THREAD

I'm slowly realizing that this time in my life is doing in me something that I have often tried to do in my life: the mashup (1/)

What I mean is this: I often try to bring irreconcilable worlds together, finding some sort of synthesis, because I believe that they can be reconciled, and I care about both worlds. (2/)

Rural and urban.
White and Black.
Church and "culture."
Rich and poor.

I fail quite often, falling onto one side or another, and rejecting the other side. But I don't want to. I want to see the value in (almost) all things. (3/)

Right now, with my USPS job, I'm seeing that come to fruition, with great pain, in my own life. The worlds that are smashing together in this: academia and blue-collar work. (4/)

In my frustration one day during my route, I muttered to myself "I'm an academic." I was operating out of the assumption that this work is not what I should be doing. (5/)

But this work is what I should be doing, because it is the work I have been given to do. And my academic, systemic training has come in handy a number of times on the route, helping me with efficiency. (6/)

It is teaching me a valuable lesson: there are always problems with things you love, and good things about things you despise. (7/)

Especially in these days, we want black and white, but so much of life is shades of grey.

I don't know how I'm going to end this thread. I don't have any real conclusions, but wanted to put this out there. (8/8)