Into the Grey

After another great Sunday at Church I headed out with friends to enjoy lunch and their good company. We settled into BP's lounge and discussed many things like cats and hammers, psychopathy and patriarchy, cultural conditioning and Christmas plans. When towards the end of our round of Stromboli sandwiches, we struck a deep note and began to probe our views on life's grey areas. The Truth and truths of Jesus as The Way, the canonization and legitimacy of Scripture and the validity of other gods. It was quite a discussion.
I've missed that. I've missed healthy, deep wrestling with people who might not all think as I do, who might have something to teach me, who might need to hear what is in my heart, just as I need to hear what is in theirs. And perhaps that's just more cultural conditioning, perhaps that desire in me might speak more to how I've been raised and to my culture, then it does to any human need. I never experienced any such discussion among Filipinos, perhaps I was oblivious, perhaps my language was too limited. Or perhaps the value of individual beliefs and the obsession with truth is a cultural trait limited to where I have been raised. Perhaps.
It's all tying together, all our topics swirling in and out in some sort of mixer dance; what we said, and how I'm talking about it now, inextricably linked and confusing. We reached no conclusions, and no one won or lost, but we made a date for next Saturday morning to go at it again over coffee. I've missed this.