June 2001

Life in a Circle is Life in the Kingdom

Dear Friends,

This month I went to the graduation of Donald Moore, son of fellow PC(USA) mission workers in Guatemala, Robert and Linda Moore. First we attended the ceremony, an interesting mixture of Guatemalan and U.S. customs. Then we all adjourned for the party, a real fiesta held at a hotel in Quetzaltenango. There was an abundance of food, loud, boisterous music, and lots of dancing. The music was so loud that there was no way to carry on a conversation with the people sitting at table with me, so I watched the dancing couples as they moved and jumped around the dance floor. I wondered how they could tell who their partner was since there was little physical contact between two people, instead it appeared to be a moving, swaying sea of humanity on the dance floor.

Then I saw a small group, folks I knew, who had formed a circle at one end of the dance floor. "I can join that circle," I thought, and I did. In our circle there were all ages, folks from Guatemala as well as North Americans, some of the young adult volunteers, and a few of us "older" mission co-workers, and we had a ball! People came and went from our circle, there was always room for one more, always a hand reaching out to welcome a newcomer, and twirl him or her into the circle. Lidia, an indigenous woman from Quetzaltenango who works for the Moores, was a part of our group. She wore a beautiful huipil, a brightly and elaborately embroidered blouse she had purchased and saved for this special occasion. As we rode home at the end of the evening, Lidia told us that this was the first time in her life she had ever danced, and she loved it!

I thought about how life in God’s Kingdom is meant to be life in a circle.

Anyone can participate, your age or where you come from or the color of your skin or the language you speak is not important, all are welcome in this circle. It is not even important if you can dance—few of us could. What is important is your desire to be a part of the group, to share, to accept everyone into the circle, and that you enjoy yourself, as Lidia did!

In Guatemala, and in our world, I think we need more circles! A circle implies community, equality, sharing, being connected, bound one to the other. A circle implies living in such a way that we can look into the faces of one another, see the joy as well as the tears. In Guatemala many people live in or on a kind of ladder or pyramid rather than in a circle. Living on a ladder or pyramid means that a few folks are on top while many others are on the bottom. Usually the ones on the bottom are the poor, unemployed or underemployed, children, and women. Some of those on the bottom struggle to climb up the ladder. Others struggle to survive day by day at the bottom with little or no hope of climbing up the rungs of the ladder.

Much of life in Guatemala is not conducive to living in a circle, or living in community. Many people are accustomed to seeing "the authority figure up front" whether that person be the teacher who stands in front of the class, the preacher in the pulpit, the army officer directing his troops, the owner of the finca (a large farm), your boss, or the president of the country. Below that authority figure are the nameless masses who are often treated, not as human beings, but as animals or property.

Thanks be to God there are glimpses of life in a circle in Guatemala. I saw a glimpse of a circle at the Synod meeting as we gathered outside, in the circles under the shade of trees, to discuss the strengths, limitations and opportunities of the National Presbyterian Church and to dream dreams of a new future. As we talked about how God might be leading us into a new future there was a freedom for all to participate that was not present when we sat in rows, all facing the front of the auditorium.

Sometimes on the buses there is a glimpse of life in a circle. This happens most often when we are so tightly packed into the seats and aisle that no one can move. Not always, but at times we find ourselves helping one another, laughing at the impossible situation we find ourselves in.

When groups of women gather we sometimes live in a circle as the babies and young children (when there are meetings of women there are always children) are passed from one pair of arms to another, stopping to nurse at the breast of their mother. The women care for one another’s children perhaps better than they care for themselves.

And in the midst of far too many families who live under the authority of a stern, dominating father, I have seen several families who really do live in a circle. As I talked with the fathers of these families they described their family as "un equipo,"a team, where responsibilities and decisions and life are shared.

In the Gospels we read that in God’s Kingdom "the first shall be last and the last first." I like to think that means there will be no one "on top" while others are "at the bottom," but that we will join hands and live in God’s circle.

I left the dance before it was over on that graduation night. When I left, the dancers, with their jumping, gyrating partners, continued moving around the dance floor and the dancing circle continued as well, a small symbol of the life God has planned for us.

Ellen Dozier

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 241