ARE YOU MELTED?
¿Es Ud. Mezclado?
by
Mary Hunt Webb
Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2019
America's melting pot has left some of us so blended, that we are unsure which of our ancestral backgrounds to emphasize. [Photographer: MMWoolly. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
While chatting with an acquaintance, Joe Riley, the topic of ancestral background came up.
"In order for me to be prejudiced," he said, "I'd have to hate myself!"
I had to laugh at this summation of America's melting pot. Like me, Joe was as melted as a grilled cheese sandwich. I understand the need for ethnic pride among those that can trace their ancestral background. However, others of us have an American heritage as tangled as a plate of spaghetti. In some cases, one branch of the family may have been here to greet another when it got off the ship that brought the newcomers to America. While ethnic pride has the intention of making people feel good about their heritage, it tends to leave out those whose ancestry is not so clear.
Some are like Joe Riley. They have inherited a name that clearly states a particular ancestry, but, in fact, the family tree is grafted with a variety of fruit and, in some cases, nuts.
Most family trees have been grafted with a variety of fruit and nuts so that family gatherings are varied. [Photographer: Bruno Glätsch. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
One such person was Mike Sanchez, a fair-haired, blue-eyed classmate that sat next to me during a sweaty summer of graduate level education classes at the university. Like many teachers, Mike was there to update his teaching credentials. In his case, his original degree was in physical education. However, the school system for which he worked needed a bilingual teacher.
Mike confided to me, "None of my family speaks Spanish, and I can't remember any relatives that ever did. I've got the Hispanic surname, but that's all. I don't know anything about the culture and I don't have the linguistic background to teach bilingual students. The only Spanish I know comes from the two years I took in high school a long time ago."
When Mike informed his superiors of this, they pointed to his last name as qualification enough. They said that he could take classes during the summer to get the credentials he needed. With a family to support, Mike understood that arguing would not put food on his table. His ancestors had slipped into the American melting pot and, as a result, he was melting in a different sense in a sweltering university classroom on a simmering June day.
Like him, some of us have ancestors that have assimilated so thoroughly that we are unsure of the annual ethnic holidays that we should claim. If this is the case for you, go ahead and celebrate those you like anyway. You may wear green on St. Patrick's Day and eat pasta on Columbus Day because the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:10, "…For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (NIV) That means that it is not our earthly heritage that matters but our heavenly one. As Ephesians 2:10 tells us, we came from God. He made us. As such, we are each of us unique.
That means that you are uniquely you. There is no one else like you. Your siblings may have inherited various talents and different physical attributes than you did from your mutual ancestors, and that is all right. Focus on what you have and what you can do rather than on what you don't have and the things that you can't do.
You're the only you there is. Celebrate that!
You may not have eyes of different colors, but, in many ways, you are uniquely you. [Photographer: Dimitris Vetsikas. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
BIBLE VERSE FOR THIS POSTING
Ephesians 2:10 — For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (NIV)
Efesios 2:10 — Porque somos hechura suya, creados en Cristo Jesús para buenas obras, las cuales Dios prepare de antemano para que anduviésemos en ellas. (Reina-Valera 1960)
Like this Gang Gang Cockatoo from Australia, you "…are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works." [Photographer: AmyJo, Freelance Artist. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
