Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Reflection: Entering the Unknown

Rita Hays
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Palo Alto, CA

All of us have experienced the entry into an unknown world, probably not as daunting as the medical school world that Elizabeth Blackwell entered, but scary enough. We’ve had qualms on the first day in a new school, or on our child’s first day at school. Our world is never quite the same as it was before that day.

Any parent will tell you that the world changed when their first baby arrived, and that no amount of reading, discussion or babysitting could prepare them for their new joyous, but heavy, responsibility. And it is the unknown: we rejoice when our children meet our expectations and sorrow when things don’t go well. My daughter Dorothy, a wonderful child, developed schizophrenia when she was 19. After that, success and joy had to be redefined. Success was when she had enough control of her disease to function as a normal person. Sorrow came when she relapsed. Joy came when the relapse was controlled. The world changed for her brothers, too. No longer was she the big sister whom they could defy. Now she needed them, and over and over they have come to her aid.

When I was growing up, I didn’t fit the mold that was supposed to form girls of my generation. I wanted to be a scientist. I was lucky to have parents who let me go my way, even though they didn’t really understand why I was the way I was. I found myself the only girl in my high school physics class, and later the only girl among 150 in my college physics class. There were no role models. Metaphorically, it was unknown territory. I began to enjoy the challenge, and it prepared me for a later new world when affirmative action gave me unexpected opportunities.

I recall my awe before the first meeting of a Federal committee I had been appointed to because they needed a woman to meet the affirmative action requirements. All of the continuing members were well-established, older Caucasian men. There were 3 new members: myself, the token woman, Dick, the token black, and Steve, who was in his early 30s, the token “youth”. We didn’t remain tokens. We were active members, we all became good friends, and we changed the way the committee worked.

Think of the unknown territory facing an immigrant into a new country. Often there is a new language to learn. Often the world left behind was unkind, and the new arrival may be fearful. I recall the displaced persons from Europe who came to my town after World War II. Some appeared to be paranoid, but their paranoia was based on experience. They were not always easy to get along with, but they were coping with a new world while the scars of the previous one were unhealed. Many succeeded despite their scars. Unfortunately, we continue to produce refugees, each of them facing such challenges. For each, leaving the familiar for the strange is a plunge into the unknown.

While most of us don’t face such massive challenges as do these refugees, we all find times when we face the unknown. After we have plunged into that future, our world will have changed. How, of course is unknown.

Sermon: Stepping into the Unknown by Reverend Amy Zucker Morgenstern