EpiscoGrrlYesterday afternoon, I attended the first session of a 5-week workshop about the life, work, & faith of #PauliMurray While I find the Rev. Dr, a fascinating topic, neither the class nor the participants were quite what I anticipated. I’m not sure they are what I want, which probably means they are something I need. The group is half older folks, half under 60s, & oddly, the table served as an age line. 3 people presented as male. 1 as female. The last 3 were somewhere on the “weird girl” spectrum, presenting similarly (short dark hair, glasses, minimal makeup & clothing that did not define our figures) we also represented very different life paths (pastry chef, dean of the cathedral, nontraditional student) Perhaps I flatter us when I think that Pauli would have approved. The Dean is new to Murray’s #Writing yet running the class. The pastry chef is passionate about her writing though seems self-taught. I love Murray though my exposure is more a study of #theology than anything. 1/?
2/? Two of the men like to regale the group with stories & opinions. One (insurance) guy tends to dominate the conversation (though he admits he doesn’t know much about #PauliMurray ) The other, a poet professor, actually met her & was at a service she celebrated & preached in NC. The young guy & older lady, didn’t leave much of an impression. All of us are white & #Episcopalian (something the pastry chef pointed out). I’m not sure but I think I’m the only one who isn’t a member of the Cathedral congregation. I don’t know if any of that is important, but it does lend some context to the discussion & my thoughts on it. Based on that description, you’d think we would engage in some robust discussion or at least lively conversation. That wasn’t what happened. The answers to the recommended questions didn’t spark any conversation (this may have been a function of the Dean trying to keep things moving). Insurance guy and pastry chef did most of the talking, which was irritating to me.
3/? Insurance guy seemed to like to hear himself talk & felt his opinions, uninformed as they were by his own admission, were significant contributions to the group. The pastry chef has, again, self-admittedly, some very strong opinions about #PauliMurray & has read her works extensively & possibly obsessively. At least she/they were speaking from a position of knowledge. So why did I find pastry chef more irritating than insurance guy? I don’t really have an answer to that. At first blush, we should have had a great deal in common & a similar perspective, although I would guess I am older by a decade, maybe more. They/she is either in the angry phase of feminism or came into the class expecting to be disagreed with & prepared to tell everyone else why their perspective/opinion was wrong. Either way, it was annoying. Neither insurance guy or pastry chef was open to discussion or differing points of view.
4/? My challenge for next week is to figure out how not to be annoyed & how to contribute to a wider discussion (one not dominated by insurance guy or pastry chef). Honestly, I don’t know how to accomplish either of those. I suppose I begin by being better prepared. I have the facilitator’s workbook from the #PauliMurrayCenter so I know what we will be covering (the Dean stuck rather firmly to the defined curriculum). Then again, I thought I was well prepared for yesterday’s session, so clearly a different flavor of preparation is in order. I approached yesterday’s material in a rather academic way. Perhaps I need to take a more personal approach, both in how I think about/reflect upon the materials & in the questions that I want to raise with the group, especially with the Dean (as an ordained woman) & with the poet professor who attended the church Murray was ordained in. What kinds of things do I want to hear from them? 🤔