Robin at CCJellyBeans and Gary Virtual Rants have good posts about the troubles of being in a minority faith community. Reading their thoughts on the holiday struggles they have encountered reminded me of another holiday time experience I had.
When I was a highschool senior, a group of my friends and I signed up to feed the homeless in Seattle as part of our required community service hours. The small group of us and our faculty leader met the coordinators at a local church of my faith. As we ate dinner before going out, an older man came into the room and looked around. Suddenly he charged over to me and hollered at me to get out. I was surprised, but grinned up at him thinking that this guy had a quirky sense of humor. Only my smile infuriated him and he again hollered at me to get out of the building. But this time he added, "You are left handed - you are of the devil! Get out NOW!"
Frankly I was shaken as were my friends. There was an awkward silence while we all looked around at each other; this guy breathing down my neck. Very quickly the pastor of the church came in and escorted the guy away, then came back in to apologize. I tried to brush it off, but it shook me to the core. I couldn't eat any more with my left hand, and switched to my right.
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