*Sun Jun 15* We got up at 5:30, packed a lunch, had breakfast, packed the gear truck and food truck, and sent the Marchers off by 7:30. We drivers waited in a Castle Rock, CO shopping center so we wouldn’t arrive at Saint James UMC in Littleton too early. Sarah gave us directions and stayed behind. I followed John J. and he got lost. I followed my directions and got lost. We still arrived before church was out and put our vehicles in the back. The enablement team seems to be a bunch of solitary jobs. Once we leave Denver and head for NE, I expect someone else to drive the Gear truck. I don’t know if riding my bike will be more communal. I find myself all alone. Why? 1) I have difficulty hearing; 2) I am not familiar with all the resources on my new phone and don’t have a computer that consistently connects with the Internet; 3) I don’t multi-task on computer/phone; 4) There are some young people (19-25), some middle-aged singles/divorcees (25-40), and a few older (55-76). I rehearse a mantra every night before I go to sleep that includes—“May you belong to community…May you connect with colleagues”... But so far I find no results from the mantra. We had a return visitor that conducted a before-dinner workshop on the need to engage in conversation so that we can understand each other. He had us break into pairs. The conversations were designed to be confidential. He encouraged us to have assigned partners and to have a regular schedule that allowed us to share with each other. Izzy and I were sitting next to each other. We each had 5 minutes to share the issues important to us. I shared the issues I have just written about because the important thing was getting the issues objectified. We broke at that point because dinner was ready. After dinner the leader shifted the focus to the first time we saw a person of another color. I didn’t remember any encounters with people of another color until we moved to 5th City Chicago in 1966. It’s probable that I saw people of color before that, but I have no recollection of it. Later we lived with Aborigines in Oombulgurri, Australia, and blacks again in Mugumoini, Kenya, and Pace, MS. He asked us to break into groups, and just then I was asked to move the Gear truck to the south side of the church. -- Peace, David
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David Zahrt via Dialogue