Well...I guess there is no great title or words to really express this blog post. I have thought about the subject for a while now and last week an event occurred that just made me write it all out, finally.
I am talking race here. I am talking about differences. I am talking ignorance. I am talking sadness. I am talking our life.
Last week I was having coffee with a girlfriend, her son, and Logan (here in Lithuania), when she leaned over and said, "Wow, I have never seen that before, I am hurting."
We were casually drinking coffee in a little cafe and like the social butterfly Logan is he decided to walk over to a little boy and hand him his car. It's kind of a way Logan greets you, he says "hello" and reaches out to give you his toy car as a sign to play. The little boy just looked at Logan with a scowl and walked away. Logan, being the sweet boy he is tried to hug the little boy, thinking he did something to deserve the scowl. The boy just walked away. For the next few minutes the father of the boy watched Logan walk around with his car, singing to himself and flipping the car over the chairs. The little boy still had the scowl on his face while he stood by his dad. The dad did not encourage the boy to play with Logan, or give a little smile or high five, they both just stared.
My girlfriend was shocked, I wasn't. This is an everyday occurrence for us. We get these stares and looks in the grocery store, the mall, the basketball games, the toy store, and the cafe.
It is not that Eastern Europeans are racist or have something against African Americans, it is simply that they are ignorant to the culture. The Europeans that spend time close to the team have been NOTHING but nice. The fans that get to know us, invite us in their homes, those that reach out to see if we are okay or need anything, the foreign wives, Zo's teammates, the staff on the team, they have all been amazing and helpful.
But the general population just doesn't know what to think of us, and that is a little tuff.
The reality is, we live in a city of 100,000 people and we are the only "brown" people I have seen. I say "brown" because that is the color of our skin. We are 3 shades of brown that people are not used to seeing, maybe have NEVER seen in their lives.
I cannot explain to you all what it feels like to be in a stadium of 5,000 people and be the only 3 African Americans there, the only 3 people with different skin tones. I cannot describe my heart as my sweet and social son reaches out to play with others and they act scared or run away from him. My sweet baby boy who wants to help a girl down the slide and instead she runs away to her mom in fear.
I write this post to simply shed a little perspective on how life is being "brown" here in Eastern Europe. This is not a first for Zo and I, we have experienced this on other teams in Eastern Europe. But this is the first time we are experiencing this with our child. We were spoiled the past 2 years being in Germany because there were many African Americans in the city and the entire country was extremely diverse!
I think about those that have been persecuted, made fun of, bullied, and harmed for being a certain race/color. This in no way compares, but I can say that I know the feeling of being the "odd man out."
The world is a beautiful place and I never want to forget that. I cannot blame these people for not seeing the inside of us 3 rather than the outside features. I cannot blame the small children for thinking Logan is different or for not wanting to play, they don't know any better.
All I can do is continue to LIGHT my little boy's spirit. To teach him that no matter what others do, we always need to be kind, to continue sharing toys when people walk away, continue having empathy for people when they look sad, and continue praying for all those around us.
My girlfriend now sees something she didn't even know existed. First hand she sees the melting of a fellow mother's heart and with ALL thats going on in the world, maybe we all can learn a lesson from this incident: Be open minded. Listen. Give. Love. Share. Embrace the differences in each other. Be a light.
God Bless
-Morgan
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