Air Fryer

I could do an infomercial for my new air fryer; I love it enough to tell you about it for a good 45 minutes. 

Even more, I love it enough to demonstrate all the cool things you can put in it and create crispy goodness. 

I now divide the world into things that can go into the air fryer and everything else that isn't quite as wonderful. Crispy cumin potatoes could be the most amazing things ever. 

We all need to have systems to categorize objects so now you know mine.

We also have systems for categorizing people and they can be as distorted as my current obsession with the air fryer. Skin color, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, clothing, hair, tattoos, weight, political party and age all go into our initial assessments and judgments. 

There's something in our DNA that makes us do that, but I would argue that the core of faith is to step out of that categorizing and approach people as adventures. How can we replace judgment and categorizing with curiosity and serendipity?  

People continue to surprise me when I let them and I've found folks are easier to love when they are adventures. It takes at least a good five minutes for people to move beyond sound bites, but then there are stories and I find myself delighted and drawn in even if my first impression was negative. 

I'm reading Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition by Wendell Berry and there is a lovely quote where Berry talks about King Lear's transformation where, "He has given up his life as an understood possession, and has taken it back as miracle and mystery." 

People aren't possessions or objects that fall neatly into control and categories; we are miracles and mysteries. Let us approach ourselves and others as such.  

This was on our kitchen table and I have no idea where it came from, but it makes me laugh.