somebody that I used to know

Looking at the title of this entry, you might be thinking I'm referencing the song.  While I am writing of someone I used to know, I'm not writing about the song.  The song we seem to constantly hear on the radio.  The song my daughter and I previously really liked, yet now, thanks to radio overplay, we've grown fickle over.

Back to the someone.....I can't remember the family's name.  My husband and I knew them many moons ago when he [my husband] was a seminary student, as was the husband of the aforementioned family.  They had some kids.  We did not yet.  They were a bit older than us.  They'd been arrested in an abortion protest.  We had not yet, and still haven't.  And probably never will....

I don't recall a lot about them, except that they were into making homemade pizza crust with whole wheat flour, way before anyone else was.  I do recollect they were eccentric.  They weren't really strange.  Yet, they marched to their own drummer, so to speak.

The last I heard of them, they'd moved their family [by this point they had numerous children], to the inner city.  Honestly, I can't remember what city.  Detroit?  Chicago?  Maybe Indianapolis?  I know it was someplace with a more intense inner city than Lexington.  That much I remember.  And I thought,

"What in the world are they thinking?  They have small kids, they are not extremely street smart, etc., etc."

I thought they were naive and perhaps a bit dumb.  And reckless. 

I've come to realize that's how some perceive my family now.  On Thursday, we were living in the midst of a crime scene.  I think you could actually label it a murder scene, because the shooting victim ended up dead.  

In front of our house.

People ask us why[?]

Why do you live there?  Why, when you don't have to, would you choose to move your family to a place where others get shot? 

What do we say to that?  We answer the best we can.

There's the long answer......

"I have my own theology of place.  I don't want to live in fear.  I believe in restoration.  I believe God's Kingdom is coming to earth, as opposed to us all leaving the planet.  I've tried living in the suburbs.  It didn't suit me.  I adore Shane Claiborne." 

Generally, we don't go into many details.  Mainly, it's

"We live where we feel we're supposed to live."   

I guess we've become a bit like the family that we used to know.  Funny how people change......