I Am the Embodiment of Infinite Possibilities (First Corinthian Baptist Church)
A few thousand people (yes) wait in line for the third service of the morning, at the Black Church in Harlem where my South African daughter in law Chesray Dolpha, attends most Sundays.
I am not a stranger to religious institutions that aren't mine. As a child I often asked friends to take me with them. In a way this exploration is one of the ways we can know one another.
Most of us want our selves replicated by our children, our values mirrored and reinforced. We are afraid of difference. We want proof that we have passed along the right tradition set of beliefs. That we were right in what we lived and what we knew.
We get stuck in our own dogma. I can sound all knowing and absolute, but about almost everything I'm unsure.
When our son fell in love with an African woman from Capetown I didn't know what their life would be. Different from mine. But how?
At Chesray's church, everyone's embraced at the door. The service is lively and loud. People shout out. In front of us a very tall black drag queen in a sequined dress waving her funeral home fan. Behind us three older women from Milan. Many people dance.
We leave and go to brunch. I am entirely familiar with brunch. We sit together Chesray and I, two women separated by what we know, by what we learned as children and we order our coffees, our Sunday eggs, each of us knowing that difference and hope are sisters.