Tuning into a staticy hum with hope.

It’s no secret that I love radio. NPR, WGN, BBC, and CBC Radio 1. I’ll go through phases where the radio is on all day: WGN in the morning; NPR when I drive to and from work; and BBC or CBC during a slow afternoon.

Immigration reform, health care reform, and the economy.

These topics have bombarded news media this summer and it’s been all over the radio. Recently, I heard someone argue in favor of denying health care and other rights to undocumented immigrants. The guest said that the U.S. Constitution does not defend the rights of undocumented immigrants, even their children. The host disagreed. Back and forth, they argued over each other’s main points without offering any concrete application of their ideas and concepts.

While I was uncomfortable with the debate, I continued listening. Normally I would leave the room and hustle through my morning routine because, in my opinion, tense debates like this really do little, if anything, to improve the situation at hand (I find them so offensive!). Instead, I rested my elbows on the kitchen counter and paid attention to the words that were being used. In those few minutes leaning into the voices over the radio static buzz, it struck me that this will likely be one of the many issues in my growing awareness during the coming year.

The segment I listened to didn’t help me to understand the root causes for these polarizing issues and it certainly didn’t add anything remarkably profound to the overall conversation. I still don’t quite understand the realities behind these important questions – even when the most seasoned experts do their best to unpack the facts.

I wonder: What happens when we don’t agree on certain issues? How do we change the focus from feeling right about ourselves to living out the ideas and values that resonate most powerfully within us? Why is it so hard to admit what this is? And how do we do this?

Immigration reform, health care reform, and the economy.

Yes, I do have my own thoughts on these topics; however one of the main things I hope to learn throughout this year of service is the ability to find new ways to narrow the gap between myself and the object of my opinion.

Maybe this will help me grow in my understanding of how these issues are part of a rapidly globalizing world and don’t belong just to the U.S. I hope to discover the many ways I am impacted by, or even the ways that my actions impact, these issues and the people they affect. Finally, I hope to gain a more generous perspective on the divisive impulses that seem to make people choose sides.

While in Mexico, I’ll be without my normal radio line-up: WGN, NPR, BBC and CBC. Instead, I’ll be listening to the new sounds and voices around me. Like that morning, leaning into the voices drone on amid the radio's staticy background noise, I'll have to pay close attention to the words, maybe even the gestures and expressions being used by those around me. It could be the voice a new friend or neighbor that fills me in on the details I might not otherwise understand. It could also be the voice of a stranger that passes by, or that of a group of people gathered, laughing and talking, nearby. Whatever the case, I’m sure the act of listening will inform and expand what I am learning, of what I want to learn more about, and all that I am un-learning in the process. This fills me with hope!

Immigration reform, health care reform, and the economy.

Nope, these issues still aren't clear to me but that's okay. I’m about to start out on a wonderful, exciting adventure into these unsettled questions and I’m glad they already disturb my thoughts. I don’t have a clue about how this year will unfold but I’m sure that in the course of thinking through important events and experiences, letting the questions surface, and reframing my way of understanding relevant issues, that resting into the messiness and open-endedness of all that is ahead will be an important part of the journey. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11