Scandinavian Minnesota Nice and Bohemian Raucous Rhapsody
Scandinavian Minnesota Nice and Bohemian Raucous Rhapsody
I am one of those people who seem to have no shame hollering at people from across the street, parking lot, mall or other public space. Usually this is to get the attention of a friend, neighbor or acquaintance (who just hasn’t quite had the chance to become a friend yet).
I realize that not everyone perceives this as normal behavior.
Many of my Scandinavian friends here in Minnesota are perplexed as to why I would make a “public spectacle of myself”. I am usually surprised by this concern and I think it’s because of one reason.
I’m not from here.
Yes, I grew up in Minneapolis most of my life but my dad was a part of a large family from deep-south New Orleans, Louisiana. My mom is from an opinionated Bohemian-Irish family that traipsed all over the U.S. as she grew up.
The Scandinavian, mild-mannered, don’t say anything unless you have something nice to say, zero on the spicy food scale is something I respect. Yet it’s not who I am.
Anyone who knows me would say that this is true. After living in this wonderful state for over 20 years, I have come the realization that I am never going to become even close to “mild” in anything.
I think I embraced this fact sometime in 1991.
However, I also embrace those who do fit in the more mild-mannered category, (albeit I sometimes embrace them physically a little too early in the friendship). I also embrace the many other wonderful cultures represented in my city, my church community and my neighborhood. I find it beautiful to see the many different cultures, experiences, personalities and lives of the people God has created all in his image.
I believe that God created all this diversity for a reason and every one of us for the purposes of his Kingdom.
How we interact with our “up” relationship with God, our “in” relationship with our community and our “out” relationship with the people in the world we are called to love is going to depend largely on our personalities, our temperament, our cultures, etc.
This will look different for each of us, and that’s ok! It also means we can learn from each other.
We each have the opportunity to take the next step and challenge ourselves to grow in our up, in and out relationships. In our own way we will need to be intentional to challenge ourselves and push outside our comfort zone.
This isn’t easy for any of us – but it’s important.
Hollering across the street to say hello to a neighbor you met the week before might not be a great way for you to connect with your out relationships… but it works for me, and slowly but surely, strangers become friends.
What if we thought through ideas for connecting with God, each other and the world that weren’t limited by extroversion or introversion, Scandinavian Minnesota Nice or Bohemian Raucous Rhapsody?
What if we each committed to try one new way of connecting with God, each other and the world this summer?
I’ll keep this conversation going over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!
Scandinavian Minnesota Nice and Bohemian Raucous Rhapsody
I am one of those people who seem to have no shame hollering at people from across the street, parking lot, mall or other public space. Usually this is to get the attention of a friend, neighbor or acquaintance (who just hasn’t quite had the chance to become a friend yet).
I realize that not everyone perceives this as normal behavior.
Many of my Scandinavian friends here in Minnesota are perplexed as to why I would make a “public spectacle of myself”. I am usually surprised by this concern and I think it’s because of one reason.
I’m not from here.
Yes, I grew up in Minneapolis most of my life but my dad was a part of a large family from deep-south New Orleans, Louisiana. My mom is from an opinionated Bohemian-Irish family that traipsed all over the U.S. as she grew up.
The Scandinavian, mild-mannered, don’t say anything unless you have something nice to say, zero on the spicy food scale is something I respect. Yet it’s not who I am.
Anyone who knows me would say that this is true. After living in this wonderful state for over 20 years, I have come the realization that I am never going to become even close to “mild” in anything.
I think I embraced this fact sometime in 1991.
However, I also embrace those who do fit in the more mild-mannered category, (albeit I sometimes embrace them physically a little too early in the friendship). I also embrace the many other wonderful cultures represented in my city, my church community and my neighborhood. I find it beautiful to see the many different cultures, experiences, personalities and lives of the people God has created all in his image.
I believe that God created all this diversity for a reason and every one of us for the purposes of his Kingdom.
How we interact with our “up” relationship with God, our “in” relationship with our community and our “out” relationship with the people in the world we are called to love is going to depend largely on our personalities, our temperament, our cultures, etc.
This will look different for each of us, and that’s ok! It also means we can learn from each other.
We each have the opportunity to take the next step and challenge ourselves to grow in our up, in and out relationships. In our own way we will need to be intentional to challenge ourselves and push outside our comfort zone.
This isn’t easy for any of us – but it’s important.
Hollering across the street to say hello to a neighbor you met the week before might not be a great way for you to connect with your out relationships… but it works for me, and slowly but surely, strangers become friends.
What if we thought through ideas for connecting with God, each other and the world that weren’t limited by extroversion or introversion, Scandinavian Minnesota Nice or Bohemian Raucous Rhapsody?
What if we each committed to try one new way of connecting with God, each other and the world this summer?
I’ll keep this conversation going over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!
[…] This is post two in a series of four posts about how our different personality types and temperaments give us different ways to grow in our “up” relationship with God, our “in” relationship with our community and our “out” relationship with the world. To see post one click HERE. […]
Love this, Steph!
I am right there with ya in the rhapsody dept 😉 And the incredible value of these in, up, and out relationships have been something our God has been teaching me a LOT about this year — I just hadnt called them that! love it. so articulate 😉 Yeah- I was just talking to my Dad about this tonight, about Worship. And the many forms of it — not just singing and dancing — but ushering in the presence of God in all that we do! So good to hear your words 🙂
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