RAINBOW THANKSGIVING

 

DISCLAIMER : Although characters and situations in this story are based on actual people, institutions and events, the story was created as a work of fiction, intended to NOT misrepresent any actual individual and/or situation.  Generic names have been used with the sole purpose of avoiding any racial stereotyping and promoting the notion that ALL people have the need to find belonging in a group where it is safe to share their lives with others, free of judgment and discrimination.

The atmosphere is festive and the mood is happy.  A group of people representing multiple ethnic orientations of South Africa’s beautiful Rainbow Nation and varying in age from teenage to eighty-something are seated around a square-ish table listening to a speaker who promises to keep the speech very short.  The speaker succeeds in keeping it short while informing the audience about the origin of the event they are about to celebrate and then ends off with instruction of a practical, light-hearted application thereof by means of a game played with bright coloured candy.

Tom is an innovative young man who celebrated his thirtieth birthday just a couple of months ago.  He is passionate about the wellbeing of his own local community and he proudly wears a golf shirt branded with the logo of his community-investment organisation.  He designed the logo himself and it distinctly displays the vision of a dedicated leader.  Tom brought his cousin, Sam, and her friends to join him for today’s celebration.  Like her cousin, Sam is also an innovative entrepreneur and she always carries with her samples of her popular merchandise to show to potential clients.  Tonight is no exception and before long, Sam attracts attention from interested people.  Sam set up this business as an interim source of income and hopes to use the revenue from it to pay for tertiary studies at the local university next year.  She wants to pursue either teaching or social work.  Both Tom and Sam take the opportunity to confidently share their gratitude with the rest of the group.

Nancy is a beautiful teenage girl with flawless skin and the brightest smile.  At first she speaks in a tone barely audible, but as the evening progresses, her momentum-gaining confidence turns up the volume of her voice.  It soon becomes known to all that she is not just the top  academic achiever in her class, but after she confidently recites a beautiful poem, it is evident that she is also a gifted poet.  Nancy expresses her gratitude for her talent to the rest of the group.

Mike is a bubbly, friendly young man of obvious short stature, but when he gets up to address the group, the eloquence of his carefully chosen words reveal a larger-than-life character deep within his soul.  Mike exudes such humble purity when he expresses his gratitude for successfully passing his last academic examinations which now places him in the home stretch to becoming a fully-fledged lawyer.  Next to Mike is his girlfriend Georgia and Mike simply beams with loving pride when he introduces her to the group.  During this introduction, Mike’s attention is fixed on Bob and Rose on the opposite end of the table, because their approval of Georgia is his deepest desire.  He anxiously studies even their micro facial expressions and when both of them smile at him with warmth and acceptance, he suddenly, inexplicably, appear to be a few inches taller.  Georgia is undoubtedly a confident, determined young woman, and although she clearly holds her own with zero need for any formal introduction, she graciously accepts her man’s act of kindness.  Georgia is an intelligent engineering student with a keen ability and eagerness to solve real problems and she expresses her gratitude for this ability.

Bob and Rose is a dynamic couple with a remarkable ability to take a genuine and caring interest in people from every tongue, tribe or nation.  Rose is a natural-born teacher and Bob an anointed leader with an exceptionally ecumenical heart.  At any given moment, in any given crowd, they make friends and their authenticity restores the dignity of those around them.  Their love for ALL people cannot be accurately measured, not even by means of the most precision-calibrated human scale.  A few years ago, they adopted Mike into their lives and hearts when he suffered the gigantic loss of his beloved mother.  Mike now considers them to be his parents and they consider themselves to be Mike’s parents.  Despite being on the receiving end of hurtful betrayal from people whom they let into the depths of their hearts on more occasions than they care to remember, their resilience always seems to trump over their fears.  Those close to them know that the overwhelming lion’s share of the precious footprints they leave in people’s lives, go unnoticed and/or underappreciated.  Few people on the planet connect like they do and even fewer people love like they do.  They radiate humility and gratitude.

Three retired couples (Vic & Tammy, Bill & Hannah and Ben & Ruth) are also amongst the group.  Vic is a wise and compassionate mentor to Tom and his appreciation for their journey together is equal to that of Tom’s.  Tammy’s desire to understand and respect those with different beliefs to her own, renders to her the unique opportunity to connect with a much broader spectrum of people.  Bill & Hannah are the most senior members of the group, but their support of the group’s endeavour speaks of profound expertise in the field of servant-hearted leadership.  Ben has assumed the position of shepherd for this group and together with his soulmate, Ruth, their significant life-investment into the care and education of tomorrow’s leaders in a forgotten part of the city, makes them an invaluable asset to the group.  Without exception, they all radiate wisdom and warmth with humble and open hearts.  Six pairs of soulful eyes reveal something of every emotion known to man.  All of them are intimately familiar not only with the good things life can offer, but also of the humiliating wedgies and painful sucker punches it can sometimes dish out, especially when least expected.  They know sorrow and pain and disappointment and disrespect, but it is HOPE that shines brightest in their eyes.  They bring HOPE wherever they go and their profound gratitude inspires all.

Buck and Jo is a middle-aged couple with an innate propensity for divergence.  For most of their life together, they failed to make the cut for acceptance into their own culture, communities and churches.  Despite their desperate attempts at making radical changes for the sake of their precious offspring, for a painfully long time, the unintentional legacy of brokenness remained like a dark cloud which they were unable to shake.  There were even times where their collective overwhelming desire to leave behind a wholesome legacy to their children and grandchildren looked more like a pipe dream than a reality.  Throughout the years, Buck had faithfully captained a few ships (family, business, life, ministry, etc.) in a Titanic-like fleet.  Unlike the real Titanic, none of these ships were giant luxury cruise ships.  They started out more like sturdy, well-designed superyachts, but they operated as tugboats, predominantly due to crew malfunction and industry malalignment.  For a significantly long time, Buck took responsibility for almost ALL crew duties while Jo was assigned to irrelevant, ill-fitting duties, mostly dictated by rigid culture and flawed Theology.  Like the real Titanic, these vessels ran aground, but with unfathomable and inexplicably more devastation.  Six years ago, they decided to restructure, retire all the battered boats in the Titanic fleet and abolish ALL tugboat services.  Today they are a formidable team, working together side by side to operate a few new superyachts and the dark cloud cannot be observed anymore.  Their friendship with Bob and Rose was forged during the hellfire of indescribably painful losses and it now ranks amongst the most special of all.  Bob introduced them to a new community where they found true belonging despite cultural challenges.  Their youngest daughter Grace and her husband Drew, are also attending the celebration today and they are looking into becoming a part of this same community where their parents found belonging.  Last year Bob officiated their wedding ceremony in, what Bob refers to as his third language, English. 

The celebration is THANKSGIVING and the venue is the cosy chapel of a large Dutch Reformed Church in a central South African city.  This is a Southern Hemisphere celebration taking place during a fierce heatwave, so the stuffed turkey, cornbread and pumpkin pie made way for chilled boerewors, cocktail kebabs, sandwiches, salad, wraps and ice cream.  Each colour of the bright rainbow-coloured Skittles candy is assigned to a specific area of THANKSGIVING, RED for a person, ORANGE for an experience/event, GREEN for a memory, PURPLE for a place, and YELLOW for a gift/talent.  The EVENT of THANKSGIVING brought a significantly diverse group of people together, but the ACTION of giving thanks united ALL of them as human beings with essentially the exact same needs.  To be loved.  To be accepted.  To be heard.