Emile Brozaityte, Grade 11
UWC ISAK Japan
It was a regular weekend somewhere mid April, a bit cloudy and moody. Our house in ISAK was locked in quarantine because for the 100th time someone had gotten a positive covid test and that meant we were going into lockdown. All of us were lounging around the house, tired of the same routine, trying to complete our work and survive the lockdown. We were together, all day and all night, but not really together. Everyone was doing their own thing.
Then Easter came. Some of us from the house were in the local Church group and we joined a Zoom meeting to pray, sing, and listen to the missionaries. One of them even delivered an Easter Basket with all kinds of treats to our house’s doorstep. Boiled easter eggs, chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies and cinnamon rolls. Everyone swarmed around it with big smiles on their faces.
The Easter Basket brought us together. It was so refreshing to get some sweets after eating quite monotonous and healthy quarantine food for weeks. As we sat down around it we started talking and discussing recent issues. We were sitting on the chairs, on the table, or just standing and everyone was so eager to speak their opinion since we had been so tired lately and so little meaningful interactions happened.
Eventually the discussion boiled down to a main topic - abortion. The people that gathered around the table were fascinatingly diverse in gender, race, age, and nationality. That was my first experience on an “ISAK house discussion”. Around that Easter Basket there were so many opinions, so many perspectives, so many experiences. For the first time I heard pro-life people sharing their beliefs so openly, without judgement.
One senior that was sitting with us was the only one from around 11 people who spoke to her pro-life beliefs. She was alone against ten others who all shared somewhat similar ideas about abortion. However, she spoke with no fear. That and the way the others accepted her words was what fascinated me. I heard so many arguments from the “other side of the issue”. I realised I had never really honestly thought about the point of view of those who are pro-life.
There, at that moment I learned to not be angered by opinions and listen to everything that everyone has say. It is rare and hard to freely speak your mind in our generation if your thoughts are even a little aberrant from the trending liberal ideas today. The Easter Basket discussion that I was lucky enough to be a part of showed me that day that true, deep, benevolent discussions are possible, even when the opinions involved are polar opposites.
Image Courtesy: https://www.riverstreetsweets.com/product/AdultEasterBasket/EasterandSpring
Then Easter came. Some of us from the house were in the local Church group and we joined a Zoom meeting to pray, sing, and listen to the missionaries. One of them even delivered an Easter Basket with all kinds of treats to our house’s doorstep. Boiled easter eggs, chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies and cinnamon rolls. Everyone swarmed around it with big smiles on their faces.
The Easter Basket brought us together. It was so refreshing to get some sweets after eating quite monotonous and healthy quarantine food for weeks. As we sat down around it we started talking and discussing recent issues. We were sitting on the chairs, on the table, or just standing and everyone was so eager to speak their opinion since we had been so tired lately and so little meaningful interactions happened.
Eventually the discussion boiled down to a main topic - abortion. The people that gathered around the table were fascinatingly diverse in gender, race, age, and nationality. That was my first experience on an “ISAK house discussion”. Around that Easter Basket there were so many opinions, so many perspectives, so many experiences. For the first time I heard pro-life people sharing their beliefs so openly, without judgement.
One senior that was sitting with us was the only one from around 11 people who spoke to her pro-life beliefs. She was alone against ten others who all shared somewhat similar ideas about abortion. However, she spoke with no fear. That and the way the others accepted her words was what fascinated me. I heard so many arguments from the “other side of the issue”. I realised I had never really honestly thought about the point of view of those who are pro-life.
There, at that moment I learned to not be angered by opinions and listen to everything that everyone has say. It is rare and hard to freely speak your mind in our generation if your thoughts are even a little aberrant from the trending liberal ideas today. The Easter Basket discussion that I was lucky enough to be a part of showed me that day that true, deep, benevolent discussions are possible, even when the opinions involved are polar opposites.
Image Courtesy: https://www.riverstreetsweets.com/product/AdultEasterBasket/EasterandSpring
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