Peoples is Peoples...

Today I had a fantastic experience in a Kentucky Fried Chicken! (unrelated to the addictive drug the colonel puts in his chicken to make people crave it fort-nightly!)

I took Bella out for lunch and as I was sitting in KFC I witnessed a big old cat fat among some Hutterite women!
It didn't go to fist-to-cuffs or anything like that (they are non-violent people) but they were mad and yelling at each other. Now I don't speak German but I know that whatever they were saying, it wasn't nice!
Eventually three of the ladies moved across the restaurant from the one who was "in the wrong" and ignored (shunned?) her!
(I put "in the wrong" in quotes because how do I know she was really the one who was wrong? I don't want to make assumptions based on the majority! Perhaps she was right but not conforming to the accepted wrong...but let's not go there right now.)

So why am I so excited! Do I find shunning and angry Hutterites thrilling?
No! (I'm not crazy!!!)

While I witnessed the scene, I thought,

Wow! In the middle of this culture that is based on unity and conformity and community, they still have fights and rocky communication. That is so great! I have been raised in North American culture which is based on the individual, rather than a communal way of thinking. If the Hutterites can't get it all right, what the hell am I doing thinking that I can get all my relationships right???? For many years, I've beat myself up for all the times I've screwed up in relationships or failed at communicating. I assumed that where friendships are messed up, its all my fault and I need to work harder (be more gracious, more forgiving, more understanding, more door-matty) to work out all my relationships!

And here all along, NOBODY has all the relationships perfectly in tune. If the Hutterites can't get it right all the time, why should I expect a churched-up WASP like myself to figure it all out?
So the next time I mess up in a relationship, all I can do is ask for forgivenness from God and from friends and from myself...because if they can't get it right with all the effort they put into it....Lord have mercy on me and all my friends!!!

So, there is my happy news of the day. Relationships are hard for everyone, and I am no exception (neither are the Hutterites) so I can just hop off my perfection pedestal and ask for mercy.