Experiences

I was talking to someone recently who voted opposite of me. She gave me her reasoning. Then told me "I've had enough experience to know." I was so stunned, I didn't know what to say. I felt like I'd been told that my own experiences weren't enough to understand "grown up" politics. She's only 3 years older than me! She also has no idea of what I've experienced. Everyone's experiences in life shape who they are and how they see the world. Here are some of mine.

• I've sat with a teenaged mother as her not-even-a-week-old baby lay dying in his hospital bed.
• I've comforted a Buddhist woman whose Christian husband was in ICU.
• I've sat with a Hindu mother as she tried desperately to understand God's role in her baby's diagnosis with special needs.
• I've read Psalms with a Jewish man who was, rightfully, angry.
• I've moved 5 times in 5 years - 3 of those times was in one year.
• I've walked the beginning stages of faith with a man, old enough to be my father, who was newly baptized.
• I was sitting at the feet of a man when he took his final breath.
• I've held a 4 hour old baby.
• I've called Medicaid because I had no insurance, and no money to get any, because I needed insulin, only to be told all they could offer me was sterilization. The absolute last thing I needed or wanted.
• I've sat on my couch in near tears because I wanted to buy some carrots, but it was either buy the carrots or my medication.
• I've spent time with refugee children. Some were happy and adjusting well. One was so afraid of anything new that he would spend the whole day crying unless he was with his older cousin. The camp volunteers finally got him to go to his own class. It took him nearly a month to utter any words. Some of his first words were when we were at the penguin exhibit at the zoo. He delightedly took my hand and lead me on a chase with the swimming penguin - continually exclaiming to me "Come with me! Come with me!"
• I've befriended a homeless man. When he saw me with grocery bags filled with items from my desk, he excitedly asked me if I was heading home to make dinner. I told him that, no, I'd been laid off. His eyes filled with compassion and concern, then he asked me if I'd still have a place to live.
• I've met so many "local" celebrities, I cannot recall their names.
• I've been to seminary.
• I've played on-stage at Carnegie Hall.
• I've won 2 national scholarships for my photography.
• I now belong to a women's interfaith group, and they are so loving, kind, and welcoming.

I don't know what experiences you've had, but they do not invalidate my own, nor do mine invalidate yours. My life is shaped by my experiences. So are yours. You can use whatever you want to justify whatever you do. Do not ever act like your life experiences are better than anyone else's. 

Each person I've mentioned, I continue to carry with me. There are many others I did not include here. Some are too personal; some might seem repetitive to those who have not lived it. Each person I have encountered, each person who has walked in my journey of life, have become a part of me. I've reflected on my life and experiences and wondered... how would my life be different, how would I be different, if I hadn't crossed paths with these people, had the experiences I have had? My experiences are not your experiences. That is what makes humanity so brilliant, so colorful, so wonderful. 

Never, never, never think someone else's life experience is better than yours, or yours better than theirs. Listen to the stories people have to tell. Each life is rich and full of amazing experiences. If you let it, they may just may change your life.