But despite all of the concerning things happening in America, there is something very right happening here too.
Every Memorial Day weekend my husband and I take my stepson and our nephews camping. We pitch tents, blow up air mattresses, ride bikes to go pee, cook over a fire and eat a lot of s'mores. We camp at the same family campground every year and see a lot of the same people. This past Memorial Day was, as far as we can recall, our 5th year there. Not much has changed in that time; the 70's vibe still persists near the pool and dance hall, the horse shoe tournament is still on Saturday afternoons and the 10-14 year old girls still hog the bathroom for 3 hours before the dances on Saturday and Sunday nights. And while we see many of the same people from year to year, we've noticed some new people over the last couple years in particular.
We laughed a bit our first year at this campground because my husband was the only person of color camping. It's kind of a running joke between us because generally speaking, my husband is the only person of color everywhere we go. The only time he isn't is when we visit his family, and then I'm usually the only white person around. Neither of us mind either situation, but we do laugh about it from time to time.
As the Memorial Day weekends have progressed we've noticed more diversity at the campground. There have been a few families of color and this past year there was even another multiracial family. We've noticed a couple Asian families, some Latino campers and this year I overheard a few teens having a very respectful conversation with one girl about how she had a girlfriend coming the next day. There have always been people of all ages at the campground.
The site we always book is right across from the baseball field, so we tend to meet people and my husband and stepson end up in a lot of pickup games. I usually bring my chair over to the side of the field and watch. This year during a big game of wiffle ball I saw something beautiful. The pitcher was a 70 year old guy. The second baseman was a 35 year old black guy. There was an Asian teenager in the outfield. There were Latinos on both teams. The team captains were both eight year olds. The fastest base runners were a multiracial ten year old and a 50 something white lady. The black first basemen and the group of white 20 something guys camping right next to us realized they had all gone to the same prestigious college. The enlightening conversation about sexuality was happening just to my left.
I realized, sitting there on a sunny Sunday afternoon in my camp chair, that despite everything going wrong in this country, something is still going very right.
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| Hard to see, but this wiffle ball game was diverse in gender, age, sexual orientation and race. And it just happened like that naturally. |
Not too long ago this diverse wiffle ball game would not have been possible. More recently still it wouldn't have been likely. Things have changed and improved a great deal during the 30 (ish) years I have lived. Yes, it seems to be one step forward and one step back in regards to issues of equality and yes there is still work to do and yes, there are other parts of the country that are not as diverse and free as where I happen to live. But being aware of all that is left to do and improve, I still think it's important to take a moment and appreciate how far we have come as a country and as people.
We're not there yet and the road has not been smooth, but we are making progress. And that's something beautiful.
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