Imagine you or the cook in your household have been slowly simmering a delicious soup or stew all day. The aroma of the blended ingredients has been wafting through the air, filling your home with mouth-watering scents. All of a sudden, someone claiming to be a neighbor you've never seen violently bursts through your door and rushes to your stove. They grab another of your pots and a strainer and start sloppily attempting to extract one or more of the ingredients they don't like, yelling about how "that smell" is all over the neighborhood and you should go to jail for using ingredients that offend them. You call 911. The kitchen is a mess. If you have kids, they are frightened. The whole bizarre situation is like a dystopian nightmare. You were just trying to make a delicious dinner for your loved ones.
I grew up with descriptions of the United States as a "melting pot." My grandfather migrated from Canada and my father was born and raised in India by Lutheran missionaries. He taught me to love and celebrate different cultures and perspectives. Our home had music and art from different parts of the world. That love of diversity led me to marrying an amazing Mexican immigrant. We will celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks. The wonders I have been exposed to through Paco and his family have seeped into the core of my being and we talk about how each of us is so much richer for that blending. We each retain our essence, but it is enhanced by each other's presence in our lives. And we're often told that it nourishes those around us.
I don't think that a God who created a richly diverse world of endless variation in terrain, flora and fauna, and billions of creatures (humans among them) that vary in myriad ways did so out of a desire for conflict. I think it's a lesson in harmony. We can choose to love and embrace the spectacular variations, or to be oddly frightened and even repulsed by them. The story has played out over and over for milennia. Humans have sometimes handled it in beautiful ways and other times in very ugly ones. I dare say that it often seems other species are much better at it. We in the US have entered into a period of shocking ugliness.
Mustering the courage and fortitude to stand up to the invader in our kitchen can feel exhausting, especially when it's on top of our own personal struggles. It's not something we will do alone. We join together like a choir or band, or a team and support each other in contributing our best elements. We're each essential ingredients and we are just in resisting extraction and separation. It's in every action, big or small. It's in every smile or hug, in every affirmation of love. In every moment in the streets calling for justice. It's in every song or piece of art or literature, and each heartfelt prayer or meditation. All of it blends together to create an insurmountable, beautiful oneness.
I've been blessed to be part of the Big Blend Radio and Magazines podcast family for a few years now. Lisa D. Smith and her mother Nancy travel the country celebrating and shining a light on our national parks, restaurants, wineries, authors, musicians, and much more. They bring people together on their shows to enrich the blending of ingredients, not to separate them. I get to co-host a show with Lisa on the first Sunday of every month. On today's show we began a series of discussions of the American Musical Mosaic. We started a playlist of songs that highlight different cities, states, or regions of the US which will culminate in 250 songs by next year's 250th Independence Day. Do you have songs about your region that you would like us to include? Shoot me a message or email. Collaboration stirs the pot and ensures that together we create the most wonderful dish possible.
I'm so glad we're in this together. Your love and kindness and support sustain me and give me courage to keep on going.
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Much love,
Johnny Schaefer
Our AMERICAN MOSIAC is found on the following Big Blend Radio podcast channels, which are all still distributed to all major podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple, Amazon & Audible, iHeartRadio, ListenNotes, etc., see:
- Big Blend Radio: www.BigBlendRadio.com
- Big Daily Blend Channel: https://big-daily-blend.podbean.com/
- Big Blend Radio “Toast to The Arts” Channel - https://toast-the-arts.podbean.com/
It will also be featured on:
- Our YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@bigblendradio/
- And on our Facebook page and groups: https://www.facebook.com/bigblendradiomags
