Looking around

Recently I've had the opportunity to drive around our area and see things with a different perspective. Two different perspectives, to be exact. I'm slowly learning more about the local tribes and their historical patterns of settlement and migration, traveling to and from the coast and mountains at different seasons of the year. The more I learn, the more I can imagine the landscape in its original form, with the native vegetation and natural watercourses (the excellent book We Are the Land: A History of Native California is helping me understand indigenous patterns of cultivation and harvesting). Some tribal members today are working to bring that healing back to the land.

And then I had the chance to drive along with a sheriff's deputy the other night as he responded to calls and patrolled his beat. Some of the roads we drove along were new to me; most were familiar. But riding along with him, I saw it differently: the lost-looking young man waiting at the bus stop, the car mysteriously idling by the side of the road, the places where stolen cars had been abandoned and where neighbors nurtured long-simmering feuds. The deputy saw it as his mission to keep all of these areas safe and help where he could. That's another kind of healing, recognizing human frailty and foolishness and trying to make things better.

The church isn't the only group seeking healing for our troubled times. We have many potential partners as we seek to make a difference in this place. What do you see when you look at our region?