Or perhaps I should start like this, "Hello my name is Katherine and I'm an over sharer...."
It is true--I over share (everyone can stop falling on the floor laughing). On good days I consider my "over sharing" to be proof of my realness, my transparency, my authentic nature; on not so good days...well, today was one of those.
Earlier I was in a group text with several people I love dearly. It's an interesting group text--as was noted this morning--it could be a comedic sitcom. We're a group of people brought together by our shared faith. I hope you all have friends like that--friends that "society" would say you have nothing in common with, but then something brings you together and you realize society doesn't know what it's talking about. YEAH COUNTER CULTURE!!!
But back to today....
We began talking about how we met and what our first impressions were of one another. I was entertained. Two couldn't even remember the first time they saw each other... As we were communicating I was thinking about writing about us and our counter cultural friendships...then I piped in with my original impressions.
Let me set the stage for you---I was on my way to a meeting dressed in one son's basketball shorts over bike shorts, wearing another son's over sized lacrosse jacket that I had just split coffee down the front (more on that in a minute), and an ale 8 hat. (Note my sons are close to twice my size...)AND, I was walking into my daughter's high school to bring her coffee (the spilled coffee) and her forgotten medicine. As I was walking in she informs me I'm going to have to bring it to her AP biology class that she can't remember the room number but according to her, "You've been to the room before..." The entire class was staring at me and the teacher, who I also love, was shocked at my get up. So to say I was tickled is an understatement. I was in a very silly mood.
So I texted out my first impressions giggling to myself (might have even let forth a snort) because they were so funny and SO inaccurate. Problem was I didn't add that part....other problem was it might have been better if I never said a word...
I went on about my business until a few hours later I received a text which very clearly indicated it was not taken in a humorous way. My first reaction was shame and complete remorse; my second was gratitude. Gratitude that my friend was able to tell me how she felt, explain her reasoning, and I was able to apologize. (Let me add here as an aside--I apologized and told her my real intention BUT they are not an excuse...)
I was going to save this story for later--you know when said "I don't know where my biology class 17 year old daughter" comes home so I could demonstrate the dangers of texting and oversharing. I was going to explain to her that once you put words out there in texts they can't be taken back and they can be read over and over. And I was going to explain to her the words can be so misunderstood. I was also going to tell her how sometimes texting and not seeing someone's face breaks a boundary and we say things we wouldn't normally say--or at least as soon as we said them we would recogize our mistake. I was going to tell her that not everyone will come back to you for clarification--you know I was going to make my mistake a learning experience for her---
Instead I came to work and thought about advent and Christmas--and it became a BIG learning experience for me.
God came to be with people in the flesh. Let's face it, it's God. God could have just stayed transcedent and spoken to us in other ways--burning bush, dreams, smoke signals, shoot God could have had his own hashtag #Godspeaking. But God came to be with us, to love us, to see our faces and so we could see his face. God came to be in relationship with us IN THE FLESH!
Those high school seniors who saw me today would probably have not taken anything I had to say seriously; I was laughing and cracking jokes as I handed my baby her medicine. They had a context and a body (albeit a very strange looking body) to understand my words. My friend didn't.
So yes, my name is Katherine and I over share AND I text. But today reminds me of the importance of face to face relationship, and it reminds me that God came to be present with us and God's deepest desire is that we are present with God and one another---
(and btw I really dislike that song and what it means, so please someone send me something to replace it in my head!!!)
1 comment:
Katherine- You should be a nationally syndicated columnist. I believe all of America would love to read your stories.
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