  This is something that I never really thought I would experience.  Looking at those two young boys that our Alison has brought into this world gives me great pleasure.  I know that they will grow up and learn to appreciate all of these people who crowd around them and learn to love them, even with all of their quirks.

Quirks is what we are all about, really.  We all have rough edges that life sometimes sands down, but they are always with us.  What we need to do about our quirks is to forgive them, mostly.  That isn’t always easy.  We can become annoyed with each other over all kinds of things.

This past political campaign gave us ample opportunity to display our opinions, not all of which were shared by others.  How we coped with that is essential to our relationships.  Rosie has a good friend who is very conservative.  When they talked during the election, Rosie kept the conversation away from the politics as best she could.  When that didn’t always work, she would become a bit annoyed and wonder what she ought to do to change her friend’s attitudes.  The problem isn’t in changing her friend, it is in changing ourselves so that we can accommodate the opinions that we don’t share.  Now that the election is over, their conversations are a bit more comfortable.

My parents were strong Republicans, who disliked Franklin Roosevelt with a passion.  I grew up to take a different course and have a different opinion.  I know that my parents would probably not approve of my choices in elections, but that is not something that is going to make me change.  I know that the reason that we have elections is so that these differences that we all have can be somehow sorted out and that this society of ours can move forward.  That includes all of us, no matter what our political affiliations are.

I thank God not only for my family, but also for my friends, who also know my quirks and mostly accept them.  I don’t think that is always very easy.  I am self aware enough to know that I can be somewhat irritating with my opinions, which I don’t easily hide.  That can be a barrier sometimes.  In my ministry, I have mostly had people in my parish who accepted me, even when they disagreed with what I had to say.  I am thankful for that.

In the book of Daniel, there is a vision of the Ancient One on his throne with the appearance of “one like a human being” being presented to him.  The Ancient One gives this person dominion, glory and kingship over all of the peoples, nations and languages.  This is a powerful vision.  It predates the coming of the Christ, but is certainly descriptive of our Lord.

If all of us who live in this world are living under the vision and the command of the Ancient One, we are therefore unified under this “one like a human being”.  We have come to understand this as our Lord Jesus, our King and our savior.  Somehow that makes me feel rather small with my quirks.  I believe that these are known to my God and that I am accepted with them, just as are my friends and relatives with theirs.