Going There: Beautiful Naivete

I grew up in England, white skin, bright blond hair. One of my closest friends was from Jamaica, and two thirds of my elementary school were Sikh. My entire short life, I was surrounded by a canvas of brilliant color. For me, skin color was like eye color, or hair color. It was like whether you were a Pepsi fan or a Coke fan, part of who you were, but nothing definitive. For me, definitive was, were you kind, did you play games with me, did you swear. No one ever taught me that there was anything different about someone with different colored skin. No one ever taught me that there was a difference. I went to church, they went to temple, some went nowhere, it just was.

This is really my parents story, I only remember what I am told. When I was 11, I went to Florida. The tour guide was African American. I remember that when we stopped at Church Street Station, she bought me more peanut butter fudge than I could ever eat. My parents said it was because of my fascination with her hands. I had sat with her on the bus for an hour turning her hands over and over, because I could not comprehend the difference between the color on her palms, and the color on the tops of her hands. Even my friend from Jamaica was the same all over, and I was fascinated by this beautiful woman who who was all different colors. My parents recalled the tour guide almost in tears, realizing that this little blond haired english girl had no concept of race or color.

At 32 I now know the value people place on color, on race, on nationality. I strive to retain that little girls perspective and to teach it to my boys.

Sarah Pinault was born and raised in England, before falling in love with a Yankee boy from Maine. She moved across the pond in 2003 and hasn’t really left Maine much since then! For the past few years she has been utterly exhausted and overflowing with joy from raising two boys, the eldest starts Kindergarten this year and the fun continues! From a non-churched family, she wholeheartedly accepted Christ into her life when she was 15 and then at 19 demanded the same of her church-weary soon-to-be-husband! He happily came along. Since 2006 she has been serving and served at SouthCoast Community Church, where God is doing amazing things in the lives of families in Southern Maine. She writes about life sporadically and inconsistently at www.mainemummy.blogspot.com. But right now her passion is in her poetry, speaking to God and through God with words and rhythm. She writes daily at www.smallwordsbiggod.blogspot.com, and blames Jennie Allen and the IF:Ladies for that fire!