DAY 31 - CAREY, ID - 614 Miles from home
- Esther Lisa Tishman
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 5
[written on the morning of Day 32 - August 4th]
I'm beginning to think we've got it all backwards. They say: you don't have to like each other - you just have to get along.
I think actually the reverse is true: it's impossible to get along unless you manage, one way or another, to like each other. (To find each other's likability, perhaps?)
Not an easy task, sometimes. Take the flagpole I saw today. Two flags fluttering in the brilliant blue sky. Stars & Stripes on both, and on the second there was a statement that makes no sense unless you recognize the reference: Try That In A Small Town.
I don't think that flag likes me. In fact, in response to that flag waving, I felt a little wave of fearful nausea. Try THAT in a small town - just go ahead and try that. The "that" is a bit vague, even in the lyrics of Jason Aldean's 2023 song. Aldean's music video is a bit less vague.
Me. Big city girl. NOT small town girl. In fact: Jewish, one-time Christian convert, full-time Zen Buddhist, all-time interfaith chaplain, former academic, current pointy-headed-intellectual pilgim. Straight white female. That's the girl I am. What's a girl like me to do? What does "liking" those who don't think I'm anything "like" them actually mean?
I've been thinking about authenticity, and what its real-life stakes are. The real-life stakes of being authentic are different for each of us, whoever we are and wherever we happen to be. Scratch the surface of any conversation and you're bound, fairly quickly these days, to find the sore spot. Multiple sore spots. And on some level I know that I'm longing to scratch that itch - to delve beneath the surface and get real. "Try THAT in my big city!" (Oh, who am I fooling? Eugene, Oregon is pretty damn small too.)
Try THAT in my slightly larger Pacific Northwest college town, Jason Aldean!
What does it mean to be authentic - to get real? I can only truly meet my neighbors if I do so authentically - as the person I authentically am. But authenticity, in any given moment, is not obvious. Indeed, authenticity is maybe the central puzzle of any pilgrimage. Pilgrims get real.
Meeting my neighbors with respect, kindness, curiosity and courage (the four core values of Liberty Walks): this is the name of my pilgrimage game. And I'm realizing, more and more and more, with each step, that all four of those values are essential, all the time, and all at once. Pilgrims get real by walking those values - by breathing them into life.
Today we bunked in the beautiful Larkin Community Church, welcomed by Richard and Cris Kimball. The belfrey of their church diplays a huge open heart (not unlike the necklace I wear every day), and the Kimballs helped us feel that openness... enacting the motto of their ministry: Small church, big heart.
Pastor Richard shared the extraordinary history of the church. With its big heart, Larkin Community Church is tied to Idaho's mining history - to the legacy of depleted ore deposits, increasing labor costs, decreasing demand, sites abandoned. The Larkin Community Church lived its first life as a one-room school at the Triumph Mine site across the Little Wood River in Blaine County. In 1958, after the mine had shut down, the Carey community bought and moved the building... ultimately needing not only to ford the river, but to cut the building's roof off in order to clear bridges... ferrying the school in two pieces to its current site.
You wouldn't know its complicated history from spending the afternoon and night in this lovely facility. All felt gracious and free - from the beautifully remodeled interior to the apricot tree bestowing endless delights in the yard. And we're not the only travelers to stop at this oasis for a spell. Earlier this summer, the Kimballs welcomed a team of cyclists from the Fuller Center. The Fuller Center Bike Adventure is dedicated to faith and service - aiming to end poverty housing. Lovely for us to follow them, on our own adventure.
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