The Korean Times story reads "Turkey Day comes to Korea". No, not really. I'm only dreaming. Although I think they should have because it makes for a great story! But yet again, my story, this alternative narrative I’m a part of, the one that characterizes and drives my home culture during the late fall months, goes unnoticed and untold by most people.
This Thanksgiving I found myself living in a clash of cultures. Inside of me lives this alternative narrative of Thanksgiving. I call it alternative because it is very “other” and exists outside of the common Korean narrative for late November.
There are expectations of where the Thanksgiving plot should take me. It should at least take me to a meal where I shamefully gorge myself on turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. More so, it should take me to a gathering of friends and/or family where we "do" community. It should take me to a time of story telling; this is remembering times past and looking forward to the future. It should take me to a time of reflective thankfulness.
Yet the climax of the story, the meal, isn't everything. Often the cultural movement to the “event” is just as much fun and meaningful as the event itself. Admittedly, I never realized this until I lived outside my own culture.
The great build up towards the “event” includes the commercial overload which I admittedly look down upon yet participate in when I'm "State-side". Here I miss the commercialism. In Korea there are no signs: no commercials telling the Thanksgiving story, no talking turkey's with pilgrim hats, no adds for stovetop or cranberry sauce, no stores filled with pumpkin pies and other delights, and no Thanksgiving T.V. specials.
Anticipation and preparation define the movement toward Thanksgiving. Yet in a culture that lives from a different narrative there is communal anticipation and preparation. There is no chatter at the water cooler about where you are going for Thanksgiving, no asking the boss if you can take an early leave on Wednesday to travel, no skipping class, no making flight arrangements to visit family, no telling of what you did last year to co-workers who'd rather tell you their own stories, no complaining about the coming family gathering that has "issues" and no churches calling for food basket donations.
I'm even compelled to qualify what I mean by "Thanksgiving". It isn't Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok, which was in early October), and it isn't Canadian Thanksgiving (already passed and also early October). Since I live in an international community it isn't just "Thanksgiving" anymore. It is to be qualified as "American Thanksgiving". Yet even when my Canadian friends hear "American Thanksgiving" they know what I really mean is "USA Thanksgiving". Living in a culture with a different story makes me qualify my own story which in the month of November is "American (USA) Thanksgiving".
So within me expectations teem over with anticipation. Yet in Korea, this foreign culture, the expectations can fall to the ground unmet and unlived. They can hit the ground with a splash of disappointment. My American (USA)Thanksgiving story with all of its expectations clash with "just another day" in Korea. Ordinariness tells the story of late November in Korea. Its narrative speaks of colder weather, falling leaves, bleak landscapes, high stress college entrance exams, and a school year ending. If you look closely, you can see the narrative of Christmas just beginning to be told but Thanksgiving passes without a bat of an eye or the lift of a head.
That is, unless, you create space for it, where the space doesn't exist naturally. It passes without anyone knowing it ever arrived unless intentionality breaths life into it.
So this "American (USA) Thanksgiving, " I became intentional about participating in my alternative November narrative. Some of the singles who work for KNU and live side by side on the same floor decided to do something about the American (USA)Thanksgiving narrative living inside of us. We decided to give it life and participate in it even if we live in culture that does not share or story.
Electrifying excitement filled the air the morning of the event. Finally, we were preparing and anticipating something. Eclectic chairs, couches, desks, coffee tables created a temporary home in our dorm-like hallway. Three turkeys, 4 bowls of mashed potatoes, 3 large pans of stuffing, 1 gigantic fruit salad, and a myriad of other mouthwatering foods later we had “the event”. We had a gathering of 30 people on the Saturday after American (USA) Thanksgiving. What is normally a cold hallway with people passing each other briefly became a place of warm sharing of food and fellowship. We were all astounded by what we created; a living alternative narrative.
It is just this, a living alternative narrative, that people who follow Jesus live out. We participate in a story of a loving, merciful, just God who unites his own story with our story through his son Jesus Christ. We participate in God’s narrative when we follow Jesus Christ. Yet unless we create space for it, it won’t happen. Days and years can pass without anyone knowing it ever existed.
After this American (USA) Thanksgiving I’m aware of how easy it is to expect the Christian narrative—the story of God’s creative love and redemption--to just happen. Yet it doesn't just happen because it is all too "other" from a culture we are immersed in--both American and Korean. I’m teeming with great expectations. Yet, it is easy for my expectations to fall to the ground unmet and unlived. Not because the story doesn’t exist, but because intentionality takes time and space. Like the Thanksgiving Dinner showed intentionality births life.
Knowing that I don’t have to live in Korea to feel a clash of cultures and a clash of narratives, I have questions. What qualifies the Jesus story from the other stories of our culture? What are our expectations for the Jesus narrative? When the story lives out from us, where does it take us? What kind of anticipation and preparation is involved in our movement towards Jesus? What are the signs that let people know the Jesus narrative lives in our culture?
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