Politics & Faith

I had just got settled in my seat as the plane was preparing for take off.  The pilot announced our departure from Los Angeles on route to ....... it didn’t matter where.  I just remember looking out over Los Angeles as we made our ascent and saying to myself with the strongest conviction ever, “I’ll be back L.A.  I don’t know how, but I’ll be back.  I belong here.”

Ever since I was ten years old I can remember having the idea that someday I would live in California.  I don’t know why, but somewhere deep inside of me I knew this would happen.  In my mind I was driving on a freeway with the wind blowing through my hair.  For a ten year old who was born with a physical disability, and who couldn’t move from one chair to another without being physically lifted by a family member, this “knowing” inside of me was a pretty big dream.  Some would call it fantasy, but I knew it wasn’t.

On this flight I was returning home to my family.  We were well above the clouds and Los Angeles was out of sight.  My family were good people and loved me.  They did their best to include me in family activities, but I wanted more in life.  I was 27 years old.  I wanted to live on my own; come and go on my own and do my own thing.  In my heart, I knew I would live in southern California some day.  I just didn’t know how it was going to happen.  Let me give you a little background on how I came into this world to better understand exactly what my California dream meant for me.

I was born in 1948.  It was the year of a big political upset when Truman unexpectedly beat Dewey.  I didn’t know it at the time, but one significant lesson I would learn in life is that the political is personal.  And by political I am not referring to party politics and elections.  For me politics also defines our society and our place in it.  The women’s movement in the 70's coined the phrase “the political is personal,” but I still don’t think we really understand what it means.