Julie Coen second post

Hello again! I am happy to report that my second week was just as awesome as my first, but now I have become significantly more familiar with the Food Justice Ministries, including how many of its programs are carried out, where most things are located in the confusing maze of the building, and especially the people who participate regularly, whether as volunteers or clients or in several cases both.

As I mentioned in our discussion last Tuesday, the most challenging aspect of my fellowship so far has been discussing ideas and working together with a whole group of people rather than just diving into projects on my own. I can definitely say I am becoming more prepared for the workforce in this way, and I am slowly understanding that just because, for instance, I like to measure things one particular one way does not mean another way is any less efficient or correct. Furthermore, the hypothetical person doing the measuring probably has way more experience than I do and consequently can see the big picture of which each task such as measuring is just a small part. I benefit daily from working with people who are more insightful and skilled and levelheaded than me, not just because they have valuable knowledge to impart, but also because it is personally humbling and raises the bar for everyone present.

The most enlightening moment so far took the form of discussion with a disabled woman the day after our group’s exploration of transportation in Memphis and particularly the bus system. She casually mentioned at lunch that she had taken the bus there, and I was so ready to jump in and share all of my opinions as someone who had read three whole articles and ridden around all of one day. In comparison, she drew on years of daily experience and presented a completely unexpected perspective. She didn’t want to talk about the new green buses or the specifics of routes and funding. She concentrated on what public transportation allowed her to do, from visiting the library to going to church regularly. It gave her independence and connected her to a variety of locations and communities. Most importantly, she emphasized the people who she interacted with while riding the bus and who could be regularly counted on to help lift her wheelchair up into the vehicle.

From her stories, it seemed that what it is missing in infrastructure, Memphis makes up in its people who step up and look out for fellow riders. I am not advocating for us to ignore the significant problem of public transportation or fail to address it, and everyone I talked to including that woman readily mentioned the need for change, but I think her way of looking at everything was extremely powerful. In numerous other moments throughout the rest of the week, I saw the importance of focusing on the people affected by an issue rather than only bullet points and hard facts about the issue itself. Praising the way many people have been creative and resourceful enough to work around such a problematic system places value and focus back on the same people who have been most hurt by the current state of that system. It gives them a voice rather than simply talking about the same arrangements that demonstrate, as one of the articles we read said, “virtually no consideration” for their demographics.

My most fun moment happened on Friday when I took a break from serving food to eat lunch with a group of kids. Almost as soon as I sat down, several of them smiled at me and included me in their joking and laughing. As I mentioned to a few other fellows, it has been a challenge to bond with some of the people at my site because I am so used to starting small talk with questions about majors and class year and because so much of my cultural awareness is suddenly useless. For example, references to television or other media that would definitely spark conversation here at Rhodes don’t mean the same thing for individuals who are significantly older or don’t own a TV or work too much to have time to read. So it just made me really happy to have my name remembered, to be welcomed as someone cool rather than just somebody ladling out soup, and especially to be told by one girl that she would definitely come Monday and see me then. I feel like I am not only gaining interpersonal skills and other employable qualifications through this fellowship, but, more importantly, slowly developing my ability as a person to connect with other people even if they are different from me.