Lessons I learned from CrossLeft.org & shaving my hair in college

Isn't it funny how reality can shift in a matter of seconds?

In my experience, all it takes is a single word, pose or look to completely shift someone's perception of reality. & it all flows, seemlessly weaving itself into life & how life goes.

The relativity of it all delights and confounds me.. these assumptions and prescriptions that we place on reality in order to be able to "get" eachother & interact with the world.

We usually don't listen to who people say they are, who they create themselves to be, but rather we try to fit them in a box based on data that we gather scientifically.

When I shaved my hair my freshman year of college there was an impact.

I went from being perceived as a pretty young "latin" girl with long curly hair to some sort of revolutionary, and if not a revolutionary then perhaps a "man hating" lesbian- and though the woman inside of me remained the same with and without the hair, the way society interacted with me based on what it saw, completely shifted.

So too it goes when I tell people that I'm a progressive Christian.

When I introduce myself as the founder and president of CrossLeft.org, a virtual community of progressive Christians, there is an impact.

A smile comes to my lips as I notice how people shift ever so slightly, be they Christian or not, progressive or not. My saying that I am a progressive Christian brings meaning to their world and they begin to assume that my being a progressive Christian means that there is a certain way that they should respond to me.

It's been my experience that for those that are progressive and Christian there is an immediate bond, an interest, some enthusiasm. And for those that are either progressive or Christian and not the other, usually a conversation ensues.

"What do you mean when you say you are a progressive Christian?"

I usually respond that I think that Jesus was a liberal (if not a revolutionary) who called us to a ministry of social justice, compassion, service and love.

& the impact of my words on my secular brothers and sisters is sometimes one which generates a certain akwardness, and a period during which they speak ever so carefully when it comes to matters relating to sexuality, drinking and having fun.

I've been reflecting a lot on this lately.

How my coming out publicly about my faith and my politics has such an interesting response.

Back in March of 2005, when I first launched CrossLeft.org I did so because I longed for a place that progressive Christians could come together in community to discuss our faith and our politics. We launched to dispel the myth that progressives had to be secularists and that all Christians had to be conservative, right wing Republicans.

Now I grapple with how my coming out of the closet about my faith in progressive circles is still having an impact on how I am perceived and the way that I am seen.

I wonder what people would say if they knew that some of the strongest spiritual experiences I have had in my life have been mystical experiences with people of other faith traditions- the first in Tibet while holding the hands of a Tibetan monk- the second in Israel singing Hebrew songs with my Jewish friend. & what if they heard that the man who was my fiance was a humanist and an atheist? What then?

To me reality is for always and ever like that famous elephant with the blind men standing around it, all of us trying to perceive, understand and get what that reality might be- all the while only getting a piece of it- each of us "seeing" a rope, a tree trunk, a hose, a fan.

And so I remain faithfully committed to the journey and to the game we play as we invent ourselves in this world and life.

& I remain amused, inspired and awed at how reality can shift in a matter of seconds.