Shade of grey | alienated

… apparently I wasn’t Taliban

y bag was the last on the carousel, sadly making its circuit in isolation. As I made the long walk to retrieve my bag it came to a shuddering halt - it had been a long flight but the last hour had been particularly interesting…!

The flight to Canada had given me plenty of time to crack on with Volf’s Embrace and Exclusion; plenty of time to explore the identity of ‘other’; to engage with what it was to be excluded; to be alienated; what it is to be pushed to the margins; to understand where true reconciliation comes from. Eight hours later I was in an immigration side room alongside a flight from Jamaica and Pakistan finding context with what I had just read - apparently there was something wrong! I was learning what it was to be alienated.

“Welcome to Canada” flashing around the room seemed an ironic message while I watched the unfolding carnage as immigration officers hungry for lunch questioned with increasing impatience suspected illegal immigrants. I felt uneasy at the discomfort of the young mother from Pakistan struggling with two tired toddlers. I felt uncomfortable with the tired and fearful body language of those waiting in front of me their confusion unanswered. I shared a strange but tangible sense of unfounded guilt, a sense of shame for something completely unknown.

Eventually, “next …NEXT!” indicated that I was to approach for my interview. Five minutes later, stepping over the tired toddlers, I left the carnage behind; the young Pakistani mother still waiting; the vacant and empty eyes; the impatience and intolerance. Apparently I wasn’t Taliban, Hezbollah or even Al Qaeda - just Salvation Army! As I picked my lonely bag from the carousel I thought back over an hour where I felt vulnerable, pushed to a new place where I, for those moments, knew alienation - which of course I could, and did, walk away from.

Volf leads us to a place where we learn that to truly reconcile we truly need to understand alienation - I’m not sure that an hour in immigration qualifies me to comment but while the immigration carried out their necessary role - I thought about the concept of making space to embrace the other.

“There can be no justice without the will to embrace – to agree on justice you need to make space in yourself for the perspective of the other, and in order to make space you need to want to embrace the other”. (Volf, M. (1996). Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation: 220)

Deeper shade of grey appears every Wednesday on theRubicon. Find past posts and a bio of Capt. Gordon Cotterill here.

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 Shades of grey, theRubi-Blog

2 Comments to Shade of grey | alienated

I hope this doesn’t sound patronizing, but thanks for noticing the other people, and for letting them be people to you. Our power of labels (i.e. illegal immigrant) is so strong (and de-humanizing). Awesome book.