on my mind . . .

In the not so distant past, I wish it was three years ago but I doubt it's been so long, I harbored the though that anyone who settled in the US was a sellout. At least anyone under 30. There were a few exceptions, like my cousin Michael who went to Mexico once and never wants to leave the States again. But by and large . . .

Then one day I realized I was thinking of "immigration." Slowly, some of the implications have come to me - you don't live near your family and friends, you have to learn a new social system, you probably have to learn a new language, you raise children of a different nationality, the food is never quite right, on and on. Basically, you feel to varying degrees like an outsider for the rest of your life. And presumably, historically, you'd be leaving the most desirable nation in the world.

This past week, I've been in Bratislava, Slovakia. The country south of Czech Republic if that saves anyone looking at a map. I'm visiting SEN. They set up shop about fifteen years ago to help the Central and Eastern European church find her bearings, to work out how Christianity can interact with society. The director and founder is a British man named Marsh. I happed upon his conversation with Lena from Ukraine who also works here.

Its subject was how to survive living in a country where anyone who can get out does. Marsh said in order to do it, you need a calling and a nurturing community. She said, oh but it's hard, being somewhere when you know there's another place you'd so much rather be. He's known many people who were leaders in the Russian Christian community in the early nineties who now live in the States. Lena asked how they were doing in US. Thriving? No, he said, just surviving. Living comfortably, but never carrying out the same work they might have in Russia.

I ran this idea past a lady from Poland who also works here and she came down hard. She said, What does he know about finishing university and trying to find a job in a country with 20 percent unemployment? I don't know that I fairly represented his point to her, or that she fairly considered he left England thirty years ago for communist Europe, but I had to give her consideration. We each get one life to live. God knows what decisions I would make if I hadn't been born into such privilege.

So I build these conversations into my life.